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Discussion Paper No.6
Old Wine in New Bottles or New Wine in Old? Conceptualising
Violence and Governmentality in Latin America
Dennis Rodgers (Crisis States Research Centre)
November 2004
This
paper begins by considering the
premise that patterns of violence have undergone a fundamental shift in
contemporary Latin America, from being predominantly state-related forms of
political violence to non-state forms of social and economic violence, due to
the weakening of states. With reference to the example of Nicaraguan youth
gangsterism, the way in which such latter forms of violence can nevertheless
constitute modes of social ordering is underlined, suggesting that it is
important not to underestimate the ontological correspondence between state and
non-state forms of violence in Latin America. At the same time, however, this
apparent correspondence raises some problematic epistemological issues, which
lead to a discussion of the nature of state governmentality, for which an
alternative conception is proposed that is briefly exemplified in the Nicaraguan
context. The paper concludes with some thoughts on how to better understand the
state’s continuing role as an actor in the contemporary Latin American
panorama of violence.
Other Crisis States papers by Dennis Rodgers:
Working Paper No.6 (September 2001)
Making Danger a Calling: Anthropology, violence and the dilemmas of participant observation
(Dennis Rodgers)
Subsequently published in Spanish as:
'Haciendo del Peligro una Vocación: La antropología, la violencia, y los dilemas
de la observación participante', Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica
(2004)
Working Paper No.35 (October 2003)
Dying For It: Gangs, Violence and Social Change in Urban Nicaragua
(Dennis Rodgers)
Working Paper No.61
(April 2005)
Unintentional Democratisation? The Argentinazo and the Politics of Participatory Budgeting in Buenos Aires, 2001-2004
(Dennis Rodgers)
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