Social Anthropology

The study of security within a prison environment implies the observation of a complex phenomenon: on the one hand, inmates are defined as agents of insecurity, insofar as they are the authors of criminal acts, which to the outside world represent everything that is perceived as a threat – in terms of the law, order and general well‐being. On the other hand, the prison is often characterised as a space riddled with fear, uncertainty and insecurity, manifest in the everyday life of prisons. In this article, based on a two‐year fieldwork in three Portuguese male prisons, I explore the meaning attributed to security from inmates’ perspectives and discourses. This analysis, which includes inmates with different ages, origins, types of crime and sentence length, as well as specificities inherent to the chosen field sites, allows us to expand and deepen our understanding of the significance of security within a population that is often excluded from this discussion, albeit invariably related with it.

The paper is based on anthropological research on socio‐political opposition in West African municipalities. We analyse how land schemes for urban development are at the centre of social contest and political mobilisation in municipalities, by developing examples from peri‐urban areas of Bamako, Mali and Niamey, Niger. We point to several contradictions that lie at the heart of zoning, one of the most dominant forms of urban land management and urban development in many cities in West Africa. They concern, first, who actually benefits from zoning projects and the promises of development and modernisation; second, the dual role of zoning projects as sources of both public resources and private enrichment; third, the gradual replacement of village populations and the rekindling of a politics of belonging; and, finally, the emergence of new political moralities in the face of corruption and mismanagement. We conclude that urban land contests are simultaneously sources and resources of authority and protest. While the skilful and creative combination of these sources and resources is an asset in municipal politics, political mobilisation is also fuelled by protest movements of those marginalised in urban land management schemes, carving out new spaces for socio‐political opposition in West African municipalities.

Finke, Peter. 2014. Variations on Uzbek identity: strategic choices, cognitive schemas and political constraints in identification processes. Integration and Conflict Studies, vol. 7. New York: Berghahn. 288 pp. Hb.: US$95.00/£60.00. ISBN: 978‐1‐78238‐238‐6.