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Poor people's lives and politics: The things a political ethnographer knows (and doesn't know) after 15 years of fieldwork

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

Javier Auyero
Javier Auyero*
Affiliation:
University of Texas-Austin, Sociology Department, 2501 University, Burdine Hall, Room 564, Austin, TX 78712, USAauyero@austin.utexas.edu
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Abstract

This paper reflects on a decade and a half of ethnographic research on five different topics: patronage politics, the intricate relationship between clientelism and collective action, the role of clandestine connections in politics, urban marginality and environmental suffering, and poor people's waiting as a way of experiencing political domination. The paper examines the contributions that political ethnography can make to a better understanding of these themes and highlights areas for further empirical and theoretical work.

Keywords

political ethnographyclientelismcollective actionenvironmental sufferingclandestinity
Type
Dossier on Urban Classes and Politics in the Neoliberal Era: Turkey in Comparison
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 46 , Spring 2012 , pp. 95 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2012

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