Jeffrey Banister | University of Arizona (original) (raw)
Papers by Jeffrey Banister
Geopolitics, 2017
This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining... more This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities.
Journal of Latin American Geography, 2016
This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of ... more This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of peasant and indigenous communities into Sustainable Rural Cities (SRCs) in Chiapas, Mexico. The SRC initiative aims to reduce poverty and inequality through the construction of housing in a "semi-urban environment" that offers services ranging from basic to complex. We analyze this initiative as an attempt to politically and materially reconstitute rural life in Chiapas in order to create governable spaces and submissive citizens. From this perspective, the government's objectives can be seen as a move to dictate social and political practices through the construction of space and control over the means of production, resulting in an increasing dependency that reduces possibilities for self-organization. However, this process is also being contested, resulting in new patterns of semi-urban living that diverge significantly from the official vision.
Political Geography, 2007
This paper critiques the largely Anglophone ''New Cultural History'' (NCH) written on postrevolut... more This paper critiques the largely Anglophone ''New Cultural History'' (NCH) written on postrevolutionary Mexico, calling for a more robust theoretical and methodological approach to the state than scholars have thus far employed. Earlier trends, each of course inflected with the politics of their times, remained fastened upon the purportedly unified force of Mexican officialdom. Revisionist narratives tended to abstract the state from social and cultural belief and practice. As such, scholars' grasp of social change was weakened by their failure to see politics, culture, and society as interrelated processes. Nevertheless, the closer examination of popular culture stressed by some contemporary historiansdan undeniably important analytical tackdstill does not obviate the need for a solid, at times even central, focus on processes of state-formation. Herein, I review some of the critical contributions to a growing multidisciplinary field of state/culture studies, and from critical human geography, and suggest ways their insights might be useful for historians and historical geographers focusing on the post-revolutionary Mexican state.
Environmental History, 2010
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2011
mind-boggling map-cum-diagram the wave fronts for signals emanating from five local or regional b... more mind-boggling map-cum-diagram the wave fronts for signals emanating from five local or regional broadcasting stations. Light also figures conspicuously in this postage stamp of a territory with four pairs of illuminating pages documenting “Night Sky,” “Pools of Light,” “Rhythm of the Sun,” and “The Light at Night on Cutler Street.” I must applaud with special glee the appearance of a pair of offerings informing us about the world of sound, a topic studiously ignored by virtually all geographers: “A Sound Walk” and “Wind Chimes.” Aside from giving us a glorious assemblage of fascinating glimpses into a deeply cherished place, what has been achieved? At a quite elementary level—and even though it is a genre Wood disdains—we do have here at least some sort of reference work. But what about the higher goal? Is “Everything Sings” a meaningful, logicladen step forward toward a fully armed narrative atlas, one with a real argument and a worthy destination? Has he closed the deal on neighborhoods as process or transformers? The only honest verdict must be this: not proven. Perhaps it is only in the realm of superior fiction that we approach the true essence of places and their dynamics with such famous achievements as William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha and James Joyce’s Dublin. In the realm of nonfiction, where visual images do not suffice and we must also hear human voices, in some exceptional instances of participant observation, such as James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, where we penetrate into the lives of Alabama sharecroppers, or Henry Glassie’s Ballymenone, we do get at the soul of a community. Denis Wood is about halfway there. Thanks for the cartographic effort and please keep on trying.
International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2008
Mexico's evolving water management framework is predicated on: (1) integration of water resources... more Mexico's evolving water management framework is predicated on: (1) integration of water resources planning and management; (2) decentralization from federal to 'regional' (river basin) levels; and (3) privatization of service provision. This paper focuses on Mexico's recurring federal-regional tensions, highlighting the historical case of the Yaqui River, and analyzing the current decentralization impasse. Although important advances have been made with irrigation management transfer, river basin councils, nascent user participation in groundwater management, and water and energy legislation, integrated water resources management (IWRM) remains an elusive goal, principally due to inherent institutional and procedural contradictions in water resource allocation. The next steps in the Mexican model-to open decision making to public scrutiny and devolve allocation of water and financial resources-will prove the most difficult, more because of entrenched interests than for lack of an 'IWRM roadmap'.
