As is widely known, the social movements literature draws attention to the political openings or opportunities that facilitate political action, and focuses on the resources available to protestors as well as the mobilization frames these protestors use. With few exceptions, the substantive grievances of these social movements have been placed on the back burner as these are largely seen as constant or difficult to operationalize. Moreover, when the existing literature on the politics of market reforms dwelt on grievances, studies viewed them largely as material threats and often emphasized their intensity (i.e., the consequences of austerity, price shocks, economic hardships, etc.). Meaningful Resistance, in contrast, draws attention to the social and cultural aspects of social movements’ grievances, which, when intertwined with material concerns, can play a critical role in shaping political processes. As Erica S. Simmons argues, one does not observe broad-based and widespread resistance campaigns in opposition to the material threats associated with market reforms all of the time or everywhere. The book’s cultural approach to grievances therefore advances a deeper understanding of what grievances are all about and what they represent, particularly when subsistence goods are involved.

The book is a rich ethnographic study that draws on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews in Bolivia and Mexico. It compares the broad-based and widespread social protests related to the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999–2000 (Chapters 2 and 3) and rising corn prices in Mexico City in 2007 (Chapters 4 and 5). For each of these two cases, one set of chapters (2 and 4) explains the cultural meanings of water and corn, how they are valued in each setting, and how these meanings, in turn, define communities across time and space within each setting. In Cochabamba, for instance, given the failures of the local municipal water system and the importance of water for daily life, residents built private wells and other community-driven wells, and their face-to-face interactions to secure water help to build communities among them. In Mexico, corn is the object of special cultural appreciation among families, and communities form around meals where corn tortillas are the primary ingredient. These social meanings help to relate individuals to their families, society, and the nation at large.

A second set of chapters (3 and 5) focuses on the trajectory of the resistance campaigns and their consequences. In Bolivia and Mexico, market reforms represented a material threat to these subsistence goods as their prices skyrocketed. However, as Simmons argues, these were not purely material threats. Given the symbolic attributes of these goods, these reforms were also a threat to existing (and imagined) communities in both countries. Seeing these market reforms as cultural threats to subsistence goods sheds light on these two very powerful social mobilizations. In fact, both Bolivia and Mexico underwent significant economic reforms prior to the water wars of Cochabamba and the tortillazo in Mexico City, yet politics in the streets was minimal. With its emphasis on community and community building, the cultural threats surrounding subsistence goods also help to explain how these protests brought people together from all classes and other sectors of society. The chapters show the diversity of organizations that mobilized in opposition to these market policies; even groups with competing interests came together during these resistance campaigns. In Cochabamba, the Bolivian government rolled back the water privatization plan; and in Mexico, the government was successful in stabilizing corn prices.

Overall, the selection of cases fits well with the theoretical claims of the book, and Simmons does an excellent job in tracing the social meanings of grievances and their importance in triggering collective action. Readers may want to learn more about the broader applicability of this framework to other cultural threats aside from subsistence goods and/or cases where the presence of cultural threats was insufficient to yield broad-based resistance campaigns. They may also question the portability, if not universalizability, of Simmons’s argument outside the specifically Latin American context addressed by the book. The water wars and the tortillazo are too similar to address these larger questions. The book could also have devoted more attention to the differentiated impact of market reforms subnationally, particularly in Bolivia. While the book explains the national-level conditions that made the country ripe for social resistance after almost two decades of market reforms (p. 73), the economic and social conditions in Cochabamba were arguably worse compared to the national average, and Cochabamba sustained the highest level of protests after the capital city of La Paz. Worsening economic conditions were very high in Cochabamba at the time of the water privatization plan. And forces advocating regional autonomy remain very strong in Bolivia. Territorially grounded conflicts like the water wars of Cochabamba have also increased in several Latin American countries.

Examining the social and cultural aspects of movement grievances provides a fresh perspective on the consequences of market reforms on society. In particular, Simmons’s approach draws attention to the social experience of grievances and the meanings that people attach to subsistence goods. Her approach should motivate scholars to take into account the nonmaterial aspects of grievances more seriously, and how these can propel important political action. Meaningful Resistance should be required reading for students of social movements in Latin America and beyond.