In “The Devil Behind the Mirror,” Steven Gregory is concerned with the possibilities of creating agencies within the frameworks of a neoliberal tourism economy. Based on an exhaustive (deducible due to the precision of the work) ethnographic study of Dominican tourist town of Boca Chica and surroundings, the book highlights the impacts of globalization and neoliberal reform on the lives of the residents. The author argues that previous researches concentrated only on the deterritorialization and the influence of technology advances and the international capital against the nation and state. However, the author’s ethnography of tourism in the region illustrates that labor division and facilitation of disparities are still territorialized and rooted in local and national politics. The chapter under discussion in this paper is based on the socio-spatial practices.
In chapter two, the author’s perspectives delve on consequences of the socio-spatial activities affecting the division of labor among Boca Chica’s workers. He helps the reader understands the effects of inequalities on a state or economy growth. Gregory demonstrates the assertions of state or local autonomy impact on the spatial practices of exclusion while internal separations based on national or regional line limits social spaces of the people.
In the chapter, the author presents the perspectives of global powers, subjectivity, and space that are influenced by the changes in the Dominican society and economy. These powers and influences are seen through a reaction disregarding area by the globally based tourism economy and the state. The author reiterated that the concepts of society practices by locals were inflected by international mediation (Gregory 73-74). From this concept, it is clear that the labor division among Boca Chica’s workers was influenced by the global influences.
The information the author writes in this section regarding the creation of communities is relevant to debates or deliberations concerning globalization. Juntas constitutes of voluntary members from locals of the area that used to give support to populace and represented at a higher level. The chapter is a reaction to the disregard of the society experiencing problems due to the greater political constitution. Boca Chica is just considered as a tourist destination that is a stereotyping approach that is common in most politically skewed systems. The area is also largely ignored as it is not officially a metropolis. Therefore, the area is left to grow through the tourist industry as it the key resource of income and local welfare of the residents is ignored.
The neglect of the citizens of Boca Chica in favor for tourist industry must have frustrated the citizens since they were treated as strangers in their homes. In this section, it is clear that the local authorities are more concern for the revenue collections than the welfare of the locals. Therefore, because of tourism, the local are forced to form juntas to voice their concerns. However, the groups are not united. For instance, La Gringa traveling to other regions sharpened her perspectives making her views varied from others (Gregory 76). Consequently, in the society, citizens saw their personal frustrations in different aspects.
It is clear that not all the locals experienced the neglect or mistreatment the same way. The concept is relevant to the concept of globalization that has different processes and approaches. The quote from the chapter relating to globalization is “disputes about the significance of community cannot be reduced to a simple opposition, pitting punitively ‘local’ interests against monolithically conceived ‘global’ ones” (80). It is a confirmation that the differences in Boca Chica’s perspectives are brought up due to different personalities. It is liked to different global process that is interpreted differently are interpreted in a local and individual and personal matter thus then being uneven and irregular.
In conclusion, it is evident that in Gregory’s efforts to put the Dominican incident in a worldwide frame, his writing tends to replicate an anthropological thesis instead of a book. It is not straightforward and needs rereading to understand the author’s message.
Work Cited
Gregory, Steven. The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Print.
