Drawing the Line between State and Society: Social Movements, Participation and Autonomy in Brazil

This article analyses the São Paulo Housing Movement's attempts to influence pro-poor housing policy in Brazil through a range of participatory arenas. Using the concept of ‘created’ and ‘invited’ spaces, it argues that where participants in such spaces are highly organised and politicised social movements, more complex interactions occur that cannot be captured by these labels. Here literature from the anthropology of the state canon can be more helpful. The paper draws on the idea of the invisible but moveable line between state and society, to examine how representatives of both movement and government struggle over where this boundary is best placed.