Bootstrap Justice

Abstract

How do people living in settings marked by normalized rights violations, transform into rights-claiming and, ultimately, rights-bearing citizens? Bootstrap Justice centers the voices and perspectives of people whose lives have been upended by the disappearance of their loved ones in Mexico. The book argues that as people participate in ongoing mobilization and claim-making over time (1) their legal consciousness— their understandings of the state and of themselves as citizens and political actors—shifts, and that with these shifts, (2) their ability to challenge impunity is likewise transformed. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic work, Bootstrap Justice offers unique insight into the critical but often overlooked role of informal relationships and dynamics in shaping substantive legal and human rights outcomes. The book presents in-depth analyses of the individuals involved in the daily struggle to find their loved ones, the organizations they form, the social movements they join, and the state- and national-level legal and political contexts that condition what is possible for them to achieve. This multi-level, temporally situated perspective provides unique insight into what has been achieved in the past decade, and draws lessons relevant beyond Mexico about what can be achieved in the struggle against impunity.

Citizen awakening? Exploring legal consciousness in a context of mass political mobilization

“…In the police brutality scenario, there is no statistical relationship between these variables, while in the health discrimination scenario, expectation of achieving a "totally just or mostly just" outcome decreases the odds of the proclivity to claim. This suggests that it is not an instrumental calculation (i.e., believing that making a claim will result in a just outcome and therefore be worth the effort) that drives people's willingness to claim, a finding that is consistent with a number of works in the literature (Gallagher 2023;Gallagher 2006;Hilbink et al 2022;Merry 1990).…”

“…3 Another widespread finding is that the likelihood of making claims and asserting rights depends on the nature of the legal need, in particular, its urgency or intensity (Balmer et al 2010;Engel 1984;Genn and Beinart 1999;Hendley 2012;Kritzer 2010;MacDonald and Wei 2016;Silbey 2005;Taylor 2018). Hendley, for example, argues that ordinary Russians decide whether or not to go to court based on a calculation of the stakes as well as their sense of the odds of victory (2017), while in an analysis of the persistent mobilization by family members of the disappeared in Mexico, Gallagher (2023) traces how the life-shattering nature of a loved one's disappearance spurs shifts in legal consciousness and claiming, even in a context of low state responsiveness.…”

“…neither structurally determined nor static, but is, rather, "fluid, flexible, dynamic, and subject to multiple constructions and … reconstruction" (McCann 2006: xiii;Fleury-Steiner and Laura Beth Nielsen 2006). They argue that the intensity or urgency of the grievance (Kritzer 2010;Hendley 2012;Taylor 2018;Gallagher 2023), as well as social experiences and political interventions, can motivate and equip underprivileged people to make formal rights claims (Gallagher 2006;Hernandez 2010;Lake et al 2016;Tait 2021;Gallagher 2023;Taylor 2023). Among such experiences, participation in a social movement has been shown to leave a mark on the legal consciousness of the individuals involved, altering the way that activists understand themselves as rights bearers, even if the movement does not succeed in achieving favorable court rulings or policy change (McCann 1994).…”

Complex gendered agency in Mexico: how women negotiate hierarchies of fear to search for the disappeared

“…Despite the threats they face, women continue to search for the disappeared. Across Mexico -including in Veracruz -colectivos of family members have coalesced in the search for their loved ones (see Gallagher, 2022). Arely Cruz-Santiago (2017: 13) writes about how the relatives of the disappeared engage in 'a grassroots knowledgemaking process permeated by loss, care, and love'.…”

“…In recent years, literature on the phenomenon of the 'disappeared' in Mexico has begun to gain increased attention (see Ansolabehere and Martos, 2021). Other research has focused on those left behind, primarily the mothers and wives who sacrifice their safety and their ways of life not only to find their loved ones, but also to make demands for truth and justice (Schwartz-Marin and Cruz-Santiago, 2016;Cruz-Santiago, 2017;Wright, 2017;Orozco Mendoza, 2019;Gallagher, 2022). What is less explored, however, is how these women negotiate and understand the violence and fears associated with the high-risk activism they undertake.…”