Research Team on Inclusion and Governance in Latin America - ÉRIGAL
The Research Team on Inclusion and Governance in Latin America (ÉRIGAL) has been created in 2017 (FRQSC Émergence), renewed in 2019 and 2024. It is directed by Françoise Montambeault (Université de Montréal) and co-directed since 2024 by Nora Nagels (Université du Québec à Montréal). The team is the result of the convergence and complementarity of the research work of its nine members.The team is interested in major social and political transformations in Latin America that have been taking place since the turn of the 21st century.
The nine researchers from six university institutions are located in three regions (Concordia, McGill, Université de Montréal, ULaval, UQÀM et UQO), come from two linguistic worlds in Quebec and are all political scientists.Their approaches, study fields and methods of research are varied, converging and complementary.
Recognised as specialists in contemporary dynamics of inclusion, citizenship and governance in Latin America, they are well-connected to academic circles in Latin America, Europe and North America.
The synergy that animates the team’s research agenda stems from the lack of systematic reflection in Quebec on the major social and political transformations that have been taking place since the turn of the 21st century in Latin America.
All while the region has been undergoing important socio-political changes for the last three decades and seems to be experiencing a return to conservatism after more than a decade of leftist governance. In this context, new political and social forces emerge or re-emerge, and major debates have begun on the subjects of democracy and citizenship.
ÉRIGAL is as interested in state inclusion policies and formal rights as it is in individual or collective practices in the exercise of active citizenship. The aim is first and foremost to understand these practices, while anchoring them in their political and institutional context. How do they fit together, and what kind of citizenship do they build? Then we look at their relationship with formal, public and state institutions. Do they contribute to the construction of more inclusive citizenship regimes and to democratization from below?
Our approach proposes to decentralize the focus from institutions, public policies and national phenomena in the analysis of citizenship regimes in order to observe their nuances and intersectional dimensions, while integrating local and transnational scales.
ÉRIGAL's research program (2024-2028) is built around three complementary axes, which propose an innovative and holistic approach to thinking about the processes of transforming citizenship regimes through the prism of experiences, practices and relationships built between citizens and with the State:
Participatory spaces, urban commons and democracy
Violence, resistance and human rights
Care, citizenship and governance