Bernd Reiter
Biographic Data
| ID | 173807 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernd Reiter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernd |
| FAMILY NAME | Reiter |
| SIGNATURE | REITER B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2764-4036 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 74 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Colonial Slavery and Divergent American Modernity
This article uses Jacob Gorender’s theory of colonial slavery to challenge a core premise of modern social theory—that labor inherently generates freedom. In Hegel and Marx, productive activity enables recognition, consciousness, and ultimately emancipation. The article argues that this mechanism depended on a historically specific condition: the worker’s juridical possession of labor-power. Plantation slavery abolished that condition. The enslav…
Empire, Race, and Gender
This article argues that racism did not originate with the modern invention of race but crystallized out of a much older imperial grammar that had already learned how to naturalize domination through embodied difference. Long before race emerged as a named category, ancient and medieval empires developed durable ways of converting historically produced hierarchies into features of nature, the cosmos, and divine order. Through a comparative geneal…
Beyond top-down universalism
The African Origins of Democracy
Democratic History and Prehistory Against the Grain
Aggrieved White Men and the Danger They Pose to Democracy and Peace
This article examines the resurgence of fascism and white supremacy politics in Western societies through the lens of status, honor, and dignity. By focusing on the political appeal of leaders like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, and others, this study argues that these leaders resonate with primarily white, male supporters who feel that their social status and cultural identity are under threat. Drawing on works by Isabel Wilkerson, …
Participatory Democracy in Southern Africa
Botswana has had fair and stable elections since its independence in 1966. It has a relatively high standard of living, a relatively well-functioning welfare state, and relatively low levels of government corruption. Voter participation is among the highest in the world, topping 80 percent in the past elections. Access to education and healthcare is free to all citizens. How can we best explain Botswana’s exceptionalism in the political, economic…
Política Pública Indígena Brasileira
Este artigo é resultado de uma pesquisa etnográfica conduzida em Pesqueira, Pernambuco, em junho de 2022, conduzida pelo autor na condição de bolsista da Fundação Fulbright (Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public Policy, Brazil) e como fellow da Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Pernambuco, no período de maio a agosto de 2022. O objetivo da pesquisa foi descobrir o diferencial indígena na gestão municipal da cidade de Pesqueira, onde o cacique Xu…
Routledge Handbook of Afro-Latin American Studies
Racial capital and white middle class territorialization in Salvador, Brazil
In this article we seek to first conceptualize whiteness as racial capital and then apply this conceptualization to analyze how whiteness functions in structuring social space in Salvador, Brazil. This article thus seeks to put into conversation different bodies of literature, namely race and racialization, critical whiteness studies, class analysis, gender analysis, and territorial analysis. In other words, we seek to provide an intersectional t…
Multicultura lis m and Racializ ation in Latin Ame rica and the Caribbe an
This article, which is based on a keynote address, delivered for the 2nd International Congress of Caribbean Studies, held at the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, in August of 2012, argues that Caribbean nations are in dire need to analyze and deconstruct the foundational myths upon w hich their national unities were constructed after achieving independence. This process is under way in such countries as Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia…
First People of the Americas
Legal Duty and Upper Limits
Recognition and Reparations Reconsidered
Racial justice in the United States, and indeed throughout the Americas, can be achieved only by addressing and rectifying the wrongs done in the past to the descendants of African slaves. This is so because under conditions of free market competition, past inequalities and disparities in wealth and asset holding tend to be reproduced and even reinforced in the present. As the US economist Fred Hirsch has shown, under free market conditions, ther…
Fuzzy epistemology
This article first argues that the social sciences need to be decolonized, as the current epistemologies and research methodologies are too narrowly based on the European and North American experiences and hence unable to adequately capture non‐European experiences and realities. I then argue that decolonizing dominant social science epistemology means freeing it from its Aristotelian foundation. The next step undertaken is to discuss five non‐We…
Conclusion
First People of the Americas Lessons on Democracy, Citizenship, and Politics
Constructing the Pluriverse The Geopolitics of Knowledge
The Wintukua
El pueblo Wintukua es uno de los cuatro pueblos que habitan en el territorio de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. La Sierra Nevada alcanza una altura de 5,775 metros sobre el mar y se extiende hasta la orilla del mar Caribe. Los Wintukua cuentan con unas 50,000 personas y tienden a vivir en asentamientos compuestos por núcleos familiares, en fincas o haciendas rurales. Una minoría vive en aglomerados mayores – antes de todo en Nabusimake…
