Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-15T10:30:44.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managerialism in Motion: Lessons from Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

JOHN PAUL JONES III ,
SUSAN M. ROBERTS  and
OLIVER FRÖHLING
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Non-governmental organisations operate as nodes in networks of ‘managerialism’ – bundles of often Northern, corporate-inspired knowledge and practices that promote ‘good governance’ under neoliberalism. Managerialism is double-sided: it can guard against corruption and help ensure accountability, but it can also be culturally disjunctive, reinforcing North–South power imbalances while diffusing the political potential of NGOs. In this paper we present a framework for studying managerialism's global circulation and discuss a series of empirical findings from a multi-year study of NGOs in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. We conclude by commenting on managerialism's influence on NGOs during the social upheavals of 2006, highlighting its differential and contingent impact on social and political change in Oaxaca.

Spanish abstract

Organizaciones no gubernamentales operan como núcleos en redes de ‘gerencialismo’ (paquetes de conocimientos y prácticas provenientes con frecuencia del Norte y que se inspiran en empresas capitalistas) para promover ‘buen gobierno’ bajo el neoliberalismo. El gerencialismo es de dos filos: por un lado puede proteger en contra de la corrupción y ayudar en la rendición de cuentas, pero también puede ser culturalmente dislocador, reforzando los desequilibrios Norte–Sur mientras difumina el potencial político de las ONGs. Presentamos un marco para estudiar la circulación global del gerencialismo y discutimos una serie de hallazgos empíricos basados en una investigación de varios años sobre ONGs en el estado mexicano de Oaxaca. Concluimos con comentarios sobre la influencia del gerencialismo sobre las ONGs durante los levantamientos sociales de 2006, subrayando su impacto diferencial y coyuntural sobre el cambio social y político en Oaxaca.

Portuguese abstract

As organizações não-governamentais agem como pontos de ligação em redes ‘gerencialistas’ – conjuntos de conhecimento e práticas frequentemente oriundas do hemisfério norte, inspiradas em corporações que promovem ‘a boa governança’ sob condições neoliberais. O gerencialismo tem duas facetas; pode resguardar contra a corrupção e auxiliar na transparência e responsabilidade, mas pode ser culturalmente desagregador, reforçando desequilíbrios de poder entre os hemisférios norte e sul enquanto dissemina o potencial político das ONGs. Apresentamos um quadro para que a circulação global do gerencialismo possa ser estudada e discutimos uma série de constatações empíricas oriundas de um estudo acerca das ONGs no estado mexicano de Oaxaca realizado ao longo de vários anos. Concluímos comentando sobre a influência do gerencialismo sobre as ONGs durante as revoltas sociais de 2006, sublinhando seu impacto diferencial e contingente sobre as mudanças sociais e políticas em Oaxaca.

Keywords

civil societyNGOsOaxacamanagerialismglobalisationneoliberalismparticipationempowermenttransparencyaccountabilitypoliticssociedad civilONGsOaxacagerencialismoglobalizaciónneoliberalismoparticipaciónempoderamientotransparenciarendición de cuentaspolíticasociedade civilONGsOaxacagerencialismoglobalizaçãoneoliberalismoparticipaçãoempoderamentotransparênciaresponsabilidadepolítica
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 633 - 662
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 We treat managerialism as a broad category, including variations of the so-called ‘new public management’ that has been much studied. See Bislev, Sven, Salskov-Iverson, Dorte and Hansen, Hans Krause, ‘The Global Diffusion of Managerialism: Transnational Discourse Communities at Work’, Global Society, 16: 2 (2002), pp. 199–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pereira, Luiz Carlos Besser and Spink, Peter (eds.), Reforming the State: Managerial Public Administration in Latin America (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1994)Google Scholar; Barragán, Esteban Moctezuma and Roemer, Andrés (eds.), A New Public Management in Mexico: Toward a Government that Produces Results (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001)Google Scholar. For a critical treatment of the ‘imperialism of managerialism’ more generally, see Parker, Martin, Against Management: Organization in the Age of Managerialism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

