Life in the Cracks - (Thinking from Elsewhere) by Marco Motta

About the Book

A rich account of what it means to live with law amid its failures.

Book Synopsis

Life in the Cracks is a rich ethnographic portrait of law, violence, and resistance in Haiti. In a contemporary context marked by international interference, global capitalism, and state collapse, Haitians face complex challenges that are largely ignored and misunderstood. By examining the most unexpected inflections of ordinary life, Life in the Cracks offers a well-grounded account of people's experience of law in their lives. The book describes what it means to endure violence partly engendered by the law, and thus to live up to one's disappointment with the law itself.

By not taking for granted the places where the law appears, Life in the Cracks asks legal anthropology to confront questions beyond law-making and law-application, dispute resolution, and social order. In everyday life's textures of messy subtleties and contradictory movements that are never reconciled, Life in the Cracks reconsiders the place of law in human affairs. Motta reimagines how people cope with their disillusionments by reinventing relationships with each other. What had appeared questions of law and justice turn out to be questions of life and death. As life resists annihilation, Motta shows, many Haitians have found ways to breathe new life into the present and make the future worth fighting for.

From the Back Cover

"Life in the Cracks is one of the most exciting works on Haiti that I have seen in years. Motta's focus on ordinary life, on law and life 'in the cracks' amid crisis shines new light on Haiti during one of the country's most difficult times. His use of ethnographic realism both grounds his theoretical arguments and makes important contributions to anthropological narrative and ethnographic methods."--Greg Beckett, Western University

Life in the Cracks is a rich ethnographic portrait of law, violence, and resistance in Haiti. In a contemporary context marked by international interference, global capitalism, and state collapse, Haitians face complex challenges that are largely ignored and misunderstood. By examining the most unexpected inflections of ordinary life, Life in the Cracks offers a well-grounded account of people's experience of law in their lives. The book describes what it means to endure violence partly engendered by the law, and thus to live up to one's disappointment with the law itself.

By not taking for granted the places where the law appears, Life in the Cracks asks legal anthropology to confront questions beyond law-making and law-application, dispute resolution, and social order. In everyday life's textures of messy subtleties and contradictory movements that are never reconciled, Life in the Cracks reconsiders the place of law in human affairs. Motta reimagines how people cope with their disillusionments by reinventing relationships with each other. What had appeared questions of law and justice turn out to be questions of life and death. As life resists annihilation, Motta shows, many Haitians have found ways to breathe new life into the present and make the future worth fighting for.

Marco Motta is SNF Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne.

Review Quotes

"Life in the Cracks is one of the most exciting works on Haiti that I have seen in years. Motta's focus on ordinary life, on law and life 'in the cracks' amid crisis shines new light on Haiti during one of the country's most difficult times. His use of ethnographic realism both grounds his theoretical arguments and makes important contributions to anthropological narrative and ethnographic methods."---Greg Beckett, Western University

About the Author

Marco Motta is SNF Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne. He is coeditor of Living with Concepts: Anthropology in the Grip of Reality (Fordham, 2022).