América Latina: Interrogantes y Perspectivas (Latin America: Interrogations and Perspectives)

Edited by Jaime Llambías Wolff

(York University Bookstore, 2012)

The world is getting smaller all the time, and yet more difficult to comprehend... These are embryonic times of profound change, offering opportunities for positive change. How does the global context effect Latin Americans? What is the place of Latin America in the 21st Century? What challenges must it confront? This book critically, and from a plurailty of perspectives, investigates a variety of themes relagted to the region's future. The contributors offer insights into the pressing issues confronting this evemore interdependent region.

Jamaica in the Canadian Experience: A Multiculturalizing Presence

Edited by Andrea Davis, Carl E. James

(Fernwood, 2012)

In 2012, Jamaica celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of independence from Britain. In the short period of its life as a nation, Jamaica's increasingly powerful influence on global culture cannot go unremarked. The growth of Jamaican diasporas beyond Britain to the United States, Canada and West Africa has served to strengthen Jamaica's global reach, so that today Jamaica's cultural, economic and political achievements are felt way beyond its national borders. This anthology commemorates Jamaica's independence by acknowledging the immense and widespread contributions of Jamaica and Jamaicans to Canadian society.

Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico

Edited by Víctor M. Macías-González and Anne Rubenstein

(University of New Mexico Press, 2012)

In Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico, historians and anthropologists explain how evolving notions of the meaning and practice of manhood have shaped Mexican history. In essays that range from Texas to Oaxaca and from the 1880s to the present, contributors write about file clerks and movie stars, wealthy world travelers and ordinary people whose adventures were confined to a bar in the middle of town. The Mexicans we meet in these essays lived out their identities through extraordinary events--committing terrible crimes, writing world-famous songs, and ruling the nation--but also in everyday activities like falling in love, raising families, getting dressed, and going to the movies. Thus, these essays in the history of masculinity connect the major topics of Mexican political history since 1880 to the history of daily life.

Social Forces and States: Poverty and Distributional Outcomes in South Korea, Chile, and Mexico

By Judith A. Teichman

(Standford University Press, 2012)

With the failure of market reform to generate sustained growth in many countries of the Global South, poverty reduction has become an urgent moral and political issue in the last several decades. In practice, considerable research shows that high levels of inequality are likely to produce high levels of criminal and political violence. On the road to development, states cannot but grapple with the challenges posed by poverty and wealth distribution. Social Forces and States explains the reasons behind distinct distributional and poverty outcomes in three countries: South Korea, Chile, and Mexico.

Flaming Souls: Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados

By David Murray

(University of Toronto Press, 2012)

In his new book, David A.B. Murray (CERLAC Fellow, associate professor of Anthropology, and member of the Sexuality Studies Program at York University) explores public discourses focusing on homosexuality and the everyday lives of gay men and 'queens' in contemporary Barbados. His study unravels the complex historical, social, political, and economic forces through which same-sex desire, identity, and prejudice are produced and valued in this Caribbean nation-state. Illustrating the influence of both Euro-American and regional gender and sexual politics on sexual diversity in Barbados, the book makes an important contribution to queer studies and the anthropology of sexualities.

ENVIRONMENT AND CITIZENSHIP IN LATIN AMERICA Natures, Subjects and Struggles

Edited by Alex Latta and Hannah Wittman

(Berghahn Books, 2012)

Scholarship related to environmental questions in Latin America has only recently begun to coalesce around citizenship as both an empirical site of inquiry and an analytical frame of reference. This has led to a series of new insights and perspectives, but few efforts have been made to bring these various approaches into a sustained conversation across different social, temporal and geographic contexts. This volume is the result of a collaborative endeavour to advance debates on environmental citizenship, while simultaneously and systematically addressing broader theoretical and methodological questions related to the particularities of studying environment and citizenship in Latin America. Providing a window onto leading scholarship in the field, the book also sets an ambitious agenda to spark further research.

Raúl Castro and Cuba A Military Story

By Hal Klepak

(Palgrave MacMillan, 2012)

This book tells the story of the military life of the longest serving minister of defense of any country in recent times. While the picture that often emerges of Raúl Castro is that of a colorless younger brother of Fidel—a product essentially of that grander figure—this book analyzes Raúl Castro as a man of his own, a politician and an impressive military commander and organizer, as well as a highly original thinker on both military matters and wider national issues that have faced the Cuban state over more than half a century. Filling a gap in recent scholarship, it demonstrates that the government he has put into place in Cuba in the last four years is very much his, and is not, as some believe, a mere shadow of his brother's.

