The recognition of Indigenous rights and the management of land and resources have always been fraught with complex power relations and conflicting expressions of identity. In Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism, Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez explores how this issue is playing out in two countries very differently marked by neoliberalism’s local expressions – Canada and Mexico.

Weaving together four distinct case studies, two from each country, Altamirano-Jiménez presents insights from Indigenous feminism, critical geography, political economy, and postcolonial studies. These specific examples highlight Indigenous people’s responses to neoliberalism, reflecting the tensions that result from how Indigenous identity, gender, and the environment have been connected. Indigenous women’s perspectives are particularly illuminating as they articulate diverse aspirations and concerns within a wider political framework.

What emerges is a theoretical and empirical discussion of how indigeneity as an act of articulation is embedded in tensions between local needs and global wants. This study attempts to uncover the complexities of materializing neoliberalism and the fluidity of indigeneity.

Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez is Zapotec from Oaxaca, Mexico. She holds a joint appointment as an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

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