Unpacking the Ordinary in the Extraordinary: What Ethnography Can Teach Us About the Everyday Life of Social Movements

Social movements are contentious, action-packed, and extraordinary; ethnography is slow, immersive, and centered on the ordinary. Despite these differences, many have done insightful fieldwork on movements. These studies, though, tend to be based on witnessing “events.” What do we observe when meetings or marches are not taking place? What can ethnography tell us about the “non-events” of movements? Drawing from fieldwork on the Argentine anti-mining movement – as well as lessons from literature on collective action, the environment, and Latin America – I argue that ethnography is suited to observing how movements intertwine with daily routines. Across four communities, I explore the everyday life of social movements; that is, how activist talk, social bonds, or actions, erupt into our day-to-day existence. I then compare the extent to which these “ordinary” and “extraordinary” elements are interwoven, demonstrating the interactive effect of these linkages on community building and the persistence of movements over time.