Social movements in Latin America are constituted as an organized response to the process of colonization, violence, extermination, acculturation and appropriation of the territories of the native peoples by the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers.

Contradictorily, despite the implementation of the capitalist mode of production in Latin America during the colonial period, under the hegemony of slave and/or subordinate labor, Indigenous peoples, mestizos excluded from the dominant classes, and Creoles initiated a resistance that continues to this day. For example, in Brazil, the Quilombo dos Palmares, the Inconfidência Mineira, and the Balaiada were some of the struggles organized by socio-territorial movements during the colonial period. They shared the common goal of fighting for their territories and ending the exploitation perpetrated by the colonizers. In Mexico, the resistance of Indigenous peoples and Black communities continued throughout the colonial and independence periods and persists to this day. They resisted the changes brought about by the process of conquest and colonization, as well as by the newly established liberal state. These struggles and resistance continued until the Mexican Revolution, which destroyed the haciendas and distributed the land among peasant and Indigenous communities. Currently, there are many struggles and resistances that socio-territorial movements develop to defend their territories against extractive projects and legal reforms that go against the legal frameworks generated after the Mexican revolution and the 1917 constitution.

In Central America, the struggle for land and the defense of Indigenous territories has been and continues to be a central demand since colonization and the independence processes. The struggle for land and territories has been at the heart of peasant and Indigenous demands during the Cold War and civil wars, as well as in the peace agreements, but this has not translated into attention to, much less a comprehensive solution to, the problem of land tenure in Central America.

In South America, we also observe intense conflicts over land and the organization of large peasant movements with long historical trajectories, Indigenous and Afro-descendant movements, and various socio-environmental movements fighting against extractive production projects that devastate territories and against urban extractivism, where real estate developers are the agents constructing increasingly unequal and exclusionary cities. As Svampa points out, this is linked to a perspective: “(...) ecoterritorial, connected to social movements, which emphasizes the concept of territoriality, the critique of maldevelopment, and the defense of the commons” (Svampa, 2016, p. 371).

Latin America and the Caribbean are among the regions of the world where the struggle for territories is most intense. For more than five centuries, Indigenous peoples, peasants, quilombola communities, riverine communities, and urban populations have been organizing themselves into movements of resistance against the expropriation of their lands. This project will analyze several countries in a study of forms of territorial domination and forms of resistance. These struggles will be analyzed as a way of guaranteeing the existence of these peoples, and are therefore more than just a political and economic problem; they are a civilizational problem, with territories as places of existence. We study how socio-territorial movements organize themselves to fight for their territories and prepare to change their destinies, and how governments, political parties, and corporations respond to these struggles. These are struggles against different forms of extractivism that, to reiterate, expropriate their territories, their living conditions, and their futures. No people can live without their territory; therefore, territorial control is constantly challenged in all countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. To better understand these struggles, we will conduct research on the collective actions of socio-territorial movements from a critical and comparative perspective. We will analyze typologies, interpreting how territories are produced and contested. We will deepen our analysis by showing the territorial production strategies of different social groups and peoples to conquer or recover their territories. We will discuss the differences between these movements, their processes of social formation, and their worldviews, accounting for the wide diversity of situations that shape the current reality of the countries involved in this study: Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. Finally, we conclude that territorial disputes are also disputes over different models of development. On the one hand, there is the hegemonic power of corporations, which grows and develops based on processes of deterritorialization of social subjects and movements. On the other hand, there is the model of sustainable territorial development defended by socio-territorial movements that, for example, practice agroecology and build processes of food sovereignty.

It is worth emphasizing that, while this issue is undeniably important in our continent, one of the theoretical challenges we propose is to consider it as a global problem that, with different characteristics, manifests itself across the planet. Thus, the inclusion of the United Kingdom and its connection with Latin American Geographies - UK (LAG-UK) within the framework of this research will allow us to deepen the comparative analysis, accounting for the different territorial configurations that help explain socio-territorial actions. In this sense, we return to the idea put forward by Halvorsen, Fernandes, and Torres: “Socio-territorial movements tend to emerge in an attempt to deterritorialize the political projects of the modern state territory and its modes of governance, as well as the neoliberalization of space (the production of what Lefebvre calls abstract space), and to reterritorialize an alternative political project.” In this sense, socio-territorial movements are a global category that takes shape within the context of what Santos (1996) calls particular "territorial configurations," historical layers of spaces appropriated within the context of developing political projects. Socio-territorial movements mobilize in different historical-geographical contexts that help explain some of their opportunities and limitations (...) Halvorsen, Fernandes and Torres, 2021:14.

