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Objective/Context: The paper provides a comprehensive overview of Latin American mining history, exploring cross-pollination opportunities between mining historians and scholars of the emerging field of the new history of capitalism. The analysis spans from the region’s integration into global markets during the 1500s to the twilight of export-led growth in the early twentieth century. Methodology: The study builds on an overview of both classic and contemporary literature, offering new insights into understanding existing data on mining history within a global context. By incorporating perspectives from geology, ecology, and economics, the article investigates the connections between specific mineral deposits and different paths of capitalistic development across Latin America. Originality: The paper sketches some of the gaps in the analysis of global and local flows of minerals and comments on notable contributions to the broader field of Latin American history. It introduces innovative approaches for the study of output cycles, geological and ecological endowments, technological spillovers, and mining economics. Conclusions: First, the existing literature has predominantly focused on precious metals, with few scholars studying non-precious metals and non-metallic minerals. Second, the narratives surrounding mining history have been primarily centered on silver, overshadowing the significance of bimetallism in understanding the emergence of global capitalism. Thirdly, examining the microeconomic dynamics of mining in the region may present fresh opportunities to explore the impact of mining on sectoral and managerial transformations. Finally, studies of the two-way interaction of capitalism and mining need to include research on the energy and environmental systems that underpinned mineral extraction and production.

Objective/Context: This study has two main goals. First, it explores the structural and organizational dynamics of the textile industry and the market in early modern India, eighteenth-century Gujarat in particular. In this context, the paper also examines how the ascendancy of the English East India Company in the political economy of Western India and the region’s transition to a colonial economy impacted the industry, the market, and the relationship between weavers and merchants. Methodology: This paper draws on the literature on textile production and trade, as well as on capitalism in early modern and colonial India, and uses evidence about Gujarat from the records of the English and Dutch East India Companies. Originality: This paper argues that the relationship between weavers and merchants in Surat/Gujarat was dynamic, complementary, and at times, contentious. None of them was able to dominate the relationship, and the English East India Company could not substitute a coercion-based production relation for a market-based one. Conclusions: The dynamics—such as product specialization and innovation, division of labor, the contract system, and forward buying—point to the existence of commercial capitalism in the textile economy. The paper also argues that because of the extraordinary diversity of people engaged in the industry and their varying professional and transactional experiences, it is relevant to recognize that commercial capitalism represents a mode of production that co-existed with others in the economy.

This paper analyzes Scott Fitzgerald’s novels in light of Deleuze and Guattari’s critique of capitalism. While Deleuze and Guattari’s capitalist social machine is a break from Marxism, it decodes the traditions that define subjective desires or concepts like beauty and ethics. Under capitalism, subjective desire arises as a capitalist desire and reproduces the capitalist power. In his novels, Fitzgerald addresses the idea of the American dream in a similar way. His characters often embody the contradictions of American experience such as success and failure, dream and nightmare, illusion and disillusionment. This paper critically analyzes Deleuze and Guattari’s reading of desire within Marx’s work and the role of the American dream in a capitalist system as a sort of antiproduction. It seeks to illustrate how the concept of love in Fitzgerald’s novels is tied to the idea of money and how their connection delineates, in the same way, the commodification of the desire that Deleuze traces in his reading of Marx. Accordingly, this paper also argues that similar to philosophy, fiction can be employed to provide a better understanding of our represented world.

This paper reaffirms the truth of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church (CSD) and its impact in the socioeconomic sphere in Western Civilization. Specifically, it seeks to put in order the chaos in which secularized European society currently finds itself. Through Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi’s interpretation of CSD, the author dispels erroneous notions of collectivism surrounding private property, productive work, solidarity, and subsidiarity by arguing that a proper understanding of these principles supports a healthy capitalism, which in turn supports human dignity. Only through a capitalism in line with a proper understanding of CSD principles can the poor stand to gain the most, provided they have a socioeconomic framework in which they can independently thrive. Liberation theology as a cornerstone of a socioeconomic framework destroys the foundation the Church established through the centuries. In the interpretation of the relationship between the CSD and the capitalist economy provided by this paper, the concept of private property emerges as the central nucleus of any human operation, be it cultural, economic, social, or political. Ownership does not only mean possessing material things, but also spiritual elements. Thus ownership also means identity, of a person and of a people. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, the ideology of political correctness—that is, the ideology of the various cultural and political movements of the left—condemns identity as dangerous, a condemnation which furthers the operation of globalization, the homogenization of humanity, and the related attempt to weaken nations in view of a supranational management. If identity is one of the consequences of the concept of property, then this latter must also be banned, as an obstacle on the way to that global dis-identification that would herald a socialization of the Western world. But from the perspective of the main spiritual foundation of the West, that is, of the Judeo-Christian tradition, property is one of the pillars of society, and therefore cannot be suppressed or even undermined. The Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, founded by Pope Leo XIII and relaunched by Pope John Paul II, is an excellent antidote to the ideological poison of socialism and progressivism now wide-spread in all Western countries.

