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This article analyzes how the working conditions for Mexican anthropologists have deteriorated throughout the last few decades. Until half a century ago, only a few dozen professional anthropologists practiced in Mexico, and most of them had access to stable, well-paid jobs in academia or government agencies. Today there are over 7000 of them working in a wide range of fields, mostly in temporary jobs with low salaries. Drawing from the data gathered in the Historical Catalogue of Theses on Social Anthropology in Mexico (RedMIFA 2018) and the Survey on Professional Practice and Working Conditions of Anthropologists in Mexico (CIEPA-CEAS 2016), this paper begins by outlining the decline of working conditions for Mexican anthropologists, focusing primarily on the younger generations. An analysis follows of the main factors that have contributed to the current situation, and the article closes with a brief commentary on the effects of precarious working conditions for the production of anthropological knowledge. The implications here are paradoxical: on the one hand, most professionals currently work in fields other than academia, thereby diversifying anthropological practice, and on the other there is a marked tendency towards the academization of professional anthropological education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from an ethnographic study with U.S.-born children who had relocated to their parents' hometowns in Mexico, we engaged transborder and dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit) frameworks to understand the compounding, deterritorialized ways undocumentedness and dis/ability shape educational experiences across borders. In this article, we focus on the experiences of two familias and argue that a transborder DisCrit framing is necessary to reveal how undocumented parents advocate and dream across disjunctures in search of access to educational supports and humanizing futures for their children with dis/abilities across the countries they call home. Findings reveal how intersecting forms of undocumentedness, or exclusion from papers for access and belonging, constrained families' access to movement across geopolitical borders, schooling and health-care institutions, and documented diagnoses needed to access learning supports. In the implications, we explore what approaches to policy, education, and research might look like if they centered the experiences, subaltern knowledges, and humanizing dreams of transborder parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural race-based inequalities in Mexico cannot be denied. Anthropologists and social scientists have thoroughly documented racism at both personal and systemic levels. Following I.M. Young's framework, this paper identifies two possible pathways for the anti-racist movement in Mexico: the liability and the social connection models. The former uses guilt to assign responsibility —it requires an agent to be voluntarily and causally connected to injustice; the latter does not isolate perpetrators but assigns responsibility to all agents who contribute (voluntarily or not) by their actions to the structural processes that produce injustice. After examining the trajectory of the Mexican anti-racist movement, this paper demonstrates that activists are relying too heavily on the liability model. Furthermore, drawing from ethnographic material from Brazil and the United States, the paper suggests that this model is not only unnecessarily confrontational and ineffectual, but potentially counterproductive for the anti-racist movement, as it is prone to provoke a defensive response. In turn, this paper suggests focusing on the structural nature of racism in Mexico and developing ways to communicate this effectively, in order to foster the positive prospects of successful anti-racist activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores and discusses the experimental, critical and self-reflective use of differing methods in urban studies. In the context of frequent calls to investigate urban processes in a planetary and comparative perspective, the empirical groundedness of research is among the particularly complex challenges urban scholars are confronted with. The key question is: how can qualitative-empirical methods, such as ethnography or qualitative mapping, be adapted to explore contemporary urban conditions? This paper seeks to contribute to current debates by introducing a specific methodological design of a mobile ethnography that enables an analysis of large and heterogeneous urban territories, in three main ways: first, by offering a theoretically informed and empirically grounded transductive research design; second, by proposing a complementary set of cartographic, historiographic and comparative methods of which mobile ethnography is a part; and third, by suggesting post- and decolonial methodological perspectives, both conceptually by engaging with Latin American urbanisms, as well as empirically by furthering collaborative ways of knowledge production. To conclude, the paper stresses the need to continually develop new inventive methods for comparative urban research, for two main reasons: (1) to enable scholars to question established geographical representations and parochial imaginaries of urban space, and (2) to problematise methodological and theoretical dogmas with situated knowledge. By suggesting different representations of the urban, the paper thus emphasises how important it is to transductively entangle empirical and theoretical conceptualisations to further decentre and pluralize urban knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past years, increasingly restrictive migration policies have pushed many migrants to seek new and more risky migration routes. Many studies have investigated aspects of social protection for migrants from the Global South in industrialized countries of the Global North, with powerful welfare states. Yet, such focus has failed to understand the complexities during the migration process, where people often spend uncertain periods of time in transit countries and the state is frequently absent. In these contexts, social protection is predominantly provided by the third sector (TS) and informal networks both nationally and transnationally. