Citizenship in the Latin American Upper and Middle Classes
Ethnographic Perspectives on Culture and Politics
Routledge Advances in Sociology Series

The problem of citizenship has long affected Latin America, simultaneously producing inclusion and exclusion, division and unity. Its narrative and practice both reflect and contribute to the region?s profound inequalities. However, citizenship is usually studied on the margins of society. Despite substantial public interest in recent mass mobilizations, the middle and upper classes are rarely approached as political agents or citizens. As the region?s middle classes continue to grow and new elites develop, their importance can only increase.

This interdisciplinary volume addresses this gap, showcasing recent ethnographic research on middle- and upper-class citizenship in contemporary Latin America. It explores how the region?s middle and upper classes constitute themselves as citizens through politics and culture, and questions how these processes interact with the construction of difference and commonality, division and unity. Subsequently, this collection highlights how elite citizenships are constructed in dialogue with other identities, how these co-constructions reproduce or challenge inequality, and whether they have the potential to bring about change.

Citizenship in the Latin American Upper and Middle Classes will appeal to scholars, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in fields such as Latin American Studies, Citizenship Studies, Political Science and Cultural Studies; and to a general readership interested in Latin American politics and society.

List of figures

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Foreword – Michelle Bigenho

Introduction – Franka Winter and Fiorella Montero-Diaz

PART I - CULTURE

Chapter 1: From spectators to consumers: Citizenship in the Latin American illustrated press (1880s–1930s) – Maria Chiara D'Argenio

Chapter 2: "What will the respectable public say?": Protest musicianship and class in ‘Sexta’ events in Mexico City – Andrew Green

Chapter 3: Filmmakers as "citizens of the world": Cosmopolitanism and global identities of the Chilean upper-middle class – María Paz Peirano

Chapter 4: Marginal like you!: Constructing citizenship through fusion music in the Peruvian traditional upper classes – Fiorella Montero-Diaz

PART II – POLITICS

Chapter 5: "I would like citizenship to mean understanding the other": Relational notions of citizenship in a divided city – Franka Winter

Chapter 6: Digital alteration and the law against racism: Conflicting models of citizenship among new Bolivian middle classes – Miriam Shakow

Chapter 7: Banging the other side of the saucepan: Changing political activism and performance of citizenship among Argentina’s middle class 2001–2013 – Daniel Ozarow

Chapter 8: Demonstrating ethnicity and social class: The Colombian-Lebanese in Bogota – Esteban Devis-Amaya

Afterword – Fiorella Montero-Diaz and Franka Winter

Index

Fiorella Montero-Diaz is a lecturer in ethnomusicology at Keele University. She holds an M.Mus. from Goldsmiths University and a PhD from Royal Holloway - University of London.

Franka Winter is a political sociologist with a PhD from the University of Dublin.