The centrality and importance of territory has been growing in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last few decades. Its widespread use as a theoretical concept, an object of demand, and a modality of state intervention and management demonstrates its presence in diverse spheres of social life. State and civil society organizations increasingly cite territory in their practices and public policies; researchers and academics have been problematizing and debating the scope, definition, and operationalization of the concept in their studies; and, of course, the most diverse Latin American social movements contest it, transform it into a source of inspiration for actions and identities, demand it, and produce it through their practices and developments.

In this sense, we return to the concept of socio-territorial movements, which have territory as their defining characteristic, their raison d'être, without which they would not exist (Fernandes, 2005). From this perspective, territory is understood as a dynamic and relational process that goes beyond modern forms and power relations of state sovereignty (Elden, 2013). Fernandes, in line with several contemporary colleagues from Latin America (Schneider and Tartaruga, 2006; Souza, 1995), draws on a heterodox set of theorists, including Lefebvre (2013), Raffestin (1980), and Santos (1996), to define territory as "the space appropriated by a specific social relation that produces and maintains it through a form of power" (Fernandes, 2005, p. 27). Territory is multidimensional and multiscalar, incorporating both material and immaterial space, and diverse intentions that can produce contradictions, solidarity, and conflict (Fernandes, 2005). Socio-territorial movements exist through the appropriation of space, via the processes of territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization (TDR), to achieve their political objectives. The appropriated territory (for example, the occupation of land, neighborhoods, or cities) is, in turn, the object of dispute for activists, who seek to conquer a portion of the territory from dominant political projects linked to the State and capital. Within the framework of previous studies and research, part of the team that makes up the working group has developed specific works on the topic, and two Latin American Encounters of Socio-Spatial and Socio-Territorial Movements (ELAMSS) have been organized, the first held in São Paulo, Brazil in 2019. The first, the Socioterritorial2019, and the second, based in La Plata, Argentina in 2021, were the Second Latin American Meeting of Socio-Spatial and Socio-Territorial Movements (unlp.edu.ar). Both events shared a particular intention: to integrate into the theoretical-practical debate the protagonism of all voices and perspectives: those from academia, those arising from state management and experiences, and those constructed by activists, leaders, and representatives of social movements and organizations. Emerging from these experiences, and sustained by the spirit of this proposal to create a working group, is the emphasis on the spatial perspective of analysis, based on understanding and recognizing the multiplicity of voices and experiences in the knowledge-building process.

The aim is to further operationalize the concept of socio-territorial movements through a quantitative survey and a multidimensional comparative analysis. This analysis seeks to identify situations of socio-territorial conflict involving diverse social movements in our region: peasant, indigenous, socio-environmental, urban, feminist, labor, LGBTQ+, human rights, student, and other movements. It seeks to contribute to the social thought of our region by fostering debate among academics and between academics and representatives of social organizations and movements. This critical and dialogical approach aims to build knowledge and social praxis through collaborative, horizontal, and democratic mechanisms.

The Working Group will be dedicated to collecting documents on urban and rural socio-spatial and socio-territorial movements using Google Alerts. Our selection criteria are related to the existence of collective action and the leading role of at least one social movement within it. We are also interested in documenting the presence of other institutions and the connection of these actions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose is to build an information matrix where journalistic documents (chronicles, news articles, editorials, opinion pieces), institutional reports and newsletters, pamphlets, and other documentary materials in written and audiovisual format available on websites and social media managed by press agencies (public and private) related to the actions of these movements are recorded and systematized.

We propose to comparatively analyze the databases generated for each country, thereby expanding the use of the concepts of socio-territorial movements and actions and providing a set of conceptual and methodological tools that will lead to the production of new knowledge on this topic. The data will be uploaded to the Jtform platform, where it will be compiled and analyzed, and subsequently represented through maps, charts, tables, and graphs for an understanding of the actions and proposals.

Comparison is understood here as a means to generate ideas from multiple geographical and historical perspectives, and to configure an open and multiplying mode of analysis (Hart, 2016; Robinson, 2016). Recognizing the limitations of all forms of knowledge and the plurality, or "ecology," of knowledge that coexist in the world (Santos, 2009), we are committed to building a decolonial, critical, democratic, and participatory form of knowledge with and from research centers, universities, and social movements and organizations.

We consider it essential to contribute relevant and systematic empirical knowledge about the conditions of creation, dispossession and dispute of territories by social movements in the Latin American continent, taking into account the enormous multiplicity of contexts, historical, geographical, social and political situations of the countries and of each of the spaces in which the conflict unfolds.

We will select representative or emblematic cases in each country to carry out political advocacy work, supporting the struggles and their prospects for overcoming them. These cases will be visited by members of the Working Group during our annual country visits. Our proposal is to publish an Annual Working Group Bulletin with maps and articles about the movements and their impact.