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with African migrants and TS organizations in Mexico, this paper explores the different and often semi‐formal relationships between the TS, the state, and the migrants that result in complex transnational social protection infrastructures to cover the migrants' basic social protection needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trace: Travaux et Recherches dans les Amériques du Centre is the property of Centro de Estudios Mexicanos & Centroamericanos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of World Tensions / Tensões Mundiais is the property of Observatorio das Nacionalidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the regulation and management of dogs in the mexican municipality of Isla mujeres. It shows how dogs, on Isla mujeres, are managed under a neoliberal framework of a decentralized government which relies on the personal responsibility of citizens and the outsourcing of essential services to non-government and private organizations. In so doing, this paper demonstrates some of the political and organizational contexts within which human-dog relationships are situated. In particular, it analyzes the ways that humans relate to dogs within a regulatory and socio-political framework. this paper is based on a six-week period of ethnographic research, primarily situated within an international non-government animal rescue organization. From this vantage point, this paper shows how neoliberal approaches to dog management within the municipality creates tension between personal and governmental responsibilities and fosters reliance on the third sector to provide animal welfare and wellbeing services. Within this network of distinctly human relationships, the wellbeing of animals is obscured, leading to a series of animal welfare crises within the municipality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant contextual differences between semi-nomadic herders in Kyrgyzstan and sedentary peasants in Mexico, a comparative study, based on ethnographic fieldwork, of the impact of patrimonialization on the two groups reveals similar processes of heritage marking. However, within this similarity this cross-analysis identifies two contrasting modes of domination that occur as a result of this analogous heritage process. By examining the local application of the heritage concept, as well as the connections that exist between the type of society, its history and the ethno-cultural management at work, this paper demonstrates how patrimonialization can stimulate divergent political mechanisms in the relationship between the State and the social groups concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the notion of inclusion as an imperfect and contested project toward educational and social justice, which seeks to address social and historically constructed exclusion. It aims to problematise 'inclusion research' of school and community relationships in Mexico by examining the orientations and implications for inclusion of doing educational research aligned with a more 'Western' critical approach to social justice as opposed to research explicitly situated in a decolonial and intercultural perspective. It firstly characterises how inclusion is dealt with by critical and decolonial perspectives. Secondly, through a comparative exploration of two ethnographic research projects about school-community relationships, it analyses the implications of both approaches and explores the articulation between 'substantive power' and 'formal power' in the research, arguing for the need to include an epistemic and ontological dimension in inclusion as social-justice-oriented research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is an important part of Mexico's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and the country has made great strides towards achieving this goal. However, researchers have questioned to what extent the focus on improved MMR and other indices of maternal health has contributed to an emphasis on improved statistics rather than quality care, and the effect this has had on the quality of reporting. While public health officials and hospital administrators alike agree that improved obstetric reporting is necessary, there is little discussion regarding the accuracy of the data that are submitted and the institutional pressures that may contribute to the production of inaccurate data. Using ethnographic research collected in Tulum, Quintana Roo, this paper explores how biomedical childbirth functions as a source of legitimization for the state while simultaneously providing the means for the presentation of an ideal subjecthood, one that situates birthing women and healthcare personnel as properly attenuated to the norms and needs of the modern Mexican state. By highlighting the point of disjuncture between women's experiences and the formal ‘reality’ created through hospital texts, this paper explores the place of biomedical birth as a producer