Abstract This paper identifies changes in the center-periphery structure due to transformations in capitalism since 1970. In its new configuration, capitalism not only altered center-periphery relations but also exerted impact upon peripheral units that affect the system structure itself. This paper aims to apply Ruggie’s famous critique of Waltz in International Relations to analyse global capitalism and show how the changes in the center-periphery cleavage is affecting its systemic reconfiguration in the 21st century. This research identifies the boomerang effect as a new systemic element, that is, as a byproduct of the interaction of units of the global capitalist system in the 21st century.

This paper explores the “new social movement” features of the Argentinean, Chilean, and Uruguayan student movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In doing so, it wrestles with two questions. First, why do such features, widely associated with post-industrial societies, appear at this relatively early stage of capitalist development? Second, what does their presence at that time suggest about the explanatory power of new social movement theory? The paper agrees with new social movement theorists’ contention that capitalism shapes the character of social movements but argues that the focus of the analysis should not be on development stages but rather on the impact of rapid global market integration processes, which have occurred at different times since the rise of capitalism. Such an approach illuminates why capitalist development may yield similar collective action patterns across different historical periods.

Abstract According to the prevailing opinion, capitalism is a market economy governed by immutable laws and inequality is the result of competition between free and equal individuals on that market. This paper argues that capitalism, as developed in Western Europe in modern times, has more in common with organized crime than with a system of natural laws. It is rooted in the sale of church and common lands, the privatization of finance (especially public debt) and colonialism. However, its purpose is not the accumulation of wealth. It is merely a particular way of sustaining domination by a small group of people over the rest of the population. Domination in capitalism differs from earlier forms of domination in two ways: it is reproduced via the accumulation of wealth and it is not visible as such. Neither the purpose (domination) nor the functioning (systematic appropriation) is visible on the surface. Even Marx was led to believe that the economy is governed by laws which can be studied scientifically. The paper will argue against this belief by tracing the structures of domination to the reproduction of social inequality in capitalist societies.

The artisan sector is the second largest employer in the developing world and an estimated 34-to-526 billion-dollar industry (Nest 2018). Why then are the majority of the world’s artisans living in poverty? And what role have designers played in extracting money and value from these marginalized communities? Co-authored by an economist and a design educator, this paper posits that a critical and productive way to get to the bottom of these questions is to analyze the artisan sector as a member of the gig / on-demand economy. Most importantly, it proposes a fairer economic and design architecture for this sector that achieves a better alignment of compensation and value creation, particularly for those with the least economic resources (the artisans). Using several designer-founded-and-run artisan enterprises as case studies, the paper questions the key variables that determine the success of such a venture vis-a-vis artisan livelihoods. These include scale, ownership models (cooperatives vs. outsourced labor), and various social justice issues including power and privilege. A further concern is that, as they are submitted to the logic of rational economic exchange rooted in a market economy, some artisan practices that were traditionally embedded in social and cultural institutions were transformed in ways that jeopardize patrimony, traditions, and social fabric. The paper concludes by outlining economic principles for a proposed collaboration methodology through which designer/founders can frame their future work with an understanding of how they can strive to reach ventures that emphasize poverty alleviation, artisan empowerment, and the celebration/preservation of cultural heritage.

As formally democratic political systems around the world become authoritarian neoliberal regimes, counter-movements are emerging in the form of municipalist platforms. In this context, the post-Yugoslav space is witnessing the confluence of protests that produce initiatives of this type, for example in Zagreb and Belgrade. These practices can only be understood when looking at specific local conditions and general structural conditions. In this paper, the emergence of new municipalisms in both cities is the starting point for analysing a specific set of contradictions and initiatives. They in turn form part of a broader development framed by the turbulence of the ten years that followed the crisis and which potentially represent democratic ruptures in neoliberal authoritarian nation-states. This paper therefore investigates their societal conditions of existence and the role state apparatuses can play as the settings for emancipatory struggles.

This paper argues that the authoritarian and totalitarian exacerbation of capitalism, in the firsthalf of the 20th century, originated in the crisis experienced by free market capitalism, due to the dynamics of the liberal society. The result was a massive violation of liberal human rights that had enabled the consolidation and legitimation of free market capitalism itself. Thus, the text suggests that an authoritarian tendency, linked to the unstable dynamics and the tendency to crisis of capital reproduction, is inherent to modern liberal society. This structural feature is illustrated through the debates at the Frankfurt School on the end of liberal capitalism. Within this general horizon, the paper gives special consideration to the critical analysis carried out by Franz Neumann, in tension with Friedrich Pollock's “state capitalism” thesis on the totalitarian transformation of the Weimar Republic.

