The notion of the 'failed state' is recurrently invoked to justify military and security interventions. Reviewing two books which take so-called failed states in Africa and South America as their object of enquiry, Angela Mitropoulos questions the founding premises of 'successful' national sovereignty

The Counterpunch video interview with Peter Linebaugh is at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/ruspoli03142007.html

I'm reposting this item from http://squattercity.blogspot.com/2006/09/property-rights-in-favelas.html to draw attention to Robert Neuwirth's excellent blog (first brought to our attention by Richard Pithouse), a very good place for anyone interested in the theme of our current issue to continue reading. Neuwirth's responses to the story about plans to map two of Rio's favelas puts paid to some common myths about squatting and 'development', as well as providing insight into the double-edged nature of the legalisation process for squatters.

Readers of this site fearless enough to trudge through the gloss-paper advertising swamp that is this month's Artforum might be surprised to find this site referred to as the 'the Mute Beta (then known as Metamute) blog' in an article on Chris Gilbert's resignation by Liam Gillick. Whilst the confusing reference is somewhat unhelpful for readers who may want to follow-up the debate, which can be read in full here: http://www.metamute.org/en/node/7834 , Gillick is a not unintelligent commentator on the issues of political commitment, professionalisation and institutionalisation in the art world post-institutional critique

Whilst in the expanding global slum survival at subsistance level is increasingly the only option, in the West the celebration of the creativity and ingenuity of the slum dweller is becoming fashionable. In a conflation of relational aesthetics with the 'creative' survival strategies of the globalised slum, many artists have become associated with what could be called 'slum chic'. Anna Dezeuze surveys a number of artists who draw upon the experience of everyday life in the slums to make their work, and tries to separate out the aestheticisation of poverty from the poverty of aesthetics

Brazil has long sold its sunny side to holiday makers, but since the blockbuster film City of God a flood of movies and TV shows have capitalised on the narrative potential of the country’s plentiful favelas, adolescent drug soldiers and ultraviolence.

No other group has had such a catalysing influence on the new political forms and tactics espoused by the anti-globalisation movement, yet there has been too little critical analysis of the Zapatistas' politics and the relationship of western activists to their guerilla icons. Melancholic Troglodytes review Mihalis Mentinis' book Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means for Radical Politics and discovers some ugly nationalist features behind the mask

Tijuana Organic – a show that profiles contemporary artists and media activists from the Mexican border town made notorious by its maquiladoras, immigration struggles and crime – steers a course between depicting Tijuana's harsh realities and avoiding a sensationalist treatment of its social complexities. Reviewed by Armin Medosch