They Do As They Please: The Jamaican Struggle for Cultural Freedom after Morant Bay

By Brian L. Moore & Michele A. Johnson

(University of the West Indies Press, 2011)

This book is a companion to Neither Led nor Driven, published in 2004. It examines the secular aspects of culture in Jamaica, namely, material culture (architecture and home furnishings, dress, and food), rites of passage, language and oral culture, creative and performance arts, popular entertainment, sports and games, social clubs and fraternities, and the issues of drinking and gambling. It also examines the lifestyle cultures of Indian and Chinese immigrants who were new arrivals in Jamaica.

3 Jamaican Plays: A Postcolonial Anthology 1977-1987

Edited by Honor Ford-Smith

(Paulissa Publications, 2011)

A sparkling text with heft, drive, and purpose, this offering by Honor Ford-Smith, scholar and poet of Sistren fame, is an important addition to every Caribbeanist's library. The plays that Ford-Smith and Paul Issa selected to represent the early postcolonial era in Jamaican theatre are provocative and vibrant: Masqueraders by Stafford Ashani, to whom the volume is dedicated, Whiplash by Ginger Knight, and Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine by Patricia Cumper, Honor Ford-Smith, Carol Lawes, Hertencer Lindsay, and Eugene Williams. Ford-Smith has introduced the plays in a brilliant piece that precedes them and again in shorter introductions that contextualize each of the plays.

REMEMBERING AFRICA & ITS DIASPORAS Memory, Public History & Representations Of The Past

Edited by Audra A. Diptee and David V. Trotman

(Africa World Press, 2011)

The essays in this collection are concerned with the construction of memories and public histories. They explore the processes and dynamics that shape the ways in which Africa and its Diasporas have been historicized outside of the academy. The chapters focus on the public presentation of the imagined past of Africa, and of the uses of that past both within Africa and in the numerous African Diasporas created by the historical and contemporary movement of Africans outside of Africa under a variety of circumstances.

¡VIVA! Community Arts and Popular Education in the Americas

By Deborah Barndt (ed.)

(SUNY Press, 2011)

This compelling collection of inspiring case studies from community arts projects in five countries will inform and inspire students, artists, and activists. ¡VIVA! is the product of a five-year transnational research project that integrates place, politics, passion, and praxis. Framed by postcolonial theories of decolonization, the pedagogy of the oppressed articulated by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and the burgeoning field of community arts, this collection not only analyzes the dynamic integration of the critical and the creative in social justice movements, it embodies such a praxis. ... These practices offer critical hope for movements hungry for new ways of knowing and expressing histories, identities, and aspirations, as well as mobilizing communities for social transformation.

Comisarías de la Mujer en América Latina

Women's Police Stations in Latin America

(CEPLAES, 2010)

Edited by Nadine Jubb

This groundbreaking research examines women's access to justice in Latin America, with a particular focus on the impact of the Women's Police Stations (WPS). Since the first WPS opened in São Paulo, Brazil in 1985, they can now be found in 13 Latin American countries, while more countries offer other specialized policing services. In a region where most countries have laws on domestic and sexual violence, but few have specialized state services or public policies, the WPS have been at the forefront of providing access to justice and eliminating violence against women.

Ameriques transculturelles

Transcultural Americas (Cultural Transfers)

(University of Ottawa Press, 2010)

Edited by Afef Benessaieh

Transculturalism is a new way of viewing culture that sees cultures not as separate islands that are easily differentiated from one another, but as connected and interacting webs of meaning and practice. The Americas in particular offer many examples of transcultural identities that do not fit easily into one national or ethnic mold: Chicanos, Franco-Ontarians, Creoles, and second and third generation immigrants. From Quebec to Argentina, Transcultural Americas explores these identities which create themselves in a space between sameness and difference.

From Africa to Jamaica: The Making of an Atlantic Slave Society, 1775-1807

(University Press of Florida, 2010)

By Audra A. Diptee

Rich with historical sketches of the life and experiences of slaves in Africa, on slave ships, and in Jamaica, this volume illustrates the way enslaved Africans lived and helped to shape Jamaican society in the three decades before British abolition of the slave trade.

Audra Diptee's in-depth investigations reveal unexpected insights into the demographics of those captured in Africa and legally transported on British slave ships. For example, there is a commonly held belief that slave traders had a preference for adult males. In fact, the practicalities of slave raiding meant that women, children, and large groups of the elderly were particularly vulnerable during raids and were more often captured and made available for sale in the Caribbean.

