The Social Life of Economic Inequalities in Contemporary Latin America

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.
This edited volume examines how economic processes have worked upon social lives and social realities in Latin America during the past decades. Through tracing the effects of the neoliberal epoch into the era of the so-called pink tide, the book seeks to understand to what extent the turn to the left at the start of the millennium managed to challenge historically constituted configurations of inequality. A central argument in the book is that in spite of economic reforms and social advances on a range of arenas, the fundamental tenants of socio-economic inequalities have not been challenged substantially. As several countries are now experiencing a return to right-wing politics, this collection helps us better understand why inequalities are so entrenched in the Latin American continent, but also the complex and creative ways that it is continuously contested. The book directs itself to students, scholars and anyone interested in Latin America, economic anthropology, political anthropology, left-wing politics, poverty and socio-economic inequalities.

Fills the need for grounded ethnographic studies of the social life of economic inequality in present-day Latin America Includes anthropological, sociological, and philosophical perspectives Tackles issues of racism, segregation, and policing

Autorentext
Margit Ystanes is Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway. She has conducted research in Guatemala since 2000, and in Brazil since 2013. Her current work investigates the use of sporting mega-events as a tool for urban and economic development in Rio de Janeiro.

Iselin Åsedotter Strønen is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway, and an affiliated researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CM), Norway. She has conducted ethnographic research in Venezuela since 2005, and more recently, in Brazil and Angola.

Klappentext
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.
This edited volume examines how economic processes have worked upon social lives and social realities in Latin America during the past decades. Through tracing the effects of the neoliberal epoch into the era of the so-called pink tide, the book seeks to understand to what extent the turn to the left at the start of the millennium managed to challenge historically constituted configurations of inequality. A central argument in the book is that in spite of economic reforms and social advances on a range of arenas, the fundamental tenants of socio-economic inequalities have not been challenged substantially. As several countries are now experiencing a return to right-wing politics, this collection helps us better understand why inequalities are so entrenched in the Latin American continent, but also the complex and creative ways that it is continuously contested. The book directs itself to students, scholars and anyone interested in Latin America, economic anthropology, political anthropology, left-wing politics, poverty and socio-economic inequalities.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Reformism, Class Conciliation, and the Pink Tide: Material Gains and their Limits.- 3. Entangled Inequalities, State, and Social Policies in Contemporary Brazil.- 4. #sosfavelas: Digital Representations of Violence and Inequality in Rio de Janeiro.- 5. Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro During the 'Pink Tide': from politics of citizenship to politics of privilege.- 6. Meanings of Poverty: an Ethnography of Bolsa Familia Beneficiaries in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil.- 7. Political Polarization, Colonial Inequalities, and the Crisis of Modernity in Venezuela.- 8. Market Liberalization and the (Un-) Making of the 'Perfect Neoliberal Citizen': Enactments of Gendered and Racialized Inequalities among Peruvian Vendors.- 9. Coming of Age in the Penal System: Neoliberalism, 'Mano Dura', and the Reproduction of 'Racialised' Inequality in Honduras.- 10. Settlers and Squatters: The Production of Social Inequalities in the Peruvian Desert.- 11. Latin American Inequality and Reparation.- 12. Postscript.