The differences between unions and non-unions highlighted at the end of Chapter 5 are further explored in the next two chapters through case studies of the most common type of non-union organization: urban popular movements. This chapter begins by elaborating upon the resource differences between urban popular movements and unions and speculating about how these differences might affect protest behavior. The second section recapitulates the independent variables under analysis and provides a preliminary comparison of urban popular movement protests in Mexico City, São Paulo, and Brasilia. The final section analyses urban popular movement behavior in Mexico City, using case studies of five movements. Chapter 7 continues the analysis through parallel case studies of urban popular movements in Brazil and concludes with additional quantitative analysis and some comparative conclusions.

Overall, the findings are quite similar to those of previous chapters. A pro-protest organizational culture, history of protest, and internal leadership competition all continue to promote protest. However, the urban popular movement cases highlight the ways in which resource scarcity causes urban popular movements to calculate the value of protest and the timing of windows of opportunity in different ways than unions and other non-union organizations.

URBAN POPULAR MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

Neighborhood organizing reflects the increasingly urban nature of Latin American societies, the effects of rapid migration to cities that overwhelmed housing and service provision, and the deep social differences that spatially and physically mark urban centers.