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Society to the rescue? Rethinking responses to crime and violence in Mexico

Wednesday 20 May 2020, 4.00PM to 5.15pm

Speaker(s): Trevor Stack, University of Aberdeen

Dr Slack draws on the findings of the large team project, made up of anthropologists and sociologists, that he completed in 2019 on responses to crime-related violence in Mexico. The team focused on societal responses because Mexico’s institutional responses have not been effective, and to the extent that the term 'organised crime' is useful at all, Dr Slack argues that it is organised around the institutions themselves, which provide illegal protection to criminal business as well as to legal business.

Though political scientists have made similar points by writing of 'criminal governance', Dr Slack's aim is to include 'civil society responses' within the same analytical framework, helping to avoid the Manicheism of assuming a ‘good’ civil society fighting against ‘bad’ criminal organisations. By recognising that civil society has often enabled criminal business, he poses the question of when and to what effect civil society might instead impede it, whether by mitigating the effects or reducing the institutional margins.

Trevor Stack is senior lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies and director of the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) at the University of Aberdeen.

This seminar will talk place on Zoom. In order to join the meeting, input the following details on Zoom:

  • Meeting ID: 995 0053 2291 
  • Password: 188922

Location: Online meeting

Email: peter.gardner@york.ac.uk