Jelke Boesten
King's College London, International Development Institute, Faculty Member
- I am Professor of Gender and Development at King's College London. I am an interdisciplinary social scientist, draw... moreI am Professor of Gender and Development at King's College London.
I am an interdisciplinary social scientist, drawing on history, sociology, anthropology, politics, and the arts. My main interest lies in gender studies and in Latin America, in particular, Peru.
My newest project is a collaborative ESRC funded project looking at Visual and Embodied Methodologies (VEM) for the study of gender based violence.edit
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Women Resisting Violence is an illuminating and powerful account of the ways in which women and girls encounter violence and the bold initiatives they are developing to respond to it. Across Latin America, the number of femicides has... more
Women Resisting Violence is an illuminating and powerful account of the ways in which women and girls encounter violence and the bold initiatives they are developing to respond to it. Across Latin America, the number of femicides has grown at an alarming rate, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside has come a dramatic increase in domestic violence; loud demands over domestic workers’ rights; increased suffering from and fierce resistance to land-grabbing; increased urban violence; violent discrimination against migrants; and the relentless growth of state control over women’s reproductive rights. In Women Resisting Violence, case studies and interviews with women leaders from Latin America highlight the multiple and intersecting forms of gendered violence – where race, ethnicity, sexuality, and socio-economic status, and other markers combine to identify, discriminate against, and target women. Collecting a chain of voices, we focus on these women’s inspirational strategies for transforming their communities and influencing international laws. Their testimonies underline the importance of culture, commemoration, and the arts in consolidating and amplifying active resistance. Women’s voices are loud and clear: gendered and intersectional violence is rampant in Latin America. But women are pushing back. As the Mexican proverb boldly states, '‘They wanted to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.’
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1. Introduction 2. Sexual Violence in War 3. Sexual Violence and the Reproduction of Inequalities 4. Transitional Justice, Truths, and Narratives of Violence 5. Impunity 6. Peacetime Violence 7. Sexual Violence and Post-conflict Justice
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Global Health Series Editors: Professor Nana K. Poku, John Ferguson Professor, University of Bradford, UK and Dr Robert L. Ostergard, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno The benefits of globalization are... more
Global Health Series Editors: Professor Nana K. Poku, John Ferguson Professor, University of Bradford, UK and Dr Robert L. Ostergard, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno The benefits of globalization are potentially enormous, as a result of the ...
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This article examines the impact of methodological choices and collaborative processes in a complex study that delved into the intimate experiences of violence as narrated by conscripts to the Peruvian armed forces. Lurgio Gavilán is a... more
This article examines the impact of methodological choices and collaborative processes in a complex study that delved into the intimate experiences of violence as narrated by conscripts to the Peruvian armed forces. Lurgio Gavilán is a Peruvian anthropologist who strongly identifies with the interviewed veterans because of his own experiences, and Jelke Boesten is European feminist scholar with specific ideas about gender justice. Our collaboration allows us to raise fundamental questions around the limitations, validity, and ethics of knowledge production. The “debris” of this collaboration refers to the ethical questions that we may have previously failed to raise and address. Why did each of us embark on this research? Have our respective epistemological positions shifted due to the research? How has the nature of the collaboration, and our different positions of power therein, enlightened or concerned us? With what are we left, and what do we leave behind?
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This article explores how sex and violence were part of the everyday making of the soldier in the Peruvian armed forces during the internal armed conflict between 1980 and 2000. In-depth interviews with Peruvian veterans indicate the... more
This article explores how sex and violence were part of the everyday making of the soldier in the Peruvian armed forces during the internal armed conflict between 1980 and 2000. In-depth interviews with Peruvian veterans indicate the importance of sex and violence in soldiers' experience of becoming a combatant. The article analyzes the ambiguity in soldiers' narratives about sex and violence, coercion, and consent, and how they are implicated in both receiving and enacting sexualized violence. In particular, authors discuss veterans' accounts of collective experiences of sexualized hazing, abuse of women and girls, porn and prostitution, and references to gang rape. Soldiers, while in the army, experience intimacy through performative practices of sex and violence-which profoundly affect their interactions with one another-and the violence they perpetrate against enemy populations. These military intimacies, encouraged through institutional as well as cultural practices, help explain the prevalence of widespread sexual violence during the conflict.
