Abstract
True to their progressive and innovative understanding of public anthropology, Lynne Phillips, Sally Cole, Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, and Erica Lagalisse present in Contesting Publics a collaborative and inter-generational project that frames ethnography as a space for theorizing action and promoting social change. Drawing upon the concept of “politicizing the private” and “inhabiting public space in new ways” (concepts whose origin and meaning are further elaborated in the preface), the authors’ work effectively combines feminist activism and scholarly research to critique public:private 1 dynamics in their individual ethnographies. In this way they illuminate ways in which feminist activism in Latin America can both creatively challenge inequalities as well as reinscribe traditional hierarchies.
The book is divided into six chapters: an introduction, four ethnographies, and a conclusion interspersed with activists’ narratives. It begins by contesting the historical assumption of publics as a defined, unified and stable political sphere in which citizens “deliberate issues of common concern” (p. 2). The authors aptly present a counter-definition of publics as “contested political spaces of tension and contradiction” and point out the inadequacy of a unitary and consensual public sphere that inevitably silences and excludes specific voices (p. 138). In their individual ethnographies, each author gives an example of a contested public site in formation – the auto-constructed feminist household, the public spaces of sex tourism, the political arena of constitutional reform, and the space of gossip within activist networks – to reveal power dynamics behind the definition and maintenance of public:private spheres.
In Chapter 2, Sally Cole’s ethnography describes the ways in which rural women in northeastern Brazil have reorganized their “private” households into what she calls “auto-constructed feminist publics” (p. 19). These collective households are built upon a complex and fluid membership that empowers women in such decisions as working outside of their homes, remaining unmarried and/or limiting their number of children. In Chapter 3, Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan analyses campaigns against sex tourism in Natal, Brazil and defines the spaces of sex tourism as an emerging public. She effectively demonstrates how feminist activism can ultimately protect middle-class spaces while reinscribing traditional hierarchies and inequalities related to race, gender, and sexuality. In Chapter 4, Lynne Phillips looks at official invitations into public space related to President Rafael Correa’s call for participation in the 2007–2008 constitutional reform in Ecuador. She analyses the complexities of this invitation including participatory publics as a state mechanism of governing social movements. Finally, in Chapter 5, Erica Lagalisse reflects on the gendered structures of the Zapatista movement in Mexico in which she participated both as an activist and researcher. She analyses the movement within the node/network framework, which shows its dependency upon male actors and its exclusion of women. She recasts the concept of gossip as an empowering form of communication between women whose speech has been regulated to the backstage and devalued as private and unworthy of collective, public action.
As the title of the book suggests, each ethnography presents a case of “contesting publics” and utilizes the public:private lens to theorize the emergence of new publics and rethink how anthropologists’ and activists’ work can collaboratively promote equality and social change. While the inclusion of activists’ testimonials between chapters provides a creative way to incorporate these voices, the narratives break up the flow of the chapters and only roughly connect to the chapter and book themes. They divert the reader’s attention to details of specific individuals, movements, and organizations that are not as relevant as the theoretical approach and ethnographies that the authors present. Even so, the concluding chapter of Contesting Publics revisits the authors’ objective to transform public anthropology through co-theorizing and collaborative research. The broader pedagogical questions encourage future activists and researchers to enter the public:private conversation and understand ethnographic research as a form of political and social action. In this way, Contesting Publics is successful in opening up academic and intellectual work to include a broader range of interactions and voices that prove relevant and applicable in academic as well as socio-political contexts.