of and legitimization for Mexican public health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on ethnographic data collected in three informal communities, one in Argentina, one in México, and one in Ecuador, we address the long-standing question posed by Larissa Lomnitz's and Carol Stack's now-classic studies of how impoverished people not only survive but what strategies they adopt in an attempt to build a dignified life. By focusing on the diversity of strategies by which the urban poor solve the everyday problems of individual and collective reproduction, we move beyond the macro-level analysis of structural constraint and material deprivation. Our findings show a remarkable continuity in the difficulties residents of these informal communities confronted and the problem-solving strategies they resorted to. We found that networks of kin and friends continue to play a crucial role in how poor people not only survive but attempt to get ahead. Additionally, we highlight the role of patronage networks and collective action as central to strategies by which the urban poor cope with scarcity and improve their life chances, while also paying close attention to ways in which they deal with pressing issues of insecurity and violence. The paper shows that poor people's survival strategies are deeply imbricated in routine political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Occupational Therapy / Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional is the property of Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional da UFSCar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the 1970s, Latin America became a global laboratory for military interventions, the cultivation of terror, and ideological and economic transformation. In response, family groups and young scientists forged a new activist forensics focused on human rights, victim-centered justice, and state accountability, inaugurating new forms of forensic practice. We examine how this new form of forensic practice centered in forensic genetics has led to a critical engagement with Indigeneity both within and outside the lab. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with human rights activists and forensic scientists in Argentina, Guatemala and Mexico, this paper examines the relationship between forensic genetics, Indigenous organizing, and human rights practice. We offer the concept of 'genetic syncretism' to attend to spaces where multiple and competing beliefs about genetics, justice, and Indigenous identity are worked out through (1) coming together in care, (2) incorporation, and (3) ritual. Helping to unpack the uneasy and incomplete alliance of Indigenous interests and forensic genetic practice in Latin American, genetic syncretism offers a theoretical lens that is attentive to how differentials of power embedded in colonial logics and scientific practice are brokered through the coming together of seemingly incompatible beliefs and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses geek culture in Mexico and looks at how fandoms are integrated, as well as the processes through which role models are shaped out of the fantastic narratives at their center. Using ethnographic methods, it was observed that geek culture consists of fandoms grouped together around a variety of different fantastic narratives (comics, anime, videogames), and these, in turn, inspire specific behavioral models, according to their stage of life and specific needs at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explain the operation of and the reactions to the everyday regulation of the segregated cycling facilities in Mexico City. Specifically, through an ethnographic approach, this paper tries to illustrate how social practices, everyday legal interpretations, and police practices intersect so as to reinforce the preeminence of the automobile at the expense of other forms of mobility, such as cycling. This question is essential in the ongoing efforts to develop a more sustainable and inclusive world. Research findings suggest that, in contrast with an isolationist image typified by the recurring figure of the law as a static tool for encouraging a bike-friendly society, urban traffic regulation actually represents a complex aggregate of actors, practices, and institutions which are constantly in motion and in which alternative ways towards a more varied and sustainable world are recursively enforced or resisted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I focus on the regional surveys undertaken in 1960–1975—their development, implementation, key accomplishments, and major shortcomings. I also point to how resulting survey data and surface collections have provided the foundations for subsequent research on a variety of specific problems, sites, and locales, and how complementary historical and ethnographical studies have contributed to interpretations of pre-Columbian settlement patterns. I consider how off-site survey can, and should, complement the more extensive regional surveys that have been carried out in the past. While lamenting the archaeological record lost to modern development, in a more positive vein I suggest lines of productive future investigation that might still be undertaken to extend the significance of past results, evaluate a series of questions and hypotheses defined by the surveys, and help conserve archaeological sites and collections for future study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revista de Antropología Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the current trends in conducting ethnographies, with time and funding limitations and the need to reflect