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ABSTRACT Drawing on Andrea Durbach’s work around post-conflict transformative gender justice, this paper asks if criminal justice for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) can bring about transformative gender justice in Latin America.... more
ABSTRACT Drawing on Andrea Durbach’s work around post-conflict transformative gender justice, this paper asks if criminal justice for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) can bring about transformative gender justice in Latin America. The paper offers a comparative analysis of two judicial cases of conflict-related rape: the Sepur Zarco case in Guatemala and the Manta y Vilca case in Peru. The paper argues that domestic courts can have important transformative effects on victim-survivors, their families and on criminal justice practices for CRSV, when international standards for evidentiary practice are adhered to within the specific local context of the case in question, as was the case of Sepur Zarco. If international standards of evidentiary practice are not considered, it is much less likely that such cases are transformative, in fact, the process might do harm, as in the case of Manta y Vilca. Therefore, criminal justice processes are not by default transformative, but good practice can be important to transformative gender justice by providing redress for victim-survivors and affected communities, unsettling hierarchies and building accountability.
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Using the political conflict in Peru as a case study, the author argues that the thesis that rape is a weapon of war obscures other rape regimes during political conflict. These include rape as consumption, opportunistic rape, rape by... more
Using the political conflict in Peru as a case study, the author argues that the thesis that rape is a weapon of war obscures other rape regimes during political conflict. These include rape as consumption, opportunistic rape, rape by neighbors or family members, forced ...
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This article builds on long-term research looking at violence against women in both war and peace, and recently gathered data regarding persistent failure to use policy as a tool to reduce such violence in Peru. The research shows that... more
This article builds on long-term research looking at violence against women in both war and peace, and recently gathered data regarding persistent failure to use policy as a tool to reduce such violence in Peru. The research shows that impunity and tolerance for violence against women persists despite a state that has actively intervened to eradicate such violence for some twenty years. Including the state as perpetrator of violence in the analysis of impunity helps understand the failure of policy and legislation. Moreover, the notion of patriarchy allows us to look at a historically shaped male-centered and sexist organization of state and society, and helps understand the ambiguities in contemporary policy and legislation.
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This article looks at the extent to which Peruvian women have been able to use a legal and institutional framework designed to combat domestic violence, despite its significant defects, in order to transform the authoritarian forms of... more
This article looks at the extent to which Peruvian women have been able to use a legal and institutional framework designed to combat domestic violence, despite its significant defects, in order to transform the authoritarian forms of communication that prevail in their families, organisations, and communities. Using in-depth interviews with women in Lima, Huancavelica and Ayacucho, the article suggests that while democratisation from above may often result in limited transformations in many policy areas, we must be attentive to the way in which democratisation can be appropriated, transformed and reinvigorated from below.
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Research Interests: Christianity, Faith Based Organizations, Developing Countries, Faith, Islam, and 15 moreHealth Policy, Medicine, Prevention, HIV, Policy Process, Humans, Organizations, Health Policy and Planning, Organizational Policy, Implementation, Public Administration and Policy, Condom, Faith Based Organization, Interviews as topic, and HIV infections
Research Interests: Business, Program Evaluation, Economics, Poverty, Primary Health Care, and 15 moreCase Studies, Developing Countries, Health, Medicine, HIV, Humans, Psychological Intervention, Patients, Harm, Interventions, Community Based Mental Health Services, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Delivery of Health Care, population groups, and Community health services
Chapter 3 Transactable Sex and Unsafe Practices: Gender and Sex when Living with HIV in Tanzania Jelke Boesten In this chapter, I explore how the sexual behavior of women and men changes after they learn of their HIV-positive status.... more
Chapter 3 Transactable Sex and Unsafe Practices: Gender and Sex when Living with HIV in Tanzania Jelke Boesten In this chapter, I explore how the sexual behavior of women and men changes after they learn of their HIV-positive status. Conventional biomedical approaches ...
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... WHAT WORKS FOR THE POOR? Frances Cleaver, Tom Franks, Jelke Boesten, Angela Kiire June 2005 ... Page 2. WATER GOVERNANCE AND POVERTY: WHAT WORKS FOR THE POOR? Frances Cleaver, Tom Franks, Jelke Boesten, Angela Kiire June 2005 Contents... more
... WHAT WORKS FOR THE POOR? Frances Cleaver, Tom Franks, Jelke Boesten, Angela Kiire June 2005 ... Page 2. WATER GOVERNANCE AND POVERTY: WHAT WORKS FOR THE POOR? Frances Cleaver, Tom Franks, Jelke Boesten, Angela Kiire June 2005 Contents ...
