The Role of Territory in Grassroots Party-building: insights from Argentina

Abstract

Through what processes does territory facilitate the formation and growth of a grassroots party organization? Despite an extensive literature into why parties favour a territorial model of activist organization, much less is known about how territory facilitates grassroots party-building. The paper addresses this question by drawing on qualitative research with a centre-left Argentine party named Nuevo Encuentro (NE), focusing on the period of its growth in the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) between 2011 and 2017. NE is a typical case study of a party that sought to establish itself and grow via the build-up of a territorial organization. Bridging across, and extending, literatures on party organization and the geographies of activism, the paper argues that territory facilitates grassroots party-building through three interrelated processes. First, territory facilitates the recruitment of party activists by providing a relational context for building shared political subjectivities. Second, the territoriality of the branch as a site of political organization provides social proximity that nurtures the building of new bonds and strong-tie relations. Third, following recruitment, territory supports that reproduction of party activism through place-based attachment and emotional ties. These interrelated processes are considered through an analysis of three NE branches in CABA.