Journal of Latin American Studies presents recent research in the field of Latin American studies in development studies, economics, geography, history, politics and international relations, public policy, sociology and social anthropology. Regular features include articles on contemporary themes, short thematic commentaries on key issues, and an extensive section of book reviews.
Table of Contents
Research Articles
Media Wars and the New Left: Governability and Media Democratisation in Argentina and Brazil PHILIP KITZBERGER Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 447 – 476 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X15001509 (About doi) Published Online on 26th January 2016
This article examines the determinants of government strategies towards dominant media actors in the light of increased questioning of the media's role in democratic politics. It compares the first two Kirchnerist presidencies in Argentina with the first two PT-led governments in Brazil. While these governments initially adopted accommodation strategies, political crises subsequently disturbed the coexistence of media and government, triggering divergent responses. The study offers an account of media policy options and shifts based upon (i) constraints stemming from political-structural variables, (ii) governmental perceptions of oppositional media power and of civil society allies' strength and (iii) learning from critical junctures that reshaped policy preferences. In sum, the article provides insights into the ways the media realm has become an arena of political struggle in Latin America.
A Great Leap Forward for Democracy and the Rule of Law? Brazil's Mensalão Trial GREGORY MICHENER, CARLOS PEREIRA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 477 – 507 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16000377 (About doi) Published Online on 12th July 2016
The Mensalão trial was Brazil's most important political corruption trial ever and an emblematic ex post accountability success. More than 28 individuals were convicted in relation to a legislative vote-buying scheme, many by the very officials they helped appoint. We relay the trajectory of the scandal cum trial, explain its successful prosecution and assess its implications. The article argues that the Mensalão has proved pivotal for Brazil's institutional and legal advances and asks – more than a quarter of a century after a new constitution – whether the country is entering into a stronger, more enduring relationship with the rule of law.
Cocaine Flows and the State in Peru's Amazonian Borderlands MIRELLA VAN DUN Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 509 – 535 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16000390 (About doi) Published Online on 09th June 2016
In Peru, eradication campaigns targeting coca crops in the Upper Huallaga have dispersed the country's drug trade over vast parts of the Bajo Amazonas region. In order to understand this dispersal it is necessary to map the relocations of coca cultivations or shifts in smuggling routes, but also to examine the array of micro-practices, relations, groups and networks that generate ‘drug flows’. By following different key actors, this article explores the movements of drug lords, smugglers and producers who intersect frontiers, borders and borderlands. This empirical focus is combined with an analysis of the actors’ social ties to other groups to discover the myriad ways in which illegal/legal forces are part of the power arrangements that form the foundation for Peru's drug flows.
Viscardo's Global Political Economy and the First Cry for Spanish American Independence, 1767–1798 FIDEL J. TAVAREZ Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 537 – 564 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X15001194 (About doi) Published Online on 11th December 2015
Revisionist historians have convincingly argued that Spanish American independence was not the result of simmering grievances that galvanised a national or Creole identity against Spain. Instead, this scholarship insists that Spanish American national identities did not exist at the time and that independence was an unforeseen process that must be understood in the context of the Napoleonic invasion of Iberia. But, if independence was undesirable before 1808 and if national identities arose at a latter period, how do we explain the early independence projects of ‘precursors’ like Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán? By contextually reconstructing the logic behind Viscardo's projects, this article offers a new perspective on the intellectual conditions of possibility for Spanish American independence. It argues that though he certainly identified as a Creole from Peru, Viscardo actually deployed an Enlightenment global science of commerce, not Creole patriotism or nationalism, to legitimate Spanish American independence.
¿Educación o desintegración? Parental Migration, Remittances and Left-behind Children's Education in Western Guatemala JASON DAVIS Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 565 – 590 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X1600002X (About doi) Published Online on 10th February 2016
Many Guatemalan parents migrate to the United States with the intention of returning earned income to improve the human capital prospects of their left-behind children. This laudable goal is achieved by many – arguably benefiting girls more than boys. However, negative international migration externalities including migration failure, familial abandonment, psychosocial harms and a culture of migration that disproportionally limits the educational prospects of boys need to be considered. Based on qualitative field interviews in western Guatemala with parents and educators, this article presents a nuanced view of economic migration and left-behind children's education, capturing both its remittance-related benefits and parental absence harms.
Partisan Participation and Ethnic Autonomy: The Case of the Mapuche Organisation Admapu, in Chile CHRISTIAN MARTÍNEZ NEIRA, PATRICIA RODRÍGUEZ Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 591 – 618 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X15001182 (About doi) Published Online on 14th October 2015
This article examines the formation of Admapu – an organisation representing a broad sector of Mapuche society that resisted the actions of the Chilean dictatorship during the 1980s. In political memory, the period of agrarian reform marks a time of hope and strong participation, but here we show how an autonomy project developed within Admapu conflicted with those making political alliances with the Chilean Left. We examine the internal dynamics within Admapu, and argue that at the end of the decade the organisation divided into factions that cemented a rupture with the political system and brought about the formation of contemporary resistance movements.
Reviews
Eduardo Dargent, Technocracy and Democracy in Latin America: The Experts Running Government (Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. xi + 206, $90.00; £55.00, hb. RALF J. LEITERITZ Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 619 – 620 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001115 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Christopher Krupa and David Nugent (eds.), State Theory and Andean Politics: New Approaches to the Study of Rule (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), pp. vi + 325, $69.95; £45.50, hb.
