In Latin America the neoliberal critical juncture has reformulated many of political, social and economic dimensions. Among the main transformations was de-incorporation of the popular sectors. In Argentina, the accelerated path and intensity of these reforms led to the emergence of a movement of de-incorporated workers. Since 1996 the piqueteros/unemployed workers movement has struggled for the re-incorporation of the popular sectors in the political arena. In this paper I will narrate and conceptualize the piqueteros movement’s path to re-incorporation. The piqueteros is a crucial case for social movement scholars because it provides an outstanding scenario for the dynamic analysis of the intertwining logics of both contentious and routine politics. The overarching question of this paper is: How is the interaction of the organized popular sectors with the government performed in the (post-)neoliberal era? Moreover: Can we define any specific type of movement related to the de-incorporation consequences of neoliberalism and the struggle for defining the (post-)neoliberal political arena? Departing from the piqueteros paradigmatic case, I will propose a definition for the type of movement associated with the struggle for the redefinition of the actors to be included in the (post-)neoliberal political arena in order to answer to these questions. Re-incorporation movements share the long lasting characteristics of the popular sectors’ movement’s quest for social transformation through inclusion by revolution and/or reform. Simultaneously, they have specific attributes that define them as a particular expression of a historical process of struggle for incorporation that emerged with the neoliberal critical juncture.
