Becoming a Plebeian Leader: Moral Careers, Life-Stories and Statecraft in Guayaquil, Ecuador (1960-2022)

In Becoming a Plebeian Leader, José Antonio Villarreal Velásquez examines situations where ordinary women and men become plebeian leaders in urban-popular neighborhoods.

Combining oral history, archival research, and ethnography, the book examines plebeian leaders’ moral careers through and within the meaningful and fluctuating connections among urban-popular neighborhoods in the city, and the nation-state from 1960 to the present time. Specifically, Villarreal Velásquez reconstructs, compares, and explains the historical, sociological, and political formation of two plebeian leaders’ moral career paths in Guayaquil (Ecuador); the skills, feelings, and knowledge they acquired to perform their tasks and operate within societal hegemonic frameworks and large-scale structural transformations.

Becoming a Plebeian Leader will be of interest to researchers studying urban popular politics in the Global South.

José Antonio Villarreal Velásquez is an Associate Professor at FLACSO, Ecuador in the Departments of Sociology and Gender Studies. His research interests are related to the fields of urban history, political ethnography, collective action, and socio-political practices, among others.