Where will the LASA2027 conference take place?

The conference will be held in Ciudad de México, MEX.

When is the LASA2027 conference scheduled?

The conference is scheduled to run from its start date in June to its end date in June.

LASA2027: Navegar el colapso: reinventar la política, cuidar lo común

Name: LASA2027: Navegar el colapso: reinventar la política, cuidar lo común
Start: 2027-06-16T00:00:00Z
End: 2027-06-20T00:00:00Z
Location: Ciudad de México

Jun 16–20, 2027Ciudad de México, MexicoIn-person

Registration open

The LASA2027 conference, themed "Navigating Collapse: Reimagining Politics, Caring for the Commons," will convene in Ciudad de México, Mexico. This event focuses on critical global challenges, including environmental degradation, social inequalities, and political instability, particularly as they manifest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Participants will explore innovative approaches to governance, community care, and political reimagination in the face of systemic crises.

Committees & topics

Topics
Navigating Collapse: Reinventing Politics and Caring for the Commons · Accelerated Transformations: Geopolitics, Technology, and Inequalities · Erosion of Postwar Pacts and State Weakening · Polarization, Democratic Decay, and the Retreat from the Public · Regressive Redefinitions of Citizenship and 'Killable' Bodies · Between Uncertainty and Possibility: Seeing the New Without Paralyzing Nostalgia · Agrarian and Food Studies · Archives, Libraries and Digital Scholarship

Why it matters

This conference addresses the pressing need for new paradigms in political thought and action, moving beyond conventional responses to global challenges. The focus on "navigating collapse" acknowledges the severity of current crises, from climate change to democratic erosion, and calls for a fundamental re-evaluation of societal structures and values. By emphasizing "reimagining politics," the conference seeks to foster discussions that can lead to more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable governance models. The concept of "caring for the commons" highlights the shared responsibility for collective well-being and the planet, advocating for policies that prioritize community and environmental health over narrow interests.

The gathering in Ciudad de México, MEX, provides a significant platform for scholars, activists, and policymakers to engage with these themes from diverse perspectives. The location itself, within Latin America, underscores the region's unique contributions and vulnerabilities in the face of global challenges. Discussions are expected to delve into how local and regional experiences can inform broader strategies for resilience and transformation, offering valuable insights into the practical application of reimagined political and social frameworks.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes of LASA2027, participants should consider a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on insights from political science, environmental studies, sociology, and economics. Understanding the historical and contemporary political dynamics of Latin American countries will provide a crucial backdrop for engaging with the conference themes. Familiarity with concepts such as "the commons" and various models of collective action will also be beneficial.

Delegates can prepare by researching current events and policy debates related to environmental justice, indigenous rights, and democratic innovations in the region. Lessons like "Hidden Stakeholders" and "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" can offer valuable frameworks for analyzing the complex networks of actors involved in addressing these issues. Additionally, exploring different approaches to "Gender Dynamics Across Cultures" will be relevant, as gender often intersects with environmental and political challenges, shaping both their impact and potential solutions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Mexico

As the host nation, MEX offers a critical perspective on navigating collapse, given its rich history of social movements, environmental challenges, and political transformations.

Role in topic

MEX serves as a central hub for discussions on reimagining politics and caring for the commons, providing a context for examining issues like indigenous land rights, urban sustainability, and democratic reforms within a Latin American framework.

Brazil

BRA's experiences with Amazon deforestation, social inequality, and political shifts offer a vital case study for the conference's themes.

Role in topic

BRA's perspective is crucial for understanding the interplay between environmental degradation and political governance, particularly concerning the protection of biodiversity and indigenous communities.

Colombia

COL's ongoing peace processes, efforts in rural development, and environmental conservation initiatives provide significant insights into reimagining political structures.

Role in topic

COL's experiences highlight the challenges and opportunities in building sustainable peace and equitable societies, especially in post-conflict settings and areas rich in natural resources.

Argentina

ARG's history of economic crises, social activism, and democratic transitions offers a unique lens on navigating collapse and reinventing political strategies.

Role in topic

ARG can contribute to discussions on economic resilience, social justice movements, and the role of civil society in shaping political responses to systemic challenges.

Chile

CHL's recent constitutional reform processes and debates over social rights and natural resource management provide a contemporary example of political reimagination.

