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Examining Patroclus’ role in Homer’s \u27The Iliad\u27, Shakespeare’s \u27Troilus and Cressida\u27 and Miller’s \u27The Song of Achilles\u27
No full textThis paper argues that Patroclus plays a significant part in developing themes of war and nuancing the presentation of Achilles in Homer’s Iliad and works that it inspired – namely William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1604) and Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles (2011). Although much analysis of these texts focuses on Achilles, Patroclus’ death is central to both themes and plot in each, and his changing characterisation and role within each narrative heavily impact the exploration of war and heroes. His presence nuances the characterisation of Achilles in each text, particularly when we adopt queer readings, and his death enables poignant explorations of grief and revenge. This paper will therefore reinvestigate these aspects of Patroclus’ importance in the Iliad, and examine the way in which his character has been received and utilised in a selection of more modern works
Commodity Hubs: production of space and new geographies of capital
Get PDFThe commodity boom and consequent expansion of production has encouraged the emergence of logistical and processing hubs that are functional to the expansion of a commodity production chain and necessary for the extraction of natural resources. It is by creating these corridors designed to reach global markets that the soybean complex has been able to expand and increase its profitability, deepening the extractivist nature of agribusiness in the region. This post looks at the case of the complex of Gran Rosario, an agro-industrial cluster installed on the shores of the Paraná River that has become one of the largest and most efficient hubs for commodity transports in the world, and argues that while usually natural conditions are claimed to be the reasons for its formation, it is a process of concentration of capital and production of space that gives birth to these commodity hubs
Degrowth - Unsuited for the Global South?
No full textHegemonic common sense suggests that a project as exotic as controlled economic degrowth is at its best applicable only in the geopolitical Global North while for the South, economic growth would be a requirement. Despite this, more and more voices are questioning the arguments that give economic growth a central place in political discussions, suggesting that this type of criticism could be liberating for many parts of the world (Max-Neef 1995; Latouche 2010; Altvater 2013; Muraca 2014; Gudynas y Acosta 2014; Lang 2016). The fifth international conference on degrowth that took place in Budapest, capital of Hungary, between the 30th of august and the 3rd of september 2016, revealed that reflections around degrowth are also a place of convergence for multiple transformatory narratives: from political ecology to ecological economics, considering also feminist perspectives that suggest the organization of society around a logic of care; from ideas of environmental and climate justice to policy ideas of universal and unconditional basic income. In this way, degrowth constitutes an additional contribution from a new internationalism, a contribution that seems necessary for interventions from the plural left over the globalized world. This internationalism is not limited to solidarity practices in struggles that take place in far away places, but instead, it looks for convergence, as well as complementarity and reciprocity between transformatory struggles that are contextualized and diverse
The imperial rationality within BioTrade: A contribution to the neoextractivist debate
Get PDFThis article addresses a recent debate on neoextractivism in Latin America by presenting ethnographic research on BioTrade in Peru. While biodiversity conservation is usually not associated with extractivist projects, such as open-pit mining or industrial monocultures, the case study on Sacha Inchi presented here reveals the same basic patterns of resource extraction: a logic that places the requirements of global markets over local realities; that chooses the needs of exporting firms over the concerns of the rural populations; and that favors the perspective of the capital over that of its hinterland. The findings lead the author to interpret BioTrade, in this case, as a form of neoextractivism. It claims to pursue goals of social equity and environmental sustainability, while in practice adopting the same imperial rationality as the century-old extractivist project, characteristic for Latin America. Thus, this article contributes to the debate by reminding of the social, or “cultural”, preconditions for (neo)extractivism, namely the “coloniality of power” (Quijano, 1992), and thus the construction, subordination, and exploitation of the Other. In a post-structural reading it suggests that, in the contemporary arena of sustainable development, the neoliberal rationality constitutes a mechanism that reproduces colonial lines of social differentiation by creating difference along the lines of the ability to live up to its emblematic figure of the entrepreneur
Social Sciences and Rural Studies in Argentina during the 20th century
Get PDFThis work intends to provide a broad overview of social science contributions in the study of Argentinian agrarian processes and rural contexts. It is intended as a way of organising the literature without too much of a focus on its theoretical or methodological underpinnings. Regardless, the mere fact of selecting some works and not others involves decisions that are not exempt from some kind of academic evaluation. This is evident particularly in the last period in which, surprisingly, I found an abundant and heterogenous production
Oedipus before COVID-19: An essay on the corporatization of political sovereignty and openings in the pandemic
No full textJust as in the tragedy of Oedipus, who witnessed his political power stagger due to the terrible plague which shook Thebes, the COVID-19 pandemic questions some of the tenets of political sovereignty and those who sustain it. This explains the diverse reaction of some international leaders when they attempt to frame the battle against the pandemic in terms of the nation-state: we are at war – we are told – against an invisible enemy. The chants of the ancien régime of sovereignty, that of the armies and the epic wars, attempt to cover up with absurd sounds something which they evidently cannot control by merely strengthening their borders or declaring war
Alternautas in The Changing Landscape of Latin America’s and Global Development Imaginaries
Get PDFFirst off, a very warm welcome to this landmark issue of Alternautas, now hosted in an OJS platform at the University of Warwick. Opening our first issue as an OJS journal is a significant milestone and in this editorial introduction we would like to share with you, our dear readers, some insights about our journey so far. Alternautas collective editorial project has been one of the pioneers in the creation of decentralized and collaborative media platforms for the production and dissemination of non-mainstream academic and activist knowledge
Who am I? Teacher identities and the PGR tutor
Get PDFThis reflective piece is meant to produce more questions than answers. It can be used as a framework both by PGRs who enter a classroom for the first time and by more experienced ones. PGRs who teach will often question their role inside the classroom: “am I a teacher or a facilitator? which side of the fence am I at? Am I one of the students or one of the teachers?” Questions like these usually arise from the ambiguity of a tutor’s role, whether they are there to facilitate understanding of a lesson that someone else taught, or if they are actually the teacher of this module for a specific group of students. Being a teacher for a few years before pursuing a PhD, I found myself wondering the exact same thing when I first entered the classroom as a PGR tutor. In this written piece, I briefly go through the literature on teacher roles and identity, and I reflect on how my previous experience helped inform my identity as a PGR tutor
Beyond Development: Local Histories of Global Poverty
Get PDFThe UK-based Poverty Research Network received funding from the AHRC/GCRF (2017-2019) and developed a project which aimed to look beyond the way in which poverty has been represented by mainstream narratives in international development and to explore local histories of global poverty. It aimed to establish a network that examined the global problem of poverty from local perspectives and to expose the narratives behind the numbers of global poverty. The project was interdisciplinary, working with both academics and activists, but interrogated the importance of history in particular. It asked how history can deepen anddiversify understandings of the long-term causes of poverty and how history can be used as a tool of resistance against impoverishment and stigmatisation. The articles in this special issue develop from these global conversations