Gareth Jones
Professor of Urban Geography, London School of Economics, London
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Gareth Jones
“Simón Uribe takes us on an exhilarating journey to reveal how nearly two centuries of frustrated efforts to build a road through the Putumayo exposes the fantasies of state-building and uncertainty of development. With this beautifully written ethnography, Uribe introduces us to a cast of actors, from enigmatic missionaries, wizened truck drivers, and 'never present' guerrilla for whom the road is material infrastructure and symbol of state power. Frontier Road is a remarkable achievement that itself exists at the intellectual frontier of anthropology, geography and history.” (from Amazon)
Frontier Road uses the history of one road in southern Colombia―known locally as “the trampoline of death”―to demonstrate how state-building processes and practices have depended on the production and maintenance of frontiers as inclusive-exclusive zones, often through violent means. Considers the topic from multiple perspectives, including ethnography of the state, the dynamics of frontiers, and the nature of postcolonial power, space, and violenceDraws attention to the political, environmental, and racial dynamics involved in the history and development of transport infrastructure in the Amazon regionExamines the violence that has sustained the state through time and space, as well as the ways in which ordinary people have made sense of and contested that violence in everyday lifeIncorporates a broad range of engaging sources, such as missionary and government archives, travel writing, and oral histories