From Africa to Jamaica offers a new look at the Atlantic slave trade in its final years, fleshing out the historical portrait of the African men, women, and children who were sold in Jamaica and were thus among the last of the enslaved to put their stamp on Jamaican society. There is no comparable study that takes such a comprehensive approach, looking at both the African and Jamaican sides of the trade system.

"Many Jamaicans are seeking empirical data from the period of the trade in Africans to justify the case for reparation. This book should provide them with much of what they need to understand this crime against humanity."

Verene A. Shepherd, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica

"This book makes a very significant contribution to the literature on the Atlantic Slave Trade and on its impact in Jamaica. It is a highly original study and addresses the important issue of the demography of the enslaved as well as emphasizing their humanity."

Gad Heuman, University of Warwick

Latin America's Left Turns:

Politics, Policies, and Trajectories of Change

(Lynne Rienner Pub, 2010)

Edited by Maxwell A. Cameron and Eric Hershberg

This accessible, up-to-date look at Latin American politics explores how—and to what effect—diverse forces on the left have not only captured the imagination of vast swathes of the continent’s population, but also taken hold of the reins of government.

The authors assess the multiple currents of Latin America's left turns, considering their origins, their relationships to political parties and social movements, and their performance in office. They also consider the challenges faced by such leaders as Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and "Lula" da Silva in efforts to address long-standing socioeconomic inequalities. Explicitly comparative and enhanced with solid empirical material, the book offers a thoughtful commentary on Latin America’s changing political environment.

"Engages readers in a historically informed, balanced, provocative, and lively conversation about the current leftist turns in Latin America, and their futures."

Shannan Mattiace, Allegheny College

"An extraordinary collection. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the current dynamics of Latin American politics."

Julio F. Carrion, University of Delaware

Dwellers of Memory

Youth and Violence in Medellin, Colombia

(Transaction Publishers, 2010)

By Pilar Riaño-Alcala

Dwellers of Memory is an ethnographic study of how urban youth in Colombia came to be at the intersection of multiple forms of political, drug-related, and territorial violence in a country undergoing forty years of internal armed conflict. It examines the ways in which youth in the city of Medellín reconfigure their lives and cultural worlds in the face of widespread violence. This violence has transgressed familiar boundaries and destroyed basic social supports and networks of trust. This volume attempts to map and understand its patterns and flows.

The author explores how Medellín's youth locate themselves and make sense of violence through contradictory and shifting memory practices. The violence has not completely taken over their cultural worlds or their subjectivities. Practices of remembering and forgetting are key methods by which these youth rework their identities and make sense of the impact of violence on their lives. While the experience of violence is rooted in urban space and urban youth, the memory dwellers use a sense of place, oral histories of death, and narratives of fear as survival strategies for inhabiting violent neighborhoods.

The book also examines fissures in memory, the contradictory constructions of young people's subjective selves, and practices of gendered violence and terror. All have and continue to pose risks to the historical memory and cultural survival of the residents of Medellín. Dwellers of Memory offers an alternative ethnographic approach to the study of memory and violence, one that calls into question whether the role of the ethnographer of violence is to be a mere witness of terror, or to oppose it by writing against it. It will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, and students of ethnography.

"This textured ethnography of how young barrio dwellers from Medellin, Colombia, collectively weave their memories of violence into the very space of death where they live, provides new directions for the anthropology of violence, moving us beyond fatalism and voyeurism, to a constructive engagement with the very people with whom we work. ... Riaño-Alcalá's workshop approach--itself, a Latin American contribution to anthropology--is an eloquent example of how anthropological methods can contribute to dialogue and peacemaking. Dwellers of Memory is engaged anthropology at its very best."

Joanne Rappaport, Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies and Anthropology, Georgetown University

Learning Citizenship by Practicing Democracy

International Initiatives and Perspectives

(Transaction Publishers, 2010)

Edited by Elizabeth Pinnington and Daniel Schugurensky

For many years, the fields of citizenship education and participatory democracy have often operated independently from each other. During the last decade, the Transformative Learning Centre of the University of Toronto has nurtured multiple spaces for an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars, practitioners and students from these two fields.

One of those spaces was the Second International Conference on Citizenship Learning and Participatory Democracy, where close to 300 participants from all over the world shared ideas in more than 150 sessions, including discussions, round-tables, workshops and keynote addresses. This volume brings together a selected collection from the many papers submitted to the conference.

