University of Warwick Press: Journals
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Lives Uprooted: Urban Inequality and Olympic Evictions in Rio de Janeiro
Get PDFAs Rio de Janeiro prepared to host the 2016 Olympics, over 22 000 families were evicted from their homes. What is the significance of a home? As we know, a home holds social, cultural and psychological meanings far beyond its functions as a shelter. The architecture of houses are adapted to and reflect local ways of socialising, and may also be constructed in accordance with cultural symbolism (Bourdieu 2003; Robben 1989; Ystanes 2011). This article argues that while often applied as part of ‘urban renewal’ processes in different locations, forced evictions are highly problematic. The discussion is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Vila Autódromo and among former residents, during and after the eviction process. It is inspired by the concept of ‘root shock’ coined by the psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove (2004). This concept takes the loss of home and its surrounding environment as a traumatic event with enduring impacts for individuals as well as for communities
The Plantation’s role in enhancing hurricane vulnerability in the nineteenth-century British Caribbean
Get PDFHurricanes are the hazard most synonymous with the Caribbean and have, consequently, received the most attention from historians. Yet, they have tended to be considered exogenous phenomena. There has been little attention paid to the role endogenous factors have played in exacerbating the potential for loss from hurricane impacts. Through a comparison of the impacts of the Barbadian hurricane of 1831 and the Dominican hurricane of 1834 this article seeks to advance the existing literature by examining the role the plantation played in exacerbating hurricane vulnerability. In revealing the significantly contrasting amount of damage these islands sustained, this article shows that, at least in this case, the more expansive plantation agriculture of Barbados exposed its habitants to far greater human, economic and environmental losses
Entering the Contact Zone? Between Colonialism, Neoliberal Resilience and the Possibility of Emancipatory Politics in Puerto Rico’s Post-Maria
Get PDFUndoubtedly, the colonial and neoliberal regime in Puerto Rico precedes the scourge of Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017. Therefore, when evaluating the “responses” that followed this atmospheric disaster, it is important to consider that the political, legal and economic base for such “answers” have been articulated from a long-standing colonial-neoliberal complex in the island. In this article, the author identifies this complex with what he calls the degenerative evolution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, established in 1952
The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists
Get PDFThe one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria calls into question the temporality of disaster, both in terms of lived experience and analysis. It was difficult for Puerto Ricans to mark the first anniversary while so many still live Maria’s daily effects physically, emotionally, and financially. Failing institutions and disaster recovery initiatives have too often deepened vulnerability in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, thus augmenting the confused sense of pre- and post-disaster. During a September Rutgers University symposium on the “Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico a Year after Maria,” anthropologist Yarimar Bonilla suggested that perhaps Hurricane Maria was the “aftershock” itself, the culmination of over a century of colonial-capitalist exploitation and layered traumas. If Hurricane Maria was the aftershock, how can we think about disaster and disaster capitalism? Naomi Klein’s The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists (2018) is a helpful starting point
The Coloniality of Nature: An Approach to Latin American Political Ecology
Get PDFA translation of ‘The Coloniality of Nature’ from the book La Naturaleza Colonizada. This piece is an examination of a particularly Latin American perspective on political ecology. In a quest for a sense Latin American identity and heritage, it looks at how the continent has been shaped since the Spanish conquest through environmental factors. It argues that human societies have been just as shaped by the traumatic destruction rendered to nature, as the environment has been shaped by said societies
Introducing Alternautas 2.0
Get PDFWe are delighted to launch the new OJS version of Alternautas, hosted by the University of Warwick. The first iteration of Alternautas began as a rigorous peer-reviewed blog designed to widen the circulation of knowledge produced by the global South about the global South. It was forged in the fires of the pink tide governments – progressive governments in power across Latin America during the first decade or so of the twenty-first century – and the vigorous debates around development and its alternatives that raged simultaneously, as Carballo, Beling and Waldmüller outline in their history of Alternautas (this issue). The political landscape has shifted in the nine years since Alternautas’ inception. The first generation of pink tide governments have run their cause, unseated from power by the political turbulence that followed the 2008 financial crash (see our special issues on the End of Cycle, Alternautas, 2016). However, the right-wing forced that deposed the Left from power – either through coup d’état, lawfare or the ballot box – have proved unable to tighten their grip on power. A new generation of the Latin American Left is now in power in Chile and Colombia – previous bastons of neoliberalism – whilst the successors of the pink tide reside over Argentina, Bolivia and possibly Brazil, if Lula is successful in his bid to become president once again later this year
The Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA): Territorial coloniality at the service of extractivism
Get PDFWith the transformations that have taken place in recent decades, due to the expansion of global production chains, physical infrastructure has begun to occupy a central place in the development of global capitalism, as a key element in the proliferation, insertion and consolidation of national economies in the international economy. In this context, at the beginning of the new century, the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) was created, with the aim of promoting mega-projects such as highways, oil pipelines, gas pipelines, waterways, sea and river ports, hydroelectric dams, electricity and fibre optic cables. At the same time, this Initiative proposed the development of bioceanic corridors connecting the Pacific and Atlantic ports, favouring the transit of export flows.
