''Horizontalidad'' (, horizontality or horizontalism) is a social relationship that advocates the creation, development, and maintenance of social structures for the equitable distribution of
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...
power and is a prominent concept within
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
thought. These structures and relationships function as a result of dynamic self-management, involving the continuity of participation and
exchange between individuals to achieve the larger desired outcomes of the collective whole.
Origin
As a specific term, ''horizontalidad'' is attributed to the radical movements that sprouted in December 2001, in
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, after the
economic crisis. According to
Marina Sitrin, it is a new social creation. Different from many social movements of the past, it rejected political programs, opting instead to create directly democratic spaces and new social relationship.
The related term "horizontals" arose during the
anti-globalisation
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...
European Social Forum in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 2004 to describe people organising in a style where they "aspire to an open relationship between participants, whose deliberative encounters (rather than representative status) form the basis of any decisions,"
in contrast to "verticals" who "assume the existence and legitimacy of representative structures, in which bargaining power is accrued on the basis of an electoral mandate (or any other means of selection to which the members of an organisation assent)".
According to
Paul Mason, "the power of the horizontalist movements is, first, their replicability by people who know nothing about theory, and secondly, their success in breaking down the
hierarchies that seek to contain them. They are exposed to a montage of ideas, in a way that the structured, difficult-to-conquer knowledge of the 1970s and 1980s did not allow (...) The big question for horizontalist movements is that as long as you don't articulate against power, you're basically doing what somebody has called ''"reform by riot"'': a guy in a hoodie goes to jail for a year so that a guy in a suit can get his law through parliament".
Practice
Neka, a participant in the
unemployed workers movement of
Solano, outside
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, Argentina, described ''horizontalidad'' as:
See also
*
Anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
*
Autogestion
*
Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
*
Corporative federalism
*
Consociationalism
*
Economic democracy
Economic democracy (sometimes called a democratic economy) is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift ownership and decision-making power from corporate shareholders and corporate managers (such as a board of directors) to a larger ...
*
General assembly (Occupy movement)
*
Kritarchy
*
Libertarian Municipalism
*
Meritocracy
*
Multicameralism
*
Panarchism
*
Participatory Economics
*
Pillarisation
*
Polycentric law
Polycentric law is a theoretical legal structure in which "providers" of legal systems compete or overlap in a given jurisdiction, as opposed to monopolistic statutory law according to which there is a sole provider of law for each jurisdiction. ...
*
Popular assembly
*
Responsible autonomy
*
Social Ecology
*
Socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
*
Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to humans' particular use of shared language to create common symbols and meanings, for use in both intra- and interpersonal communication.
...
References
Further reading
*
External links
La ocupación de Wall Street en clave argentinaLavaca, October 1st 2011.
* {{open access
Horizontalism and the Occupy Movements By Marina Sitrin. ''
Dissent'', Spring 2012.
Self-organization
Autonomism
Anti-globalization movement
Management cybernetics
Anarchist terminology