Bryan Roberts’ study of two poor neighborhoods of Guatemala City is an important contribution to the understanding of the urban social and power organization of underdeveloped countries. It is the first major study of any Central American urban population.
Organizing Strangers gives an account of how poor people cope with an unstable and mobile urban environment, and case material is provided on the emergence of collective action among them. Several themes that are crucial to understanding the significance of urban growth in the underdeveloped world are explored: the impact of city life on rural migrants, the relationship between living in cities and the development of class consciousness, and the changing significance of personal relationships as a means of organizing social and economic life.
Guatemala City’s rapid growth and low level of industrialization created a keen competition for jobs and available living space and inhibited the development of cohesive residential groupings. Thus the poor found themselves living and working with people who were mostly strangers. Trust is difficult to create in such an environment, and the absence of trust affected the capacity of the poor to organize themselves.
While the poor were integrated into city life, the manner of their integration exposed them to greater exploitation than if they were truly socially isolated or marginal. Bryan Roberts analyzes a variety of formally organized voluntary associations involving the poor and concludes that such associations are essentially means by which middle- and upper-status groups seek to negotiate order among the poor.
The problems faced by these poor families are due less to their own incapacities or inactivity than to the effects of economic and political relationships that exploit them locally, nationally, and even internationally. A major conclusion of this study is that the uncertainties in the relationships among poor people and between them and other social groups are the underlying causes of a general political and economic instability.
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Book Description Condition: Good. First Edition. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP30097654
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Book Description Cloth w/DJ. Condition: VG/G. Not Illustrated (illustrator). Austin, TX: University of Texas. VG/G. (1973). . Cloth w/DJ. 8vo., 360 pp., Dj price-clipped, yellowing . Seller Inventory # BOOKS252140
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Hardcover. Dust jacket is rather faded. A few marks, scores and bumps on jacket. Small nick on rear lower leading corner of jacket. Upper leading corner of front flap is clipped. Several small marks on boards. Hardcover leading corners and spine ends are bumped. Pages are clean. Binding is sound. Text is clear throughout. Used. Seller Inventory # 460996
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. 1st Edition. xviii 360pp, hardback, ownership signature, cream boards gilt with few damp marks in a rubbed wrapper, the first major study of a central american urban population. Seller Inventory # 032396