MARITZA PAREDES Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 620 – 622 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001127 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Stefanie Wickstrom and Philip D. Young (eds.), Mestizaje and Globalization: Transformations of Identity and Power (Tuscon, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2014), pp. xi + 284, $55.00; £49.95, hb. PETER WADE Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 622 – 624 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001139 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Ben Ross Schneider, Designing Industrial Policy in Latin America: Business-State Relations and the New Developmentalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. ix + 101, £45.00, hb. TOMÁS UNDURRAGA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 624 – 626 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001140 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Tom Chodor, Neoliberal Hegemony and the Pink Tide in Latin America: Breaking Up With TINA? (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. vi + 210, £58.00, hb. BENEDICTE BULL Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 626 – 628 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001152 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Cheryl Martens, Ernesto Vivares and Robert McChesney (eds.), The International Political Economy of Communication: Media and Power in South America (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. xxi + 195, £58.00, hb. PHILIP KITZBERGER Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 628 – 630 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001164 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Juan Pablo Ferrero, Democracy against Neoliberalism in Argentina and Brazil: A Move to the Left (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. xii + 264, £62.50, hb. CHRISTOPHER WYLDE Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 630 – 631 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001176 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Jasmin Hristov, Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond (London: Pluto Press, 2014), xviii + 217, £60.00; $85.00, hb. MARKUS SCHULTZE-KRAFT Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 632 – 633 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001188 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Francesca Lessa, Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay: Against Impunity (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. xvi + 319, £57.50, hb. EZEQUIEL GONZÁLEZ OCANTOS Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 633 – 635 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X1600119X (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
David Carey, I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898–1944 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2014), pp. xxv + 335, £37.00, hb. SYLVIA SELLERS-GARCIA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 635 – 637 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001206 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Jelke Boesten, Sexual Violence during War and Peace: Gender, Power, and Post-Conflict Justice in Peru (New York: Palgrave Macmillan and United States Institute of Peace, 2014), pp. xi + 231, £66.00, hb. FIONA WILSON Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 637 – 639 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001218 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Heidrun Zinecker, Gewalt im Frieden: Formen und Ursachen der Gewaltkriminalität en Zentralamerika (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2014), pp. 602, €99.00, pb. SONJA WOLF Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 639 – 640 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X1600122X (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Peter M. Beattie, Punishment in Paradise: Race, Slavery, Human Rights, and a Nineteenth-Century Brazilian Penal Colony (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2015), pp. xiv + 337, £18.99, pb. CHRISTIAN G. DE VITO Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 641 – 642 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001231 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Michael E. Donoghue, Borderland on the Isthmus: Race, Culture, and the Struggle for the Canal Zone (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2014), pp. xii + 349, $94.95, $25.95 pb. EZER VIERBA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 642 – 644 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001243 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Lisa Breglia, Living with Oil: Promises, Peaks, and Declines on Mexico's Gulf Coast (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2013), pp. x + 313, $55.00; £39.00, hb. ANJA NYGREN Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 644 – 646 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001255 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Omar Pereyra, Contemporary Middle Class in Latin America: A Study of San Felipe (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015), pp. x + 147, £49.99, hb. DENNIS GILBERT Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 646 – 647 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001267 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Carla Freeman, Entrepreneurial Selves: Neoliberal Respectability and the Making of a Caribbean Middle Class (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2015), pp. xii + 258, £59.00, £16.99 pb. REBECCA PRENTICE Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 648 – 649 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001279 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Jessica Scott Jerome, A Right to Health: Medicine, Marginality and Health Care Reform In Northeastern Brazil (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2105), pp. xii + 177, $50.00, hb. MARCOS CUETO Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 649 – 651 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001280 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Christien Klaufus and Arij Ouweneel (eds.), Housing and Belonging in Latin America (Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2015), pp. xiii + 330, £75.00, hb. EDWARD MURPHY Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 651 – 653 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001292 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Chris Walker, Venezuela's Health Care Revolution (Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2015), pp. vii + 120, $19.95, pb. BARRY CANNON Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 653 – 655 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001309 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Christopher R. Boyer, Political Landscapes: Forests, Conservation and Community in Mexico (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2015), pp. xix + 337, £66.00, £18.99 pb. THOMAS RATH Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 655 – 657 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001310 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Antonio Sergio Bessa (ed.), Beyond the Supersquare: Art and Architecture in Latin America after Modernism (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), pp. xii + 137, $35.00; £22.99, pb. LAWRENCE A. HERZOG Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 657 – 659 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001322 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Verónica Cortínez and Manfred Engelbert, Evolución en libertad: el cine chileno de fines de los sesenta (Santiago, Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2014), Vols 1 & 2, pp. 975 + 2 DVDs, pb. CAMILA GATICA MIZALA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 659 – 660 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001334 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Joanna Page, Creativity and Science in Contemporary Argentine Literature: Between Romanticism and Formalism (Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2014), pp. xii + 281, $41.95, pb. EDOARDO BALLETTA Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 661 – 662 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001346 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Felipe Cala Buendía, Cultural Producers and Social Change in Latin America (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. xii + 186, £59.50, hb. CECILIA DINARDI Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 662 – 664 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001358 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa and Christina Holmes, Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 2014), pp. xiii + 396, £48.95, £24.95 pb. JORGE LOSSIO Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 664 – 665 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001383 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
Suzanne Oakdale and Magnus Course (eds.), Fluent Selves: Autobiography, Person, and History in Lowland South America (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), pp. xii + 319, £47.00, hb. CHLOE NAHUM-CLAUDEL Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 665 – 667 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16001395 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016
New Books Received
Books Received Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 03 , August 2016, pp 669 – 675 doi: 10.1017/S0022216X16000432 (About doi) Published Online on 28th July 2016