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  • Open Access
  • © 2018

The Social Life of Economic Inequalities in Contemporary Latin America

Decades of Change

Palgrave Macmillan
  • 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

Part of the book series: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference (ATSIAD)

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Social Lives, Economic Ideas

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Introduction

      • Iselin Åsedotter Strønen, Margit Ystanes
      Pages 3-34Open Access
  3. Subjectivities and Structures

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151
    2. 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 205-228Open Access
  4. Land, the Eternal Legacy of Inequality

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 229-229
    2. Latin American Inequalities and Reparations

      • Marvin T. Brown
      Pages 253-272Open Access
  5. Postscript

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 273-273
    2. Postscript

      • Sian Lazar
      Pages 275-282Open Access
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 283-289

About this book

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.

Keywords

  • Economic anthropology
  • Latin American economies
  • Economic inequality
  • socio-economic inequality
  • social equality
  • social imaginaries
  • Latin America
  • neoliberal
  • socio-economic inequalities
  • political anthropology
  • right wing politics
  • left wing politics
  • Open Access

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Margit Ystanes

  • University of Bergen and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen, Norway

    Iselin Åsedotter Strønen

About the editors

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.  

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Social Life of Economic Inequalities in Contemporary Latin America

  • Book Subtitle: Decades of Change

  • Editors: Margit Ystanes, Iselin Åsedotter Strønen

  • Series Title: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61536-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • License: CC BY

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-61535-6Published: 08 November 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87105-9Published: 24 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-61536-3Published: 25 October 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 289

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Ethnography, Economic Sociology, Latin American/Caribbean Economics, Social Structure

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)