Role in topic

CHL's experience is relevant for examining how societies attempt to redefine their social contract and address issues of inequality and environmental sustainability through institutional change.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Navigating Collapse: Reinventing Politics and Caring for the Commons

The framing of 'collapse' has gained traction across Latin American social science since the overlapping crises of the late 2010s and early 2020s: the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of public health systems, climate emergencies (Amazonian drought, Andean glacier retreat, Central American hurricanes) accelerated displacement, and commodity-dependent economies struggled with debt service amid rising global interest rates. These shocks landed on societies already shaped by decades of neoliberal restructuring, weakened public institutions, and unresolved legacies of authoritarianism, producing a sense that the postwar and post-transition political architecture is exhausted. Against this backdrop, scholars and movements have revived discussions of 'the commons' (lo común) — water, seeds, forests, urban space, care work, and digital infrastructure — as both an analytic and a political horizon. Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the Andes, Mesoamerica, and Brazil have anchored these debates through territorial defense struggles, while feminist economists have foregrounded care as a structuring axis of social reproduction. The question is whether politics can be reinvented around stewardship and redistribution rather than extraction. Today the debate is unresolved: progressive governments in Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico have promised socio-ecological transitions but face fiscal constraints, organized opposition, and the entrenched power of extractive sectors. Constitutional processes (Chile 2022, Ecuador's rights-of-nature jurisprudence) have shown both the possibilities and limits of institutionalizing the commons.

Key players

Accelerated Transformations: Geopolitics, Technology, and Inequalities

Latin America enters the late 2020s caught between competing global powers and rapid technological change. U.S.–China rivalry has reshaped trade and investment flows: China is now the leading trading partner for South America and a major financier of infrastructure, while the United States has responded with nearshoring incentives, the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, and renewed security cooperation. Russia's war in Ukraine and Middle East conflicts have disrupted food and energy markets, hitting net importers hard while benefiting some commodity exporters. Technological transformation is uneven. Generative AI, platform labor, and digital finance have spread rapidly, but so have algorithmic discrimination, data extractivism, and concentration of cloud and AI infrastructure in a handful of firms headquartered outside the region. Lithium, copper, and rare-earth demand — driven by the energy transition — has made the 'lithium triangle' (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile) and Andean copper belts strategic, reviving debates about resource nationalism versus integration into global value chains. Inequalities have widened in income, gender, race, and territory. ECLAC data show poverty rates above pre-pandemic levels in several countries, and informal employment remains dominant. The core dispute is whether the region can convert geopolitical leverage and technological adoption into structural transformation, or whether it will reproduce a dependent insertion into the new global economy.

Key players

Erosion of Postwar Pacts and State Weakening

The political and social pacts that organized Latin America after the Cold War — democratic transitions, market reforms tempered by social policy, regional integration, and a baseline commitment to human rights — are visibly fraying. Fiscal pressures from the pandemic, declining tax capacity, and the capture of segments of the state by organized crime and illicit economies have hollowed out public institutions in countries from Haiti and Ecuador to parts of Mexico and Central America. Homicide rates in Ecuador have surged from among the lowest to among the highest in the region in less than a decade. The multilateral scaffolding is also weakening. The Inter-American human rights system faces funding shortfalls and selective compliance; UNASUR collapsed and its successors (PROSUR, CELAC) struggle for coherence; the OAS is contested as politicized. State weakening is uneven: some governments respond with mano dura security policies (notably El Salvador's state of exception), while others experiment with negotiated approaches or community-based security. The core dispute is over what comes after the postwar pact: a reconstituted democratic and social compact, an authoritarian-securitarian model, or a fragmented landscape of de facto powers. Today the trajectory varies sharply by country, but the trend of declining state legitimacy and capacity is regionwide.

Key players

Polarization, Democratic Decay, and the Retreat from the Public

Latin American democracies have not collapsed en masse, but Freedom House, V-Dem, and Latinobarómetro consistently document erosion: declining trust in parties and legislatures, rising affective polarization, and the normalization of anti-system discourse. Episodes such as the January 8, 2023 assault on Brazilian institutions, contested elections in Bolivia (2019), Peru's serial presidential crises, and Venezuela and Nicaragua's authoritarian consolidation illustrate the spectrum of decay. Social media ecosystems and algorithmic amplification have accelerated polarization, while traditional media face economic and political pressures. A parallel trend is the 'desertion of the public' — declining electoral turnout in some countries, withdrawal of middle classes from public services into private alternatives in health, education, and security, and shrinking civic associational life. This compounds inequality and weakens constituencies for redistributive reform. Right-wing populist projects (Milei in Argentina, Bukele in El Salvador, Kast's strong showings in Chile) have channeled discontent with corruption, insecurity, and economic stagnation, while parts of the left have struggled to translate electoral wins into durable reform coalitions. The core dispute is whether liberal-democratic institutions can be revitalized through reforms — campaign finance, judicial independence, platform regulation, civic education — or whether the region is entering a longer cycle of hybrid regimes and plebiscitary politics.