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Research Interests: Latin American Studies, Gender Studies, Performing Arts, Human Rights, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 14 morePolitical Violence and Terrorism, Memory Studies, Peruvian History, Literatura Latinoamericana, Derechos Humanos, Artes, Academic Performance, Antropología, Ciencias Sociales, Historia del Perú, Desaparición Forzada De Personas, justicia transicional y Derechos Humanos, Sendero Luminoso, and Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades
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... Barrantes, 'Mujeres crean Red Nacional'. View all notes. The racist views that coastal, mainly urban, mestizo soldiers fighting terrorism in the Andes held towards the local population aided sexual... more
... Barrantes, 'Mujeres crean Red Nacional'. View all notes. The racist views that coastal, mainly urban, mestizo soldiers fighting terrorism in the Andes held towards the local population aided sexual violence against indigenous women. ...
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This volume provides a critical and comprehensive assessment of the relationship between gender, inequality and vulnerability to HIV infection and AIDS. It brings together contributions from scholars and practitioners from across the... more
This volume provides a critical and comprehensive assessment of the relationship between gender, inequality and vulnerability to HIV infection and AIDS. It brings together contributions from scholars and practitioners from across the world to explore the relevance of these core concepts to their understanding of the AIDS crisis and the politics of effective response. The chapters in Gender and HIV/AIDS examine current thinking about sexuality, masculinity, gender roles, and culture in relation to HIV/AIDS and global politics of intervention and regulation. In doing so, the volume maps the intellectual and empirical dimensions of a global debate concerning the gendered contours of an epidemic imbedded in the social relations and material realities of societies at large. The normative aspiration of the volume is to stress the enormity and complexity of the relationship between gender inequalities, sexuality and HIV and AIDS, and the impact this has on the lives of affected and infecte...
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This report responds to a need, three years into the new strategy and action plan, to better understand how policy and practice against sexual harassment at King’s College London is now working and what still has to be done to effectively... more
This report responds to a need, three years into the new strategy and action plan, to better understand how policy and practice against sexual harassment at King’s College London is now working and what still has to be done to effectively tackle the issues. Based on a review of policies, internal and external context, and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders across the institution, the study highlights the factors that influence the university’s response to sexual harassment and violence.
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Sexual violence against minors is a major problem in Latin America. Children are mostly at risk in their own homes, while adolescents are at risk in their homes but also in the wider community (for instance, schools or boyfriends).... more
Sexual violence against minors is a major problem in Latin America. Children are mostly at risk in their own homes, while adolescents are at risk in their homes but also in the wider community (for instance, schools or boyfriends). However, data is very limited due to silence around the issue. Latin America is highly patriarchal, is riven by inequalities within and between social groups, and has weak judicial institutions; these are all factors that impact on gender based violence. However, governments in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Paraguay are starting to see children as individuals with rights, rather than minors under the sole authority of fathers, and are designing laws and agencies to protect those rights. Civil society in the meantime is increasingly mobilising against violence against women, including violence against girls, two forms of violence that go hand in hand, at a time when the problem is increasingly recognised and acted upon globally. This report outlines possibilities for the EU to support these recent developments and initiatives to end violence against minors via the establishment of national action plans, in collaboration with national, regional and global partners.
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Art has a vital role to play in understanding exclusion, stigmatisation and violence. Art & Exclusions is an exhibition that presents the work of four artist/researcher collaborations at King’s College London; between a poet, a visual... more
Art has a vital role to play in understanding exclusion, stigmatisation and violence. Art & Exclusions is an exhibition that presents the work of four artist/researcher collaborations at King’s College London; between a poet, a visual artist, an actor and playwright, an animation artist, and four social scientists working on questions of exclusion, stigmatisation, marginalisation, conflict and violence in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy (SSPP). This catalogue outlines the four contributions in the exhibition. These collaborations, held at the Somerset House Studios in July 2019, are part of the ‘VEM+’ project. Drawing on the emerging VEM Network (Visual, Embodied and Art-based Methodologies in the social sciences), the VEM+ Collaborations is a cross-departmental project engaging artists and academics in an innovative dialogue about methodological practices in the arts and social sciences, moving beyond viewing culture as a site through which more standard social science research methods can be applied or as a means to illustrate social science research. Instead, these collaborations explore how visual, embodied and arts-based methodologies might transform research practices in social science, interrogating the potential of such methodologies to generate new, insightful and ultimately emancipatory knowledge for both the researcher and the researched, particularly in the study of sensitive issues. Through video, film, performance, poetry, photography, and live events, the exhibition takes you through the collaborative process between the four researchers and artists, interrogating the methodological bridges created through these collaborations. It also invites you to discover some of the artistic forms and artwork that have emerged from this work. Finally, through a series of public events, this exhibition also engages more deeply with each set of collaborative process, presenting art-research works to diverse audiences, and invites you to discover the work of social scientists and artists within and outside of King’s College London who use visual, embodied and art-based methodologies in the study of sensitive issues.