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
This special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance brings together emerging scholarship that e... more This special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance brings together emerging scholarship that explores relationships between clandestine economies and the political geographies of law enforcement. Such relationships demand greater critical attention by scholars. To give just one example, the 2011 United Nations' World Drug Report estimated that the global illegal drug market is worth between US$300 and US$500 billion every year. Given this volume and scope, the drug trade and the prohibitions that structure it have come to dramatically influence the behaviour of states and national economies. Yet, figures like those of the United Nations are little more than conjecture, for there are no reliable sources or metrics by which to gauge the scale of illicit economies. The figures are thus consistently disputed, and the study of illicit phenomena continues to present profound challenges. By their very nature, the drug trade and other illicit activities evade monitoring and documentation; they operate beyond the reach of the typical information-gathering methods of researchers working within and outside of government. The drug trade and related black markets therefore present tremendous methodological and epistemological problems. We know they exist and to a certain extent we can study their effects, but we can rarely grasp them directly; often, we face considerable challenges in our attempts to do so (cf. TUNNEL, 1998; NORDSTROM, 2004). Illicit economies of course are not limited to drugs. From petroleum to 'pirated' music to basic services like electricity, sanitation, and water, people across the planet depend upon and are tied into shadow markets of all kinds. The formal distinction between states and 'illegal' or 'illicit' activity therefore must also be troubled. This is so not only because 'illegality' is itself largely a state construct, but because, as HEYMAN and SMART (1999) argue, state actors actively participate in nearly every aspect of illegal markets, blurring the lines that would otherwise separate law and authority on the one hand, and criminal or illegitimate practices on the other. This participation may be authorized but secret, as in the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm's secret trafficking of weapons into Mexico as part of an alleged intelligence-gathering operation (CONROY, 2012); it may involve complicity through lax or permissive oversight, as in the U.S. Department of Justice's 2012 decision not to criminally prosecute administrators and executives of banks like HSBC for laundering billions of dollars in illegal drug profits (GREENWALD, 2012). Or, it may involve taking kickbacks and
Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the... more Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Downloaded 18-Sep-2016 23:55:59
Water alternatives, 2011
Northwest Mexico’s irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del... more Northwest Mexico’s irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del Mayo, issues from historical struggles to build an official order out of a diverse world of signs, symbols, processes, places, and peoples. It is the ancestral home of the Yoreme (Mayo), an indigenous group for whom colonisation and agricultural development have meant the loss of autonomy and of the seasonal mobility required to subsist in an arid land. It is also the birthplace of President Alvaro Obregon, a one-time chickpea farmer who transformed late19th century irrigation praxis into the laws and institutions of 20th century water management. Reshaping territory for the ends of centralising ('federalising') water resources has always proved exceedingly difficult in the Mayo. But this was particularly so in the beginning of the federalisation process, a time of aggressive modernisation under the direction of President Porfirio Diaz (1876-1910). Research on Mexican hydraulic ...
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
ABSTRACT
This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining... more This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities.
Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2015
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2016
This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of ... more This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of peasant and indigenous communities into Sustainable Rural Cities (SRCs) in Chiapas, Mexico. The SRC initiative aims to reduce poverty and inequality through the construction of housing in a “semi-urban environment” that offers services ranging from basic to complex. We analyze this initiative as an attempt to politically and materially reconstitute rural life in Chiapas in order to create governable spaces and submissive citizens. From this perspective, the government’s objectives can be seen as a move to dictate social and political practices through the construction of space and control over the means of production, resulting in an increasing dependency that reduces possibilities for self-organization. However, this process is also being contested, resulting in new patterns of semi-urban living that diverge significantly from the official vision.
Resumen:
Este artículo examina los cambios en las prácticas socio-espaciales que han resultado de la reubicación de las comunidades campesinas e indígenas a las Ciudades Rurales Sustentables (SRCs) en Chiapas, México. Las SRCs tienen como objetivo reducir la pobreza y desigualdad a través de la construcción de viviendas en un “ambiente semi-urbano” que ofrece servicios básicos y más complejos. Analizamos esta iniciativa como un intento por reconstituir política y materialmente la vida rural en Chiapas con el fin de crear espacios gobernables y ciudadanos sumisos. Desde esta perspectiva, los objetivos del gobierno pueden verse como una estrategia para dictar las prácticas sociales y políticas a través de la construcción del espacio y el control de los medios de producción, lo que resulta en una mayor dependencia que reduce las posibilidades de auto-organización. Sin embargo, este proceso también está siendo disputado, resultando en nuevos patrones de vida semi-urbana que difieren significativamente de la visión oficial.
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
This is an introduction to a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance on "politi... more This is an introduction to a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance on "political geographies of the illicit." It includes an introduction to the themes, questions and problems tackled by the contributors to the special issue, as well as a summary of the papers included.
