The Social Life of Economic Inequalities in Contemporary Latin America : Decades of Change

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Introduction (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen, Margit Ystanes)....Pages 3-34 Reformism, Class Conciliation and the Pink Tide: Material Gains and Their Limits (Pedro Mendes Loureiro)....Pages 35-56 Front Matter ....Pages 57-57 Entangled Inequalities, State, and Social Policies in Contemporary Brazil (Sérgio Costa)....Pages 59-80 #sosfavelas: Digital Representations of Violence and Inequality in Rio de Janeiro (Margit Ystanes)....Pages 81-105 Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro During the ‘Pink Tide’: Bridging Socio-Spatial Divides Between the Formal and Informal City? (Celina Myrann Sørbøe)....Pages 107-127 Meanings of Poverty: An Ethnography of Bolsa Familia Beneficiaries in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil (Michele de Lavra Pinto)....Pages 129-150 Front Matter ....Pages 151-151 Political Polarisation, Colonial Inequalities and the Crisis of Modernity in Venezuela (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 153-181 Market Liberalisation and the (Un-)making of the ‘Perfect Neoliberal Citizen’: Enactments of Gendered and Racialised Inequalities Among Peruvian Vendors (Cecilie Vindal Ødegaard)....Pages 183-204 Coming of Age in the Penal System: Neoliberalism, ‘Mano Dura’ and the Reproduction of ‘Racialised’ Inequality in Honduras (Lirio Gutiérrez Rivera, Iselin Åsedotter Strønen, Margit Ystanes)....Pages 205-228 Front Matter ....Pages 229-229 Settlers and Squatters: The Production of Social Inequalities in the Peruvian Desert (Astrid B. Stensrud)....Pages 231-252 Latin American Inequalities and Reparations (Marvin T. Brown)....Pages 253-272 Front Matter ....Pages 273-273 Postscript (Sian Lazar)....Pages 275-282 Back Matter ....Pages 283-289