The Mayan in the Mall

Globalization, Development, and the Making of Modern Guatemala

Auteur: Way, J. T.
Éditeur: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822351207
eISBN Pdf: 9780822394785
Lieu de publication: Durham , United States
Année de publication électronique: 2012
Mois : Avril
Pages: 328
DDC: 972.8105/2
Langue: Anglais

Légende

In The Mayan in the Mall, J. T. Way traces the creation of modern Guatemala from the 1920s to the present through a series of national and international development projects. Way shows that, far from being chronically underdeveloped, this nation of stark contrasts—where shopping malls and multinational corporate headquarters coexist with some of the Western Hemisphere's poorest and most violent slums—is the embodiment of globalized capitalism.

Using a wide array of historical and contemporary sources, Way explores the multiple intersections of development and individual life, focusing on the construction of social space through successive waves of land reform, urban planning, and economic policy. His explorations move from Guatemala City's poorest neighborhoods and informal economies (run predominantly by women) to a countryside still recovering from civil war and anti-Mayan genocide, and they encompass such artifacts of development as the modernist Pan-American Highway and the postmodern Grand Tikal Futura, a Mayan-themed shopping mall ringed by gated communities and shantytowns. Capitalist development, Way concludes, has dramatically reshaped the country's physical and social landscapes—engendering poverty, ethnic regionalism, and genocidal violence—and positioned Guatemala as a harbinger of globalization's future.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Grand Tikal Futura: ‘‘Putting the Mayan in the Mall’’
One: ‘‘Like Sturdy Little Animals’’: Making the Modern Anti-Modern, 1920s–1944
Two: Chaos and Rationality: The Dialectic of the Guatemalan Ghetto
Three: Oficios de su Sexo: Gender, the Informal Economy, and Anticommunist Development
Four: Making the Immoral Metropolis: Infrastructure, Economics, and War
Five: Executing Capital: Green Revolution, Genocide, and the Transition to Neoliberalism
Six: A Society of Vendors: Contradictions and Everyday Life in the Guatemalan Market
Seven: Cuatro Gramos Norte: Fragmentation and Concentration in the Wake of Victory
Appendix: A Grass-roots List of Transnationals in Guatemala, circa 1978
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index