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According to UN-Habitat (2007: 337), Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world. Over three-quarters of its population resided in cities at the turn of the 21st century, a proportion that is estimated to rise to almost 85 per... more
According to UN-Habitat (2007: 337), Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world. Over three-quarters of its population resided in cities at the turn of the 21st century, a proportion that is estimated to rise to almost 85 per cent by 2030. By comparison, just over 36 and 37 per cent of the populations of Africa and Asia were urban dwellers in 2000. In many ways, this state of affairs is not surprising. Urbanization and urban culture have long been features of the Latin American panorama, with the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs — to name but the best-known pre-Columbian societies — all associated with the construction of large urban centres, even if none of these societies were urban per se (see Hardoy 1973).1 Furthermore, Iberian colonialism — which held sway over the region for over three hundred years — was administered by means of a widespread network of cities from which power and control were projected, both materially and symbolically (see Hoberman and Socolow 1986). At the same time, however, the region’s contemporary urban condition is very much a consequence of 20th-century developments: ‘in 1900, most Latin Americans lived in the countryside and only three cities had more than half a million inhabitants’ (Gilbert 1994: 25). Industrialization and the introduction of capitalist modes of production in rural areas from the 1930s onwards triggered a process of concentrated urbanization that within 70 years had led to a majority of the societies in the region crossing the urban threshold (Valladares and Prates Coelho 1995), as well as the emergence of over forty cities with more than one million inhabitants (Angotti 1995: 14).
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The starting premise of this volume was the contention that there exists a real need for Latin American urban development research to engage with cities in a more systemic manner than is currently the case. The dominant discourse about... more
The starting premise of this volume was the contention that there exists a real need for Latin American urban development research to engage with cities in a more systemic manner than is currently the case. The dominant discourse about urban contexts in the region sees cities principally as fragmented social spaces, and this has arguably led to something of an intellectual ‘impasse’. In particular, it promotes fundamentally dystopian visions of both the nature and potential developmental role of cities in Latin America. However, as all of the contributions to this volume highlight in a range of different ways, even in the most fractured of cities disparate locales, networks, and processes are inevitably relationally connected to each other, and understanding this is critical in order to properly get to grips with contemporary Latin American urban dynamics. Rodgers’ contribution, for example, highlights how socio-spatial segregation in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires can be fundamentally linked to its seemingly anti-thesis, participatory democracy, while Navarro’s chapter explores the integration between the illegal drugs market and the legal urban real estate market in Bolivian cities.
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Aunque su naturaleza puede variar, y la nocion de ilicitud tambien puede cambiar con el tiempo, es claro que las actividades economicas ilicitas han constituido durante mucho tiempo una realidad generalizada. Hay muchas razones para esto,... more
Aunque su naturaleza puede variar, y la nocion de ilicitud tambien puede cambiar con el tiempo, es claro que las actividades economicas ilicitas han constituido durante mucho tiempo una realidad generalizada. Hay muchas razones para esto, que van desde las oportunidades que ofrecen hasta las motivaciones sociales y culturales, asi como -en la actualidad- las transformaciones geopoliticas globales. La produccion y el trafico de drogas, que se encuentran entre las actividades economicas ilicitas mas emblematicas e importantes, ilustran esto muy bien.
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While many anthropologists have previously reflected on longitudinal ethnography— for example distinguishing between different categories of longitudinal research, including the ethnographic revisit, either by the same or another... more
While many anthropologists have previously reflected on longitudinal ethnography— for example distinguishing between different categories of longitudinal research, including the ethnographic revisit, either by the same or another researcher, diachronic research projects, involving continuous and sustained engagement over time, or so-called large-scale or multigenerational projects, among others—there has been little reflection on the way particular topics of research might impact on the longitudinal research process. In particular, we argue here that the stakes of longitudinal ethnographic research come to the fore particularly starkly in relation to studies of violence. More specifically, longitudinality potentially both enhances certain risks inherent to carrying out research on violence, while also offering unique opportunities for better understanding the phenomenon more reflexively.
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There exists a longstanding association between youth and revolution, partly due to the assumption that the politics of the former are inherently “prefigurative” in nature. Youth politics can often actually be quite conservative, however,... more
There exists a longstanding association between youth and revolution, partly due to the assumption that the politics of the former are inherently “prefigurative” in nature. Youth politics can often actually be quite conservative, however, as can be observed in contemporary Nicaragua, where rather than attempting to “change the world” in the way that previous militant youth generations were famously associated with, current Sandinista youth activists engage primarily in forms of neo-patrimonial clientelism. At the same time, the evolving experience of everyday political action by university educated youth in Uttar Pradesh, India highlights how economic endeavours can, under certain circumstances, become a form of politics, often of a more transformative variety than classic forms of collective mobilization. The comparison of Nicaragua and India thus highlights the critical importance of considering the wider environment within which youth mobilize and take action in order to understand how and why particular political “ontologics” emerge.
