Policy regime shift through popular societal resistance in developing countries, advocating a state-regulated economic model, has been a frequent occurrence in the 21st century, during a period where neoliberalism has dominated the world market. Scholars have brought up the framework of double movement to explain these social, economic, and political changes from free-market regimes to state-controlled regimes, claiming that it is a societal reaction to the commodification of land, labor, and money. This research poses the question of how political change can be interpreted through the lens of the concept of double movement even though a government can show positive social and economic development records, where a left-wing state-regulated market has ruled the economy. Bolivia underwent political turmoil in 2019, where the former president Evo Morales, who had brought high socioeconomic development through a state-regulated economy, was ousted by a nationwide protest. An interim conservative government took office, imposing a harsh neoliberal agenda with authoritarian features, handing over the presidency to Morales’ former party only a year later, as the party won the election. Looking at the case of Bolivia through the lens of the double movement, this research found that commodification of land, labor, and money can explain popular societal resistance in Bolivia during Morales's presidency. However, the case also proved that commodification was not the only, and potentially not even the main, reason for the overthrow of Morales. Political motives and actions, clientelism, social cleavages, respect for democratic principles, and more theoretical perspectives need to be considered to comprehend regime change by popular resistance further.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise traite d’un phénomène social critique qui a gagné en importance au Québec : la montée des groupes de résistance populaire contre des projets d’exploitation des ressources naturelles. À partir d’une étude de cas, l’auteur tâche ici d’approfondir les questions relatives à ces luttes collectives tout en mettant en lumière les diverses modalités d’engagement qui, par leurs registres et leurs compositions en « systèmes-experts », se répercutent dans l’espace public tout en transformant, d’une certaine manière, l’arène politique. Ces dynamiques des mouvements de résistance tendent également à s’infléchir en amont des projets de développement, pour se matérialiser en aval, soit dès les premières phases d’appropriation territoriale, c’est-à-dire les premiers travaux exploratoires comme tels. Cette enquête de terrain se focalise sur ces enjeux. En prenant comme observatoire le projet de Terra Ventures à Sept-Îles, en région nord-côtière, concernant un projet d’exploration uranifère, l’auteur insiste sur les multiples références collectives qui sont autant de perspectives pour comprendre ce phénomène. À travers l’étude de cette résistance populaire qui s’est profilée contre ce projet d’exploration, c’est l’industrie minière au Québec, son histoire, ses mythes, et sa mémoire qui est, enfin, en trame de fond. / This thesis focuses on a social critical phenomenon that recently has gained in importance in Quebec: the rise of popular resistance groups against the exploitations of natural resources. Based on an empirical study, the author explores the questions of collective struggles and highlights the various modalities of commitments that, by their structures and compositions, of "expert systems", are reflected in the public space that, slowly, becomes an important factor in the political arena. The dynamics of these resistance movements also tend to influence upstream development projects and to materialize downstream, in the early stages of territorial appropriation, that is to say, the first exploratory work as such. Based on the observation of Terra Ventures project on Quebec’s North-Shore uranium explorations, the author focuses on the multiple collective references that are all perspectives of understanding for this phenomenon. Through the study of this popular resistance, specifically in the city of Sept-Îles, which has emerged against the explorative project, it is the Quebec mining industry, its history, its myths, and its memory that appear as a fundamental landmark.

No description available.