Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil

by James Holston

Insurgent citizenships have arisen in cities around the world. This book examines the insurgence of democratic citizenship in the urban peripheries of São Paulo, Brazil, its entanglement with entrenched systems of inequality, and its contradiction in violence.

James Holston argues that for two centuries Brazilians have practiced a type of citizenship all too common among nation-states--one that is universally inclusive in national membership and massively inegalitarian in distributing rights and in its legalization of social differences. But since the 1970s, he shows, residents of Brazil's urban peripheries have formulated a new citizenship that is destabilizing the old. Their mobilizations have developed not primarily through struggles of labor but through those of the city--particularly illegal residence, house building, and land conflict. Yet precisely as Brazilians democratized urban space and achieved political democracy, violence, injustice, and impunity increased dramatically. Based on comparative, ethnographic, and historical research, Insurgent Citizenship reveals why the insurgent and the entrenched remain dangerously conjoined as new kinds of citizens expand democracy even as new forms of violence and exclusion erode it.

Rather than view this paradox as evidence of democratic failure and urban chaos, Insurgent Citizenship argues that contradictory realizations of citizenship characterize all democracies--emerging and established. Focusing on processes of city- and citizen-making now prevalent globally, it develops new approaches for understanding the contemporary course of democratic citizenship in societies of vastly different cultures and histories.

Genres: Research, History, Anthropology

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2007

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely has the long-windedness of an anthropological work, but it gives you a good journey through Sao Paolo’s lively peripheries. Making sense of Brazilian patterns, past and present. Admittedly the chapters actually outlining his theory of “Insurgent Citizenship” are easily the weakest of the bunch, failing to compellingly deploy his bevy of primary engagements with the Paolistas to craft a convincing argument. It honestly felt like the weight of the Brazilian state’s disjunction between its governing capacity and responsibilities was the dominant force dictating the trends Holston identified. That conclusion itself is fascinating, and not necessarily one the author disagrees with, but is certainly shunned in favor of a more technical/confusing argument about the the periphery’s power in…. Remaining the periphery.

Perhaps a final chapter detailing the setback of democracy was not the best choice, organizationally, for writing a book arguing that the periphery feels empowered.

Nevertheless, a good work for readers interested in the urbanism of “the other half” (well, probably more like other 2/3).

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic insight into the history of democracy in Sao Paulo that resonates today for emerging democracies all over the world. Well-written, passionate, and a rare hybrid of anthropological case studies, sociological statistics, and analysis of language/text. It helped me think about the current struggles of violent and differentiated citizenship in Turkey, China, Europe, and the U.S. and actual practical steps to take as an activist invested in fighting for universal egalitarian citizenship.

[n]

thesis book

[John Blatzheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and well argued. Be warned though, it's very dense with several chapters dedicated to Brazilian legal and political history. Probably not for everyone, but if you're a Latin Americanist or a fan of ethnographies you'll definitely enjoy this one.

[Cristhian Parra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent review of the many conflicts that surround the development of citizenship in Brazil (and to some extend, the rest of Latinoamerica).