Addressing an Ambivalent Relationship: Policing and the Urban Poor in Mexico City

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS-MICHAEL MÜLLER
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
Police Forces

AbstractThis article analyses citizen–police relations in the marginalised Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa. It demonstrates that despite predominantly negative perceptions about and experiences with the police, local residents do not abandon state institutions as security providers. The article claims that as formal and informal access to the legal and coercive powers of the police provides an important resource for local residents needing to resolve individual or collective security problems and conflicts in their favour, local police forces continue to be addressed and imagined by residents as relevant security actors.

Prześladowania Żydów w Holandii, Francji i Belgii, 1940–1945 w ujęciu porównawczym: podobieństwa, różnice, przyczyny

2015 ◽  
pp. 90-130
Author(s):  
Pim Griffioen ◽  
Ron Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Local Police ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Police Forces

At the beginning of the occupation, France, Holland and Belgium found themselves in a similar situation. But when we look at the ratio of victims and survivors during the Holocaust in Western Europe, France and Holland are polar opposites: in France 25 percent of around 320,000 Jews did not survive the persecutions, whereas the ratio in Holland was 75 percent of 140,000. Belgium lies in the middle of the scale – 40 percent dead out of 66,000 Jews. In order to understand the source of these differences, the authors compare the methods applied by the occupation authorities and their anti-Jewish policies, the involvement and the size of the local police forces and German police, as well as the jurisdictional disputes between these formations.

Police in Africa

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Police Forces

State police forces in Africa are a curiously neglected subject of study, even within the framework of security issues and African states. This book brings together criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others who have engaged with police forces across the continent and the publics with whom they interact to provide street-level perspectives from below and inside Africa’s police forces. The contributors consider historical trajectories and particular configurations of police power within wider political systems, then examine the ‘inside view’ of police forces as state institutions – the challenges, preoccupations, professional ethics and self-perceptions of police officers – and finally look at how African police officers go about their work in terms of everyday practices and engagements with the public.The studies span the continent, from South Africa to Sierra Leone, and illustrate similarities and differences in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone states, post-socialist, post-military and post-conflict contexts, and amid both centralizsation and devolution of policing powers, democratic transitions and new illiberal regimes, all the while keeping a strong ethnographic focus on police officers and their work.

Public E-Service Conditions in Lithuania

2012 ◽  
pp. 733-757
Author(s):  
Egle Bileviciute ◽  
Tatjana Bileviciene
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Service Conditions ◽  
Online Access

E-governance projects improve the efficiency of administrative systems, lower the number of civil servants, and improve the quality of administration. The Lithuanian Concept on the Development of the Information Society seeks to modernise governance through the use of computerised information resources. This is important so as to develop electronic context, to encourage the provision of e-services, and to allow local residents and businesses to use those services. Lithuania has a public e-services portal, the purpose of which is a broad online access to information and public e-services provided by state institutions. The requirements for common European e- services enforcement in cyberspace influence the improvement of e-services in public administration in Lithuania. Lithuania has a legal system necessary for public e-services, but the actual implementation of services directives requires more specific statutes on services as well as corresponding secondary legislation. Basing on different studies, the authors examine the development and conditions of public e-services in Lithuania.

7 Conclusion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
De Wet Erika
Keyword(s):  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
West African ◽  
Military Assistance ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

This concluding chapter identifies what the customary international law requirements are for valid requests for military assistance. It also addresses the ambivalent relationship between this legal construct and the notion of collective security embodied in the UN Charter. On the one hand, there is the risk that military assistance provided by individual states or groups of states undermines the notion of the centralization of decisions regarding the use of force with the United Nations Security Council. It can further perpetuate the perception of neo-colonialism and imperialism that have been associated with military assistance on request ever since the Cold War. On the other hand, clauses such as article 4(j) and potentially article 4(h) of the African Union Constitutive Act and article 25 of the Economic Community of West African States Mechanism Protocol suggest that military assistance on request can be deployed as a mechanism for maintaining regional peace and security. This suggests that, depending on the context, military assistance on request can be utilized in the interests of international peace and security and could therefore be reconcilable with the notion of collective security underpinning the UN Charter.

Water Insecurity among the Urban Poor in the Peri-urban Zone of Xochimilco, Mexico City

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Guillermo Aguilar ◽  
Flor M. López
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Water Insecurity ◽  
Urban Zone

The dynamics of prototypical police forces: lessons from two Somali cities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Hills
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
Community Oriented Policing ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Police Forces

Abstract Sooner or later, donor-led discussions of state- and institution-building in conflict-affected societies with low literacy rates address the role of police forces, which are to be developed in the light of community-oriented policing. However, the implementation of a basic policing programme in the Somali cities of Kismayo and Baidoa in 2014 raises important questions about the applicability of this approach. It suggests that, rather than police in the western sense of the word, Somali forces are part of an endemic power structure that accommodates and normalizes instability. Focusing on what police officers actually do and on what local residents expect from them, this article uses three practical indicators to explore the factors at work: recruitment, reward (i.e. stipends) and, importantly, retention. This pragmatic approach allows an analytical and empirical exploration of a prototypical form of police and policing in a society lacking meaningful state-based institutions and processes. Specifically, Kismayo's and Baidoa's experience helps to identify the minimal requirements needed for formal policing in unstable societies. It suggests that militia-style policing is residual, rather than novel, and its dynamics are best understood as reflecting a series of social and political influences within unequal fields of power, with the emphasis on exploitation and survival.