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This report responds to a need, three years into the new strategy and action plan, to better understand how policy and practice against sexual harassment at King’s College London is now working and what still has to be done to effectively... more
This report responds to a need, three years into the new strategy and action plan, to better understand how policy and practice against sexual harassment at King’s College London is now working and what still has to be done to effectively tackle the issues. Based on a review of policies, internal and external context, and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders across the institution, the study highlights the factors that influence the university’s response to sexual harassment and violence.
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Research Interests: Social Networks, Violence, Stigma, HIV/AIDS policy, HIV, and 3 moreCitizenship, AIDS stigma, and AIDS Activism
Researchers on the Non-Governmental Public Action research programme work with advocacy networks, peace groups, campaigns and coalitions, trade unions, peace-building groups, rights-based groups, social movements and faith-based groups to... more
Researchers on the Non-Governmental Public Action research programme work with advocacy networks, peace groups, campaigns and coalitions, trade unions, peace-building groups, rights-based groups, social movements and faith-based groups to understand the impact ...
1 This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. ... The purpose of this research is to identify the... more
1 This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. ... The purpose of this research is to identify the potential and constraints of community-driven ...
KNAW Narcis. Back to search results. Publication Negotiating womanhood, reproducing inequality. Women and social politics in Peru. (2004). Pagina-navigatie: Main. Title, Negotiating womanhood, reproducing inequality. Women and social... more
KNAW Narcis. Back to search results. Publication Negotiating womanhood, reproducing inequality. Women and social politics in Peru. (2004). Pagina-navigatie: Main. Title, Negotiating womanhood, reproducing inequality. Women and social politics in Peru. Author, Boesten, J. ...
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Within current neo-liberal approaches to development, models of community-driven development assume that community-based workers (CBWs) are key actors in improved and accessible service delivery. We argue that use of CBWs is... more
Within current neo-liberal approaches to development, models of community-driven development assume that community-based workers (CBWs) are key actors in improved and accessible service delivery. We argue that use of CBWs is under-theorised and seems to be based largely ...
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yesThis study focuses on a widely promoted belief that community-driven and community-based interventions for development are not only cost-effective, but also just and democratic. In particular, this study examines community-based... more
yesThis study focuses on a widely promoted belief that community-driven and community-based interventions for development are not only cost-effective, but also just and democratic. In particular, this study examines community-based initiatives with regard to HIV/AIDS in one Tanzanian roadside town. The interventions I discuss suggest that increased community participation does not automatically lead to more equitable access to services, to the empowerment of the poor, or even to the planned service delivery at all. Dependence on local volunteers with multiple motives and interests can hamper the relationship between provider and beneficiary. A concern for minimal state involvement and maximum decentralisation can easily lead to institutional abandonment, and trust in an undefined `community¿ can prevent rather than encourage coordination at community-level. As I discuss below, such factors can result not only in a service not being delivered, but can also readily lead to increased l...
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As AIDS in the Twenty-first Century clearly outlines, AIDS is a major global problem with impacts and outcomes that are still unpredictable. Despite the seemingly increased concern about AIDS, especially with regard to sub-Saharan Africa,... more
As AIDS in the Twenty-first Century clearly outlines, AIDS is a major global problem with impacts and outcomes that are still unpredictable. Despite the seemingly increased concern about AIDS, especially with regard to sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to counter its devastation have ...
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... Reseñas/Book Reviews - Limpias y modernas. Género, hygiene y cultura en la Lima del Novecientos. Autores: Jelke Boesten, Maria Emma Mannarelli; Localización: Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, ISSN 0924-0608,... more
... Reseñas/Book Reviews - Limpias y modernas. Género, hygiene y cultura en la Lima del Novecientos. Autores: Jelke Boesten, Maria Emma Mannarelli; Localización: Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, ISSN 0924-0608, Nº 73, 2002 , pags. 149-150. ...
