Jon Shefner, The Illusion of Civil Society: Democratization and Community Mobilization in Low-Income Mexico (University Park PA: Penn State University Press, 2008)

摘要

Jon Shefner has written a delightful book about local politics in a squatter settlement in the neighbourhood of Cerro del Cuatro on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico. His focus is on the activities of the Union de Colonos Independientes (UCI), a grassroots neighbourhood association charged with pressuring the state for urban services such as land ownership, water and sewerage. Shefner conducted the bulk of his fieldwork between 1991 and 1994, and then went back numerous times until his last, brief visit in 2006. As a consequence, he knows his research site well and is able to provide a long-term perspective on changes associated with this particularly interesting and critical juncture in Mexican politics.