Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu by Pellegrino A Luciano

Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu by Pellegrino A Luciano

As Latin America completes its second decade of neoliberal reforms, Pellegrino A. Luciano takes readers on an ethnographic journey back to a moment of monumental social and economic change in Peru. In Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu, Luciano describes the privatization struggles and challenges of people living in the district of Machu Picchu, a heritage area and tourism destination, during the early 2000s. This Incan citadel became central to the Peruvian government's neoliberal policies and efforts to project a new global image and attract foreign capital. Luciano analyzes the role of middle-class actors in consequence, resistance, and accommodation to these neoliberal changes. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, political science, economics, tourism studies, and history.

Anthropologist Luciano (American Univof Kuwait) presents an insightful ethnography detailing the struggles of local residents of Machu Picchu Sanctuary (Peru) regarding neoliberal reform within the World Heritage Site. He gives voice to the residents living adjacent to the site as they fight for matters of politics that center on belonging, recognition, and participation in the site’s economy. Luciano does a fascinating job conveying how locals do not feel they own the land and have little say in how Machu Picchu should be managed. In the author’s words, his focus is to “bring to life the actions and struggles of the people involved … in a shift towards free-market policies and privatization … and to provide a case study of identity in the Andes drawn into a process of dispossession under state and market forces.” The text, focusing on shared narratives of inhabitants, comprises seven chapters examining the overlapping of spaces, public goods, private interests, stigmatized identities, power struggles, protests, memories of violence, and the impacts of tourism. Libraries with anthropological reserves focusing on World Heritage Sites, tourism, and Latin America should have a copy of this work.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

* Choice Reviews *
This vivid ethnography narrates how townspeople living within Machu Picchu Sanctuary, Peru’s most iconic heritage site, engaged in protest, negotiation, and internal debates over the politics of belonging, recognition, and participation within the site’s economy. Pellegrino A. Luciano insightfully shows how the confluence of neoliberal policies, environmental conservation, and tourism flows threatened to dispossess residents, and illustrates the counterstrategies of resistance or accommodation they were able to mobilize. Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu has highly valuable insights to offer into the modalities of Peruvian neoliberalism and how they are experienced ‘on the ground.’ -- David Orr, University of Sussex
A beautifully written and thought-provoking account of the local struggle for inclusion in Machu Picchu Pueblo, Peru in the midst of the contradictions and illogics of neoliberalism. -- Amy Cox Hall, Amherst College

Pellegrino A. Luciano is assistant professor of anthropology at the American University of Kuwait.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781498545969
ISBN 10	1498545963
Title	Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu
Author	Pellegrino A Luciano
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2019-05-23
Number of pages	182
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.