Ebook: Shifting imaginaries of 'good citizens': Governing Citizens in 20th Century Peru

The central argument of the dissertation is that citizenship, and conceptions of the ‘good
citizen,’ are reconfigured in different ways through varied programs of reform, on the
basis of changing ‘truths’ about progress and development. Drawing upon the analytical
tools offered by govemmentality studies, it starts from the view that ‘the citizen’ is not a
fixed subject, making it possible to inquire into how it is imagined and reformed as part
of shifting strategies of government. It juxtaposes different narratives of ‘good
citizenship’ at distinct moments in the history of Peru during the 20th and 21st centuries,
focusing on how these are operationalized through specific programs, and the underlying
bodies of knowledge. It first contrasts moral-racial narratives of citizenship in the first
part of the 20th century, at a time when national integration and the problem of ‘the
Indian’ were central concerns, with the ways in which Peruvian citizens were re-imagined
in the early second part of the 20th century, as questions of progress and integration were
reformulated as technical problems of economic development and ‘national security.’ It
then shows how new narratives of responsible citizenship came to prevail in the late 20th
and early 21st century, redefining the ‘good citizen’ in terms of the capacity to manage
various ‘risks.’ It explores two dimensions of this-the re-orientation of social
development programs towards individual ‘asset accumulation’ and new citizen
responsibilities for direct oversight of budgets and services as a form of social
accountability. In showing the contingency of ‘the good Peruvian citizen’ vis-a-vis
shifting problems of government and development, the dissertation seeks to de-stabilize
contemporary practices of citizen oversight, which have become a widespread solution to
problems of accountability and social development but have received little critical
attention to date. This in turn makes it possible to ask questions about the assumptions
that underpin different programs, what types of actions and behaviours are legitimated or
fostered and conversely what is precluded. In using the tools offered by govemmentality
to raise questions about citizenship in new sites, the dissertation also contributes to an
emerging body of govemmentality-inspired research on the region