Social Policies of Agrarian Carceral Geographies in Mexico. Surveillance, Captivity, and Depoliticization of Migrant Farmworkers

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 15: Policing, Surveillance, and the Carceral State

Abstract

In the last three decades, the transnational agricultural corporations of northwestern Mexico have incorporated an idea of corporate social responsibility that is subsidized by the Mexican state, legitimized by international organizations, and celebrated by regional elites. On the other hand, racialized migrant farmworkers face captivity, hostility, and exploitation in the agricultural fields. Building on anthropological political economy, Black radical traditions, and abolitionist geographies, I offer an ethnographic view of the expansion of contemporary plantations and the state- and statelike carceral humanitarianism that accompanies them. Between 2018 and 2025, I conducted “studying-up” ethnographic research—using geographic, media, and historiographic methods—on Hermosillo, Sonora, and the agroindustrial landscapes surrounding the city. My units of analysis were 1) agricultural fields where farmworkers temporarily labor and inhabit, and 2) social programs implemented in agricultural fields by government institutions, civil society organizations, and agribusiness foundations. In this paper, I focus on the second unit of analysis, the social policies of agrarian carceral geographies. I analyze the recent creation of philanthropic foundations by transnational agricultural corporations to implement health, education, and housing programs for migrants who temporarily work and reside on their agricultural fields. I present the current implementation of the agribusiness social responsibility model and its carceral, counterinsurgency, and commodifying humanitarianism against migrant workers in Mexico.

Author

• Gerardo Rodriguez Solis, University of California-Berkeley