The present text is divided into two parts: a presentation and a paper. First, in italics, I present what could be called “Case Study: Zulueta’s Rapture” and propose some reflections on its meaning within the framework of current university practices surrounding knowledge. Next to take the stand is the paper itself, the object of the trial, whose author proposes a political reading of the film Rapture (Arrebato in the original Spanish) by Iván Zulueta. Lastly, some conclusions are offered. I will say no more; the text has a complex structure and is best judged by reading it.

This paper presents an empirical and theoretical analysis of the financialization of companies and the diffusion of shareholder value maximization in Italy. Unlike the anglo-saxon contexts, financial accumulation and short-termism in Italy are not a consequence of institutional investors’ activism: Italian capitalism is still a holigarchic family capitalism, and few blockholders are in control of Italian large firms. Financialization of companies and the orientation to maximize shareholder value in Italy are rather the outcome of isomorphic processes, supported by institutional and legal transformations occurred since 1980s: reforms of finance, company and labour law, the privatization of state firms, the diffusion of finance-oriented accounting rules. The statutory reforms enabled the dominant coalitions within Italian capitalism to operate in a regulatory framework harmonized with a transnational context, largely assimilated to Anglo-Saxon norms, promoting a finance-oriented conception of control and managerial practices.En este trabajo se presenta un análisis empírico y teórico de la financiarización de las empresas y la difusión de la maximización del valor para los accionistas en Italia. A diferencia de los contextos anglosajones, la acumulación financiera y el cortoplacismo en Italia no son una consecuencia del activismo de los inversores institucionales: el capitalismo italiano es todavía un capitalismo familiar holigarchic, y pocos son blockholders en el control de las grandes empresas italianas. La financiarización de las empresas y la orientación para maximizar el valor para los accionistas en Italia son más bien el resultado de los procesos isomórficos, con el apoyo de las transformaciones institucionales y legales ocurrieron desde 1980: las reformas de las finanzas, empresa y derecho laboral, la privatización de empresas estatales, la difusión de finanzas- normas de contabilidad orientados. Las reformas estatutarias habilitadas las coaliciones dominantes dentro del capitalismo italiano para operar en un marco normativo armonizado con un contexto transnacional, en gran medida asimilada a las normas anglosajonas, la promoción de una concepción orientada a las finanzas de control y prácticas de gestión.DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2833920

This paper aims to discuss the concept of democracy in Latin America, considering it as a concept and a practice socially and historically built. In these sense, the concept of Political Culture is used in order to understand the values and beliefs of the Latin American’s citizenship. The article wonders about the existing values and beliefs, and the legitimacy of a democratic system. It discusses the classical views on democracy and argues that liberal democracy is intrinsic with capitalism. Finally, the paper contributes to the debate on democracy seeking to address the distinction between formal and substantive democracies, and the cultural values that legitimize it.

Este artigo examina, primeiro, a transformação da lavoura para a agricultura, como resultado do advento do capitalismo industrial, e de sua posição dominante na escala mundial desde o século XIX; e uma segunda mudança, a partir da década de 1970, ocasionada pelo advento e pelos rumos da globalização contemporânea. O artigo, então, passa a defender que o debate sobre a (derradeira?) 'morte do campesinato', na era da globalização, é equivocado e anacrônico, e que a teoria de que 'os pequenos agricultores' são pequenos produtores de mercadorias - inseridos no capitalismo e, portanto, sujeitos a suas tendências de diferenciação de classe - oferece uma abordagem mais aceitável para as questões agrárias de hoje.The paper first suggests a shift from farming to agriculture generated by the advent of industrial capitalism, and its dominance on a world scale from the nineteenth century, and a second shift from the 1970s with the advent and trajectories of contemporary globalization. The paper then argues that debate of the (final?) 'death of the peasantry' in the era of globalization is misconceived and anachronistic, and that the theorization of 'small farmers' as petty commodity producers within capitalism, and subject to its tendency to class differentiation, provides a more satisfactory approach to agrarian questions today.

