Thesis (M.A.)--Acadia University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-146). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Drawing on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a poor and notorious neighbourhood, this dissertation examines how evolving dynamics of urban violence have affected life in a Guatemala City gang territory. The maras of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras - the gangs that help give these countries some of the world's highest homicide rates - have changed dramatically in their group cultures and criminal economies since they appeared in the 1990s. I trace what I call the mara's predatory turn: the elaboration of an extortion economy, which has had far-reaching consequences for the relationship between gang cliques and their barrios. This transformation has re-shaped the experience of chronic insecurity in the communities that maras operate from: inhabitants report that it is now less manageable, less predictable, and more frightening. They speak of a heightening of danger in their lives brought about by the decline of certain local norms and mechanisms that had previously moderated gang violence and bolstered community resilience. Local narratives of insecurity and decline illuminate when, how, and why violence disrupts and disorders social life. What many informants emphasized was not a cataclysmic appearance of violence in their lives, but rather a catastrophic breakdown in the mechanisms that had controlled it. In this distressing context, residents struggle to minimize their insecurity and to reclaim or create forms of order. I examine two principal ways that they seek to do so: by working to maintain a moral order based on narratives about the neighbourhood and its values or 'codes', and by looking to external providers of order in the state and its security forces. Exploring the complex relationships and interactions between inhabitants, gang members, and state forces in this barrio, I contribute to academic debates about local and state responses to insecurity in Latin America and propose modifications to prevailing models of state and criminal 'governance' in marginal urban communities.

Despite many decades of simultaneous research on early childhood development and leadership, numerous gaps remain in the current literature regarding the characteristics of school leaders of early childhood programs in low and middle income (LAMI) countries. Past studies of school leaders in LAMI countries have only focused on primary and secondary education. A multitude of factors impact public pre-primary education in LAMI countries, such as Guatemala, which make the study of school leadership in pre-primary education critical for understanding what is needed to provide high-quality learning environments. The identification of leadership characteristics helps to inform the field of early childhood education and establish critical directions for school leadership practice. The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of successful school leaders of public, pre-primary programs in an area north of Guatemala City, Guatemala. The characteristics were defined as those leadership behaviors and factors that contribute to the success of leaders of public, pre-primary schools in Guatemala. Leadership behaviors were defined as those actions a leader exhibits that support the operation of a public, pre-primary school. Leadership factors were defined as the influences that support or hinder the ability of a leader to achieve and maintain the operation of a public, preprimary school. Developmental factors were defined as environmental influences that impacted on their decision to become a leader of a public, pre-primary school. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection