Call for Papers

Capillary Governance: Other State Actors in Latin America

This panel suggests we examine the state as a range of governmental functions performed on a historically and geographically uneven social terrain by formal as well as less usual, unofficial actors. Throughout Latin America from grassroots citizens' groups to community media organizations, from religious institutions to private entrepreneurs, from guerilla fighters to organized crime syndicates, these "other" actors implement roles officially attributed to the formal government, especially when and where the hold of the latter - its legality and legitimacy - is tentative at best. They take over such quintessentially governmental functions as the provision of social assistance, education and neighborhood security. What effect does these appropriations of governmental functions have on formal political institutions? If governance is performed simultaneously by official and informal actors, what role does the seemingly artificial separation between the state and civil society play in the politics of development and social inclusion? Finally, what implications does such fluid understanding of the state have for our study of the changing political and social landscape throughout Latin America? The panel invites contributions from scholars representing diverse social science disciplines to engage in a conversation about multiple, shared, capillary forms of state governance and their effects.

Please send a 250-word abstract to Ieva Jusionyte at ieva@ufl.edu. The deadline for submission is August 15, 2012.