Using Honduras as a case study, Jeffrey T. Jackson illuminates the processes by which wealthy western countries target countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for political economic construction, or nation building. In the process, he draws a provocative connection between the efforts of international development workers and the emergence of global governance. Jackson examines the significant roles played by international development workers -- "the globalizers" -- operating in Honduras over the past thirty years, particularly in the troubled construction of the El CajA3n hydroelectric dam, the creation of maquiladoras, and the multinational relief, recovery, and reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Mitch.

He finds in the international development community a close-knit coalition of policy makers who have inserted themselves into the local political process and pushed the Honduran nation-state to conform to international norms and integrate into a transnational structure of governance.

Jackson examines the mechanisms of power at the disposal of these development organizations, the expertise of those administering development aid, the agency of development workers, and the benefits that accrue to donor countries. In doing so he makes a persuasive connection between nation building and global governance -- raising important questions about whose nations are being built and why.

The work of considering, imagining, and theorizing the U.S. South in regional, national, and global contexts is an intellectual project that has been going on for some time. Scholars in history, literature, and other disciplines have developed an advanced understanding of the historical, social, and cultural forces that have helped to shape the U.S. South. However, most of the debates on these subjects have taken place within specific academic disciplines, with few attempts to cross-engage. Navigating Souths broadens these exchanges by facilitating transdisciplinary conversations about southern studies scholarship. The fourteen original essays in Navigating Souths articulate questions about the significances of the South as a theoretical and literal "home" base for social science and humanities researchers. They also examine challenges faced by researchers who identify as southern studies scholars, as well as by those who live and work in the regional South, and show how researchers have responded to these challenges. In doing so, this book project seeks to reframe the field of southern studies as it is currently being practiced by social science and humanities scholars and thus reshape historical and cultural conceptualizations of the region. Contributors: Alix Chapman, Rico D. Chapman, Michele Grigsby Coffey, Kirsten A. Dellinger, Leigh Anne Duck, Gwendolyn Ferreti, Kathryn Green, Robert Greene II, John Hayes, Jeffrey T. Jackson, Anne Lewis, Katie B. McKee, Kathryn Radishofski, Emily Satterwhite, Jodi Skipper, Jon Smith, Melanie Benson Taylor, Annette Trefzer, Daniel Cross Turner, Charles Reagan Wilson