This book highlights historical explanations to and roots of present phenomena of violence, insecurity, and law enforcement in Central America. Violence and crime are among the most discussed topics in Central America today, and sensationalism and fear of crime is as present as the increase of private security, the re-militarization of law enforcement, political populism, and mano dura policies. The contributors to this volume discuss historical forms, paths, continuities, and changes of violence and its public and political discussion in the region. This book thus offers in-depth analysis of different patterns of violence, their reproduction over time, their articulation in the present, and finally their discursive mobilization.

For many countries, primarily in the Global South, extractivism – the exploiting and exporting of natural resources – is big business. For those exporting countries, natural resource rents create hope and promise for development which can be a seductive force. This book explores the depth of extractivism in economies around the world. The contributions to this book investigate the connection between the political economy of extractivism and its impact on the sociopolitical fabric of natural resource exporting societies in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. The book engages with a comparative perspective on the persistence of extractivism in these four different world regions. The book focuses on the formative power of rents and argues that rents are seductive. The individual contributions flesh out this seductive force of rents on different political scales and how this seduction affects a variety of actors. The book investigates how these actors react to the prevalence of rent, how they align or break with specific political and economic strategies, and how myths of resource-driven development play out on the ground. The book, therefore, underlines that rent theory bridges current debates in different area communities and offers fresh insights into extractivist societies’ social, economic, and political dynamics. This book will be of significant interest to readers in political economy, political science, development studies, and area studies.

This book develops a comparative study on violence in Jamaica, El Salvador, and Belize based on a theoretical approach, extensive field research, and in-depth empirical research. It combines the Caribbean and Central America into a single comparative research that explores the historical (from the conquista onwards) as well as contemporary causes of violence in these societies. The volume focuses on forms of violence such as gang violence, police violence, every day forms of violence, vigilantism, and organized crime. The analysis provides a theoretical perspective that bridges political economy as well as cultural approaches in violence research. As such, it will be of interest to readers studying development, violence, political, Central American, and Caribbean studies.

This book combines Hartmut Elsenhans' ideas on the laws of motion of capitalism and his approach to world system analysis and rent theory, his thoughts on development theory and finally, international relations and the past, present, and future dynamics of the international system. Hartmut Elsenhans shows that capitalist growth depends on rising mass incomes and on the strength of labor unions and their bargaining power. This alternative approach challenges mainstream assumptions on capitalism, growth, and development by both leading leftist authors, such as David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein, Andre Gunder Frank or Samir Amin, as well as by neoclassical economists and western institutionalist political and social scientists. Hartmut Elsenhans offers a unique approach to understand the dynamics of capitalism as well as the prospects for development. This Festschrift brings together his major contributions on these topics that were initially never or only published in German or French.

This book combines Hartmut Elsenhans' ideas on the laws of motion of capitalism and his approach to world system analysis and rent theory, his thoughts on development theory and finally, international relations and the past, present, and future dynamics of the international system. Hartmut Elsenhans shows that capitalist growth depends on rising mass incomes and on the strength of labor unions and their bargaining power. This alternative approach challenges mainstream assumptions on capitalism, growth, and development by both leading leftist authors, such as David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein, Andre Gunder Frank or Samir Amin, as well as by neoclassical economists and western institutionalist political and social scientists. Hartmut Elsenhans offers a unique approach to understand the dynamics of capitalism as well as the prospects for development. This Festschrift brings together his major contributions on these topics that were initially never or only published in German or French.

Where do the Americas begin, and where do they end? What is the relationship between the spatial constructions of "area" and "continent"? How were the Americas imagined by different actors in different historical periods, and how were these imaginations - as continent, nation, region - guided by changing agendas and priorities? This interdisciplinary volume addresses competing and conflicting configurations and narratives of spatialization in the context of globalization processes from the 19th century to the present.

This book develops a comparative study on violence in Jamaica, El Salvador, and Belize based on a theoretical approach, extensive field research, and in-depth empirical research. It combines the Caribbean and Central America into a single comparative research that explores the historical (from the conquista onwards) as well as contemporary causes of violence in these societies. The volume focuses on forms of violence such as gang violence, police violence, every day forms of violence, vigilantism, and organized crime. The analysis provides a theoretical perspective that bridges political economy as well as cultural approaches in violence research. As such, it will be of interest to readers studying development, violence, political, Central American, and Caribbean studies.