Raul Acosta

Goethe University Frankfurt · Institut für Ethnologie

An anthropological approach to an emerging form of transnational political engagement by independent civil society organizations Activism and advocacy have drawn academic interest as alternative ways of achieving collective ends outside established political institutions. However, there has been very little theoretical attention aimed at the inter...

Resumen En el otoño de 2013, una red de activistas en Guadalajara, México, montó una exhibición en un museo, realizó intervenciones en las calles de la ciudad, y organizó eventos para persuadir a los habitantes urbanos y a oficiales de gobierno a remediar los problemas de la metrópolis. En su mayoría miembros de la clase media, los activistas usaro...

Soon after it was launched within Catholic ranks, as an historic necessity in the light of prevalent inequalities around the world, liberation theology reached faraway corners of the planet in the form of Christian Base Communities (CEBs, after their Portuguese name). These prayer groups were set up in churches to follow guidelines that centred on...

New migration flows to Mexico are challenging long-established sociocultural configurations. So far, most studies on immigrants in Mexico have focused on singular ethno-national groups rather than paying attention to the intermingling of people. This paper presents an examination of diversification processes occurring in Guadalajara, Mexico. We con...

Urban life is crisscrossed and affected by events and matter in various scales, of which the microscopic has been only partly addressed in scholarship and policymaking. In this article, I propose that it is urgent to incorporate new materialist ethics for a better urban governance of technomolecular flows, that is the multiple ways anthropogenicall...

What does this have to do with anything? We don't know. But our research project NoJoke will be part of ASAs "PeopleFest" in Manchester on 6th of April. During a one-hour keynote-experience we will present anthropology as it has never been seen before. Together with the audience we will explore the worlds of humour and academia in the political pre...

Roadsides collection no. 010 • Urban Bioinfrastructures Cities rely on numerous infrastructures to support life: pipes, cables, antennas, roads and other technologies facilitate the distribution and use of water, energy, information and people. Current theories of urban flows undergirded by infrastructural systems, however, often focus on the perse...

Urban river restoration has been paraded in the last few years as a strategy through which cities may gain green credentials alongside benefits like climate change mitigation and public health enhancement, as well as the promotion of tourism and commerce. As cities continue to grow in size and significance-especially in the Global South-green and b...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to point to the significance of temporally charged imaginaries of neglected places and their residents in the context of slum tourism research. It examines the way in which tour guides draw on specific temporalities to recast the poverty and stigma of the Mexico City barrio of Tepito and thus design narratives t...

A new vision of biocontrol beyond what had been possible earlier ... points to what I call a ‘technomolecular city’, understood as a use of new technologies and scientific advances to harness the various microscopic processes at play in urban metabolic biochemical flows. ... It is an innovative governance design to use information about flows in th...

Across the globe, urban growth continues unabated. This is so despite high levels of inequality, poverty and forms of exclusion that are part and parcel of city life for the many. In response to these challenges, governments have attempted to present solutions that are too often palliative, addressing merely the symptoms of inequalities rather than...

The constitution of environmental subjects by governments and civil society organizations around the world has taken place within a framework of neoliberal urbanization. This entails promoting an individual sense of responsibility over urban environments among city dwellers. The approach used is not so much governmentality as environmentality, beca...

After activists have positioned urban mobility in Mexico City’s political arena, some peripheral groups have raised concerns about government promises. On the one hand, they point out that most of the new projects and policies benefit well-off areas. On the other, they draw attention to the disjuncture between local authorities’ discourses and the...

The global trend away from rural living and towards urbanization continues unabated. This is so despite high levels of inequality, poverty and forms of exclusion that are part and parcel of city life for the many. Indeed, across the globe, growing numbers of urban dwellers struggle to meet even the most basic needs for housing, security, and income...

Across the globe, a growing number of urban dwellers struggle to meet even the most basic needs for housing, security and income. In response, governments showcase programmes like social housing, community policing, cash transfers, or professionalisation training. However, these programmes tend to be palliative, addressing merely the symptoms of in...

Mexican maquiladoras (manufacturing operations in a free trade zone) have long been identified as key sites of neoliberal capitalism. This means a lack of economic and even physical security for their mostly female workforce in order to boost competitiveness and profits. The term ‘feminicide’ was coined as a result of local and transnational advoca...

This article analyses the public debate regarding a proposed highway through the city of Guadalajara. This public work, which in the end was not carried out, was controversial and prompted heated debates between political and social actors. The research on which this paper is based scrutinised the coverage of the case in four local newspapers to ev...

This article analyzes the public debate regarding a proposed highway through the city of Guadalajara. This public work, which in the end was not carried out, was controversial and prompted heated debates between political and social actors. The research on which this paper is based scrutinized the coverage of the case in four local newspapers to ev...

El tema de este libro es oportuno en la época actual. Su pertinencia se explica por una tendencia predominante en las relaciones sociales en México: la tensión. En este contexto y en los aspectos de la vida cotidiana en general, es relevante el estudio de un proceso comunicacional básico como es el diálogo. Como bien lo apuntan los autores, no toda...

Rice Biofortification. Lessons for Global Science and Development. By BrooksSally. Pp. 208. (Earthscan, London, 2010.) £19.99, ISBN 978-1-84971-100-5, paperback. - Volume 44 Issue 1 - Raul Acosta

Advocacy networks are coalitions of movements and organizations that in recent years have gained unprecedented levels of influence through their soft power strategies. They have become key political actors in local, national and international arenas. Research on their performance and role within today’s information society has been developed by aca...

This book is not another reification of the global, nor an attempt to set out what such a concept-metaphor brings to social analyses. It is, rather, an engagement with a dialogue among anthropologists about our discipline‘s contribution to understanding contemporary global developments. Social phenomena over recent decades have turned out to have a...

Current transnational networks of non-governmental organizations and social movements have challenged nation-states' policy designs. Their increasing political legitimacy, however, is matched by cultural friction and misunderstandings among their members and stakeholders. This paper argues that anthropological insights may provide maps that can hel...

Las organizaciones de la sociedad civil que intentan incidir en las decisiones de política pública comúnmente utilizan mecanismos de generación de conocimiento. Este texto ofrece un modelo de un tipo de investigación relevante a partir de lo observado en una organización no gubernamental en el Amazonas brasileño. Dicha asociación contemplaba desde...

Includes bibliographical references. Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2003.

The Logic of Environmentalism: Anthropology, Ecology and Postcoloniality. By ArgyrouVassos. Pp. 195. (Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York, 2005.) £25.50, ISBN 1-84545-105-8, paperback - Volume 39 Issue 6 - Raúl Acosta

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Advocacy networks are coalitions of movements and organizations that have gained unprecedented levels of influence through their soft power strategies. They have become key political actors in local, national and international arenas. The market for advocacy network research, therefore, is not limited to academics, specialists or government policym...

Tesis de Lic. en Ciencias de la Comunicación

Tesis de Doctorado, Universidad de Oxford