Florestan Fernandes: Explaining Authoritarianism Beyond the Fascist Experience

One of the main challenges for understanding the concept of authoritarianism is the many different meanings it has. Already in the 1970s, Brazilian sociologist and political militant Florestan Fernandes analysed the ambiguity of the concept of authoritarianism and its use in political mainstream discourse. He assessed that if we explain authoritarianism only through the liberal lens – as being in opposition to “democracy” -, we ignore the inherent authoritarian tendencies of liberal democracy and its everyday abuse of power. Florestan proposed a different understanding instead.

Sabrina Fernandes

Sabrina Fernandes is a Brazilian eco-socialist organizer and communicator with a sociology PhD from Carleton University, Canada. She is the person behind Marxist YouTube Channel, Tese Onze, and is coordinating the launch of Jacobin Brasil.

Milton Santos: space, technique, and globalization

The relationships between the local and the global in the shaping of space comprise a set of fundamental categories of Milton Almeida dos Santos, one of the greatest Brazilian thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century. He was a geographer who produced a critical and totalizing theory that permeates different areas of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology, and political economy. In this text, I will present some of his main concepts, due to their relevance and accuracy. His notions of space, technique, place, and territory are fundamental for the understanding of contemporary political, social, and economic dynamics in the Global South and North.

Hugo Fanton

Hugo Fanton is the State Coordinator of the Central de Movimentos Populares (Popular Movements Central) in São Paulo. CMP is an organization that was formed through a historic process of resistance by popular movements, especially the social struggles of the 1980s in Brazil for democracy, the defense of urban reform, and the right to the city.