Mapping Depoliticization in Contexts of Transitional Justice: An Analysis of the Case of Argentina

Considering the global boom in Transitional Justice (TJ) and its bureaucratization since the 1980s, critical multi-disciplinary scholars realised that ‘transitional’ discourses and practices were depoliticizing alternative political perspectives. But although they refer to interrelated phenomena, their language and chief academic objectives diverge, making depoliticization incoherent and under-conceptualized. This paper unifies prior efforts by asking what depoliticization is and tracing its consequences. We present six tentative definitions of depoliticization, categorise them into three types, and incorporate our preferred definition into our methodology. In a case study of TJ and post-transitional activism in Argentina during 1983-1996, we map its occurrence beginning with a depoliticizing move in 1983 by the Alfonsín administration that facilitated the production of Nunca Mas in 1984 and examine its relationship to the marginalization of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a civil...Show moreConsidering the global boom in Transitional Justice (TJ) and its bureaucratization since the 1980s, critical multi-disciplinary scholars realised that ‘transitional’ discourses and practices were depoliticizing alternative political perspectives. But although they refer to interrelated phenomena, their language and chief academic objectives diverge, making depoliticization incoherent and under-conceptualized. This paper unifies prior efforts by asking what depoliticization is and tracing its consequences. We present six tentative definitions of depoliticization, categorise them into three types, and incorporate our preferred definition into our methodology. In a case study of TJ and post-transitional activism in Argentina during 1983-1996, we map its occurrence beginning with a depoliticizing move in 1983 by the Alfonsín administration that facilitated the production of Nunca Mas in 1984 and examine its relationship to the marginalization of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a civil society organisation that emerged in response to mass disappearances under the former military junta. We conclude that depoliticization occurred and contributed to marginalization of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, having produced a clear conceptual framework for further applications of depoliticization in contexts of TJ.Show less

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Mapping Depoliticization in Contexts of Transitional Justice: An Analysis of the Case of Argentina