Overview
- Analyzes how ethnic identities are transformed from inter-generational relationships in indigenous communities
- Incorporates the concept of “adult-centrism” for an analytical perspective on power and gender dynamics
- Problematizes how migration experiences modify local dynamics around communal organization in southern Ecuador
Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship (MDC)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
This book explores how global migration transforms local dynamics in the communal life of indigenous peoples in southern Ecuador. At its heart, the focus is on Cañar, a region marked by more than seven decades of migratory flows to the United States. Cañar features one of the areas of greatest human mobility in the entire Andean Region. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews and dialogue-based workshops with indigenous youths, the author shows how migratory processes and forms of self-representation have challenged the idea that ethnic identity is tied to fixed cultural patterns. He further shows how youths’ transnational experiences reconfigure generational differences within indigenous communities. In analyzing how transnational life, adultcentrism, gender power dynamics, and institutional discourses intersect in the production of indigenous youths’ subjectivities, this book provides an innovative approach to the studies of indigenous peoples and migration.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (5 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Reviews
"In Transforming Ethnicity, Jorge Daniel Vásquez makes an innovative contribution to the sociology of migration and ethnicity. He analyzes the transformations in indigenous youth's identities, a privileged entry for understanding the relationship between generational differences, ethnicity, and power. The author builds this triangle by exploring processes of subjectivity production in indigenous communities and addressing the contradictions and ambiguities in migrants' lives. This book is an important step in constructing critical knowledge on international migration, a social process that has profoundly marked Ecuadorian society."—Gioconda Herrera, FLACSO-Ecuador
“Jorge Daniel Vásquez carefully examines how the transnational experience is deeply ingrained in the construction of youth subjectivity in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes. His fieldwork is filled with profound knowledge of Cañar, an indigenous territory in the Ecuadorian Sierra shaped by a history of trans-local and transnational migration. Through a critique of adultcentrism, the book offers a grounded interpretation of the indigenous youths’ heterogeneous aspirations and desires for autonomy, and the extent to which the experience of leaving their communities and migrating is central to their life journeys, both actual and imagined. Challenging commonsense ideas about the relationship between youth and migration in indigenous communities, this book becomes an essential reference for readers interested in migration, the Andes, ethnicity, and generational change.”
—Mercedes Eguiguren, Co-chair of the Ecuadorian Studies Section 2022–2024, Latin American Studies Association
“Jorge Daniel Vásquez carefully examines how the transnational experience is deeply ingrained in the construction of youth subjectivity in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes. His fieldwork is filled with profound knowledge of Cañar, an indigenous territory in the Ecuadorian Sierra shaped by a history of trans-local and transnational migration. Through a critique of adultcentrism, the book offers a grounded interpretation of the indigenous youths’ heterogeneous aspirations and desires for autonomy, and the extent to which the experience of leaving their communities and migrating is central to their life journeys, both actual and imagined. Challenging commonsense ideas about the relationship between youth and migration in indigenous communities, this book becomes an essential reference for readers interested in migration, the Andes, ethnicity, and generational change.”
—Mercedes Eguiguren, Co-chair of the Ecuadorian Studies Section 2022–2024, Latin American Studies Association
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Jorge Daniel Vásquez is a Doctor in Education, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and an upcoming Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of International Service at American University.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Transforming Ethnicity
Book Subtitle: Youth and Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes
Authors: Jorge Daniel Vásquez
Series Title: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30097-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-30096-7Published: 23 May 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-30099-8Published: 09 June 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-30097-4Published: 22 May 2023
Series ISSN: 2662-2602
Series E-ISSN: 2662-2610
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 105
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Migration, Ethnicity, Class, Gender and Crime, Latin American Culture, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging