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What determines the deployment of coercion in Brazil's cities, and how does variation in public security affect local rights? Starting with the concept of a security community, this paper analyzes policing in the city of Recife, seeking to explain is violent and contested nature. The paper argues that the latter is best explained by a combination of extremeeconomic deprivation and inequality, the nature of electoral competition, and the peculiar characteristics of coercive institutions in the city and the state. The paper concludes that the relations in Recife between police forces, other state institutions, and civil society groups appear to resemble what Rothstein calls a "social trap". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that a multilevel field of contentious collective action has emerged around trade agreement negotiations in the Americas. Building on empirical evidence from field research in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States, it focuses on the challenges of coordinating such a field. More especifically, it presents the cases of cross-sectoral coalitions created in Mexico and in Chile to act as brokers in trade-related mobilizations. Coordination problems are put in the context of power relations among civil society organizations, of broader dilemmas of connecting the local and the global, and in the context of the negotiation of a new generation of trade agreements. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]