Palenque de San Basílio
This article presents the results of an empirical study conducted in Palenque de San Basílio in 2014. I advance two main arguments: First, that the Maroon villages settled by escaped slaves in northern Colombia were free city-republics similar to the European free city-republics described by Max Weber [1968. Economy and society. New York, NY: Bedminster Press]. The only difference that separates the Colombian from the European experience is that …
The Importance of Inclusion Policies for the Promotion of Development in Brazil and Colombia
This article argues that investment in social inclusion policies is an economically efficient option for developing countries. It analyzes different social inclusion policies, particularly those practiced in Brazil and Colombia, as they demonstrate, among other things, the racial dimension of exclusion and the corresponding economic contribution of race-based social inclusion policies to sustained economic growth and development. These cases also…
A Genealogy of Black Organizing in Brazil
This article argues that the vast literature on "new social movements" misrepresents the historicity of identity-based organization in Latin America. Such organizing is indeed much older than the literature suggests. To prove this argument, I provide a genealogy of black, identitybased organizing in Brazil. This genealogy makes clear that black organizing started when Africans first arrived in Brazil. To explain the ebbs and flows of this organiz…
Framing Non-Whites and Producing Second-Class Citizens in France and Portugal
The quality of contemporary democracies hinges on the breadth and depth of the citizenship regimes on which democracy ultimately rests. This article argues that, to assess citizenship, two important dimensions are of crucial interest, namely to what extent formal citizens are able to live and practice substantive citizenship roles and, secondly, how access to citizenship rights is used by different societal groups in order to defend privilege. Ha…
"What's New in Brazil's "New Social Movements
The concept of "new social movements," characterized by a focus on identity, cannot readily be transferred to a Latin American context. Latin America never experienced the postmaterialist turn that led some to call certain European social movements "new." In addition, as the case of black organizing in Brazil demonstrates, identity-based Latin American social movements are much older than the literature suggests. What was indeed a Latin American …
Brazils New Racial Politics
As the popular myth of racial equality in Brazil crumbles beneath the weight of current grassroots politics, how will the country redefine itself as a multiethnic nation? Brazil’s New Racial Politics captures the myriad questions and problems unleashed by a growing awareness of the ways racism structures Brazilian society. The authors bridge the gap between scholarship and activism as they tackle issues ranging from white privilege to black power…
Constructing the Pluriverse The Geopolitics of Knowledge
Portugal
Portugal's journey, from a minor colonising power to a member of the European Union, transformed its sense of national belonging and citizenship. African colonial possessions, which under the Salazar-Caetano regime had been formally incorporated into the nation as a ruse to offset international criticism of Portugal's prolonged imperialism, were later disavowed, along with those Africans who had become Portuguese citizens under the earlier arrang…
The perils of empire
After the demise of the Portuguese empire and even more after joining the European Union, the Portuguese state redefined the borders of national belonging. The shift was one from a multi-continental nation, which included parts of Africa, to a more restricted definition of nationhood, one that stressed Portugal's connection to Europe and thus defined belonging by descent. This article, based on research conducted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2003, disc…
Fuzzy epistemology
This article first argues that the social sciences need to be decolonized, as the current epistemologies and research methodologies are too narrowly based on the European and North American experiences and hence unable to adequately capture non‐European experiences and realities. I then argue that decolonizing dominant social science epistemology means freeing it from its Aristotelian foundation. The next step undertaken is to discuss five non‐We…
The Limits of Popular Participation in Salvador, Brazil
This article focuses on the changing nature of state-society interactions in the state of Bahia, Brazil and on the factors that condition democratic participation. During several research trips, conducted between 2001 and 2006, I collected data on participatory budgeting and on participatory urban planning in the city of Salvador. I was therefore able to compare two thematic sites where local states interacted with society in general, and with ci…
Fighting exclusion with culture and art Examples from Brazil
English This article demonstrates that artistic activity is an important tool for deepening democracy, because it provides a vehicle for the excluded to reach the public sphere, thus making it more heterogeneous. As artists, they become active citizens and step out of the invisibility into which racism and exclusion has forced them. French Cet article montre que l’activité artistique est un important outil d’enracinement de la démocratie, parce q…
Civil Society and Democracy
