Jon Shefner, an associate professor in sociology, has just published The Illusion of Civil Society: Democratization and Community Mobilization in Low-Income Mexico with the Pennsylvania State University Press. This book is the product of over 10 years of ethnographic sociological fieldwork in and engagement with a poor community in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 1994 to 2004. It is a sobering analysis of how democratization does not bring improved economic conditions to an actively mobilized segment of the poor. Shefner is also the director of UTK’s Interdisciplinary Program in Global Studies, which has about 75 majors.
Recent Publications
Fran Ansley and Jon Shefner, editors. Forthcoming. Global Connections and Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern US. University of Tennessee Press.
Shefner, Jon, and Katie Kirkpatrick. Forthcoming. “Globalization and the New Destination Immigrant,” in Global Connections and Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern US, edited by Fran Ansley and Jon Shefner. University of Tennessee Press.
Jon Shefner. 2008. The Illusion of Civil Society: Democratization and Community Mobilization in Low Income Mexico. Penn State University Press.
Jon Shefner. 2008. “The New Left in Latin America and the Opportunity for a New US Foreign Policy,” in Justice 21: Agenda for Social Justice, edited by Kathleen Ferraro, JoAnn Miller, Robert Perrucci, and Paula Rodriguez Rust. Society for the Study of Social Problems.
Jon Shefner, coeditor. 2007. NAFTA and Beyond: Alternative Perspectives in the Study of Global Trade and Development. American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Patricia Fernandez-Kelly and Jon Shefner, editors. 2006. Out of the Shadows. Penn State University Press.
Denise Cobb, Jon Shefner and Beth Rubin. 2006. “Sponsored Social Change in a Public Housing Project.” Qualitative Sociology 29: 211-231.
Jon Shefner, George Pasdirtz, and Cory Blad. 2006. “Austerity Protests and Social Immiseration: Evidence from Mexico and Argentina,” in Latin American Social Movements, edited by Hank Johnston and Paul Almeida. Rowman & Littlefield.