Brown Bag Series #52

Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya “Spectral Vulnerability of the Urban Bottom People in Mexico City”

Brown Bag Series #52

Date: June 25, 2025 15:00-17:00
Venue: Collaboration Room 2, 18th Building, Komaba Campus, the University of Tokyo
Language: English

Speaker: Dr. Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya （メキシコ国立自治大学）

Title: “Spectral Vulnerability of the Urban Bottom People in Mexico City”
Summary:
I would like to present the concept I’ve been developing, “Spectral Vulnerability,” in the context of the urban periphery of Mexico City. This concept will be part of my forthcoming chapter in the book titled Urban Bottom and Global Cities, which will be published by BRILL. The book includes studies on six global cities: Tokyo, Paris, New York, Manila, Nairobi, and Mexico City. My contribution is based on field interviews conducted in working-class neighborhoods in the municipalities of Chimalhuacán, La Paz, and Valle de Chalco.
Conceptually, my work aims to differentiate between “Social Vulnerability” and “Spectral Vulnerability.” While social vulnerability is a widely used framework, I argue that introducing spectral vulnerability allows for a deeper understanding of the complex social dynamics at play in the urban periphery of Mexico—and potentially in other global cities as well.

About the speaker:
Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya is a Mexican anthropologist who earned his doctorate at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto　University. He is currently an Associate Professor at the National School of Higher Studies, Juriquilla Campus, UNAM. His major works include Packaged Food, Packaged Life: Corporate Food in Metro Manila Slums (Kyoto University Press & Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2023).