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Urban contexts are widely conceived as inherently violent due to their putatively disorderly nature. Such a conception of violence effectively conceives it as singular and fundamentally destructive, neither of which necessarily hold... more
Urban contexts are widely conceived as inherently violent due to their putatively disorderly nature. Such a conception of violence effectively conceives it as singular and fundamentally destructive, neither of which necessarily hold universally true. Drawing on Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’ and the life history of Bismarck, a former gang member turned drug dealer turned property entrepreneur living in a poor neighbourhood in Managua, Nicaragua, this article highlights how different forms of urban violence interrelate with each other over time, and how they shape an individual’s urban experience and environment. In doing so, it underscores how urban violence is not a singular phenomenon, how it intertwines with a range of urban social processes, and how it is often socially constitutive rather than destructive. Seen from this perspective, the key question to ask is less to what extent violence is a hallmark of urban contexts but rather how different articulations of violence emer...
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Part 1: Introduction 1. Popular Representations of Development David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers, and Michael Woolcock Part 2: Literature and Fiction 2. The Fiction of Development: Literary Representation as a Source of Authoritative Knowledge... more
Part 1: Introduction 1. Popular Representations of Development David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers, and Michael Woolcock Part 2: Literature and Fiction 2. The Fiction of Development: Literary Representation as a Source of Authoritative Knowledge David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers, and Michael Woolcock3. Notes on Teaching International Studies With Novels: 'Hard Times', 'Half of a Yellow Sun' and 'The Quiet American' John Harriss 4. Considering 'Pedagogical' Fictions and Metanarratives of Development: 1 World Manga Veronica Davidov Part 3: Media and Television 5. More News is Bad News: Why Studies of 'the Public Faces of Development' and 'Media and Morality' should be concerned with reality TV programmes Martin Scott 6. 'Hidden in Plan Sight': Baltimore, The Wire and the politics of under-development in urban America Simon Parker Part 4: Film 7. The Projection of Development: Cinematic Representation as An(other) Source of Authoritative of Knowledge? Simon Parker 8. Affective Histories: Imagining Poverty in Popular Indian Cinema Esha Shah Part 5: Public Campaigns 9. Visual Representations of Development: The Empire Marketing Board Poster Campaign 1926-1933 Uma Kothari 10. Band Aid Reconsidered: Sentimental Cultures and Populist Humanitarianism Cheryl Lousley Part 6: New Media 11. Blogs + Twitter = Change? Discursive Reproduction of Global Governance and the Limits of Social Media Tobias Denskus and Daniel E. Esser 12. Followme.intdev.com: International Development in the Blogosphere Ryann Manning Part 7: Conclusion 13. Conclusion: Popular Representations of Development - Taking Stock, Moving Forward David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers, and Michael Woolcock
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Como lo resaltan Steven Levitt y Stephen Dubner (2005, p. 103) en su famoso libro Freakonomics, existen numerosos mitos e ideas equivocadas sobre los beneficios del tráfico de drogas. En su capítulo jocosamente intitulado “¿Por qué los... more
Como lo resaltan Steven Levitt y Stephen Dubner (2005, p. 103) en su famoso libro Freakonomics, existen numerosos mitos e ideas equivocadas sobre los beneficios del tráfico de drogas. En su capítulo jocosamente intitulado “¿Por qué los expendedores de drogas viven todavía con sus mamás?”, por ejemplo, describen cómo, contrariamente a lo que suele pensarse, la gran mayoría de los involucrados en el tráfico de drogas en Estados Unidos ganan “menos del salario mínimo”, y únicamente los jefes de las bandas obtienen ganancias significativas. Si bien este no es necesariamente el caso en todo el mundo —ver Rodgers (2017a)—, no hay duda de que los beneficios del tráfico de drogas se distribuyen de manera muy desigual, y que son altamente contingentes y volátiles, lo cual puede generar economías políticas muy particulares.
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ABSTRACT
Research Interests: Latin American Studies, Juvenile Delinquency, Delinquency and Gangs, Latin America, Estudios sobre Violencia y Conflicto, and 15 moreJuventud, Antropología, Antropologia Urbana, Latinoamerica, América Latina, Gangs, Drogas, Mano Dura, Gang suppression, Antropología de la violencia, Costos del crimen y la violencia, Delincuencia, Las pandillas en El Salvador, Crimen Organizado, and Impacto De Las Pandillas
ABSTRACT
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ABSTRACTDrawing on longitudinal ethnographic research carried out over two-and-a-half decades in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighborhood in Managua, Nicaragua, this article explores how legal and illegal economic activities are... more
ABSTRACTDrawing on longitudinal ethnographic research carried out over two-and-a-half decades in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighborhood in Managua, Nicaragua, this article explores how legal and illegal economic activities are socially legitimized, and more specifically, how certain illegal economic activities can end up being seen as legitimate, and certain legal ones perceived as illegitimate. The first part of the article explores the variable morality surrounding different types of criminal activities that local gang members engaged in during the 1990s and 2000s. The second part considers my experiences running a local market stall, describing the contrasting reactions I faced when I resorted to first legal, and then illegal, strategies to boost my revenue levels. Taken together, these examples showcase how the social legitimization of an economic activity has less to do with whether it is legal or illegal, but rather the future aspirations it embodies.
