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- Convenors:
-
Franka Winter
(Maynooth University)
Fiorella Montero Diaz (Royal Holloway, University of London)
- Location:
- Malet 631
- Start time:
- 3 April, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel features qualitative research on social, cultural and political praxes and narratives among social elites in Latin America, fostering innovative approaches and promoting new ways of understanding inequality, inclusion and exclusion through the study of the privileged in Latin America.
Long Abstract:
Qualitative research on the traditional socio-economically privileged sectors of Latin American societies - including the traditional urban upper and upper middle classes - and their subjectivities, worldviews, and cultural and political praxes is still scarce, while the emerging or new middle and upper classes have received more attention. Existing research on these privileged groups is often antagonistic, essentialist or simplistic. This gap is significant, not least because the upper and upper-middle classes define core sites of societal change, such as the higher education, business, NGO, cultural and government sectors.
The proposed panel addresses this research gap by convening scholars with an interest in social, cultural and political praxes and narratives among the socio-economically advantaged in Latin American societies, with a view to fostering innovative approaches and new ways of understanding inclusion, exclusion, citizenship, and identity in Latin America from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Existing research on these sectors leaves us with a very limited understanding of their contributions to and roles in processes of social and political change, which have mainly been studied in relation to marginalised groups of society.
The panel features qualitative accounts of traditional urban upper-class political and cultural narratives and practices, including, but not limited to, culture (music) and citizenship. Departing from the assumption that subjectivities, discourses and praxes are locally specific in a globalized context, we aim to attract scholars with a variety of regional foci in order to better understand both differences and similarities between these social sectors in the different contexts within the region.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Franka Winter (Maynooth University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper addresses the need to rethink distinction in Latin American middle-class research, drawing on a study of Lima's political blogosphere.Bloggers used stories of marginality and power to construct their identities and negotiate authority. These can be seen as horizontal distinction.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing on a research project on the political blogosphere of Lima, a space that is mainly populated by members of the upper middle classes, this paper argues that we need to rethink distinction in Latin American middle-class research. Distinction in this field is almost always seen as vertical (inter-class) distinction, stressing status-consciousness and the desire of middle-class people to move up in life. Asking how bloggers used practices of distinction to construct their own identities and negotiate authority within the blogosphere, the paper argues that distinction operated both vertically and horizontally. Focussing on the latter, the paper argues that bloggers used 'narratives of marginality' to position themselves on the relative margins in relationship to their peers within the blogosphere. I suggest that this can be seen as a form of horizontal distinction, which allows middle-class people to manage the moral ambivalence of being relatively privileged in a highly unequal society and to make claims for discursive authority and credibility.
Alejandra Aguilar Ros (CIESAS (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social))
Paper short abstract:
The paper will deal with the role of religious practices in the narratives of elite groups attending to a shrine in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Paper long abstract:
In Mexico, the study of religious beliefs has mainly concentrated within what in Latin America has been labelled as "popular religion". The term has mainly described how certain devotional customs such as attendance to shrines that are practiced mainly among marginal groups, are in plain confrontation with ecclesiastical authorities.
In this paper I will like to present the religious narratives of upper middle and high class devotees to San Nicolas de Bari in Guadalajara, a shrine located in an urban residential neighbourhood. The shrine is the focus of attendance of at least 5000 people every week on Mondays, to fulfill a three Monday devotion to Saint Nicholas. Devotees ask particularly for progress in their business, for protection of their wealth and families, and health issues. The paper will present interviews with devotees and ecclesiastical authorities to gain understanding on how religion shapes views of class identity and differentiation in Tapatian's views (Guadalajara's dwellers)
The case is interesting because devotees belong to privileged classes, which not only problematizes "popular religion" but also shows how religion is one of the main shapers in class categories.
Jamie-Leigh Ruse
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the changing perceptions of ‘home’ amongst middle and upper class Mexican migrants living in Barcelona, and explores the processes by which they become involved in peace activism oriented towards Mexico. It argues for a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of elite subject positions.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will examine the changing nature of perceptions of "home" amongst middle/upper-class Mexican migrants living in Barcelona and how such changes engender a need to participate in anti-violence activism oriented towards Mexico. The paper begins by exploring the reasons behind an initial desire amongst migrants to 'isolate' themselves from other Mexicans in Catalunya, before unpacking the various processes which cause them to move back towards lo mexicano. Feelings of dislocation and loneliness as a result of barriers to integration in Catalunya contribute to a desire for the familiarity of 'roots', whilst the experience of living in the city and meeting other Latin Americans leads them to question the racial and class structures which exist in Mexico. This can lead to a profound sense of dislocation with regards to where they 'belong' in Mexico. At the same time, keeping in touch with developments in Mexico through online media leads to what I call "home-shock", where being able to 'see' the spread of the violence happening as a result of the conflict between organised crime and state forces causes a profound pain amongst migrants, which acts in contradiction to what they hear from friends and relatives back home, who claim that "everything is fine here". The emotional inhabitation of violence knowledge whilst living abroad causes many to become involved in peace activism. The paper shows how the migrational experiences of Latin American elites are extremely varied, as are the ways in which individuals understand, respond and react to events happening at home.
Fiorella Montero Diaz (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I will document how white upper class fusion musicians and their audience reflect and challenge their own whiteness and privilege using fusion music as an anti-hegemonic instrument to convey social critique and raise political awareness.
Paper long abstract:
Lima's white upper classes have historically distanced themselves from the city's migrant Andean/Amazonian population, whilst maintaining a relationship of hegemony. Their historical social position in the city has been among the reasons why they have often been antagonized and essentialised as culture thieves, naïve, ignorant and superficial. Moreover, with the constant focus on indigenous, mestizo and subaltern social studies, these widespread notions have been left unexamined, with academics tacitly contributing to invisibilising whiteness and wealth through lack of research.
However, this has not stopped a segment of today's young white upper classes in Lima from examining their own social role through music, particularly in the aftermath of the trauma of the twenty-year internal war (1980-2000) between the State and terrorist groups. In this paper, I will document how white upper class fusion musicians and their audience reflect and challenge their own whiteness and privilege using fusion music dialogues and lyrics as an anti-hegemonic instrument to convey social critique and raise political awareness. Music is used as a technology of conflict transformation and identity self-recreation that enables the white upper classes to negotiate and potentially transform their practices of citizenship and social action. Some Lima critics argue that fusion music simply propagates a naïve, chauvinist delusion of social progress and equality in the context of a post-war macroeconomic boom. But one could also counter, that the potential impact of a large minority in the powerful upper classes reexamining their own engagement with the rest of Lima is worth examining nonetheless.