2 Roberts, Susan M., Wright, Sarah and O'Neill, Phillip, ‘Good Governance in the Pacific? Ambivalence and Possibility’, Geoforum, 38: 5 (2007), pp. 967–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See Collier, David and Levitsky, Steven, ‘Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research’, World Politics, 49: 3 (1997), pp. 430–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on the changing meaning of bureaucratic authoritarianism; Otero, Gerardo (ed.), Mexico in Transition: Neoliberal Globalism, the State and Civil Society (London: Zed Books, 2004)Google Scholar, on conceptualisations of contemporary Mexican political relations; and for a study of how the contemporary Mexican state – specifically the Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (Ministry of Social Development, SEDESOL) – reworks relations with NGOs in ways that evince both continuity and change, Yaworsky, William R., ‘At the Whim of the State: Neoliberalism and Nongovernmental Organizations in Guerrero, Mexico’, Mexican Studies, 21: 2 (2005), pp. 403–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Murphy, Jonathan, The World Bank and Global Managerialism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar; Hodge, Bob and Coronado, Gabriela, ‘Mexico Inc.? Discourse Analysis and the Triumph of Managerialism’, Organization, 13: 4 (2006), pp. 529–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gideon, Jasmine, ‘The Politics of Social Service Provision through NGOs: A Study of Latin America’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 17: 3 (2003), pp. 303–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Radcliffe, Sarah A., ‘Development, the State, and Transnational Political Connections: State and Subject Formations in Latin America’, Global Networks, 1: 1 (2002), pp. 19–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Bebbington, Anthony, ‘NGOs and Uneven Development: Geographies of Development Intervention’, Progress in Human Geography, 28: 6 (2004), pp. 725–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MacDonald, Laura, ‘A Mixed Blessing: The NGO Boom in Latin America’, NACLA Report on the Americas, 28: 5 (1995), pp. 30–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Bebbington, Anthony and Kothari, Uma, ‘Transnational Development Networks’, Environment and Planning A, 38: 5 (2006), pp. 849–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mawdsley, Emma, Townsend, Janet, Porter, Gina and Oakley, Peter, Knowledge, Power, and Development Agendas: NGOs North and South (Oxford: INTRAC, 2002)Google Scholar.

7 Edwards, Michael and Hulme, David (eds.), Beyond the Magic Bullet: NGO Performance and Accountability in the Post Cold World (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Sarabajaya Kumar, ‘Accountability: What Is It and Do We Need It?’, in Stephen P. Osborne (ed.), Managing in the Voluntary Sector: A Handbook for Managers in Charitable Organisations (London: International Thomson Business Press, 1996), pp. 237–52; Najam, Adil, ‘NGO Accountability: A Conceptual Framework’, Development Policy Review, 14: 4 (1996), pp. 339–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Ebrahim, Alnoor, NGOs and Organizational Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roberts, Susan M., Jones, John Paul III and Fröhling, Oliver, ‘NGOs and the Globalization of Managerialism: A Research Framework’, World Development, 33: 11 (2005), pp. 1845–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Townsend, Janet G. and Townsend, Alan R., ‘Accountability, Motivation and Practice: NGOs North and South’, Social and Cultural Geography, 5: 2 (2004), pp. 271–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Townsend, Janet G., Porter, Gina and Mawdsley, Emma, ‘Creating Spaces of Resistance: Development NGOs and their Clients in Ghana, India, and Mexico’, Antipode, 36: 5 (2004), pp. 831–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Edwards, Michael and Hulme, David, ‘NGO Performance and Accountability in the Post Cold War World’, Journal of International Development, 7: 6 (2006), pp. 849–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Brown, David S., Brown, J. Christopher and Desposato, Scott W., ‘Promoting and Preventing Political Change through Internationally Funded NGO Activity’, Latin American Research Review, 42: 1 (2007), pp. 126–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mercer, Claire, ‘NGOs, Civil Society, and Democratization: A Critical Review of the Literature’, Progress in Development Studies, 2: 1 (2002), pp. 5–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Moore, Sarah, Winders, Jamie, Fröhling, Oliver, Jones, John Paul III and Roberts, Susan M., ‘Mapping the Grassroots: NGO Formalization in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Journal of International Development, 19: 2 (2007), pp. 223–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Clarke, Colin, Class, Ethnicity, and Community in Southern Mexico: Oaxaca's Peasantries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)Google Scholar. ‘Indigenous’ is capitalised throughout when used as a proper noun or adjective. This is out of respect and acknowledges that the term is a meaningful one, and certainly as meaningful as ‘Mexican’, ‘American’ or ‘English’.