The articles in this book represent a variety of perspectives (as the authors come from different geographical and disciplinary locations), but they all share a commitment to improvements in theory, research and practice in the worldwide movement for deepening democracy and for an emancipatory citizenship education.

Latin America

Its Problems and Its Promise: A Multidisciplinary Approach

(Perseus Academic, 2010)

Edited by Jan Knippers Black

(with articles by CERLAC Fellows Jorge Nef and Liisa L. North)

Now in a fifth edition, Latin America has been updated to reflect the region’s growing optimism as economies stabilize, trade diversifies, and political systems become more participatory. This multidisciplinary survey of Latin American history, politics, and society features invited contributions from authorities in a variety of fields. New sections address current events including deforestation in Costa Rica and Brazil, emerging social movements, Ecuador’s new constitution, and Obama’s stated objectives to repair U.S. relations with the region. In addition, key topics—such as women and Latin American politics, socialist governments and anti-American sentiment, Argentina’s deteriorating economy, and Colombia’s struggle with military and narcotics issues—receive expanded and revitalized treatment. Other updated material covers outcomes of recent elections in Bolivia, Brazil, and Nicaragua, among others. Through a hybrid thematic and regional organization, this text provides an essential foundation for introductory courses on Latin America.

Praise for Previous Editions

"Prof. Jan Knippers Black’s updated textbook is the ideal resource for any interdisciplinary survey of Latin America. It’s new chapters are especially welcome in the sense that the more current trends in interdisciplinary research on Latin America are brought to the reader’s attention clearly and forcefully."
—James D. Huck, Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies

"This provocative textbook offers comprehensive articles on Latin America by some leading experts in the field. They cover all the major issues and countries, including historical background as well as recent events."
—Paul Drake, Dean of Social Sciences, University of California, San Diego

"This is a superb collection of essays on the Latin American reality in the age of globalization. Eminently accessible, timely, and informative, this is an ideal primer for the classroom or simply for those seeking a well-rounded overview of Latin American affairs."
—William I. Robinson, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Barrio Democracy in Latin America

Participatory Decentralization and Community Activism in Montevideo

(Penn State University Press, 2010)

By Eduardo Canel

The transition to democracy under way in Latin America since the 1980s has recently witnessed a resurgence of interest in experimenting with new forms of local governance emphasizing more participation by ordinary citizens. The hope is both to foster the spread of democracy and to improve equity in the distribution of resources. While participatory budgeting has been a favorite topic of many scholars studying this new phenomenon, there are many other types of ongoing experiments. In Barrio Democracy in Latin America, Eduardo Canel focuses our attention on the innovative participatory programs launched by the leftist government in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the early 1990s. Based on his extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Canel examines how local activists in three low-income neighborhoods in that city dealt with the opportunities and challenges of implementing democratic practices and building better relationships with sympathetic city officials.

“Eduardo Canel has written a rich, compelling account of the challenges of promoting participatory democracy in Uruguay. In the process, he successfully demonstrates the importance of local contexts and histories for understanding the potential of participatory institutions at the municipal level to actually democratize local governance. By focusing on three communities with the same institutional structures, Canel is able to derive important insights into how ‘lived experiences of participation,’ different kinds of social capital, and the often conflictual nature of civil society help explain the varying levels of successful inclusion associated with participatory institutions throughout Latin America.”

Philip Oxhorn, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University

“In his well-written book Barrio Democracy in Latin America, Eduardo Canel explores the limits and possibilities of urban grassroots democratization in Uruguay. He contrasts how neighborhoods differ in how deeply they democratized, as well as how they evolved under different Latin American, national, and citywide conditions. This is a ‘must’ book for anyone interested in social movements, civil society, the political sociology of cities, and democracy both in general and in the specific context of Uruguay.”

Susan Eckstein, Boston University

The Social Capital of Refugees:

Cultural Background and Public Policy

by Andrea Pacheco Pacifico

CERLAC Research Associate and former Brazil Studies Seminar Coordinator

This book, written in Portuguese, 434p, is a result of a PhD dissertation defended in 2008 about the integration of refugees in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and in Toronto, Canada. It characterizes the global refugee regime and its expressions in Brazilian and Canadian society, and how refugees are integrated into these two countries. It analyzes the social capital produced by these refugees and the extent to it is a result of the cultural background of refugees or of the public policies of the host society. Three different groups of refugees were interviewed and studied: Arab-Muslim, Spanish-speaking Latin America, and Portuguese-speaking African refugees. The methodology used was transdisciplinarity.

ISBN:978-8-57177-542-8.

To order, click here

Price: CAN$ 30.00

Contact: apacifico@hotmail.com

Rethinking Extractive Industries:

Regulation, Dispossession and Emerging Claims

Canadian Journal of Development Studies
Revue canadienne d’études du développement
XXX (1–2) 2010

Guest Editors:
Marshall Beck, Eduardo Canel, Uwafiokun Idemudia, Liisa L. North, David Szablowski, and Anna Zalik

A special double-issue of CJDS, stemming from the CERLAC-organized March 2009 conference

Table of Contents

Immigration and Canada: Global and Transnational Perspectives

(Canadian Scholars' Press, Inc. 2010)

By Alan Simmons

Immigration and Canada provides readers with a vital introduction to the field of international migration studies from a critical perspective. This original book offers up-to-date information on migration patterns and trends, with a particular focus on implications for Canada.

“This is the most comprehensive book I have read on international migration. The author argues that contemporary Canadian society cannot be de-coupled from history and the global system. The presentation of ideas and analysis in this book are borne out of sound pedagogy from an experienced scholar.”
— Charles Adeyanju, Sociology Department, Brandon University

“This volume will serve as a very useful book. The major strengths are its breadth and its Canadian focus. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on international migration.”
— Tanya Basok, Director, Centre for Studies in Social Justice, University of Windsor

The Paradoxes of Peacebuilding POST 9/11

(University of British Columbia Press, 2009)

Edited by Stephen Baranyi

What kind of peace is possible in the post-9/11 world? Is sustainable peace an illusion in a world where foreign military interventions are replacing peace negotiations as starting points for postwar reconstruction? What would it take to achieve durable peace in contexts as different as Afghanistan, Mozambique, and Sri Lanka?

Grappling with these questions, this book presents six provocative case studies authored by respected peacebuilding practitioners in their own societies. The studies address two cases of relative success (Guatemala and Mozambique), three cases of renewed but deeply fraught efforts (Afghanistan, Haiti, and the Palestinian Territories), and the case of Sri Lanka, where peacebuilding was aborted but where the outlines of a new peace process can be discerned. The book also includes original analyses of demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration processes in three different contexts, written by teams of Northern and Southern analysts.

This timely volume bridges the gap between minimalist and maximalist approaches to peacebuilding, as well as giving voice to Southern researchers in Northern-dominated debates. It will interest practitioners and students of peace, security, and development studies, as well as policymakers at many levels of government.

Indigenous Peoples and the Law

Comparative and Critical Perspectives
Edited by Benjamin J Richardson, Shin Imai and Kent McNeil

(Hart Publishing: Oxford, 2009)

Edited by Benjamin J Richardson, Shin Imai and Kent McNeil

Indigenous Peoples and the Law provides an historical, comparative and contextual analysis of various legal and policy issues affecting Indigenous peoples. It focuses on the common law jurisdictions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, as well as relevant international law developments. Edited by Benjamin J Richardson, Shin Imai, and Kent McNeil, this collection of new essays features 13 contributors including many Indigenous scholars, drawn from around the world. The book provides a pithy overview of the subject-matter, enabling readers to appreciate the seminal issues, precedents and international legal trends of most concern to Indigenous peoples.

The first half of Indigenous Peoples and the Law takes an historical perspective of the principal jurisdictions, canvassing, in particular, themes of Indigenous sovereignty, status and identity, and the movement for Indigenous self-determination. It also examines these issues in an international context, including the Inter-American human rights regime and the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The second part of the book canvasses some contemporary issues and claims of Indigenous peoples, including land rights, mobility rights, community self-governance, environmental governance, alternative dispute resolution processes, the legal status of Aboriginal women and the place of Indigenous legal traditions and legal theory.

Although an introductory volume designed primarily for readers without advanced understanding of Indigenous legal issues, Indigenous Peoples and the Law should also appeal to seasoned scholars, policy-makers, lawyers and others who are knowledgeable of such issues in their own jurisdiction and wish to learn more about developments in other places.

