Identity, Political Culture, and Social Organizations in Twenty-First-Century Jujuy

Abstract

The Jujuy context of the first decade of the twenty-first century presents the coexistence of social organizations within a heterogeneous, complex space in constant movement. The objective of this research is to understand the relationship between the identity of activists belonging to social organizations located in this context and political culture.

In approaching this topic, Social Psychology contributed to visualizing the dialectical relationship between subjectivities and the processes and models at play in the collective sphere. Some theoretical tools from the fields of political culture and social movements were also useful.

The study follows a qualitative research design. The techniques used to gather information were participant observation, interviews, and feedback instances. For the analysis, the constant comparative method was used.

Two categories were developed in relation to identity: self-understandings of the subjects themselves and of collective experience, and the history–project interplay. These are linked to a third category, necessary for understanding the social fabric on which the configuration of identity is based: the world of social organizations.

This made it possible to arrive at central assertions, one of which holds that identity and organization are marked by divergent projects, sustained by members but stemming from a political culture and a social history that transcend the temporal and spatial boundaries of the organization. Two positions are at stake: one refers to a strictly demand-oriented project, which may complement or come into contradiction with a position linked to a project of socio-political transformation.