Suchergebnisse

In Guatemala, within the space of a few decades, a civil war largely marked by state-sponsored violence has made way for a democracy in which violence diffused into the hands of the masses and gained an increasingly criminal and urban character. Much of the violence roots in poverty, inequality and exclusion. This ethnographic research explores the way people in Guatemala City give shape and meaning to their lives in the midst of high levels of violence and structural violence. It centralizes around five narratives, the protagonists of which all belong to a different level of the city's hierarchical spectrum, ranging from a group of street people to a wealthy family with a bodyguard at its disposal.

Safe fieldwork in an unsafe neighborhood. Researching lynching in a Latin-American slum
Safe fieldwork in an unsafe neighborhood. Researching lynching in a Latin-American slum
On July 23, 2007 Hólger Morales is caught breaking into a house in Atucucho, a slum in the outskirts of Quito. Morales is kicked, hit and eventually set on fire by an angry mob of neighborhood residents. He dies of his injuries on the spot. The author conducted four months of ethnographic fieldwork in Atucucho in search for explanations for and meanings of the lynchings in Atucucho. In this article he highlights some of the challenges, difficulties and restrictions of doing potentially dangerous fieldwork. He discusses, among other things, the process of gaining access to the neighborhood, the importance of a good gatekeeper and the extra measures taken because of the 'delicacy' of his subject of study.