The new millennium began with the triumph of democracy and markets. But for whom is life just, how so, and why? And what is being done to correct persisting injustices? Blending macro-level global and national analysis with in-depth grassroots detail, the contributors highlight roots of injustices, how they are perceived, and efforts to alleviate them. Following up on issues raised in the groundbreaking best-seller Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (California, 2001), these essays elucidate how conceptions of justice are socially constructed and contested and historically contingent, shaped by people's values and institutionally grounded in real-life experiences. The contributors, a stellar coterie of North and Latin American scholars, offer refreshing new insights that deepen our understanding of social justice as ideology and practice.
Susan Eva Eckstein is Professor of Sociology at Boston University and former president of the Latin American Studies Association. She is the author of Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro (1994). Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley is Associate Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and former program chair of the Latin American Studies Association. He is the author of Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Insurgents and Regimes since 1956 (1992). Together they edited Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America (2002).
"This splendid collection by two of our leading political sociologists pioneers new directions in the study of social justice in Latin America. What Justice? Whose Justice? is impassioned scholarship at its best. It brings together detailed studies of rights and institutions, inequality and struggle, citizenship and indigenous politics, war and peace. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in what the so-called triumph of democracy over dictatorship in the region really means today in the lives of the still dispossessed."—Matthew C. Gutmann, author of The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico
"This book offers a stimulating interdisciplinary analysis of the gripping problems of justice, inequality, and citizenship, and of citizen responses to these issues in contemporary Latin America. It is essential reading on these interrelated themes."—Scott Mainwaring, co-editor of Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America
"First-rate contributors address the quality of democracy in several Latin American countries in these readable and provocative essays. The volume focuses particularly on the relation between democracy and the law, on the importance of the past, and on informal politics and indigenous political movements. A must-read for all those who are tracking the course of democracy in the region and who are concerned about its political future."—Jane S. Jaquette, co-editor of Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe
"For anyone who still assumes that markets plus elections suffice to resolve the problems of injustice that are the political, social, and economic patrimony of Latin America, this book will be a firm wake-up call. At the same time, the excellent case studies in this book make it clear that the current global neoliberal regime is no more effective at suppressing local struggles for justice than the more traditional forms of domination that came before it. It is valuable and provocative reading for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary political dynamics of justice and injustice."—Peter Evans, editor of Livable Cities?
376 pp.6 x 9Illus: 1 line illustration, 5 tables
9780520237452$34.95|£30.00Paper
Oct 2003