Category Archives: Boundaries

States of Violence

Coronil, Fernando and Julie Skurski, eds. 2006. States of Violence. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. [Ch. 1-3] This brilliant collection edited by Fernando Coronil and Julie Skurski critiques one of the main stories that modernity likes to tell … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Gender, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Post-Colonial, Sovereignty, Spatiality, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

On the Postcolony

Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Intro, Ch. 1-2] In On the Postcolony, Achille Mbembe writes against the making of Africa (and Africans) as a monstrous place, a timeless netherworld suspended from the forward march … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, City, Drugs, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Insurgent Collective Action

Wood, Elisabeth J. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elisabeth Jean Wood’s book explores why some Salvadoran peasants decided to collectively thrust themselves toward that country’s insurgency in the 1970s-1990s. Through a … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Insurgent Collective Action

Fighting for the Rain Forest

Richards, Paul. 1996. Fighting for the Rainforest: War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford: James Currey. Paul Richards main aim in Fighting for the Rain Forest is to argue against what he calls the “New Barbarism” thesis, which presents … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Drugs, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Inside Rebellion

Weinstein, Jeremy M. 2007. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jeremy Weinstein’s Inside Rebellion seeks to reveal why some insurgencies are far more violent against civilian populations than others. In other words, why are some … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Drugs, Forests, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Sovereignty, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Inside Rebellion

Shattering Silence

Aretxaga, Begoña. 1997. Shattering Silence: Women, Nationalism, and Political Subjectivity in Northern Ireland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Begoña Aretxaga explores the problems and promise of feminist change in Northern Ireland with the start of the “Troubles” in the wake … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, City, Everyday Life, Gender, Hegemony, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Place, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Formations of Violence

Feldman, Allen. 1991. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Formations of Violence came highly recommended, and I was not disappointed. The overly dense theoretical introduction and Allen … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, City, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Michel Foucault, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

On the Trail of Latin American Bandits

Joseph, Gilbert M. 1990. “On the Trail of Latin American Bandits: A Reexamination of Peasant Resistance,” Latin American Research Review 25(3): 7-53; & Various Authors. 1991. “Debate on Banditry in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 26(1): 145-174. Gil Joseph … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Dialectics, Hegemony, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Marxism, Nation/Nationalism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on On the Trail of Latin American Bandits

Bandits, Peasants, Politics

Sánchez, Gonzálo and Donny Meertens. 2006. Bandoleros, gamonales y campesinos: El caso de la Violencia en Colombia. Bogotá: Alfaguara. Latin America has been the epicenter of banditry studies. After Hobsbawm’s pioneering survey, Gonzálo Sánchez and Donny Meertens’ study of banditry … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Dialectics, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Bandits, Peasants, Politics

Hobsbawm’s Bandits

Hobsbawm, Eric J. 2000. Bandits. New York: The New Press. Hobsbawm develops his essay on “social banditry” from Primitive Rebels into a book-length exploration in this book, and in this reworked edition responds to some of the critics of the original … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Territory, Terror, The State, Violence | 2 Comments