Key players

Regressive Redefinitions of Citizenship and 'Killable' Bodies

Across the Americas, the boundaries of citizenship are being redrawn in restrictive ways. Mass migration — Venezuelans (over 7.7 million displaced according to R4V), Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, and intraregional Central American flows — has met hardening borders, externalized enforcement (Mexico's southern border, Darién Gap, U.S. Title 42/Title 8 enforcement), and political backlash. Anti-gender and anti-rights movements have pushed back on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and gender-based violence frameworks in legislatures and courts. The concept of 'killable bodies' draws on Achille Mbembe's necropolitics and a long Latin American tradition of theorizing state and parastatal violence: feminicides (Ciudad Juárez and beyond), massacres of Indigenous and Afro-descendant land defenders (Brazil and Colombia are the most lethal countries globally for environmental defenders, per Global Witness), extrajudicial killings under security operations, and prison conditions in El Salvador's CECOT and elsewhere. These patterns are not random: they target racialized, gendered, and impoverished populations whose lives are treated as politically expendable. The core dispute is whether human rights frameworks, regional courts, and social movements can resist a regressive reconfiguration of who counts as a full citizen, or whether punitive and exclusionary models will continue to expand.

Key players

Between Uncertainty and Possibility: Seeing the New Without Paralyzing Nostalgia

Much critical scholarship on Latin America has oscillated between denunciation of present harms and nostalgia for earlier moments — the developmentalist state, the pink tide, the 2001–2005 cycle of constituent processes. Yet the conjuncture of the late 2020s does not map cleanly onto any prior cycle: climate disruption, AI-mediated public spheres, post-pandemic labor reconfigurations, and a multipolar world order generate genuinely novel conditions that older frameworks only partially illuminate. At the same time, emergent practices suggest openings: feminist mass mobilizations (Ni Una Menos, the marea verde for abortion rights legalized or decriminalized in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and partially in Chile and Uruguay); Indigenous-led conservation and plurinational constitutionalism; community-based responses to insecurity; experiments in just energy transitions; cooperative and platform-worker organizing. Latin America also retains weight as a normative entrepreneur in global forums — on rights of nature, the right to the city, and historical accountability for dictatorships. The core dispute is methodological and political: how to analyze and act in conditions of deep uncertainty without either nostalgic retreat to past models or technocratic dismissal of emancipatory traditions. The committee will weigh how scholarship and policy can register the genuinely new.

Key players

Agrarian and Food Studies

Latin America is simultaneously a global breadbasket and a region marked by acute food insecurity. It supplies a large share of world exports of soy, beef, maize, coffee, and tropical fruits, yet FAO and ECLAC report that roughly 40% of the regional population experiences moderate or severe food insecurity, with sharp inequalities by gender, race, and rural location. The agrarian question — who controls land, water, seeds, and markets — has been transformed by the consolidation of agribusiness, financialization of farmland, and expansion of soy and cattle frontiers into the Amazon, Cerrado, Chaco, and Orinoquía. Counter-movements are equally significant. La Vía Campesina, born in Latin America in 1993, popularized food sovereignty globally. Brazil's MST is among the world's largest agrarian movements; Indigenous and quilombola territorial claims, Andean ayllu economies, and Mesoamerican milpa systems sustain agroecological alternatives. Recent policy shifts — Brazil's revived Fome Zero, Mexico's ban on glyphosate and GM corn for human consumption, Colombia's agrarian reform under Petro — have re-politicized food and land. The core debate concerns whether the region's agrarian future will be defined by export-oriented industrial agriculture aligned with global decarbonization demands (biofuels, 'sustainable' beef), or by a transition toward agroecology, food sovereignty, and redistributive land reform. Climate change, deforestation commitments, and trade rules (EU deforestation regulation, Mercosur–EU agreement) sharpen the stakes.

