Vigilantes,gangsters, and alcohol: clashing citizenship regimes in postwar Guatemala

In this volatile moment in Latin America, when relations between the state and citizens are in flux, people at the margins of society draw on various notions of citizenship in social conflicts over proper behavior and the common good. I examine an intergenerational conflict over the legality of alcohol in an indigenous village in Guatemala to show how its protagonists creatively recombine different aspects of the various citizenship regimes that they have encountered. Elders have formed vigilante justice groups to combat the youth they consider gangsters. While the vigilantes draw upon a discourse of obligation to justify their actions, the generation below them counters with a language of rights. Some argue that citizenship is less meaningful in contexts where state power is ambiguous and extralegal violence is commonplace. I argue that in such contexts, it is not that citizenship does not have meaning, but rather that its meaning is intensely contested.     

Not in my back yard: control of Irish Travellers by paramilitaries and vigilantes across the island of Ireland

This article concerns control of Irish Travellers by paramilitaries and vigilantes. The main issues explored here relate to theories of deviance and debates as to the power of the ‘established’ over those regarded as outsiders. The topic of dangerisation is also considered. Across the island of Ireland, the accommodation needs of Irish Travellers have been largely overlooked by both governments. Amidst a wholesale failure to provide adequate accommodation, including transient sites which would permit nomadic Irish Travellers to continue to be so, harsh anti-trespass laws have recently been sanctioned. However, despite these recent anti-trespass laws and no doubt due to the failure to provide accommodation, across the island illegal encampments remain common. Thus, a failure of the public system is evident. As such, this article demonstrates how, in turn, this failure may encourage vigilantes to adopt self-help private violence as moral action against ‘deviant’ Travellers, whilst self-justifying their actions in comparison to the violence exhibited by, and, that inherent to, state sanctioned law.