Leading the Social Movement: Competing Organizational Dynamics and Leadership in the 2011 Chilean Student Movement

• In Event: Contemporary Student Movements in the Southern Cone: Organization, Identity, Strategy and Impact

Abstract

This paper assesses how the strategy of the 2011 Chilean student movement was defined, taking into special consideration organizational variables. Throughout the year a few very visible student leaders became the face of the movement and ensured its prominence, nationally and internationally. These leaders shared similar views regarding the direction that should be followed. Nonetheless, they could not make their personal positions regarding key issues prevail. This article argues that in order to understand this situation it is important to unpack the internal dynamics of the organization that spearheaded the student movement. These dynamics had major consequences on the definition of the movement's strategy, and thereby on its further development. Two student federation groups with different organizational arrangements and political ideologies disputed the leadership of the student movement. Through an organizational approach, this paper assesses how the internal balance of power of the student movement changed and to what effect. It engages the Resource of Mobilization strand of the Social Movement Theory literature, providing a case study on the consequences that competing hierarchical and horizontal organizational dynamics have on the definition of a social movement strategy.

Author

• Germán Bidegain, Pontificia Universidad Católica