on the researcher's positionality, this article explores the implications of conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a mixed team (in terms of gender, race and nationality) with highly vulnerable populations in a context of crisis. To that end, the article analyses the experience of conducting a team ethnography with African migrants in Tijuana, Mexico. While the study did not start with a self-awareness of what a team ethnography implied, as fieldwork developed the gender, race and nationality of both interviewees and researchers became crucial elements to produce a meaningful multi-layered, multiply-positioned ethnography. This article argues that methodological flexibility and the researchers' relationship with themselves and the respondents are vital elements that require further experimentation in ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used social network analysis (SNA) to identify the types of water-related conflicts between the users and members of the institutional arena of the Rio Mayo Irrigation District (RMID) within the ancestral territory of the Yoreme Mayo indigenous group in Sonora, northeastern Mexico. We combined ethnography with an analysis and visualization of bimodal networks that consisted of 118 users and their connections to the institutional arena's 30 identified social actors who influence water management. Using a clustering algorithm, we identified four types of conflicts: (1) disputes between small- and large-scale farmers over (i) irrigation water and (ii) payments for water rights and land rental; (2) the struggle by large-scale farmers against the upper level of the water hierarchy, to obtain more water; (3) struggles by rural indigenous women against water providers, to conserve indigenous vernacular systems of managing water for domestic use; and (4) a "conflict" that turned out to be merely a structural remnant of the algorithm. We conclude that land- and water-grabbing in the RMID mainly affect indigenous small-scale farmers and that the combination of SNA and a clustering algorithm can identify the types of natural resource-related conflicts that might go undetected by other methodologies. However, SNA should in some cases be accompanied by a qualitative methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appropriation and reproduction of pre-modern graphic materials constituted the ‘primitive’ in modernist and ethnographic discourses. George Bataille’s study of pre-Columbian historical anthropology and his misreading of a reproduction of a figure in a Mexican codex as a scene of human sacrifice initiated his anti-humanist project. Bataille’s parasitic dependency on the pre-modern provides an analytical point of departure towards a critique of modernist cultural relativism. This paper pursues incidents where horror is seated in humanist accounts of early modern mnemonic technologies and pictorial structures from the Arma Christi in a sixteenth-century Mexican featherwork mosaic to the ‘regressive’ Carolingian perspective discussed by Erwin Panofsky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of tourism imaginaries as generative social practices in the production of places as tourist places. This will be accomplished through an ethnographical analysis detailing the production of two distinct alternative tourist imaginaries in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). Firstly, this paper will explore how the ecotourist imaginary of a ‘pristine natural resort’ is performed at the Biosphere Reserve Ria Celestun through very specific tourism practices that veil other tourist uses and alternative imaginaries of the place. Secondly, it will explore how the tourist imaginary of a ‘golden past’ and a ‘taste of luxury’ at Hacienda Temozon Sur is performed through various highly selective material arrangements and practices that veil contemporary social inequalities as well as a problematic past. The detailed analysis of these processes will reveal these alternative tourism imaginaries as powerful forces in the reproduction of contemporary patterns of spatial segregation, social marginalization, and uneven development in the Yucatan Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary social movements operate not only as actors in local affairs, but as nodes in interlinked social networks that often cross myriad borders. This paper offers an ethnographic account of one such movement based in Oaxaca, Mexico--the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). Incorporating the notion of "meshworks," this paper demonstrates not only how the APPO exhibits definitive characteristics of a meshwork, such as being self-organized and highly heterogeneous, but also how these very factors have been both the movement's greatest strength and the source of some of its greatest internal tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People living in poverty have had little opportunity to express their feelings about the precarious situation in which they live. Most studies on poverty have focused on describing its most prominent characteristics, more often in a quantitative manner. This paper aims to explore the way in which people living in poverty conceptualize what they consider important and/or interesting in their everyday lives. Disposable cameras were given to 30 participants. In this paper efforts of 10 different photographers are reported. After the photographs were developed the participants were asked to comment on any aspect or situation portrayed in one or more photographs that could be considered interesting or important to them. Three main topics emerged: family, environmental problems and dangers, and