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... Customizing Indigeneity: Path to a Visionary Politics in Peru - by Green, Shane. Jelke Boesten. Article first published online: 2 SEP 2011. DOI: 10.1111/j.1470-9856.2011.00577.x. ... More content like this. Find more content: like... more
... Customizing Indigeneity: Path to a Visionary Politics in Peru - by Green, Shane. Jelke Boesten. Article first published online: 2 SEP 2011. DOI: 10.1111/j.1470-9856.2011.00577.x. ... More content like this. Find more content: like this article. Find more content written by: Jelke Boesten ...
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... State: The Writing on the Body of Murdered Women 70 angélica cházaro, jennifer ... PART III: NEW CITIZENSHIP PRACTICES Testimonio: Rosa Franco 273 alicia schmidt camacho Ciudadana X ... hansen Feminicidio: Making the Most of an... more
... State: The Writing on the Body of Murdered Women 70 angélica cházaro, jennifer ... PART III: NEW CITIZENSHIP PRACTICES Testimonio: Rosa Franco 273 alicia schmidt camacho Ciudadana X ... hansen Feminicidio: Making the Most of an ''Empowered Term''290 melissa w. wright ...
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women’s movement; and third, their negotiations of leadership positions in the Islamist movements’ (p. 31). After the 2003 terror attack on Casablanca and the ‘Moroccan Patriot Act’, Islamist women kept a low profile. They also created... more
women’s movement; and third, their negotiations of leadership positions in the Islamist movements’ (p. 31). After the 2003 terror attack on Casablanca and the ‘Moroccan Patriot Act’, Islamist women kept a low profile. They also created new spaces to provide women of differing social and economic backgrounds with basic education, and to teach them about their Islamic and feminist legacy. Both Islamist women and feminists faced a public sphere in which the war on terror was foremost and women’s issues were not a high priority. In a concluding chapter, Salime coins the term ‘subversive veiling’ for women who wear a loose head scarf revealing part of their hair, tight jeans, and make-up. She also proposes a new set of expressions to describe trends that she has observed: ‘assertive feminism’ for women who insist on calling themselves feminists despite its western association; ‘difference feminism’ for those who advocate a ‘different and equal’ approach to gender; and ‘distant feminism’ for those who reject feminism as a term yet adopt its politics. Salime places her findings in the context of global developments. Neo-liberalism imposed on Morocco (1983–1994) opened spaces for voluntary organizations, included political reforms, and prompted state adoption of human rights discourse. Feminist groups enhanced the image of the country in international forums, gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the government. Another global influence was the rise of the Islamic religious feminist movement that provided a progressive ideology to reconcile Islam and women’s rights as well as international networks. Finally, the terror attack on Casablanca placed Morocco firmly in the War on Terror. Another important framework that Salime brings to her study is Moroccan state feminism. It began in 1992 when King Hassan addressed the issue of women’s rights in a speech on national television and came to fruition under Mohammed VI. The new king committed himself to women’s rights, and launched the National Plan of Action for the Integration of Women in Development. He appointed a number of women to influential and visible posts, decreed a parliamentary quota for women, and established a Ministry of Women. The highpoint of this policy was the adoption of the most progressive family status law in the Arab world in 2004. Salime’s outstanding book will be required reading for students and scholars of modern and contemporary Morocco, for those studying gender activism in the Islamist movements, and for those who study feminism from a global perspective. Even if all of the terminology she suggests is not adopted, many of her important ideas undoubtedly will be.
