William L. Alexander

Presenting case studies by anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and environmental specialists,Lost in the Long Transition critically examines the impact of neoliberal economic and social policies at the local level in post-dictatorship Chile. Topics include privatization of water rights, tuberculosis and public health crises, the role of labor unions, industrial salmon farming, natural resource conservation, the political ecology of copper, struggles for affordable housing, homelessness and citizenship rights, and gender identity issues in the experiences of returned exiles.

Struggles for Social Justice in Neoliberal Chile

Lost in the Long Transition

Thomas Weaver

James B. Greenberg

Anne Browning-Aiken

Neoliberalism and Commodity Production in Mexico details the impact of neoliberal practice on the production and exchange of basic resources in working-class communities in Mexico. Using anthropological investigations and a market-driven approach, contributors explain how uneven policies have undermined constitutional protections and working-class interests since the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Detailed ethnographic fieldwork shows how foreign investment, privatization, deregulation, and elimination of welfare benefits have devastated national industries and natural resources and threatened agriculture, driving the campesinos and working class deeper into poverty. Focusing on specific commodity chains and the changes to production and marketing under neoliberalism, the contributors highlight the detrimental impacts of policies by telling the stories of those most affected by these changes. They detail the complex interplay of local and global forces, from the politically mediated systems of demand found at the local level to the increasingly powerful municipal and state governments and the global trade and banking institutions. Sharing a common theoretical perspective and method throughout the chapters, Neoliberalism and Commodity Production in Mexico is a multi-sited ethnography that makes a significant contribution to studies of neoliberal ideology in practice.

William L. Alexander

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