In this article, I examine institutional life in the Argentine Army today from the perspective of female soldiers, with particular emphasis on the opportunities for agency available to these women in the army and the possibilities of institutional change they unintentionally produce. I show how female soldiers have made possible the concept of a military subject open to values from different dimensions of their identities. The agency of these female soldiers does not contain any explicit intentionality to resist or subvert institutional norms and values associated with military masculinity; rather, this agency is to be found in the different kinds of individuality that female soldiers bring into view inside and outside the army. Through their practices, ideas, and conceptions of military activity, female soldiers pave the way for discussing a key dimension in the redefining of the relations among the armed forces, the state, and society at large in present‐day Argentina: soldiers as citizens. In this way, the experiences of women in the Argentine Army mirror internal changes within the military institution, where they also chart the scope, ambiguity, and contradictions present in the ongoing democratization of Argentine society. [military women, Argentine Army, female agency]
In this article I examine "nation branding" strategies in the marketing of international real estate in China. In their push to secure Chinese customers on global markets worldwide, many Western corporate actors incorporate commercial strategies that aim to enhance the appeal of the nations and cities where the sale properties are located. Their marketing narratives equate investment in foreign real estate with an investment in "quality of life", and promote the figure of the "immigrant investor" as a way of belonging to foreign countries. The analysis focuses on the competing narratives, insecurities and hesitations of foreign real estate agencies working on China's international real estate market. The article is based on fieldwork I conducted in China between 2014 and 2016, observing international real estate trade shows, conducting interviews with real estate agents, and reviewing promotional materials. [International Real Estate; China; Nation Branding; Global Brokers; Immigrant Investor] M ay 2016. I visit an international real estate trade show in Shanghai. I'm sitting inside a small booth chatting with Alex Brown, a sixty-year-old American real estate agent who specializes in the sale of luxury properties and golf fields in California. At times, Alex interrupts our conversation to focus on visitors watching images flash on a big flat screen television or peruse the many brochures laid out on the countertop. Alex does not speak Mandarin. He addresses the people who come by his booth in English, and if they don't understand, he quickly gestures for Suny, his Taiwanese colleague, to assist them. Alex tells me that this is the second time he has participated in this kind of trade show in China, and that he has many contacts with Chinese clients in California. One of the main things he has learned from this experience is that "in China, you should not judge a book by its cover. Everyone is a potential buyer." To illustrate this, Alex points to an old man staring at one of the banners hanging above the booth: "See that guy? He looks like the typical Chinese retiree who worked in the countryside until very recently. But maybe he's actually loaded and can buy a mansion or golf course in California from you." In China, Alex explains, people got rich very quickly but have only recently begun to
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