A successful soft approach to new forms of protest: The recovery and takeover of The Pedagogical Water Forest

Abstract

This study aims to analyze a successful soft approach to new forms of protest as applied to the recovery and takeover of the Pedagogical Water Forest. In this case, a successful soft approach to new forms of protest is analyzed with the implications for the recovery and takeover of The Pedagogical Water Forest. The empirical, analytical method is based on the facts of the specific case under study framed by the theoretical and empirical analysis of the literature reviews and the reflection applied to the situation. The analysis of this case concludes that the new forms of movements and protest actions are shifting towards using more soft power, non-violent, long-term processes, multifaceted, regulated through the institutional and legal framework is capable of processing the conflicts and managing economic efficiency, social justice and inclusion, political participation, and sustainable environmental interests of all the stakeholders involved. In sociopolitical conflict, protest is an extra-institutional form of political behavior. Protest actions and other forms of engagement directly relate to policy decisions, legislation, political parties, and politics in general. Variations of the term protest, rally, demonstration, march, manifestation, petition, strike, etc., favor some specific protest actions. Soft forms of protest and movement actions lead to hybrid forms of authority linked to shifting forms of governance, which nonetheless involve persistent attempts to reinforce state power. Although governance has shifted towards the ideal soft use of power, management, and civic self-responsibilities in movements and protest actions, it continues to pursue aims of strengthening the state's use of power as a facilitator of wellbeing, development sustainability, and resilience through intensified commodification of nature. Despite recent shifts from the use of violent forms of movements and protest actions towards soft forms of power, non-violent movements, and protest actions through the implementation of soft policies and soft structures of hybrid forms of authority, the attempts to reinforce the use of state power and advance accelerated resource-making persist. Social movements and civil organizations with more charismatic authority stimulate a more diverse range of protest responses based on repudiating the claims of rulership. In contrast, others may manage into the prevailing power discourse to subsequently soften or redirect the movement and protest actions. This chapter analyzes a successful soft approach to new forms of protest with the implications in the case of the recovery and takeover of The Pedagogical Water Forest. In the first instance, it is conceptualized the social movements and protest, to continue with the analysis of some theoretical approaches followed by the forms of protest and, finally, the outcomes. After this framework of reference, the analysis turns to the case of The Pedagogical Forest of Water, which is divided into the sections: The geographical, spatial, and temporal dimensions, the actors in conflict, protest, and movement actions, and finally, the successful outcomes. The analysis of this chapter concludes that the new forms of movements and protest actions are shifting towards using more soft power, non-violent, long-term processes, multifaceted, regulated through the institutional and legal framework being capable of processing the conflicts and manage economic efficiency, social justice and inclusion, political participation, and sustainable environmental interests of all the stakeholders involved. This case, based on The Pedagogical Forest of Water has learning implications to think, feel and live in collective processes of the horizontal organization, teamwork, and assemblies with decision-making by consensus, solidarity, collaboration, and cordiality in carrying out common tasks such as in this specific case, the defense, resistance, restoration, protection, maintenance, and conservation of environmental natural resources, which as a common good, must be accessible and benefit the entire population. This set of soft actions of the movement and the protest imply mutual encounters, interconnections, and appropriations of the fabric of the socio-ecosystem based on the territory, environment, space, and time with the social and community fabric.