his article argues that such authors as Sheri Berman and Ariel Armony have overstated the importance of the state when explaining the relationship between civil society and democracy. They have done so because no theoretical framework is currently available to assess civil society's democratic potential, which led them to focus rather on the state as the central explanans. Furthermore, Berman's incorrect interpretation of Weimar's civic organizin…
Inequality and School reform in Bahia, Brazil
Participatory Democracy in Southern Africa
Botswana has had fair and stable elections since its independence in 1966. It has a relatively high standard of living, a relatively well-functioning welfare state, and relatively low levels of government corruption. Voter participation is among the highest in the world, topping 80 percent in the past elections. Access to education and healthcare is free to all citizens. How can we best explain Botswana’s exceptionalism in the political, economic…
Palenque de San Basílio
This article presents the results of an empirical study conducted in Palenque de San Basílio in 2014. I advance two main arguments: First, that the Maroon villages settled by escaped slaves in northern Colombia were free city-republics similar to the European free city-republics described by Max Weber [1968. Economy and society. New York, NY: Bedminster Press]. The only difference that separates the Colombian from the European experience is that …
The Importance of Inclusion Policies for the Promotion of Development in Brazil and Colombia
This article argues that investment in social inclusion policies is an economically efficient option for developing countries. It analyzes different social inclusion policies, particularly those practiced in Brazil and Colombia, as they demonstrate, among other things, the racial dimension of exclusion and the corresponding economic contribution of race-based social inclusion policies to sustained economic growth and development. These cases also…
Framing Non-Whites and Producing Second-Class Citizens in France and Portugal
The quality of contemporary democracies hinges on the breadth and depth of the citizenship regimes on which democracy ultimately rests. This article argues that, to assess citizenship, two important dimensions are of crucial interest, namely to what extent formal citizens are able to live and practice substantive citizenship roles and, secondly, how access to citizenship rights is used by different societal groups in order to defend privilege. Ha…
"What's New in Brazil's "New Social Movements
The concept of "new social movements," characterized by a focus on identity, cannot readily be transferred to a Latin American context. Latin America never experienced the postmaterialist turn that led some to call certain European social movements "new." In addition, as the case of black organizing in Brazil demonstrates, identity-based Latin American social movements are much older than the literature suggests. What was indeed a Latin American …
Portugal
Portugal's journey, from a minor colonising power to a member of the European Union, transformed its sense of national belonging and citizenship. African colonial possessions, which under the Salazar-Caetano regime had been formally incorporated into the nation as a ruse to offset international criticism of Portugal's prolonged imperialism, were later disavowed, along with those Africans who had become Portuguese citizens under the earlier arrang…
Sociedade Civil, Democratização E Exclusão Racial No Brasil
Este artigo explicita as condições sob quais uma "sociedade civil" pode contribuir para o aprofundamento do regime democrático de um país. Iniciando com um esforço de conceituação de noções que dizem respeito à sociedade civil, democratização e racialidade, a partir das teorias de Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire e Jürgen Habermas, demonstro que a capacidade de instituir espaços democráticos includentes é uma das principais vias do aprofundamento de…
PRACATUM - Escola Profissionalizante de Músicos de Rua - uma abordagem sociológica
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Negotiating Democracy in Brazil
Do societal inequalities limit the effectiveness of democratic regimes? And if so, why? And how? Addressing this question, Bernd Reiter focuses on the role of societal dynamics in undermining democracy in Brazil. Reiter explores the ways in which race, class, and gender in Brazil structure a society that is deeply divided between the included and the excluded-and where much of the population falls into the latter category. Tracing the mechanisms …
The Limits to Citizen Participation
Participatory Budgeting in Brazil
The Limits of Popular Participation in Salvador, Brazil
This article focuses on the changing nature of state-society interactions in the state of Bahia, Brazil and on the factors that condition democratic participation. During several research trips, conducted between 2001 and 2006, I collected data on participatory budgeting and on participatory urban planning in the city of Salvador. I was therefore able to compare two thematic sites where local states interacted with society in general, and with ci…
The perils of empire
After the demise of the Portuguese empire and even more after joining the European Union, the Portuguese state redefined the borders of national belonging. The shift was one from a multi-continental nation, which included parts of Africa, to a more restricted definition of nationhood, one that stressed Portugal's connection to Europe and thus defined belonging by descent. This article, based on research conducted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2003, disc…
Brazils New Racial Politics
