Community,citizenship and the maligned state in modernising mexico

The fashion for ‘subaltern studies’ has taken researchers back to the archive and field in search of social agents both marginalised and forgotten. In Mexico this has entailed an exacting task of reconstructing the lives of Indians and peasants on the remote frontiers of state influence. The books reviewed here are worthy examples of this project. They offer illuminating glimpses of the ways in which such semi‐autonomous societies experienced the extension of state rule as modern Mexico emerged painfully as a nation. If they are to be faulted it is in the emphasis they place on ‘the People's’ resistance to assimilation, implicitly heroic, whilst casting a rather contemporary light, often explicitly pejorative, on to the efforts of those other agents whose efforts were directed at the creation of a uniform citizenship.

Wandering Peoples: Colonialism, Ethnic Spaces, and Ecological Frontiers in Northwestern Mexico, 1700–1850, by Cynthia Radding. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1997. Pp.xx + 403. £57.50 (hardback); £17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 1907 1 and 1899 7

Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution, and Gender on Mexico's Northern Frontier, by Ana Maria Alonso. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1995. Pp.xi + 303. $45 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8165 1511 5 and 1574 3

Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930–40, by Mary Kay Vaughan. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1997. Pp.xiii + 262. $45 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8165 1675 8 and 1676 6     

Everything for Sale? Neoliberalism and the Limits of Michael Sandel’s Philosophical Critique of Markets

Contesting the central tenets of mainstream economic theory, Michael Sandel’s work on markets argues that the marketization of certain goods risks corrupting the value of those goods, and that a reinvigorated public discourse is needed to establish the appropriate use of markets. This article assesses Sandel’s work on markets, arguing that although it provides a convincing critique of liberal defenses of the market, it does not do enough to challenge marketization itself. To illuminate the flaws of Sandel’s argument, the article contrasts it with Marxist critiques of neoliberalism, arguing that the latter oppose the expansion of markets and market thinking in more comprehensive and productive ways. Specifically, it is argued that Sandel ignores the one market that underpins all other markets, namely the labor market; erroneously suggests that marketization is caused by the dominance of market thinking; and fails to appreciate the class interests that are served by growing marketization.     

Are Catholics still different? Catholicism,political attitudes and party attachments in Switzerland, 1970–95

This article is concerned with the political attitudes and the party attachments of Swiss Catholics between 1970 and 1995. Do Catholics still have distinct political orientations or have the differences between Catholics and non‐Catholics withered away in the process of secularisation? A re‐analysis of several surveys indicates that Catholics are indeed still different politically from the overall Swiss population. But these differences between Catholics and non‐Catholics are relatively small and have almost disappeared in the last 30 years. However, the data also suggests that while the confessional cleavage has lost most of its significance, it is increasingly superseded by a religious one.     

A Formula for Disaster: The Department of Homeland Security's Virtual Ontology

This paper focuses on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in order to theorise the spatialities of post-9/11 security knowledge and practice in the US. It analyses the organisational discourses that animate homeland security work, such as preparedness, vulnerability, the new threat environment, risk analysis and capabilities-based planning, and considers the implications of these practices for contemporary geographies of security. It is argued that DHS operates through a virtual ontology of threat, whereby potential, future threats are addressed as present possibilities that emerge in the spaces of everyday life. The sources of American freedoms and insecurities, the everyday, emerging circulations of goods and people, present DHS with a terrain of shifting threats from which both emergencies and preparedness may materialise. Disaster looming, the potential suspension of everyday life forms the basis for security practice as the emergency becomes a fact of life itself. The spatialities of this environment of imminent threat are considered and it is argued that the everyday emergency operates topologically as a continuous process of spatialisation.     

„Gibt es so etwas überhaupt noch?“ Forschung zu Protest und sozialen Bewegungen

Research on protest and social movements has undergone a process of consolidation. However, it has lost visibility in Germany where it was in full bloom in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A review of recent scholarship shows that the analysis of protest and the concept of “social movement” is vital to understand both politics emerging “from below” and the dynamics of political processes. While the focus on societal antagonisms which was central in the interpretation of new social movements has been abandoned, historical and cultural approaches have more and more received attention.     

Globalization forces and social policy choices: Glass half‐full or half‐empty?

Globalization, Europeanization and the End of Scandinavian Social Democracy?Edited by robert geyer, christine ingebritsen and jonathon w. moses. London: Macmillan. 2000. Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy. By james j. rice and michael j. prince. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2000. Four Strong Winds: Understanding the Growing Challenges to Health Care. By michael b. decter Toronto: Stoddard. 2000. Now resident on Vancouver Island, the author was until recently a faculty member in the Department of political science at the University of Windsor.     

Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty: Findings from Households in Melanesia

This paper examines vulnerability in two Melanesian small island developing states: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. With large proportions of the population living semi-subsistence lifestyles in rural areas, consumption poverty is notoriously difficult to measure. The paper therefore departs from the standard approach and assesses household vulnerability to multidimensional poverty. The paper employs cross-sectional data from a household survey. Results indicate that vulnerability is more widespread than poverty and that vulnerability stems more from excess volatility in expected wellbeing than a particularly low expected level of wellbeing, per se. Results point to a pressing need for formal social protection policies to be implemented.