Erica Townsend-Bell

“State Formation and Identity Construction: Afro-Uruguayan Women and the Revolutionary

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:19:59 PST

Possibilities of Multiracial Mobilization: Impediments to Women's Group Organizing in Uruguay

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:14:30 PST

Impediments to Multiracial Mobilization

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:13:42 PST

Images of la Mujer Uruguaya: Womanhood and Citizenship in the Modernizing Nation

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:12:45 PST

New Trends in Comparative Gender Research: Notes on Political Participation, Method, and Intersectionality

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:12:12 PST

Images of la Mujer Uruguaya: Womanhood and Citizenship in the Modernizing Nation

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:10:45 PST

A Comparative Look at Women and the Vote: Global Trends and Local Realities

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:10:05 PST

Todos Somos Uruguayos: Marginalization, Contestation, and la Mujer Afro-Uruguayo

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:09:00 PST

Todos Somos Uruguayos?: Gendered Identity Creation, Cooptation, Marginalization and Contestation in Uruguay

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:07:13 PST

The Politics of Intersectionality: Afro-Latina Women's Organizing in Uruguay and Costa Rica

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:04:20 PST

The Feminization of Poverty: Local and Global Realities

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:02:30 PST

Uruguay

Erica Townsend-Bell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:57:42 PST

The Decline of the White Idiosyncratic: Racialization and Otherness in Costa Rica

Erica Townsend-Bell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:05:24 PST

This paper employs comparative historical analysis to trace the development of shifting notions of otherness and changes in the racialization of Nicas and Afro-Costa Ricans over time. I find that both Afro-Costarrican and Nicaraguan minority groups have been central to the national identity, albeit in distinct ways. Racialized comparisons between “dark-skinned” Nicaraguans and “white” Costa Ricans, has created a third way in the Costa Rican context, where traditionally mestizo Nicaraguan immigrants become darkened or “blackened” and Afro-Costa Ricans are simultaneously privileged and disadvantaged as localized and preferred others.

Identities Matter: Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, and Feminist Organizing

Erica E. Townsend-Bell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:05:24 PST

This dissertation examines the processes of identity construction and deployment among Uruguayan women and organized women’s groups. I employ narrative analysis and process tracing methodology to analyze the question of why attempts to create multi-racial gender coalitions are frequently unsuccessful among Uruguayan women’s groups. I find that identity is constructed differently for women along the lines of race and class, even in a South American setting where racial attributes are supposedly of little import. These competing identities result in conflicts among the gender-based organizations that women form; as a consequence there is a reduction in coalition possibilities for otherwise similarly oriented women’s groups. I find that each group has distinct ideological conceptions of the salience of race and class to gender mobilization and these divergent ideological conceptions have had a direct impact on each organization’s willingness to coalesce with other local women’s groups.

My research contributes an important component to the identity and social movements literature. The literature on identity politics and coalition formation is largely theoretical in nature. Much of the empirical literature on coalition formation highlights political and structural variables such as threat, resources, and political opportunities, and considers identity differences tangentially or not at all. My research combines these two approaches to present an empirical case study that specifies the relationship between identity politics and coalition politics. I highlight ideology, which is a key understudied variable. I find that ideological differences often impede coalition formation, and that this relationship holds variety of issue areas and types. I also find that political strategy is of central importance to coalition formation. Specifically, it may function separately from, or in collusion with, ideological differences in constraining or fostering coalition formation.