Current Institutional Affiliation
Editor, Center for Social Innovation

Award Information

International Dissertation Research Fellowship 2003
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
Anthropology, University of California / Irvine
Re-Inventing Nicaragua: the Cultural and Social Logics of Investment and Re-Investment

In an era of globalized economies and capital mobility, Nicaraguan leaders are employing diverse strategies to portray Nicaragua as a lucrative investment opportunity. New investment is occurring, but in unanticipated ways which suggest a disjuncture between the project of promoting Nicaragua and the ways in which investment is arriving. Preliminary research indicates that new investments are not solely financial, but affective, marked by kinship ties, social relationships, and diverse desires which index particular ideas and beliefs about Nicaragua. The aims of this project are three-fold: 1) to map the process and practices of the cultural production of a re-invented and investable Nicaragua; 2) to examine investment in Nicaragua as situated cultural and social practice, and the beliefs underpinning these practices; and 3) to contribute to wider understandings of the embodied practices connected with global capital flows.

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