As Latin America completes its second decade of neoliberal reforms, Pellegrino A. Luciano takes readers on an ethnographic journey back to a moment of monumental social and economic change in Peru. In Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu, Luciano describes the privatization struggles and challenges of the people living in the district of Machu Picchu, a heritage area and tourism destination, during the early 2000’s. At this time, it became central to the government’s neoliberal policies and efforts to use the symbolic nature of the historic and natural Machu Picchu Sanctuary to project a new global image and attract foreign capital. Luciano analyzes the role of middle-class actors in consequence, resistance, and accommodation to neoliberal changes. He fuses political economy to performative and social interaction theory to explain the role of class interest in the facilitation and continuation of neoliberalism as artisan dealers, restaurant and hotel owners, and owners of family businesses interpreted policy changes and conveyed their fears, hopes, and aspirations in the new economy. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, political science, economics, tourism studies, and history.

"Anthropologist Luciano (American Univ. of Kuwait) presents an insightful ethnography detailing the struggles of local residents of Machu Picchu Sanctuary (Peru) regarding neoliberal reform within the World Heritage Site. He gives voice to the residents living adjacent to the site as they fight for matters of politics that center on belonging, recognition, and participation in the site’s economy. Luciano does a fascinating job conveying how locals do not feel they own the land and have little say in how Machu Picchu should be managed. In the author’s words, his focus is to “bring to life the actions and struggles of the people involved … in a shift towards free-market policies and privatization … and to provide a case study of identity in the Andes drawn into a process of dispossession under state and market forces.” The text, focusing on shared narratives of inhabitants, comprises seven chapters examining the overlapping of spaces, public goods, private interests, stigmatized identities, power struggles, protests, memories of violence, and the impacts of tourism. Libraries with anthropological reserves focusing on World Heritage Sites, tourism, and Latin America should have a copy of this work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - CHOICE