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Gender issues are increasingly perceived as important in the global governance of war and security. Analysts highlight the centrality of sexual violence in war as one of the main characteristics of contemporary conflict, or ‘new wars’,... more
Gender issues are increasingly perceived as important in the global governance of war and security. Analysts highlight the centrality of sexual violence in war as one of the main characteristics of contemporary conflict, or ‘new wars’, while every so often stories of mass rape emerge from the rubble of current or past wars. In addition, the global women’s movement has long lobbied for attention to women’s differentiated experiences of war and the need for their inclusion in post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The body of feminist literature on these issues is simultaneously growing, showing that these processes are necessary, arduous, slow and far from finished. Both the books here discussed draw on and contribute to this literature. Carol Harrington looks at how sexual violence has become ‘politicized’ in the last century and a half or so. She provides a detailed account, largely based on secondary literature, of how discourses and practices of international governance around sexual violence in contexts of conflict have served different political purposes and are framed differently at different times. Rape, and sexual violence more generally, is clearly a form of violence permeated with meanings that are reflections of both political processes related to conflicts and of gender ideologies. Harrington moves from the policing of sex as a mechanism to control the nature and size of populations in a context of emerging discourses of abolitionism, to the medicalization of rape as a result of psychosocial understandings of trauma and victimhood. In doing so, Harrington highlights how changing ideas of what sexual violence is, what it does, and what it means are reflected in international discourses around the global governance of war and security.
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that he ‘envisioned a Guatemala in which a unifying nationalism could coexist with diverse local cultures and identities’ (p. ). That cause was seriously set back by the regime change, which left the IIN destroyed. Goubaud himself... more
that he ‘envisioned a Guatemala in which a unifying nationalism could coexist with diverse local cultures and identities’ (p. ). That cause was seriously set back by the regime change, which left the IIN destroyed. Goubaud himself was already dead, having died under still confusing circumstances in . Finally, After the Coup ends with Victor D. Montejo’s conference keynote address comparing the revolution of and the Peace Accords of , which ended Guatemala’s three decades of armed political conflict. Ironically, on the very day of his address Montejo was fired from his position in the cabinet of President Oscar Berger.
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J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 39 (2007). doi:10.1017/S0022216X0700274X Kristin Norget, Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. xii+319, $67.50, $27.50 pb; £43.50,... more
J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 39 (2007). doi:10.1017/S0022216X0700274X Kristin Norget, Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. xii+319, $67.50, $27.50 pb; £43.50, £18.00 pb. Death is certainly a ...
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J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 38 (2006). doi:10.1017/S0022216X05210672 Jon C. Lohse and Fred Valdez, Jr. (eds.), Ancient Maya Commoners (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004), pp. viii+299, $45.00, hb. The goal of the editors of Ancient Maya... more
J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 38 (2006). doi:10.1017/S0022216X05210672 Jon C. Lohse and Fred Valdez, Jr. (eds.), Ancient Maya Commoners (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004), pp. viii+299, $45.00, hb. The goal of the editors of Ancient Maya Commoners is to 'bring ...
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heritage’, which had little to do with the real participation of the indigenous peoples in the economy, with their actual political participation as ‘Indians’ in the making of the Peruvian state, or with the cultural apportionments (food,... more
heritage’, which had little to do with the real participation of the indigenous peoples in the economy, with their actual political participation as ‘Indians’ in the making of the Peruvian state, or with the cultural apportionments (food, music, communal organisation, and so on). In Drinot’s analysis, the ‘Indian’ remains as a generic personage to whom others referred, not a differentiated, acting group of people. I found myself wondering whether in all the documentation Drinot reviewed there were any ‘Indians’ mentioned beyond derogatory references. There was a large indigenous, salaried labour force in Peru’s mines. Did they have any access to what the Peruvian state was willing to offer? What was the level of discussion concerning labour and labour demands between the Peruvian state and foreign capital, particularly in mining activities? How did workers’ salaries compare, say, between Indian mine workers in Cerro de Pasco and textile workers on the coast? Or maybe it would be worth asking ourselves how much the ‘labor state’ actually knew about labour and labour conditions. If most projects failed miserably (or at least did not benefit the targeted social group), can it be assumed that the state’s knowledge before creating the workers’ districts or establishing the eateries or the Seguro Social was close to nil? Or that it did not really care, in spite of its rhetoric and civilising anxieties? Maybe all these questions could be summarised in one critique of the book, namely the absence of a definition of who the ‘workers’ actually were. Aside from being ‘statedefined dependent manual labor in given locations’, we learn very little about who they were, what they did, or even how they reacted to the labour state’s intentions and actions. I almost feel there is a second part of the book missing, but maybe Drinot has a second volume in mind, in which the words ‘race’ and ‘workers’ in his title get fullfledged attention. Peru’s working class was relatively small, but, for instance, would evidence from families be representative of the workers’ housing conditions in (p. )? As a brief side note, ‘The Making of the Peruvian State’ has become such an overarching concept/title that it is beginning to lose its historical meaning. It seems that now we can use the concept to describe any time period we choose. It is, for sure, an ongoing process; however, each ‘making of a state’ encompasses very distinct phases but is not the making of the state. Drinot’s would be the ‘phase of the labour state’, other authors’ would be the ‘phase of the independent state’, or the ‘phase of the warrior state’ ... the ‘making of the state’ should not look only at labour relations, or a war scenario, or a guerrilla movement, and, most certainly, it should not be a topdown reading of the historical record. Where has this cherished ‘everyday state formation’ idea gone? Overall, Paulo Drinot’s book is a fine contribution on a period of Peruvian history that we still know too little about; it is also a nice read, although it could be an even better read if the reiterations had been fewer.