Perceptions and reasons for legume consumption in Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1232-1242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Monge ◽  
Lorena Macias ◽  
Hannia Campos ◽  
Martin Lajous ◽  
Josiemer Mattei
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Nutritional Value ◽  
Health Effect ◽  
Nutrition Transition ◽  
City Region ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Black Beans ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Negative Perceptions

Purpose Legume consumption has decreased in Mexico as part of a global nutrition transition that has shifted the intake of healthy traditional foods to more processed unhealthy foods. This study aims to assess preferences and patterns of legumes consumption, attitudes toward legumes and reasons to consume legumes among adults in Mexico City. Design/methodology/approach A convenience sample of 86 adult participants living in the Mexico City region completed interviewer–administered surveys. Findings The participants had an average age of 42.9 years (SD 13.5) and 51.2 per cent were women. Most reported consuming legumes = 1/week (59.5 per cent) and =1/3 cup/meal (52.4 per cent) and using corn tortillas to accompany legumes (83.3 per cent). Participants reported consuming 7 out of 15 types of legumes probed, of which black beans (96 per cent), lentils (79 per cent) and garbanzo beans (64 per cent) were more frequently consumed. Participants had positive (vs negative) perceptions about legumes’ taste (96 per cent), nutritional value (88 per cent), tradition (80 per cent), cost (75 per cent), availability (75 per cent) and health effect (73 per cent), but not for their digestive effect (37 per cent). The main reasons for participants to currently consume legumes were their taste (93 per cent), nutritional value (49 per cent) and affordable cost (48 per cent); whereas main reasons for potentially consuming more legumes were their nutritional value (63 per cent) and health effect (64 per cent). Practical implications Legume intake in Mexico is lower than the recommended 1.5-2 servings per day (1 serving = 1/2 cup), despite favorable perceptions and reasons to consume them. The identified characteristics, attitudes and reasons for consuming legumes could inform interventions to increase intake of this traditional food in Mexico. Originality/value Studies on attitude and reasons for food consumption are seldom conducted, yet they are valuable in shaping tailored strategies for eating behavior change.

‘Public’ Security and Patron–Client Exchanges in Latin America

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 548-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus-Michael Müller
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Public Security ◽  
The Political ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Changing Patterns

Notwithstanding the democratization processes that have taken place since the 1980s, clientelism continues to be an important political practice throughout contemporary Latin America. By offering an analysis of the changing patterns of patron–client exchanges in Mexico City, this article demonstrates how the repercussions of the local democratization process expanded clientelist practices to the realm of public security provision. This expansion, it is argued, is related to efforts of the local government to regain previous levels of political control over the local police forces that had been undermined by the fragmentation of long-standing national patron–client structures under authoritarian rule. Additionally, it is demonstrated that in an increasingly insecure urban environment, local politicians and brokers realized the political gains to be derived from expanding clientelist exchanges to the realm of security provision.

Islands in the Lake

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Ecological Basis

Now notorious for its aridity and air pollution, Mexico City was once part of a flourishing lake environment. In nearby Xochimilco, Native Americans modified the lakes to fashion a distinctive and remarkably abundant aquatic society, one that provided a degree of ecological autonomy for local residents, enabling them to protect their communities' integrity, maintain their way of life, and preserve many aspects of their cultural heritage. While the area's ecology allowed for a wide array of socioeconomic and cultural continuities during colonial rule, demographic change came to affect the ecological basis of the lakes; pastoralism and new ways of using and modifying the lakes began to make a mark on the watery landscape and on the surrounding communities. In this fascinating study, Conway explores Xochimilco using native-language documents, which serve as a hallmark of this continuity and a means to trace patterns of change.

A place-based alternative approach to food security: lessons learned from a neighborhood house

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-659
Author(s):  
Miu Chung Yan ◽  
Rory Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
Local Residents

Abstract The urban poor in many advanced economies have become subject to the problem of food security. So far, the charity food model, such as foodbanks and meal programs, has been the key solution to this problem. This model tends to undermine service users’ aspirations to eat healthy food and their agentic function for change. Using a case study approach, we examine how a place-based community organization, with roots in the settlement house tradition, adopts an alternative approach to food security issues in an impoverished neighborhood. Adopting an activist and a right-to-food philosophy, it has brought together local residents to collectively tackle prevalent hunger and unhealthy food supply problems in the community.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document