community actions. Most of the photographs and commentaries centered on physically and emotionally-related themes, with a clear tendency to denounce unjust situations and to portray the manner in which the poor cope with the vicissitudes of daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay re-examines the role of Reies Lopez Tijerina, a New Mexican land-grant leader and founder of the Alianza Federal de Mercedes, whose members are best known for their armed takeover of the Rio Arriba Courthouse in 1967. This essay argues, however, that Tijerina's greatest significance was as a “memory entrepreneur,” that is, someone who popularizes a long-suppressed version of the past, in this case, the history of land loss among Spanish-speaking New Mexicans. Aliancistas put their version of the past on display in 1966 when they occupied the Carson National Forest's Echo Amphitheater campground on the basis of long-forgotten land claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of La Manzana de la discordia is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Salud Mental is the property of Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria Ramon de la Fuente and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This special issue is meant to discuss the following issues: how can we collectively produce meaning? Whom should we research for/with? What should be the aims of our research? We are particularly interested in tackling the ways in which collaborative ethnographies are being constructed, from different perspectives, and how the multiple decisions affecting them are taken. With the aim of contextualizing the ethnographic experiences discussed in this volume, in this presentation we frame the historical emergence of collaborative ethnography and sum up the main contributions done by Anthropology. Then, we point out the main contents of the articles included in this issue, which is made up of six papers proceeding from ongoing researches, all of them collaborative, engaged and even activist in some cases, undertaken together with different actors in diverse scenarios. Our interlocutors have been Mexican women emigrated to New York, young Indigenous graduated at the Intercultural University of Veracruz, neighbors from marginalized neighborhoods in Lisbon, social movements and platforms for the right to housing in Spain. A great variety of contexts, perspectives and knowledge(s) emerge from this review: even though ethnography is central for all of them, it is accompanied by a plurality of knowledge(s) and practices -- ranging from radio series to ethnomusicology -- paving the way to diverse strategies of knowledge production -- story telling, collective workshops, conversations. A set of core-issues is emerging overall, and we hope it may contribute to the discussion on the tensions, dilemmas and potentialities of collaborative and engaged ethnography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The hot–cold classification system for things and concepts is widely used by many human groups in Mexico. We conducted a comprehensive review to understand the history, themes, and distribution of this system. Methods: We analyzed publications based on field work in Mexico, considering publication date, research approach, study depth, and conceptual domains. We identified the ethnic groups that use the system and the places where they live. A map illustrates the geographic and cultural distribution of the system. Results: The hot–cold system has been documented in 101 academic publications spanning almost a century, particularly for traditional medicine and food. Initially dominated by anthropological studies, ethnobotanists have increasingly contributed to the research. The hot–cold system is utilized by at least 56 indigenous ethnic groups (81% of the total) and mestizos (whose primary or sole language is Spanish) across most of Mexico. Discussion: Anthropologists laid the foundation for understanding the hot–cold system, on which current ethnobotany builds. However, there are still knowledge gaps, for example on some domains (human beings, landscape) and on patterns by regions or linguistic families. The geographic and cultural distribution presented here is approximate, as group ethnicity is imprecise. Conclusions: The hot–cold system is widely applied in Mexico, although some variations exist. Further exploration of understudied domains, and variations between ethnic groups and regions, would contribute to a comprehensive explanation of this interconnected worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to advance the understanding of the link between culture, territory and organisation in Mexico. My analysis considered how legal and customary access to natural and cultural Commons impacts on the governance and cultural control of two tourism projects in rural Mexico, and the products they offer. Using a tourist/quotidian ethnography and critical readings of cultural texts, produced to promote their tourist products, this study highlights tensions that have emerged when the appropriation of the natural and cultural Commons benefits specific groups to the exclusion of others. In this context organisational characteristics associated with territory, land tenure and customs are relevant to understanding the challenges alternative tourism projects have, both in terms of managing multiple pressures and taking advantage of emerging opportunities that nature and culture provide for offering a meaningful tourism cultural experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic Kidney Disease disproportionately affects the poor in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Mexico