PERFORMING CONSERVATISM: A Study of Emerging Political Mobilisations in Latin America using “Social Media Drama” Analysis

In the second decade of the 21st century, citizen groups in Latin America are joining together to mobilise on moral issues, such as gender politics and the politics of reproduction. This chapter focuses on those conservative groups who wish to maintain the status quo. Through the ethnographic study of the cultural performances they perform on the public stage, this purpose is to discover what lies behind their emergence, what resources they draw on when mobilising and what agendas they pursue. Two case studies are presented: the 2018 Minuto de silencio that took place during the Marcha por la Vida en Lima, Perú; the Plantón por la vida, held in 2020 in Bogotá, Colombia. Turner’s “social drama” analytical model is applied to each. By adapting it to the highly mediated forms that groups today practice using social media as an expressive and dissemination resource, an update of the model is proposed: the “social media drama”.