As the popular myth of racial equality in Brazil crumbles beneath the weight of current grassroots politics, how will the country redefine itself as a multiethnic nation? Brazil’s New Racial Politics captures the myriad questions and problems unleashed by a growing awareness of the ways racism structures Brazilian society. The authors bridge the gap between scholarship and activism as they tackle issues ranging from white privilege to black power…
Civil Society and Democracy
his article argues that such authors as Sheri Berman and Ariel Armony have overstated the importance of the state when explaining the relationship between civil society and democracy. They have done so because no theoretical framework is currently available to assess civil society's democratic potential, which led them to focus rather on the state as the central explanans. Furthermore, Berman's incorrect interpretation of Weimar's civic organizin…
Fighting exclusion with culture and art Examples from Brazil
English This article demonstrates that artistic activity is an important tool for deepening democracy, because it provides a vehicle for the excluded to reach the public sphere, thus making it more heterogeneous. As artists, they become active citizens and step out of the invisibility into which racism and exclusion has forced them. French Cet article montre que l’activité artistique est un important outil d’enracinement de la démocratie, parce q…
Inequality and School reform in Bahia, Brazil
"What's New in Brazil's "New Social Movements
The concept of "new social movements," characterized by a focus on identity, cannot readily be transferred to a Latin American context. Latin America never experienced the postmaterialist turn that led some to call certain European social movements "new." In addition, as the case of black organizing in Brazil demonstrates, identity-based Latin American social movements are much older than the literature suggests. What was indeed a Latin American …
A Genealogy of Black Organizing in Brazil
This article argues that the vast literature on "new social movements" misrepresents the historicity of identity-based organization in Latin America. Such organizing is indeed much older than the literature suggests. To prove this argument, I provide a genealogy of black, identitybased organizing in Brazil. This genealogy makes clear that black organizing started when Africans first arrived in Brazil. To explain the ebbs and flows of this organiz…
Framing Non-Whites and Producing Second-Class Citizens in France and Portugal
The quality of contemporary democracies hinges on the breadth and depth of the citizenship regimes on which democracy ultimately rests. This article argues that, to assess citizenship, two important dimensions are of crucial interest, namely to what extent formal citizens are able to live and practice substantive citizenship roles and, secondly, how access to citizenship rights is used by different societal groups in order to defend privilege. Ha…
The Importance of Inclusion Policies for the Promotion of Development in Brazil and Colombia
This article argues that investment in social inclusion policies is an economically efficient option for developing countries. It analyzes different social inclusion policies, particularly those practiced in Brazil and Colombia, as they demonstrate, among other things, the racial dimension of exclusion and the corresponding economic contribution of race-based social inclusion policies to sustained economic growth and development. These cases also…
Palenque de San Basílio
This article presents the results of an empirical study conducted in Palenque de San Basílio in 2014. I advance two main arguments: First, that the Maroon villages settled by escaped slaves in northern Colombia were free city-republics similar to the European free city-republics described by Max Weber [1968. Economy and society. New York, NY: Bedminster Press]. The only difference that separates the Colombian from the European experience is that …
The Wintukua
El pueblo Wintukua es uno de los cuatro pueblos que habitan en el territorio de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. La Sierra Nevada alcanza una altura de 5,775 metros sobre el mar y se extiende hasta la orilla del mar Caribe. Los Wintukua cuentan con unas 50,000 personas y tienden a vivir en asentamientos compuestos por núcleos familiares, en fincas o haciendas rurales. Una minoría vive en aglomerados mayores – antes de todo en Nabusimake…
Conclusion
First People of the Americas Lessons on Democracy, Citizenship, and Politics
Constructing the Pluriverse The Geopolitics of Knowledge
Recognition and Reparations Reconsidered
Racial justice in the United States, and indeed throughout the Americas, can be achieved only by addressing and rectifying the wrongs done in the past to the descendants of African slaves. This is so because under conditions of free market competition, past inequalities and disparities in wealth and asset holding tend to be reproduced and even reinforced in the present. As the US economist Fred Hirsch has shown, under free market conditions, ther…
Fuzzy epistemology
This article first argues that the social sciences need to be decolonized, as the current epistemologies and research methodologies are too narrowly based on the European and North American experiences and hence unable to adequately capture non‐European experiences and realities. I then argue that decolonizing dominant social science epistemology means freeing it from its Aristotelian foundation. The next step undertaken is to discuss five non‐We…
First People of the Americas
Legal Duty and Upper Limits
Political science (25 works) · Politics (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Democracy (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Citizenship (6 works)