The social life of corruption in Latin America

Abstract

This essay serves as the introduction to the special issue titled, ‘The social life of corruption in Latin America’. The six authors featured in this special issue of Culture, Theory and Critique exhibit a range of scholarship around questions of corruption and anti-corruption in the region. All have been involved in long-term ethnographically based research projects in particular locations in Latin America, including Brazil (three contributions), Peru (one contribution), Colombia (one contribution) and Ecuador (one contribution). In this special issue, these engaged regional scholars turn their attention to the theme of corruption in ‘parts known’, that is, within sites where they have already established deep connections.