14 Harvey, David, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

15 Edwards, Michael and Fowler, Alan (eds.), Earthscan Reader in NGO Management (London: Earthscan, 2002)Google Scholar; Edwards and Hulme (eds.), Beyond the Magic Bullet.

16 Jordan, Lisa, Van Tuijl, Peter and Edwards, Michael (eds.), NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles, and Innovations (London: Earthscan, 2006)Google Scholar.

17 Edwards, Michael and Hulme, David, ‘Too Close for Comfort? The Impact of Official Aid on Nongovernmental Organizations’, World Development, 24: 6 (1996), pp. 967CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Day, Patricia and Klein, Rudolf, Accountabilities (London: Tavistock, 1987)Google Scholar; Fox, Jonathan, Accountability Politics: Power and Voice in Rural Mexico (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fox, Jonathan and David Brown, L. (eds.), The Struggle for Accountability: The World Bank, NGOs and Grassroots Movements (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998)Google Scholar; and Leat, Diana, Voluntary Organisations and Accountability (Worcester: NCVO, 1988)Google Scholar.

18 Edwards and Hulme (eds.), Beyond the Magic Bullet, p. 14.

19 On ‘patron’ accountability, see Najam, ‘NGO Accountability’, pp. 339–53. On ‘end-user’ accountability, see Kumar, ‘Accountability’, pp. 237–52.

20 Townsend and Townsend, ‘Accountability, Motivation and Practice’, pp. 271–85.

21 Roberts et al., ‘NGOs and the Globalization of Managerialism’, p. 1850.

22 On the analysis culture more generally, see Mawdsley et al., Knowledge, Power, and Development Agendas.

23 Ebrahim, NGOs and Organizational Change.

24 Del Casino, Vincent J. Jr., Grimes, Andrew J., Hanna, Stephen P. and Jones, John Paul III, ‘Methodological Frameworks for the Analysis of Organizations’, Geoforum, 31: 4 (2000), pp. 523–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Details of the data collection can be found in Moore et al., ‘Mapping the Grassroots’, pp. 223–37. Note that our dataset excludes organisations with direct and formal ties to the Mexican government, such as those associated with SEDOSOL. Specifically, our data on 292 NGOs operating in Oaxaca was produced by collating and integrating information from two published sources. The first, Experiencias organizativas de la sociedad civil en Oaxaca – inventario inicial (2001), is a directory compiled by the Centro de Encuentros y Diálogos Interculturales (Centre for Intercultural Meetings and Dialogues, CEDI), a local NGO; the second, Directorio de organismos civiles del Estado de Oaxaca (2000), was produced under the auspices of the Foro de Organismos Civiles de Oaxaca (Oaxaca Civil Organisations Forum, FOCO), a local network of 40 Oaxacan NGOs.

