Join us for “Solidarity in the Sand: Labor, Capitalist Development, and Contestation in Mexico’s Maya Riviera” on March 18th

Posted in Announcements Events Faculty  |  Tagged Event, Faculty, Lecture

Over the last several decades, Mexico has witnessed a significant decline in labor union activity as the result of the country’s integration into the global economy. Yet, in the commercial tourism sector, unions have grown their ranks and now command significant social, political, and economic influence. Drawing from two years of ethnographic research with two labor unions based in the town of Playa del Carmen, Brandon Hunter-Pazzara intimately traces the ambivalent effects of union membership on the lives of workers. It is from their stories that Hunter-Pazzara pursues a reconsideration of the enduring concept of solidarity, which he conceives as the laborious struggle to harmonize, rather than erase, difference.Mexico has witnessed a significant decline in labor union activity as the result of the country’s integration into the global economy. Yet, in the commercial tourism sector, unions have grown their ranks and now command significant social, political, and economic influence. Drawing from two years of ethnographic research with two labor unions based in the town of Playa del Carmen, Brandon Hunter-Pazzara intimately traces the ambivalent effects of union membership on the lives of workers. It is from their stories that Hunter-Pazzara pursues a reconsideration of the enduring concept of solidarity, which he conceives as the laborious struggle to harmonize, rather than erase, difference.