Resumen: El actual distrito de riego 038 o valle del Mayo, que forma parte del espacio de riego d... more Resumen: El actual distrito de riego 038 o valle del Mayo, que forma parte del espacio de riego del noroeste de México, surge de luchas históricas por construir un orden oficial en un mundo diverso de signos, símbolos, procesos, lugares y personas. Es el hogar ancestral de los yoremes (mayos), un grupo indígena para el que la colonización y el desarrollo agrícola han significado la pérdida de autonomía y de la movilidad estacional que requieren para subsistir en un terreno árido. Es el lugar donde nació el presidente Álvaro Obregón, otrora productor de garbanzo, que transformó las prácticas de riego de fines del siglo xix en las leyes e instituciones para la administración del agua del siglo xx. Reconfigurar el territorio con el fin de centralizar ("federalizar") los recursos hídricos ha probado ser excesivamente difícil en la zona del Mayo, pero esto fue así en particular al inicio del proceso de federalización, una época de modernización dinámica bajo la dirección del presidente Porfirio Díaz . La investigación sobre la política hidráulica de México, con algunas importantes excepciones, ha tendido a enfocarse en la centraliza-Región y sociedad / númeRo especial 3 / 2012
Water Alternatives
Northwest Mexico's irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del... more Northwest Mexico's irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del Mayo, issues from historical struggles to build an official order out of a diverse world of signs, symbols, processes, places, and peoples. It is the ancestral home of the Yoreme (Mayo), an indigenous group for whom colonisation and agricultural development have meant the loss of autonomy and of the seasonal mobility required to subsist in an arid land. It is also the birthplace of President Álvaro Obregón, a one-time chickpea farmer who transformed late-19th century irrigation praxis into the laws and institutions of 20th century water management. Reshaping territory for the ends of centralising ('federalising') water resources has always proved exceedingly difficult in the Mayo. But this was particularly so in the beginning of the federalisation process, a time of aggressive modernisation under the direction of President Porfirio Díaz . Research on Mexican hydraulic politics and policy, with some important exceptions, has tended to focus on the scale and scope of centralisation. Scholars have paid less attention to the moments and places where water escapes officials' otherwise ironclad grasp. This paper explores water governance (and state formation more broadly) in the late 19th century, on the eve of Mexico's 1910 Revolution, as an ongoing, ever-inchoate series of territorial claims and projects. Understanding the weaknesses and incompleteness of such projects offers critical insight into post-revolutionary and/or contemporary hydraulic politics.
Geopolitics, 2017
This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining... more This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities.
Journal of Latin American Geography, 2016
This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of ... more This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of peasant and indigenous communities into Sustainable Rural Cities (SRCs) in Chiapas, Mexico. The SRC initiative aims to reduce poverty and inequality through the construction of housing in a "semi-urban environment" that offers services ranging from basic to complex. We analyze this initiative as an attempt to politically and materially reconstitute rural life in Chiapas in order to create governable spaces and submissive citizens. From this perspective, the government's objectives can be seen as a move to dictate social and political practices through the construction of space and control over the means of production, resulting in an increasing dependency that reduces possibilities for self-organization. However, this process is also being contested, resulting in new patterns of semi-urban living that diverge significantly from the official vision.
Political Geography, 2007
This paper critiques the largely Anglophone ''New Cultural History'' (NCH) written on postrevolut... more This paper critiques the largely Anglophone ''New Cultural History'' (NCH) written on postrevolutionary Mexico, calling for a more robust theoretical and methodological approach to the state than scholars have thus far employed. Earlier trends, each of course inflected with the politics of their times, remained fastened upon the purportedly unified force of Mexican officialdom. Revisionist narratives tended to abstract the state from social and cultural belief and practice. As such, scholars' grasp of social change was weakened by their failure to see politics, culture, and society as interrelated processes. Nevertheless, the closer examination of popular culture stressed by some contemporary historiansdan undeniably important analytical tackdstill does not obviate the need for a solid, at times even central, focus on processes of state-formation. Herein, I review some of the critical contributions to a growing multidisciplinary field of state/culture studies, and from critical human geography, and suggest ways their insights might be useful for historians and historical geographers focusing on the post-revolutionary Mexican state.