Thus, the aim of this article is to analyse, from a critical perspective, the IIRSA and the development of infrastructure in South America from the beginning of the new century to the present day. We will focus on the transversal axes into which IIRSA divided the subcontinent, the flows that were considered a priority and the bioceanic corridors that were proposed.
In order to address the proposed objective, we carried out a bibliographical and documentary review technique (Valles, 1999). Within the framework of this tool, we used three main sources. Firstly, reports and studies carried out by financial and international institutions, and from the IIRSA initiative itself, which were contrasted and compared with hard data and maps. Secondly, newspaper articles, which provide information in relation to the context and the debates that existed. Thirdly, academic literature and articles by specialists in the field
Editorial: PGR Teachers and the (Post) Pandemic World
Get PDFIn this editorial, we introduce our second issue, centred around the theme of “Virtual, physical, or somewhere in between”. We outline some of the challenges that PGR teachers have faced over the past few years, as well as the increasing attention being paid to their innovative and important work. We explore the evolving nature of the journal and discuss what we would like to see in future issues
Forced Labor and Poverty in Latin America in the interwar period
Get PDFIn the following article, we analyze the constitution of various legal categories and the existing articulation that was given to them in the interwar period. In the immediate period after the First World War, the need to organize coexistence between the powers was established. One of the issues inherited from the 19th century and that required a resolution was Slavery. The international organizations resulting from the First World War had different responsibilities, and Slavery was incorporated as central. However, the issue seemed more complicated and it was necessary to deal with the issue of freedom along with the labor issue. Slavery was treated in parallel with forced labor but missing the relationship with poverty. Later, the claims of the colonial countries showed that it was necessary to incorporate a new dimension: native or indigenous work. What seemed simple in principle was presenting an enormous complexity that demanded the entire interwar period to think about alternatives and options that they were imperfect and unsatisfactory for all parties. Finally, we consider how the peripheral countries, specifically Latin America, reacted to these debates on Slavery, forced labor, and indigenous labor
A Global Vision of Local Poverty: A Comment
Get PDFDebating the merits of various definitions has driven the field of Poverty Studies for the last half-century. Over a half century of scholarship has demonstrated that the definition of poverty is immaterial to awareness of poverty’s existence. People know that poverty exists even if they do not know how to precisely identify its specific features. As a result, several scholars have concluded that any definition of poverty must conform to lay understandings to be accepted and, therefore, considered ‘socially relevant’. This article demonstrates that ‘socially relevant’ is a loaded term because defining it necessitates an act of boundary setting. It requires determining those whose opinions about relevance are counted and those who are ignored. Since social inclusion is costly, the poor are often unable to participate meaningfully in the process of defining poverty. Yet it is precisely this group that the field of Poverty Studies seeks to understand. Since communities of the poor have their own unique definitions of social necessity, scholars must disentangle the preferences of from the limitations on the poor when defining poverty