Street Sovereigns: Young Men and the Makeshift State in Urban Haiti

Chelsey L. Kivland

Published by Cornell University Press 2020

Street Sovereigns

Young Men and the Makeshift State in Urban Haiti

Chelsey L. Kivland

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501747007

Overview
Contents

About this book

How do people improvise political communities in the face of state collapse—and at what cost? Street Sovereigns explores the risks and rewards taken by young men on the margins of urban Haiti who broker relations with politicians, state agents, and NGO workers in order to secure representation, resources, and jobs for themselves and neighbors. Moving beyond mainstream analyses that understand these groups—known as baz (base)—as apolitical, criminal gangs, Chelsey Kivland argues that they more accurately express a novel mode of street politics that has resulted from the nexus of liberalizing orders of governance and development with longstanding practices of militant organizing in Haiti.

Kivland demonstrates how the baz exemplifies an innovative and effective platform for intervening in the contemporary political order, while at the same time reproducing gendered and generational hierarchies and precipitating contests of leadership that exacerbate neighborhood insecurity. Still, through the continual effort to reconstitute a state that responds to the needs of the urban poor, this story offers a poignant lesson for political thought: one that counters prevailing conceptualizations of the state as that which should be flouted, escaped, or dismantled. The baz project reminds us that in the stead of a vitiated government and public sector the state resurfaces as the aspirational bedrock of the good society. "We make the state," as baz leaders say.

Author / Editor information

Chelsey L. Kivland is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. Follow her on X @ChelseyKivland.

Reviews

Robert Maguire, Former Director of GWU's Latin America and Hemispheric Studies Program:

Street Sovereigns contains depth and complexity of analysis of the subject matter, as well as lyrical and at times poetic narrative.

In Street Sovereigns, Chelsey Kivland draws on years of ethnographic research to reframe the way we think about political agency, sovereignty, and statemaking in Haiti. Kivland masterfully weaves an analysis that is rich in ethnographic detail and sophisticated in theoretical insight. There is a remarkable humility to her analysis; the result is a work of deep and profound respect.

Kivland's fine-grained portraits of her interlocutors are poignant and compelling.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Cast of Characters Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Acronyms and Organizations Publicly Available Download PDF	xxv
Note on Orthography Publicly Available Download PDF	xxvii
Introduction: The Baz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Defense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2. History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
3. Respect Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
4. Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
5. Development Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
6. Gender Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Conclusion: The Spiral Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 306
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 2
- Line drawings: 1
- Images: 22
- Other: 22 b&w halftones, 1 b&w line drawing, 2 maps
Keywords: sovereignty; insecurity; gangs; violence; gender; the state; Haiti; politics; respect; violence; race

eBook

Published: February 15, 2020
ISBN: 9781501747007