Belize is often described as a “pristine” ecotourism destination with a landscape that is “naturally” valuable. Yet for much of the twentieth century, British Honduras—as the country was known under colonial rule—was seen as lacking value, an unprofitable backwater. Valuing Nature at the Ends of the World: Natural Capital and Climate Disaster in Belize (Columbia UP, 2026) explores how Belize’s precarious coastal environment has become a site for a new kind of capitalist value production, in which landscapes and ecosystems derive worth from their vulnerability or looming destruction in the era of climate change.

Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research, Dr. Patrick M. Gallagher offers a critical account of market-oriented conservation in the Caribbean that ranges across everyday coastal life, emergent ecological science, and climate policy spaces. He shows how the long material and social histories of racialized colonialism shape the making of technocratic tools for valuing nature. Gallagher traces how new forms of capitalist value emerge from the interaction among colonial pasts, contemporary conservation practices, and vivid scenarios of imminent climate change–driven disaster and loss. He also examines how people and policymakers in Belize imagine and create new ways of life in a changing environment. Ethnographically grounded and rich in theoretical insight, this book illuminates how the Anthropocene environment, newly visible and valuable at the moment of its presumed disappearance, came into being in Belize and around the world.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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What can democracies in different parts of the Global South learn from one another - and what can democracies in the Global North learn from them? The Democracy Exchange: South to South is a new mini-series from the People, Power, Politics podcast, bringing together researchers and activists from across the Global South to exchange ideas and experiences of democratic resilience. Produced as part of the Southern-led Approaches to Democratic Resilience project, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the series starts with Asia Asks, Latin America Responds. Join Janjira Sombatpoonsiri and Jennifer Cyr as they discuss what makes democracy resilient in Latin America, who the primary resisters are in different countries, and why context is so vital for how democratic erosion, resistance, and recovery occurs in Latin America and across the globe.

Guest:

Jennifer Cyr is Associate Professor of Political Science at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT) in Buenos Aires. Her research focuses on political representation, democratisation, and institutional stability and change in Latin America, as well as qualitative and mixed research methods. She is the author of The Fates of Political Parties: Institutional Crisis, Continuity, and Change in Latin America and Focus Groups for the Social Science Researcher. Her recent work examines the challenges facing democratic resilience, including the difficulties democracies face in recovering from periods of authoritarian erosion. She is working on this IDRC-sponsored project with Matías Bianchi (Asuntos del Sur) and Paula Clerici (CONICET-UTDT).

Presenter:

Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, and a Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Her research focuses on democratic resilience, civil resistance, protest movements, civic space and digital repression, particularly in Southeast Asia. She leads the Asian component of the Southern-Led Approaches to Democratic Resilience project and has published widely on pro-democracy movements and authoritarian responses to dissent. She is the author of Humor and Nonviolent Struggle in Serbia and the forthcoming A Thousand Cuts: Digital Repression and Pro-Democracy Movements in Thailand.

The People, Power, Politics podcast brings you the latest insights into the factors that are shaping and re-shaping our political world. It is brought to you by the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR) based at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Join us to better understand the factors that promote and undermine democratic government around the world and follow us on Twitter at @CEDAR_Bham!

Transcript here

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In Rebellious Citizens: Social Upheaval and Democracy in Revolutionary Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2026), Ulices Piña shows that democracy in Mexico has never been the exclusive domain of elites, nor confined to the ballot box. Focusing on the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20, Piña explores how citizens forged a substantive democratic culture in the crucible of three successive social upheavals that shook the established social order in the central western state of Jalisco during the 1920s and 1930s—a formative period in the nation’s political history.

Piña examines how ordinary Mexicans actively shaped the political process, made their own history, and fought for equality in the country’s long fight for democracy. The long-term effects of the recurring uprisings in Jalisco were central to the new political system produced by the postrevolutionary state: After each rebellion, authorities consolidated institutional power, elected officials debated the strictures of government, and ordinary people grappled with the promise and limits of political emancipation. Because of the contradictions that arose from the creation of this modern political system, especially those that emerged at the nexus of democratic inclusion and authoritarian rule, seemingly powerless populations claimed equality, exercised participation rights, and demanded respect, even amid the violence and surveillance the state deployed against marginal groups to achieve its goals. Rebellious Citizens brings into focus the struggles of ordinary people to experiment with new ways of doing politics to remake the nation.

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