Since 2006, more than 85,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. These disappearances remain largely unsolved: disappeared people are rarely found, and the Mexican state almost never investigates or prosecutes those responsible. Despite this, people not only continue to report disappearances, but many devote their lives to answering the question, "where are they?" Given the risks and institutional barriers, why and how do people mobilize for justice in states with rampant impunity and weak rule of law?
In Bootstrap Justice, Janice Gallagher leverages over a decade of ethnographic research to explain what enables the sustained mobilization of family members of the disappeared and analyze how configurations of political power between state and criminal actors shape what is possible for them to achieve. She follows three families from before the disappearance of their loved ones through their transformations into sophisticated and strategic victim advocates and activists. Gallagher supplements these individual narratives with an analysis of the evolving political opportunities for mobilization within Mexico.
By centering the perspectives of people whose lives have been upended by the disappearance of their loved ones, Bootstrap Justice offers a unique window into how citizens respond to weak and corrupt institutions. Gallagher focuses on the overlooked role of informal relationships and dynamics in shaping substantive legal and human rights outcomes and highlights how pioneering independent and creative work-arounds can compensate for state inaction. While top-down efforts, such as judicial reforms, technical assistance, and changes in political leadership are important parts of addressing impunity, policymakers and scholars alike have much to learn from the bottom-up--and by following the path that citizens themselves have worn within the labyrinth of state judicial bureaucracies.
Industry Reviews
"This is a great work in the classic tradition of law and society studies. It tracks the personal and social transformations that start with the experience of violent loss in a context of state incapacity or indifference, and shows how those transformations end up, partially at least, changing the state, constructing a new legality. It offers an intimate, and necessary, look at the struggle against impunity in a country wracked by loss and violence." -- Daniel
M. Brinks, Professor of Government and of Law, The University of Texas at Austin
"Beautifully written and extremely timely, Bootstrap Justice explores the tragedy of forced disappearances in Mexico. Gallagher presents vivid micro histories that bring individuals' personal dramas to life without losing sight of the broader theoretical or structural points that these stories are an illustration of and conduit to. To achieve this, the author had to immerse herself in the case like no other scholar before her. This long and highly
involved fieldwork paid off: the result is an incredibly rich account of drug-related and state-sponsored violence in Mexico, one that yields important lessons for scholars and activists alike." -- Ezequiel
González-Ocantos, Associate Professor in the Qualitative Study of Comparative Political Institutions, University of Oxford
"Bootstrap Justice does the important work of centering the voices of people whose lives have been upended by the disappearance of a loved one. Gallagher's careful analysis of their stories shows how trauma can reconfigure what is imaginable, transforming expectations of the state and of ourselves as political subjects in turn. The book has broad implications for how we think about mobilization processes, the transformative role of grievances, and the
development of political subjectivities." -- Erica S. Simmons, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"How do people obtain justice in contexts of insecurity and impunity? In this remarkable and deeply researched book, Janice Gallagher unpacks the dynamic interaction between claim-making, collective action, and state responses amidst cases of enforced disappearances in Mexico. An important contribution to existing research on social movements, crime, and legal studies, Bootstrap Justice also honors livesDLthose whose whereabouts remain unknown, and those who
marshal courage, social ties, and politics to fight for their rights as citizens and human beings." -- Eduardo Moncada, Barnard College, Columbia University
