ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement) and the social protests that took place in Brazil in 2013 stressing the propositional component of the social movements studied and the construction of institutional alternatives. The author indicates the limitations of a conventional sociology of social movements based on an entrepreneurship of contestation, and which discards any profound reflection on the proposals of a possible new institutional configuration. The author presents two case studies of cities in Brazil that have adopted free public transportation. In these cases, the sociology of possibilities is based on in-depth analysis of the conditions for realizing an alternative, highlighting three dimensions: The desirability, viability and attainability of a free public transport system.