ABSTRACT
Latin America is often unthinkingly characterized by outsiders as a politically unstable region. While political instability is undoubtedly a feature of the region’s political landscape – since independence Latin America has experienced civil wars, military coups, dictatorships, IMF riots and guerrilla warfare – it is important to recognize the complexity, heterogeneity and creativity of political struggles and to acknowledge that Latin America has also seen some of the world’s most courageous struggles against human rights abuses, most innovative forms of indigenous resurgence and mobilization, and most resourceful political responses to rapid urbanization. The imaginative ways in which many Latin Americans, often against the odds, try to create a better life for themselves and their communities is what keeps scholars of Latin American development making lifelong professional commitments to the political struggles of the continent.
