Jon Shefner  

Current Research

My work is centered on the political economy of development, a sub-field that focuses on explaining different national trajectories and global stratification. My work is multidisciplinary, drawing from anthropology, economics, history, and political science, as well as sociology. My research is largely qualitative, and I have conducted field research in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, New Orleans, LA, and Quito, Ecuador. I have also explored other academic interests in Nicaragua and Wales.

My research details how poor people push for political change, and the limitations to which they are subjected in their efforts toward greater self-determination. I have particular interest in the links poor people hold – either forged themselves, or imposed on them – with other social groups. The interaction of organized poor people’s movements with groups representing interests of the state, elites, or middle classes, has important implications for how poor people’s political efforts proceed, and the gains they are able to win.

Much of my work in Mexico focused on a community organization representing poor neighborhoods in the south of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city. This organization, the UCI, actively defied the clientelist political organizational efforts of the government, allying instead with various community organizations of the poor, and middle-class nongovernmental organizations to press a diverging political agenda of democratization and human rights, and land security and better urban services. My work in Mexico lasted for 15 years, and led me to criticize the concept of civil society, which I find analytically, theoretically, and politically inadequate.

I am currently researching state change in Ecuador, and the role social movements have played in that nation. That study is embedded in a wider investigation of how protests against IMF structural adjustment programs have influenced political process in a variety of countries. This wave of protest has had important implications for national and international politics as resistance to globalization continues. My work in Ecuador and Mexico will be part of a comparative project that helps explain the leftist shift in Latin America. I am also interested in the political action of immigrants, and how that changes both their lives and that of new destination locales.

Recent Publications

Jon Shefner. 2008. The Illusion of Civil Society: Democratization and Community Mobilization in Low Income Mexico. Penn State University Press.

Fran Ansley and Jon Shefner, editors. Forthcoming. Global Connections and Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern US. .University of Tennessee Press.

Jon Shefner, coeditor. 2007. Special Volume on NAFTA and Beyond: Alternative Perspectives in the Study of Global Trade and Development. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. March, Vol. 610

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.

Shefner, Jon, and Katie Kirkpatrick. Forthcoming. “Globalization and the New Destination Immigrant”, edited by Fran Ansley and Jon Shefner. In Global Connections and Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern US. .University of Tennessee Press.

Patricia Fernandez-Kelly and Jon Shefner, eds. 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.

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.

Jon Shefner. 2005. “Do you think democracy is a magical thing?” From Basic Needs to Democratization in Informal Politics. In Out of the Shadows. edited by Patricia Fernandez-Kelly and Jon Shefner. Penn State University Press.

Jon Shefner, ed. 2004. Special Volume on Latin American Social Movements, Mobilization Volume 6, Number 3.

Jon Shefner. 2004. “Globalization and Democracy in Mexico.” Soundings Volume 87, Number. 1-2.

Jon Shefner. 2004. “Current Trends In Latin American Social Movements”. Special Volume on Latin American Social Movements, Mobilization Volume 6, Number 3. 219-222.

Donna Cherry and Jon Shefner. 2004. “Overcoming Structural Barriers to Collaboration: Multidisciplinary Lessons for Community Organizers.” Journal of Community Practice Volume 12 (3/4).

Jon Shefner. 2004. “Before Seattle.” In Agenda for Social Justice. edited by Kathleen Ferraro, JoAnn Miller, Robert Perrucci, and Paula Rodriguez Rust. Society for the Study of Social Problems. 31-42.

Jon Shefner and Robert Gay. 2002. “The Politics of Field Research: Lessons from Brazil and Mexico.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Volume 27, Number 54. 199-214.

Jon Shefner and Denise Cobb. 2002. “Hierarchy and Partnership in New Orleans.” Qualitative Sociology Volume 25, Number 2. 273-298.

Jon Shefner. 2001. “Power at the Top.” Theory and Society 30:811-822.

Jon Shefner. 2001. “Coalitions and Clientelism in Mexico.” Theory and Society 30:593-628.

Kevin Fox Gotham, Jon Shefner, and Krista Brumley. 2001. “Urban Space, Local Knowledge, and Redevelopment in Public Housing.” Research in Urban Sociology Volume 7. 313-336.

Jon Shefner. “Austerity and Neighborhood Politics in Guadalajara, Mexico.” Sociological Inquiry 70:3. 338-359.

Contact Information

Jon Shefner
Associate Professor of Sociology
Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Global Studies
Ph.D. 1997, University of California – Davis

The University of Tennessee
910 McClung Tower
Knoxville, TN 37996-0490

Phone: (865) 974-7022
E-Mail: jshefner@utk.edu