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Gangs are often associated with violence and chaos, but they can also be institutional vectors for the imposition of particular forms of social order, based on their members’ status as locally hegemonic “violence experts”. This “gang... more
Gangs are often associated with violence and chaos, but they can also be institutional vectors for the imposition of particular forms of social order, based on their members’ status as locally hegemonic “violence experts”. This “gang governance” is often exclusive and volatile, however, and its underlying logic can easily change. Instances of the latter are frequently connected to generational turnovers within gangs. An obvious question in this regard is how old and new gang members interact with each other, especially in circumstances where the rules and norms upheld by the latter become detrimental to the former. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighbourhood in Managua, Nicaragua, this article explores the conflicts that emerged between different generations of gang members following the gang’s transformation from a vigilante self-defence group to a predatory drug-dealing organisation, and what these might mean for the notion of...
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« Tous les grands evenements et personnages historiques se repetent pour ainsi dire deux fois […] la premiere fois comme tragedie, la seconde fois comme farce. »Karl Marx, Le 18 Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte (1851) 19 avril 2018 : une... more
« Tous les grands evenements et personnages historiques se repetent pour ainsi dire deux fois […] la premiere fois comme tragedie, la seconde fois comme farce. »Karl Marx, Le 18 Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte (1851) 19 avril 2018 : une manifestation contre la reforme des retraites, largement composee d’etudiants des universites de Managua, la capitale du Nicaragua, est reprimee dans le sang. La vague de confrontations qui suit a travers tout le pays fera plus de soixante morts en cinq jours. La ...
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Popular representations of development need to be taken seriously (though not uncritically) as sources of authoritative knowledge, not least because they are how most people in the global north (and elsewhere) encounter development... more
Popular representations of development need to be taken seriously (though not uncritically) as sources of authoritative knowledge, not least because they are how most people in the global north (and elsewhere) encounter development issues. To this end, this paper presents three clusters of films on development: those providing uniquely instructive insights, those unhelpfully eliding and simplifying complex processes, and those that, with the benefit of historical hindsight, usefully convey a sense of the prevailing assumptions that guided and interpreted the efficacy of interventions (whether of a military, diplomatic or humanitarian nature) at a particular time and place. The authors argue that the commercial and technical imperatives governing the production of contemporary films, and popular films in particular, generate a highly variable capacity to accurately render key issues in development, and thereby heighten their potential to both illuminate and obscure those issues. This...
Although the last of the civil wars that plagued Central America during the 1970s and 1980s was formally brought to an end in 1996, violence has continued to affect the region unabated into the 21 century. It has been widely contended,... more
Although the last of the civil wars that plagued Central America during the 1970s and 1980s was formally brought to an end in 1996, violence has continued to affect the region unabated into the 21 century. It has been widely contended, however, that there has been a fundamental shift in the political economy of this brutality, which according to various commentators now occurs predominantly in the more prosaic form of crime and delinquency rather than ideologically-motivated political violence. Drawing on the specific example of Nicaragua, this paper suggests that the alteration of the landscape of conflict in Central America can be interpreted differently, as a geographical transition from ‘peasant wars’ (Wolf, 1969) to ‘urban wars’ (Beall, 2006). The underlying nature of this new geography of violence is then explored, first theoretically and then empirically. Although past and present forms of brutality initially seem very different, present-day urban violence can in fact be seen...
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estud. socio-jurid., bogota (colombia), 15(1) The concept of ‘citizen security’ came to prominence across Latin America during the late 1990s, concurrent with a growing perception that the region was becoming increasingly beset by rising... more
estud. socio-jurid., bogota (colombia), 15(1) The concept of ‘citizen security’ came to prominence across Latin America during the late 1990s, concurrent with a growing perception that the region was becoming increasingly beset by rising crime and insecurity, and that this new wave of violence differed from prior hegemonic forms in that it did not threaten states or governments, but principally affected the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. The approach “mark[ed] a sharp departure from traditional policies of state or national security” by focusing on quality of life and human dignity, and “the re-conceptualised social and political keyword of citizen security was encoded with other concepts of freedom and universal rights, and positioned to represent the concrete as well as intangible elements of the public good”, as Marquardt points out. In other words, the concept projected security as “a cultural construct involving an equalitarian form of sociability, an environment freely s...