Environmental History, 2010
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2011
mind-boggling map-cum-diagram the wave fronts for signals emanating from five local or regional b... more mind-boggling map-cum-diagram the wave fronts for signals emanating from five local or regional broadcasting stations. Light also figures conspicuously in this postage stamp of a territory with four pairs of illuminating pages documenting “Night Sky,” “Pools of Light,” “Rhythm of the Sun,” and “The Light at Night on Cutler Street.” I must applaud with special glee the appearance of a pair of offerings informing us about the world of sound, a topic studiously ignored by virtually all geographers: “A Sound Walk” and “Wind Chimes.” Aside from giving us a glorious assemblage of fascinating glimpses into a deeply cherished place, what has been achieved? At a quite elementary level—and even though it is a genre Wood disdains—we do have here at least some sort of reference work. But what about the higher goal? Is “Everything Sings” a meaningful, logicladen step forward toward a fully armed narrative atlas, one with a real argument and a worthy destination? Has he closed the deal on neighborhoods as process or transformers? The only honest verdict must be this: not proven. Perhaps it is only in the realm of superior fiction that we approach the true essence of places and their dynamics with such famous achievements as William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha and James Joyce’s Dublin. In the realm of nonfiction, where visual images do not suffice and we must also hear human voices, in some exceptional instances of participant observation, such as James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, where we penetrate into the lives of Alabama sharecroppers, or Henry Glassie’s Ballymenone, we do get at the soul of a community. Denis Wood is about halfway there. Thanks for the cartographic effort and please keep on trying.
International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2008
Mexico's evolving water management framework is predicated on: (1) integration of water resources... more Mexico's evolving water management framework is predicated on: (1) integration of water resources planning and management; (2) decentralization from federal to 'regional' (river basin) levels; and (3) privatization of service provision. This paper focuses on Mexico's recurring federal-regional tensions, highlighting the historical case of the Yaqui River, and analyzing the current decentralization impasse. Although important advances have been made with irrigation management transfer, river basin councils, nascent user participation in groundwater management, and water and energy legislation, integrated water resources management (IWRM) remains an elusive goal, principally due to inherent institutional and procedural contradictions in water resource allocation. The next steps in the Mexican model-to open decision making to public scrutiny and devolve allocation of water and financial resources-will prove the most difficult, more because of entrenched interests than for lack of an 'IWRM roadmap'.
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
This special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance brings together emerging scholarship that e... more This special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance brings together emerging scholarship that explores relationships between clandestine economies and the political geographies of law enforcement. Such relationships demand greater critical attention by scholars. To give just one example, the 2011 United Nations' World Drug Report estimated that the global illegal drug market is worth between US$300 and US$500 billion every year. Given this volume and scope, the drug trade and the prohibitions that structure it have come to dramatically influence the behaviour of states and national economies. Yet, figures like those of the United Nations are little more than conjecture, for there are no reliable sources or metrics by which to gauge the scale of illicit economies. The figures are thus consistently disputed, and the study of illicit phenomena continues to present profound challenges. By their very nature, the drug trade and other illicit activities evade monitoring and documentation; they operate beyond the reach of the typical information-gathering methods of researchers working within and outside of government. The drug trade and related black markets therefore present tremendous methodological and epistemological problems. We know they exist and to a certain extent we can study their effects, but we can rarely grasp them directly; often, we face considerable challenges in our attempts to do so (cf. TUNNEL, 1998; NORDSTROM, 2004). Illicit economies of course are not limited to drugs. From petroleum to 'pirated' music to basic services like electricity, sanitation, and water, people across the planet depend upon and are tied into shadow markets of all kinds. The formal distinction between states and 'illegal' or 'illicit' activity therefore must also be troubled. This is so not only because 'illegality' is itself largely a state construct, but because, as HEYMAN and SMART (1999) argue, state actors actively participate in nearly every aspect of illegal markets, blurring the lines that would otherwise separate law and authority on the one hand, and criminal or illegitimate practices on the other. This participation may be authorized but secret, as in the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm's secret trafficking of weapons into Mexico as part of an alleged intelligence-gathering operation (CONROY, 2012); it may involve complicity through lax or permissive oversight, as in the U.S. Department of Justice's 2012 decision not to criminally prosecute administrators and executives of banks like HSBC for laundering billions of dollars in illegal drug profits (GREENWALD, 2012). Or, it may involve taking kickbacks and
Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the... more Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Downloaded 18-Sep-2016 23:55:59
Water alternatives, 2011
Northwest Mexico’s irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del... more Northwest Mexico’s irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del Mayo, issues from historical struggles to build an official order out of a diverse world of signs, symbols, processes, places, and peoples. It is the ancestral home of the Yoreme (Mayo), an indigenous group for whom colonisation and agricultural development have meant the loss of autonomy and of the seasonal mobility required to subsist in an arid land. It is also the birthplace of President Alvaro Obregon, a one-time chickpea farmer who transformed late19th century irrigation praxis into the laws and institutions of 20th century water management. Reshaping territory for the ends of centralising ('federalising') water resources has always proved exceedingly difficult in the Mayo. But this was particularly so in the beginning of the federalisation process, a time of aggressive modernisation under the direction of President Porfirio Diaz (1876-1910). Research on Mexican hydraulic ...
