This book critically explores the impact of national security, violence and state power on citizenship rights and experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean. Drawing on cross-country analyses and fieldwork conducted in two garrisons, a middle-class community and among policy elites in Jamaicawhere high levels of violence, in(security) and transnational organized crime are transforming state power the author argues that dominant responses to security have wider implications for citizenship. The security practices of the state often result in criminalization, police abuse, violation of the rights of the urban poor and increased securitization of garrison spaces. As the tension between national security and citizenship increases, there is a centrality of the local as a site where citizenship is (re)defined, mediated, interpreted, performed and given meaning. While there is a dominant security discourse which focuses on state security, individuals at the local level articulate their own narratives which reflect lived-experiences and the particularities of socio-political milieu.

Explores how citizenship rights and discourses of who is a citizen and who is not are embedded in historical, economical and socio-cultural conditions and shaped by perceived or real threats to state security Bridges the gap between studies that focus either exclusively on the state or on narratives of everyday citizens Demonstrates how citizenship is forged at the local level, using active, oppositional, and extra-legal mechanisms

Autorentext

Yonique Campbell is Lecturer of Public Policy and Management in the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Her research focuses on security, violence, state legitimacy and substantive citizenship in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Inhalt

1. Security, State Power and Citizenship: The Latin America & Caribbean Context.- 2. Security and Citizenship.- 3. The Jamaican Context.- 4. Suspension of Rights, Security Operations and Dons: Opting Out of State Citizenship?.- 5. Middle-Class Security: Market Heights.- 6. Precarious Experiences of Security & Citizenship in Turl Head.- 7. Policy Responses & Security Discourses Among State Actors & Civil Society Groups.- 8. Conclusion.