Pathways to Utopia
Time and Transformation in the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil

By (author) Alex Ungprateeb Flynn

ISBN13: 9780253073754

Imprint: Indiana University Press

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 01/08/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Pathways to Utopia explores how Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST), against all odds, has endured for forty years as one of the world's largest social movements—while transforming the way we understand the temporality of activism. Taking his cue from MST members and their generational struggle for land and justice, anthropologist Alex Ungprateeb Flynn reveals how the movement's longevity stems not only from its strong organization and collective vision but also from the productive tensions between established utopian ideals and emerging counter-utopian practices. Perceived by some as a shortcoming, this friction has proven to be a generative force, sparking creative gestures that reimagine social relations and ensuring the MST's adaptability in an ever-changing political landscape. By chronicling the everyday lives of families navigating an extraordinary political reality over a fifteen-year period, Flynn has written a vivid, moving book. At the heart of Pathways to Utopia is the realization that activism is not a momentary act but an ongoing, relational practice—one where even the smallest community actions reverberate, reshaping the very structures through which people seek to change the world. Evocatively written and balancing careful ethnography with key theoretical interventions, the book illuminates the dreams and sacrifices that characterize a life lived as struggle. Unfolding across multiple points of time, Pathways to Utopia tells a story of hope and resilience—one that promises a lasting influence on our twenty-first-century political imagination.
Acknowledgments Dramatis Personae Introduction Scene I – Promise Pausa 1. Landlessness Pausa 2. Willed Transformation 3. Productivity Scene II – Contradictions Pausa 4. Human Values 5. Time Pausa 6. Encampment Pausa 7. Institutionalization 8. Ruin Scene III – Expression, Creative Gesture 9. The Culture Sector 10. Mística, Light on Your Feet 11. Occupy, Hold Firm Pausa Scene IV – Transformation 12. Remaking the Movement from Within Pausa 13. Community, Small Spaces 14. Victory, In a Heartbeat Conclusion Glossary Notes Bibliography Index
  • Political science & theory
  • Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography
  • Revolutionary groups & movements
  • Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
  • Professional & Vocational
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