Post-Neoliberalism in the Americas

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Edited by Laura Macdonald and Arne Ruckert

Dramatic changes have occurred in recent years in countries throughout the Americas. Neoliberal policy prescriptions promoted by international financial agencies have failed to deliver significant growth, and have led to rising levels of poverty and inequality. This collection brings together a diverse range of analyses to interrogate these changes occurring in the Americas, from Canada to Venezuela to Chile. Authors debate the reasons for the election of a large number of New Left governments in Latin America, and discuss the significance of the policies they have adopted. Do these policies represent a radical shift in direction towards a post-neoliberal era, or only a kinder and gentler form of neoliberalism? How do New Left governments differ from each other? At the same time, some governments in the Americas, particularly in North America, continue to cling to neoliberal policy prescriptions despite their problems. However, authors in this collection argue that transformations have occurred even in these neo-liberal holdouts. The book offers an essential overview of recent changes in the hemisphere, highlighting both the continuities and discontinuities in neoliberal practice.

'[A] provocative edited volume, which will appeal to academic audiences but also to the informed reader...Perhaps the most innovative feature of the collection is its geographic reach, encompassing Canada and the US as well as Latin America, and combining comparative thematic chapters with country case studies.'

Times Higher Education

The Democratic Challenge

Rethinking Democracy and Democratization

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

By Jorge Nef and Bernd Reiter

This text provides a critical but systematic overview of democratic theory and practice in the contemporary world. The authors show that recent developments are more complex than admitted by proponents of the idea of a democratic world with, what they call, de-democratization of various forms running in parallel with democratization.

'A compelling analysis of the concept of democracy and of the challenges it faces in the contemporary era. The Democratic Challenge should thus prove of great interest both for those engaged in debates over democratic theory and those concerned with its fate in today's world.'

Douglas Kellner, UCLA and author of Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy

Struggles for Local Democracy in the Andes

(Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009)

By John Cameron

John Cameron draws on power-based approaches to the study of democratization as he thoughtfully explores efforts by indigenous and peasant groups to gain control of local governments and deepen democracy in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Cameron addresses three fundamental questions: What factors best explain the success or failure of local political movements in the Andes? What forms of democracy are emerging in indigenous- and peasant-controlled municipalities? What are the impacts of municipal democratization on the well-being and political identities of the citizenry? As he elucidates his results, he reminds readers that, in the midst of some of the most exclusionary and elite-dominated systems of local government in Latin America, political struggles for democracy are having a profound impact.

"Cameron’s richly detailed comparative case studies are highly recommended for those interested in local democracy, rural development, and indigenous politics. "

Choice

"Remarkably rich and insightful.... All who wish to understand local politics in Latin America, especially in its ethnically diverse regions, must read this work."

Liisa North, York University

"An impressive piece of scholarship ... consistently clear and effective."

Kent Eaton, University of California Santa Cruz

Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities, Class, and State Formation in Cuba, 1868-1959

(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009)

By Gillian McGillivray

McGillivray examines the development of social classes linked to sugar production, and their contribution to the formation and transformation of the state, from the first Cuban Revolution for Independence in 1868 through the Cuban Revolution of 1959. She describes how cane burning became a powerful way for farmers, workers, and revolutionaries to commit sabotage, take control of the harvest season, improve working conditions, protest political repression, attack colonialism and imperialism, nationalize sugarmills, and, ultimately, acquire greater political and economic power. Not limiting her analysis to the island, McGillivray shows that twentieth-century Cuban history reflected broader trends in the Western Hemisphere, from modernity to popular nationalism to Cold War repression.

"Vamos dando la vuelta"

Iniciativas endógenas de desarrollo local en la Sierra ecuatoriana

Por Liisa North y Luciano Martinez

¿Pueden los mercados no-agrícolas servir a las necesidades de los pequeños productores rurales? ¿Pueden estos mercados, facilitar la diversificación económica y la reducción de la pobreza? En este fascinante estudio que resume cerca de veinte años de investigación sobre la industria rural de los jeans en Pelileo. Luciano Martínez y Liisa North identifican los antecedentes históricos y dimensiones contemporáneas de una experiencia social única, que contrasta con la decadencia de las economías rurales en Latinoamérica, causada por las políticas neoliberales.

Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia

By Jasmin Hristov

Hristov examines the complexities, dynamics, and contradictions of present-day armed conflict in Colombia. She conducts an in-depth inquiry into the restructuring of the state’s coercive apparatus and the phenomenon of paramilitarism by looking at its military, political, and legal dimensions. Hristov demonstrates how various interrelated forms of violence by state forces, paramilitary groups, and organized crime are instrumental to the process of capital accumulation by the local elite as well as the exercise of political power by foreign enterprises. She addresses, as well, issues of forced displacement, proletarianization of peasants, concentration of landownership, growth in urban and rural poverty, and human rights violations in relation to the use of legal means and extralegal armed force by local dominant groups and foreign companies.