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The authors state a modest aim: explaining South Africa's role in the Burundi peace process to a South African audience, which knows little about Burundi. I dis-agree with them when say that their book 'is unlikely to satisfy... more
The authors state a modest aim: explaining South Africa's role in the Burundi peace process to a South African audience, which knows little about Burundi. I dis-agree with them when say that their book 'is unlikely to satisfy regional special-ists'; to the contrary, it is a very ...
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Sexual violence in conflict has received increased public attention since the wars in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda in the early 1990s. Research and activism surrounding rape in war has helped redefine sexual violence: once... more
Sexual violence in conflict has received increased public attention since the wars in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda in the early 1990s. Research and activism surrounding rape in war has helped redefine sexual violence: once perceived as collateral to armed conflicts, rape is now widely understood to be a “weapon of war.” The wars in Bosnia and Rwanda gave traction to the idea that rape could be used as an effective strategy to intimidate population groups, fragment and disintegrate enemy communities, and even change the ethnic composition of groups by deliberate strategies of impregnation and forced pregnancies. The subsequent prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia succeeded in redefining the legal understandings of sexual violence: previously understood as a trivial addon to the Geneva Convention, sexual violence in wartime is now perceived as a war crime, an act of genocide, and a crime against humanity.
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Note on Language Introduction Chapter 1. The Formation of a New Middle Class Chapter 2. The Intimate Politics of New Middle Classes in Sacaba Chapter 3. Middling Sacabans Respond to Evo and MAS Chapter 4. Condemning Clientelism Chapter 5.... more
Note on Language Introduction Chapter 1. The Formation of a New Middle Class Chapter 2. The Intimate Politics of New Middle Classes in Sacaba Chapter 3. Middling Sacabans Respond to Evo and MAS Chapter 4. Condemning Clientelism Chapter 5. Laments of Betrayal Chapter 6. Middle Classes and Debates over the Definition of Community Conclusion Notes Family Tree of Dona Saturnina Ramirez Glossary Bibliography Index Acknowledgments
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for instance, by the Austrian People’s party with the far right FPÖ. This is a major question that still needs to be addressed. A second crucial aspect of the book is linked to the role of the crises that Levitsky and Ziblatt consider as... more
for instance, by the Austrian People’s party with the far right FPÖ. This is a major question that still needs to be addressed. A second crucial aspect of the book is linked to the role of the crises that Levitsky and Ziblatt consider as critical junctures for the authoritarian turn, in particular security crises such as terrorist attacks and political violence. This issue deserves a thorough examination, because a crisis could also lead to the reinforcement of democracy, as a reaction. Under what conditions, then, does a crisis become a catalyst for autocratisation or democratic renewal? It seems that the configuration of other agency-related and structural conditions should be assessed in order to have a more comprehensive picture. In conclusion, despite appearances, this is not a book about Donald Trump. On the contrary, the most interesting part of the work deals with the long-term and general evolution of US democracy, rather than the short-term, recent political events. Before (and beyond) Trump, the real threat to American democracy lies in the heavy polarisation of society as a consequence of the rise of inequalities. The authors write that ‘parties become wedded to incompatible worldviews (...) especially when their members are so socially segregated that they rarely interact’ (p. 116). So, look at the wood (of inequalities) and forget the (orange) tree. This is a powerful message that echoes the words of Charles Tilly (2007) on de-democratisation, when he warned about the risk that differences in ethnicity, gender, race, wealth, or religion ‘translate directly into categorical differences in political rights and obligations’ (2007, p. 75), paving the way to autocracy. Yet, the most worrying message of the book still is that authoritarian leaders always have and always will be there. The solution then lies in weakening their political and economic breeding ground, by any political means possible.