Development and Postcolonial governance
Sarah Radcliffe's research on this topic covers a number of related themes. First, she has explored the ways in national identities have been forged in a context of social diversity, and uneven state sovereignty. In research funded by the ESRC with Sallie Westwood, she mapped out the social geographies of national identities in Ecuador, examaining the ways by which class, ethnic, gendered and locational factors influenced citizen imaginaries and relations with the Ecuadorian nation-state. This research has been published in a number of articles (see below) as well as in Re-Making the Nation: place, politics and identity in Latin America (Routledge 1996; translated into Spanish 1999). Arising out of this project has been an on-going interest in examining how geographical knowledges and techniques contribute to the practices and meanings of statehood. One current PhD student, Judith Walcott, is working on state practices along the Ecuador-Colombia border.
In a related field, recent writings have examined the diverse phases and types of neoliberal development, and their impact on the nature of politics, governance and citizen experiences in Ecuador, and Latin America. Current PhD students working on these themes include Andres Vallejo (Co-development, modernity and state migration policies in Ecuador and Spain); and Conor Farrington (Development projects and participation techniques).
Publications
Recent related publications include:
- 'Imagining the state as space: territoriality and the formation of the state in Ecuador,' In T Blom Hanson and F Stepputat (eds.) States of imagination: ethnographic explorations of the postcolonial state. Duke University Press, pp. 123-145, 2001
- 'Development, the state and transnational political connections: state formation and networks in Latin America' Global Networks 1(1): 19-36, 2001
- 'Re-territorialised space and ethnic political participation: indigenous municipalities in Ecuador.' S Radcliffe, R Andolina and N Laurie Space and Polity 6(3): 289-305, 2002
- 'Neoliberalism as we know it, but not in conditions of its own choosing: A Commentary', Environment and Planning A 37: 323-329, in special issue on 'Geographies of neoliberalism in Latin America,' 2005
- 'Indigenous municipalities in Ecuador and Bolivia: transnational connections and exclusionary political cultures' Paper prepared for the workshop "Beyond the lost decade: indigenous movements and the transformation of development and democracy in Latin America" University of Princeton, 2-3 March