Transnational political identities in the 18-O Chilean uprising

This work observes and questions the international impact and the everyday transnational features of the Chilean uprising of October 2019. Drawing on G. Schiller’s thought and combining it with transnational social movements’ scholarship, the analysis develops around two key axes. On the one hand, it charts the mainly indirect diffusion of ideas and practices that travelled from Chile (and from Latin America) and grew to become embedded in social movements worldwide. On the other hand, it offers an ethnographic account of the transnational networks that have mobilized in support of this struggle in Italy. In this way, the work highlights the parallel movement from everyday transnational experiences to the formation of transnational political identities, and from shared political identities to transnational daily interactions. By exploring the interplay between different diffusion mechanisms, this case study offers new insights into the construction of transnational collective identities. The methodology is ethnographic and engaged, a recursive dialogic relation between the author and some of the participants complements the observations and the interviews.