This edited collection focusing on Guatemala comprises a series of essays that address the manifestations of neoliberalism in practice. Not surprisingly given Guatemala's troubled history, the chapters foreground issues of security and danger in terms of how people respond to such forces in a neoliberal setting that has seen the withdrawal of the state from the everyday lives of its citizens. The book entails a series of ethnographic accounts centred on Guatemala City and is correctly identified as one of the first comparative attempts to counter the predominantly rural and Mayan anthropological studies of life in Guatemala. For this alone, the book is worth reading. Indeed, although the editors are careful to acknowledge the fledgling and pioneering studies of Guatemala City since the late 1960S, not least by Bryan Roberts, this book is certainly the first of its kind to situate them within contemporary debates of neoliberalism, security and violence, all of which fundamentally shape the functioning of the city.
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