Who Can Stop the Drums?

by Fernandes, Sujatha

• ISBN13: 9780822346777
• ISBN10: 082234677X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-12
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

In this vivid ethnography of social movements in the barrios, or poor shantytowns, of Caracas, Sujatha Fernandes reveals a significant dimension of political life in Venezuela since President Hugo Chaacute;vez was elected. Fernandes traces the histories of the barrios, from the guerrilla insurgency, movements against displacement, and cultural resistance of the 1960s and 1970s, through the debt crisis of the early 1980s and the neoliberal reforms that followed, to the Chaacute;vez period. She weaves barrio residents' life stories into her account of movements for social and economic justice.Who Can Stop the Drums?demonstrates that the transformations underway in Venezuela are shaped by negotiations between the Chaacute;vez government and social movements with their own forms of historical memory, local organization, and consciousness. Fernandes portrays everyday life and politics in the shantytowns of Caracas through accounts of community-based radio, barrio assemblies, and popular fiestas, and the many interviews she conducted with activists and government officials. Most of the barrio activists she presents are Chaacute;vez supporters. They see the leftist president as someone who understands their precarious lives and has made important changes to the state system to redistribute resources. Yet they must balance receiving state resources, which are necessary to fund their community-based projects, with their desire to retain a sense of agency. Fernandes locates the struggles of the urban poor within Venezuela's transition from neoliberalism to what she calls "post-liberalism." She contends that in contemporary Venezuela we find a hybrid state; while Chavez is actively challenging neoliberalism, the state remains subject to the constraints and logics of global capital.

Author Biography

Sujatha Fernandes is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Individual and Collective Histories
Urban Political Histories	p. 39
Poverty, Violence, and the Neoliberal Turn	p. 64
personal Lives	p. 87
Everday Life and Politic
Culture, Identity, and Urban Movements	p. 113
Barrio-Based Media and Communications	p. 160
The Takeover of the Alameda Theater	p. 212
State-Socity Mediation
The New Coalitional Politics of Social Movements	p. 233
Conclusion	p. 257
Notes	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 285
Index	p. 301
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