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
ABSTRACT
This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining... more This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities.
Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2015
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2016
This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of ... more This paper examines changes in socio-spatial practices that have resulted from the relocation of peasant and indigenous communities into Sustainable Rural Cities (SRCs) in Chiapas, Mexico. The SRC initiative aims to reduce poverty and inequality through the construction of housing in a “semi-urban environment” that offers services ranging from basic to complex. We analyze this initiative as an attempt to politically and materially reconstitute rural life in Chiapas in order to create governable spaces and submissive citizens. From this perspective, the government’s objectives can be seen as a move to dictate social and political practices through the construction of space and control over the means of production, resulting in an increasing dependency that reduces possibilities for self-organization. However, this process is also being contested, resulting in new patterns of semi-urban living that diverge significantly from the official vision.
Resumen:
Este artículo examina los cambios en las prácticas socio-espaciales que han resultado de la reubicación de las comunidades campesinas e indígenas a las Ciudades Rurales Sustentables (SRCs) en Chiapas, México. Las SRCs tienen como objetivo reducir la pobreza y desigualdad a través de la construcción de viviendas en un “ambiente semi-urbano” que ofrece servicios básicos y más complejos. Analizamos esta iniciativa como un intento por reconstituir política y materialmente la vida rural en Chiapas con el fin de crear espacios gobernables y ciudadanos sumisos. Desde esta perspectiva, los objetivos del gobierno pueden verse como una estrategia para dictar las prácticas sociales y políticas a través de la construcción del espacio y el control de los medios de producción, lo que resulta en una mayor dependencia que reduce las posibilidades de auto-organización. Sin embargo, este proceso también está siendo disputado, resultando en nuevos patrones de vida semi-urbana que difieren significativamente de la visión oficial.
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2015
This is an introduction to a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance on "politi... more This is an introduction to a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance on "political geographies of the illicit." It includes an introduction to the themes, questions and problems tackled by the contributors to the special issue, as well as a summary of the papers included.
Resumen: El actual distrito de riego 038 o valle del Mayo, que forma parte del espacio de riego d... more Resumen: El actual distrito de riego 038 o valle del Mayo, que forma parte del espacio de riego del noroeste de México, surge de luchas históricas por construir un orden oficial en un mundo diverso de signos, símbolos, procesos, lugares y personas. Es el hogar ancestral de los yoremes (mayos), un grupo indígena para el que la colonización y el desarrollo agrícola han significado la pérdida de autonomía y de la movilidad estacional que requieren para subsistir en un terreno árido. Es el lugar donde nació el presidente Álvaro Obregón, otrora productor de garbanzo, que transformó las prácticas de riego de fines del siglo xix en las leyes e instituciones para la administración del agua del siglo xx. Reconfigurar el territorio con el fin de centralizar ("federalizar") los recursos hídricos ha probado ser excesivamente difícil en la zona del Mayo, pero esto fue así en particular al inicio del proceso de federalización, una época de modernización dinámica bajo la dirección del presidente Porfirio Díaz . La investigación sobre la política hidráulica de México, con algunas importantes excepciones, ha tendido a enfocarse en la centraliza-Región y sociedad / númeRo especial 3 / 2012
Water Alternatives
Northwest Mexico's irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del... more Northwest Mexico's irrigation landscape, known today as El Distrito de Riego 038, or El Valle del Mayo, issues from historical struggles to build an official order out of a diverse world of signs, symbols, processes, places, and peoples. It is the ancestral home of the Yoreme (Mayo), an indigenous group for whom colonisation and agricultural development have meant the loss of autonomy and of the seasonal mobility required to subsist in an arid land. It is also the birthplace of President Álvaro Obregón, a one-time chickpea farmer who transformed late-19th century irrigation praxis into the laws and institutions of 20th century water management. Reshaping territory for the ends of centralising ('federalising') water resources has always proved exceedingly difficult in the Mayo. But this was particularly so in the beginning of the federalisation process, a time of aggressive modernisation under the direction of President Porfirio Díaz . Research on Mexican hydraulic politics and policy, with some important exceptions, has tended to focus on the scale and scope of centralisation. Scholars have paid less attention to the moments and places where water escapes officials' otherwise ironclad grasp. This paper explores water governance (and state formation more broadly) in the late 19th century, on the eve of Mexico's 1910 Revolution, as an ongoing, ever-inchoate series of territorial claims and projects. Understanding the weaknesses and incompleteness of such projects offers critical insight into post-revolutionary and/or contemporary hydraulic politics.