26 Moore et al., ‘Mapping the Grassroots’, p. 234.

27 See Mendoza Zuany, Rosa Guadalupe, ‘Dealing with Diversity in the Construction of Indigenous Autonomy in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 27: 3 (2008), pp. 351–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Uvin, Peter, Jain, Pankaj S. and Brown, L. David, ‘Think Large and Act Small: Toward a New Paradigm for NGO Scaling Up’, World Development, 28: 8 (2000), pp. 1409–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Uvin, Peter and Miller, David, ‘Paths to Scaling-Up: Alternative Strategies for Local Nongovernmental Organizations’, Human Organization: Journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology, 55: 3 (1996), pp. 344–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Fisher, Julie, ‘Is the Iron Law of Oligarchy Rusting away in the Third World?’, World Development, 22: 4 (1994), pp. 129–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Walker, David, Jones, John Paul III, Roberts, Susan M. and Fröhling, Oliver, ‘When Participation meets Empowerment: The WWF and the Politics of Invitation in the Chimalapas, Mexico’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97: 2 (2007), pp. 423–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Walker, Margath A., Roberts, Susan M., Jones, John Paul III and Fröhling, Oliver, ‘Neoliberal Development through Technical Assistance: Constructing Communities of Entrepreneurial Subjects in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Geoforum, 39: 1 (2008), pp. 527–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Walker, David M. and Walker, Margath A., ‘Power, Identity and the Production of Buffer Villages in “the Second Most Remote Region in all of Mexico”’, Antipode, 40: 1 (2008), pp. 155–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar. WWF-Mexico, Chimalapas: la última oportunidad (Mexico City: WWF-Mexico, 2001)Google Scholar.

33 Usos y costumbres is a form of self-governance officially sanctioned in Oaxaca by electoral reforms from 1995 and alterations made to the state Constitution in 1998. These changes guarantee a large degree of autonomy on the part of local authorities, enabling communities to govern themselves according to traditional practices. See C. Flores Cruz, ‘Sistema electoral de los pueblos indígenas de Oaxaca’, in Aline Hémond and David Recondo, Dilemas de la democracia en México (Mexico City: Centro Francés de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos and Instituto Federal Electoral, 2002), pp. 174–94; and Maldonado, Benjamín, Autonomía y Comunalidad India (Oaxaca: CEDI, 2002)Google Scholar.

34 See Chambers, Robert, Rural Development: Putting the Last First (London: Prentice Hall, 1983)Google Scholar; and ‘Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): Analysis of Experience’, World Development, 22: 9 (1994), pp. 1253–68. See also Hall, Budd L., ‘Participatory Research: An Approach for Change’, Convergence, 8: 2 (1975), pp. 24–32Google Scholar.

35 Co-optation is discussed in Chambers, Robert, Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last (London: ITDG, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nici Nelson and Susan Wright, ‘Participation and Power’, in Nelson and Wright (eds.), Power and Participatory Development: Theory and Practice (London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1995), pp. 1–18; and Majid Rahnema, ‘Participation’, in Wolfgang Sachs (ed.), The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power (London: Zed Books, 1992), pp. 116–31. On the ‘new tyranny’, see Bill Cooke and Uma Kothari, ‘The Case for Participation as Tyranny’, in Cooke and Kothari (eds.), Participation: The New Tyranny (London: Zed Books, 2001), pp. 1–15. On the question of whether participation is beyond redemption, see Sam Hickey and Giles Mohan, ‘Toward Participation as Transformation: Critical Themes and Challenges’, in Sam Hickey and Giles Mohan (eds.), Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation? Exploring New Approaches to Participation in Development (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004), pp. 3–24.

36 Chapin, Mac, ‘A Challenge to Conservationists’, World Watch Magazine, 17: 6 (2004), pp. 17–31Google Scholar.

37 WWF International, Statement of Principles: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation (1996), updated in WWF International, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation: WWF Statement of Principles (Gland, Switzerland, 2008).

38 Walker et al., ‘When Participation meets Empowerment’, pp. 423–44.

39 Doane, Molly, ‘A Distant Jaguar: The Civil Society Project in Chimalapas’, Critique of Anthropology, 12: 4 (2000), pp. 361–82Google Scholar.

40 The comisariados are leaders of their respective communities’ comisariados de bienes comunales, which are responsible for administering communal assets, principally communal land.

41 Field notes, 2004.

42 See Doane, ‘A Distant Jaguar’, pp. 361–82.

43 On the ‘politics of recognition’, see Esteva, Gustavo, ‘Celebration of Zapatismo’, Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 29: 1 (2005), pp. 127–67Google Scholar; and especially Muñoz, Alejandro Anaya, ‘Explaining the Politics of Recognition of Ethnic Diversity and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 23: 4 (2004), pp. 414–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar (quote from p. 427).

