Contesting Publics: Feminism, Activism, Ethnography (Anthropology, Culture and Society)

"Through ethnographic cases and activists' narratives, Contesting Publics analyses the challenges feminists face as they seek to engage with new spaces of participatory democracy in Latin America. Lynne Phillips and Sally Cole analyse how new silences, exclusions and re-inscriptions of inequalities have emerged alongside these new spaces of participation. The book re-examines the relationship between public and private and speaks to a larger theoretical question: what is the meaning of 'the public' within democracy projects? Contesting Publics considers current debates among feminists from different generations on the merits of a variety of strategies, goals and issues, drawing out vital lessons for students, researchers and activists in anthropology, gender studies and Latin American studies."--Publisher's website. Through ethnographic case studies and activists' narratives, Contesting Publics analyses the challenges feminists face as they seek to engage with new spaces of participatory democracy in Latin America.

Lynne Phillips and Sally Cole analyse how new silences, exclusions and re-inscriptions of inequalities have emerged alongside these new spaces of participation. They re-examine the relationship between public and private and address a larger theoretical question: what is the meaning of 'the public' within democracy projects?

Contesting Publics considers current debates among feminists from different generations on the merits of a variety of strategies, goals and issues, drawing out vital lessons for students, researchers and activists in anthropology, gender studies and Latin American studies. Through four case studies Contesting Publics: Feminism, Activism, Ethnography analyses the challenges facing activists to connect gender with issues of race and class. Lynne Phillips and Sally Cole examine women's projects for social change in Latin America. Using these examples, they argue that feminism can produce both new spaces for participation and new silences, exclusions and re-inscriptions of inequalities. The examples thus speak to a larger theoretical question: what is the meaning of 'public' in the spaces of a broadening and deepening democracy? Contesting Publics considers current debates among feminists on the merits of a variety of strategies, goals and issues, drawing out vital lessons for students, researchers and activists in anthropology and gender studies. Cover Series Information Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface: Contesting Publics 1. Towards an Ethnography of Publics - Sally Cole and Lynne Phillips 2. Auto-constructed Feminist Publics: Household Matters in Northeast Brazil - Sally Cole Activist Testimonial: Mariza 3. Saving Women? Awkward Alliances in the Public Spaces of Sex Tourism - Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan Activist Testimonial: Susana and Luisa 4. Feminism and 'Post-Neoliberal' Publics: Working the Spaces of Ecuador's Constitutional Reform - Lynne Phillips Activist Testimonial: Cecilia 5. Gossip as Direct Action - Erica Lagalisse 6. A Pedagogical Conversation: Public Scholars and Public Scholarship - Sally Cole, Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, Erica Lagalisse and Lynne Phillips Notes References Index This book analyses the challenges feminists face as they seek to engage with new spaces of participatory democracy in Latin America. Phillips and Cole analyse how new silences, exclusions and re-inscriptions of inequalities have emerged alongside these new spaces of participation. The book re-examines the relationship between public and private and speaks to a larger theoretical question: what is the meaning of 'the public' within democracy projects? The book considers current debates among feminists from different generations on the merits of a variety of strategies, goals and issues