exemplifies the difficulties faced in supporting Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) and providing equitable patient care, despite recent attempts at health reform. The objective of this study is to document the challenges faced by uninsured, poor Mexican families when attempting to access RRT. Methods: The article takes an ethnographic approach, using interviewing and observation to generate detailed accounts of the problems that accompany attempts to secure care. The study, based in the state of Jalisco, comprised interviews with patients, their caregivers, health and social care professionals, among others. Observations were carried out in both clinical and social settings. Results: In the absence of organised health information and stable pathways to renal care, patients and their families work extraordinarily hard and at great expense to secure care in a mixed public-private healthcare system. As part of this work, they must navigate challenging health and social care environments, negotiate treatments and costs, resource and finance healthcare and manage a wide range of formal and informal health information. Conclusions: Examining commonalities across pathways to adequate healthcare reveals major failings in the Mexican system. These systemic problems serve to reproduce and deepen health inequalities. A system, in which the costs of renal care are disproportionately borne by those who can least afford them, faces major difficulties around the sustainability and resourcing of RRTs. Attempts to increase access to renal therapies, therefore, need to take into account the complex social and economic demands this places on those who need access most. This paper further shows that ethnographic studies of the concrete ways in which healthcare is accessed in practice provide important insights into the plight of CKD patients and so constitute an important source of evidence in that effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Antropología Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Xipe Totek is the property of Xipe Totek and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As part of the Mexican educational system, the subsystem of intercultural higher education seeks to provide a culturally sensitive academic formation for students defined as ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse. In practice, it focuses on students from indigenous areas, who have been historically excluded from formal education. Today's ‘intercultural universities’ represent a new kind of educational diversity regime. Examining the case of the Universidad Veracruzana Intercultural (UVI), this paper shows that these new institutions, while still rooted in traditional indigenista orientations, are beginning to transcend them by targeting diversity in a more complex way that involves strategies to mainstream diversity, recognize difference and counter historically rooted inequalities and asymmetries. This study presents preliminary results of InterSaberes, an ethnographic research project that collects, compares and systematizes the diversity of knowledges and skills being generated in the teaching and non-teaching contexts of the UVI programs. Fieldwork materials are used to analyze how knowledge diversity and diverse ways of knowing are being constructed, managed, intertwined, exchanged and perceived, in the process of ‘interculturalizing’ higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I engage in the critically reflexive exercise of thinking about positionality relationally and as a multi-faceted process that incorporates the fieldwork stage, but extends to other dimensions of the research endeavor. Drawing from my experience as a PhD student studying neoliberal policy efforts to change the image of Mexico City, I show how my positionality affected the development of my theoretical framework, which in turn framed the design and conduct of field research. The perspective I present is based on my position as a white, relatively affluent, woman with a Marxist-nourished background, engaging with poststructural perspectives and conducting ethnographic fieldwork with street vendors in Mexico City. Using the notion of relational positionality, I discuss how the multiple trajectories and relations that influence researchers' subject formation affect different aspects of research, from the ontological to the methodological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As music increasingly links the global and the local and vice versa, fusions of diverse musical genres and styles burgeon. Globalisation theory (specifically Appadurai) has spurred explorations of musical hybridity and cross-fertilisation among scholars from different academic fields focusing on music. In this essay, I argue for the necessity of understanding global cultural interactions and musical appropriations or exchanges in the context of the ambivalences of the globalised mass diffusion and the power asymmetries involved. The purpose of this paper is to contextualise contemporary theoretical considerations by describing the Yoremensamble project – a government-sponsored cultural project in which a group of urban mestizo musicians from northwestern Mexico appropriated local indigenous musical expressions to produce an album titled ‘Hombre digno’ (‘Dignified man’). The album is just one of many projects around the globe in which artists self-consciously re-localize global popular music styles. The resulting sonic fusions point to the need for a critical cultural analysis of such translocal and global phenomena which is rooted in ethnography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]