44 Field notes, 2004.

45 Field notes, 2004.

46 Esteva, Gustavo, ‘Regenerating People's Space’, Alternatives, 12: 1 (1987), pp. 125–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Esteva, Gustavo and Prakash, Madhu Suri, Grassroots Post-modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures (London and New York: Zed Books, 1998)Google Scholar.

47 Walker et al., ‘When Participation meets Empowerment’, p. 439.

48 Gibson-Graham, J. K., A Postcapitalist Politics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

49 See also ‘Special Issue: Technical Cooperation’, Development Policy Journal, 2 (2002).

50 Wallace, Laura, ‘Reshaping Technical Assistance’, Finance and Development, 27: 4 (1990), p. 27Google Scholar.

51 Banerjee, Niloy, Valdiva, Leonel and Mkandla, Mildred, ‘Is the Development Industry Ready for Change?’, Development Policy Journal, 2 (2002), p. 150Google Scholar.

52 Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism.

53 Gwynne, Robert N. and Kay, Cristobal, ‘Views from the Periphery: Futures of Neoliberalism in Latin America’, Third World Quarterly, 21: 1 (2000), pp. 141–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Walker and Walker, ‘Power, Identity and the Production of Buffer Villages’, n. 1.

55 Lemke, Thomas, ‘“The Birth of Biopolitics”: Michel Foucault's Lecture at the Collège de France on Neo-liberal Governmentality’, Economy and Society, 30: 2 (2001), p. 197CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Walker, Margath A., Roberts, Susan M., Jones, John Paul III and Fröhling, Oliver, ‘Neoliberal Development through Technical Assistance: Constructing Communities of Entrepreneurial Subjects in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Geoforum, 39: 1 (2008), pp. 527–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Howell, Jude and Pearce, Jenny, Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration (London and Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002)Google Scholar.

58 For overviews of the events of 2006, see Davies, Nancy, The People Decide: Oaxaca's Popular Assembly (Natick, MA: Narco News Books, 2007)Google Scholar; Osorno, Diego Enrique, Oaxaca sitiada: la primera insurrección del siglo XXI (Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2007)Google Scholar; Scott Campbell, ‘APPO Two Years On: Where Now for Oaxaca's Social Movement?’, MRZine (5 Sep. 2008), available at mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/campbell050908.html; Corona, Armando Renón, ‘El poder popular y la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca: APPO, 2006’, POLIS 2008, 4: 1 (2008), pp. 39–70Google Scholar; Vásquez, Víctor Raúl Martínez, Autoritarismo, movimiento popular y crisis política: Oaxaca, Mexico, 2006 (Oaxaca: Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez, 2007)Google Scholar; Mutersbaugh, Tad, ‘Oaxaca: Terror and Non-Violent Protest in a Video Age’, Antipode, 40: 2 (2008), pp. 2205–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Esteva, Gustavo, ‘The Oaxaca Commune and Mexico's Coming Insurrection’, Antipode, 42: 4 (2010), pp. 978–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gustavo Esteva, Rubén Valencia and David Venegas, ‘Cuando hasta las piedras se levantan’, Serie Universalismo Pequeño, Experiencas de Investigation No. 3 (Buenos Aires: GEMSAL-Editorial Antropofagia, 2008); and Vásquez, Víctor Raúl Martínez (ed.), La APPO: ¿rebelión o movimiento social? (nuevas formas de expresión ante la crisis) (Oaxaca: IISUABJO, 2009)Google Scholar.