Key players

Archives, Libraries and Digital Scholarship

Latin American archives and libraries hold critical records of colonial administration, independence-era state-building, twentieth-century social movements, and the dictatorships of the 1960s–1980s. Truth commissions and human rights cases — from Argentina's CONADEP and ongoing trials, to Guatemala's CEH, Peru's CVR, Brazil's Comissão Nacional da Verdade, and Colombia's Comisión de la Verdad — have depended on archival access. Yet many holdings remain underfunded, vulnerable to climate damage, and unevenly digitized. The 2018 fire at Brazil's Museu Nacional and recurrent threats to the Archivo General de la Nación in several countries illustrate the fragility of memory infrastructures. Digital scholarship has expanded access but introduced new asymmetries. Open-access platforms born in the region (SciELO, Redalyc, LA Referencia) have made Latin America a global leader in non-commercial scholarly communication, while initiatives such as the Digital Library of the Caribbean and HathiTrust partnerships broaden reach. At the same time, dependence on proprietary platforms, AI training on scraped collections, declining university budgets, and the concentration of cloud infrastructure outside the region raise sovereignty concerns. Indigenous data sovereignty and community-controlled archives have emerged as central debates. The core issue is how to sustain memory institutions and scholarly infrastructure under fiscal stress, democratic backsliding (which has targeted archives in several cases), and technological disruption — while ensuring that digitization serves communities of origin rather than extractive uses.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for LASA2027: Navegar el colapso: reinventar la política, cuidar lo común.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Delimitation Based on 2011 Census

Supreme Court Upholds Election Commission Dis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Frequently asked questions

LASA2027: Navegar el colapso: reinventar la política, cuidar lo común

Jun 16–20, 2027Ciudad de México, MexicoIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Navigating Collapse: Reinventing Politics and Caring for the Commons · Accelerated Transformations: Geopolitics, Technology, and Inequalities · Erosion of Postwar Pacts and State Weakening · Polarization, Democratic Decay, and the Retreat from the Public · Regressive Redefinitions of Citizenship and 'Killable' Bodies · Between Uncertainty and Possibility: Seeing the New Without Paralyzing Nostalgia · Agrarian and Food Studies · Archives, Libraries and Digital Scholarship

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Mexico

As the host nation, MEX offers a critical perspective on navigating collapse, given its rich history of social movements, environmental challenges, and political transformations.

Role in topic

Brazil

BRA's experiences with Amazon deforestation, social inequality, and political shifts offer a vital case study for the conference's themes.

Role in topic

Colombia

COL's ongoing peace processes, efforts in rural development, and environmental conservation initiatives provide significant insights into reimagining political structures.

Role in topic

COL's experiences highlight the challenges and opportunities in building sustainable peace and equitable societies, especially in post-conflict settings and areas rich in natural resources.

Argentina

ARG's history of economic crises, social activism, and democratic transitions offers a unique lens on navigating collapse and reinventing political strategies.

Role in topic

ARG can contribute to discussions on economic resilience, social justice movements, and the role of civil society in shaping political responses to systemic challenges.

Chile

CHL's recent constitutional reform processes and debates over social rights and natural resource management provide a contemporary example of political reimagination.

Role in topic

CHL's experience is relevant for examining how societies attempt to redefine their social contract and address issues of inequality and environmental sustainability through institutional change.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Navigating Collapse: Reinventing Politics and Caring for the Commons

Key players

Accelerated Transformations: Geopolitics, Technology, and Inequalities

Key players

Erosion of Postwar Pacts and State Weakening

Key players

Polarization, Democratic Decay, and the Retreat from the Public

Key players

Regressive Redefinitions of Citizenship and 'Killable' Bodies

Key players

Between Uncertainty and Possibility: Seeing the New Without Paralyzing Nostalgia

Key players

Agrarian and Food Studies

Key players

Archives, Libraries and Digital Scholarship

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for LASA2027: Navegar el colapso: reinventar la política, cuidar lo común.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Delimitation Based on 2011 Census

Supreme Court Upholds Election Commission Dis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

8th EU-Mexico Summit

El Cisne Rojo2.0: El pulso de la geopolítica y las perspectivas económicas

El Cisne Rojo 2.0: El pulso de la geopolítica y las perspectivas económicas

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Frequently asked questions