Lorenza B Fontana, Recognition Politics: Indigenous Rights and Ethnic Conflict in the Andes

It is not often that a book is equally comfortable with complex social theory debates and dense empirical material, both quite fraught terrains when dealing with ethnic politics. In doing that, Fontana has clearly made an important contribution, especially on the international terrain, where there will not be so much familiarity with debates that have been ongoing since 2000 in Latin America, in the context of the unprecedented wave of progressive governments and the mobilization of indigenous and other social movements. It also relates centrally, of course, to the original distinction drawn by Nancy Fraser between redistribution and recognition politics. Fontana argues for a new agenda on post-recognition' that also shifts our attention from a focus on indigenous movements seeking recognition' to the broader social conflicts they are situated within. The empirical setting is given by a number of case studies of situations (across the Andean nations) where there was sharp conflict between indigenous and peasant settlers over access to land. This research was conducted between 2009 and 2016 resulting in 250 semi-structured interviews, focus group meetings, and participant observation at local and national levels. There were also a number of expert' interviews with organizations active around indigenous issues such as the Danish development agency Danida, and the International Labour Organization's indigenous rights agenda office. In terms of the politics of scale, this seems a reasonable approach insofar as the international perspectives are not allowed to overpower the local narrative. Having said that, there does seem to be an acceptance that it is the global indigenous rights agenda that has set the parameters of the debate. This might look different from a politically engaged national perspective.