59 See Jorge Hernandez-Díaz, ‘Las demandas Indígenas en el movimiento de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca’, in Víctor Raúl Martínez Vásquez (ed.), La APPO, pp. 275–300; Kristen Norget, ‘La virgen de las barricadas: la iglesia católica, religiosidad popular y el Movimiento de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca’, in Martínez Vásquez (ed.), La APPO, pp. 301–28; and Martin, Patricia M. and Gática, Raul, ‘An Interview with Raul Gática from the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca – Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM)’, Antipode, 40: 2 (2008), pp. 211–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Francisco Javier Gómez Carpinteiro, ‘¿Otra vez tomar el cielo por asalto? La APPO como un nuevo paradigma para los movimientos sociales’, in Globalización: Revista Mensual de Economía, Sociedad y Cultura (April 2008); and Norget, Kristin, ‘A Cacophony of Autochthony: Representing Indigeneity in Oaxacan Popular Mobilization’, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 15: 1 (2010), pp. 116–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 The shifting class alliances that attended the events of 2006 in Oaxaca were complex and often quite fragile. Nonetheless, it is significant that the 2004 gubernatorial election, in which PRI candidate Ruiz was eventually declared the winner, split the political class in Oaxaca. Many members of the middle class supported the opposition candidate Gabino Cué, who was closely tied to the elite families of the capital city (the so-called Vallistocracia). Ruiz's hard-line approach and the rampant corruption and cronyism of his administration were among many factors that further alienated major segments of the middle and upper classes of the capital city. As a result, many members of the middle class, while they may not have had any long-standing sympathy for the teachers and their means of protest, supported the movement of 2006 – especially in the beginning. Gabino Cué won the 2010 elections and was able to create a broad coalition of the urban marginalised populations and a large sector of the middle class and business elites.

61 Martin, Patricia M., ‘Citizenship and the Imperial City’, Antipode, 40: 2 (2008), pp. 221–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 For example, the directors of two NGOs were the targets of attacks by a pro-government radio station that broadcast their names and addresses and called on people to burn down their houses.

63 Witness the proliferation of websites and newsletters with an anti-government focus that emerged during 2006, such as oaxacalibre.org and revolucionemosoaxaca.org, or the more recently formed ‘La Minuta’. These were and are supported by different civil society organisations, although sometimes secretly. Some NGOs, such as Educación Alternativa AC (Alternative Education, EDUCA) and the Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos AC (Mexican League for the defence of Human Rights, LIMEDDH), used their websites to inform readers about the background of the movement and to periodically update audiences on important events. See also Dalton, Margarita, ‘My Wave is that of David: Civil Society, Women, and other Political Actors in Oaxaca, May–December 2006’, Antipode, 40: 2 (2008), pp. 216–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 On the Zapatistas, see Fröhling, Oliver, ‘The Cyberspace “War of Ink and Internet” in Chiapas, Mexico’, The Geographical Review, 87: 2 (1997), pp. 291–307CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Rancière, Jacques, ‘10 Theses on Politics’, Theory & Event, 5: 3 (2001), pp. 1–10Google Scholar.

66 In addition to EDUCA and LIMEDDH (see n. 63, above), other NGOs joining the APPO movement included the Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez (Union of Organisations of the Sierra Juárez, UNOSJO), Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad AC (Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity), and Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca AC (University of the Land in Oaxaca, Unitierra).

67 The composition of this NGO opposition can be gleaned from the signing of the frequent communiqués that usually included denouncements of human rights violations and a call for the resignation of the governor of the state of Oaxaca. And yet, notice the presence of the FCO in the communiqué issued after the violent crackdown on the movement of 25 November 2006; see http://coreco.org.mx/wordpress/?page_id=344.

68 Victor Raúl Martínez Vásquez, ‘Autonomías y perspectivas del movimiento popular en Oaxaca’, in Martínez Vásquez (ed.), La APPO, pp. 329–47.

69 Corona, See Renón, ‘El poder popular y la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca’, pp. 39–70Google Scholar; Sitrin, Marina (ed.), Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2006)Google Scholar; and Stout, Robert Joe, ‘Awakening in Oaxaca: Stirrings of the People's Giant’, Monthly Review, 62: 2 (2010), pp. 29–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 EDUCA, Oaxaca un regimen agrietado: informe publico sobre democracia y derechos humanos en Oaxaca, 2007–2009 (Oaxaca: EDUCA, 2009)Google Scholar.