The current geological transition implies the necessity of a paradigm shift in dominant social practices to cope with an emerging unstable global socio-ecological complex, which is being shaped by comprehensive, irreversible and uncertain human agency. Along with sustainability, issues of justice are crucial in this context including climate justice, which addresses the most notorious phenomenon of the transition to the Anthropocene, i.e. climate change. Such a paradigm shift implies the need to go beyond established practices in research and exploring new narratives. This paper develops a possible narrative of the civilizational patterns that led to the human transformation of the planet, and shows the limits of business-as-usual responses to confronting the global crisis brought about by the geological transition, and consequently their limited ability to achieve sustainability and justice in the Anthropocene. The narrative deployed here highlights the centrality of a particular form of vision in Modernity and its contribution to the establishment of hierarchies through the di-vision between the in-di-vidual and the external world, i.e. nature, which is untenable in the Anthropocene. La actual transición geológica implica la necesidad de un cambio de paradigma en las prácticas sociales dominantes para hacer frente a la inestabilidad del complejo socioecológico global emergente, configurado por una agencia humana integral, irreversible e incierta. Junto con la sostenibilidad, las cuestiones de justicia son cruciales en este contexto, incluida la justicia climática, que aborda el fenómeno más notorio de la transición al Antropoceno, es decir, el cambio climático. Tal cambio de paradigma implica la necesidad de ir más allá de las prácticas establecidas en la investigación y explorar nuevas narrativas. Este artículo desarrolla un posible relato alrededor de los patrones de civilización que han llevado a la transformación humana del planeta y muestra los límites de las respuestas habituales para enfrentar la crisis global provocada por la transición geológica y, en consecuencia, su limitada capacidad para lograr sostenibilidad y justicia en el Antropoceno. La narrativa aquí desplegada destaca la centralidad de una forma particular de visión en la Modernidad y su contribución al establecimiento de jerarquías a través de la di-visión entre el in-di-viduo y el mundo exterior, es decir, la naturaleza, que es insostenible en el Antropoceno.Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1176

Modernity unfolds through the unrelenting exploitation, appropriation, and dispossession of human and natural substance; through the radical devaluation of nature, both human and extra-human; on hierarchy, racism, patriarchy, all in service to capitalist accumulation. A grasp of what lies at the base of one of the most important world-historical mechanisms of power formation and systemic reproduction that has hitherto kept the capitalist world-system/ecology going, hegemony, can be relevant for the formulation of new strategies of contention and practices of anti-systemic movements against this perverse mode of life organization. Such a grasp, thus, can be regarded as part of the anti-systemic program towards a more just society and ecologically-devoted humanity. Understanding how a hegemon can form and produce power can be conducive to the comprehension of how to jam or confront such a world-systemic mechanism, which is pivotal for the unabated expansion and reproduction of capitalism. This investigation endeavors to shed some light on this agency of world-historical power and systemic re/production. More to the point, it will posit a methodological way of reading and understanding the inner source and morphology of the hegemonic power. This paper, however, represents the spadework for further research. As we shall see, the complexity of the argument imposed a provisional “ecological expurgation”. As a consequence, nature will be silenced in Part I. The reasons for such a painful expurgation will be clear once we delve into the articulation of analysis and narrative. Such methodological and conceptual weakness is to be overcome through further research in Part II. It shall posit a complete hegemon’s perspective, namely, a world-ecological perspective on the hegemonic power. Part I, hence, will explore part of the material relational complexity that spawns hegemony in reality. On the present groundwork indeed, an understanding of the hegemonic power through post-Cartesian, that is, a world-ecological lens, could be unfolded to the fullest, both methodologically and historically. Provisional and fictional separation calls for permanent and lifelike reconstitution —which is the final aim of the research—. Part I will not engage in a traditional analysis of hegemony as a projection of power towards and onto world space. By contrast, it will deal with how a hegemon succeeds in projecting such power; that is, how the hegemon manages to internally generate power enough to make masses and states throughout the world captive and legible to the hegemon’s project of world leadership and historical development. What is seldom acknowledged is that a hegemon, before projecting power outward, must develop an internal formula. Hence, through this (provisional) methodological frame it will be argued that it is not simply an overt power that defines a hegemon, but its infra-structural power. More to the point, in Part I will posit the hegemon as a regime of power accumulation wherein state, capital and society work hand in glove with a particular degree of coherence developed within the established, or legal, boundaries of its territorial sovereignty. The internal organization of power that originates from this “coherent work” breeds hegemony, that is, the capacity to project power towards and onto world space. Part I purports to provide a way to explain analytically the hegemon’s organization, control, and logistics in order to understand sociospatial capacity for infrastructural power — a mode for investigating the tangled whole of powers, relations and networks that makes and permeates the fabric of the hegemon itself -. I would here hint at the world-ecological reading of the hegemon. In short: the world-ecological perspective of the Hegemon thinks of hegemonic power not solely as infra-structural power but as infra-relational power —meaning the capacity to historically design first, and then organize the project of power, science and nature by activating operations to harness the relational forces between humans and nature (as well as within both and their own inextricable intertwining) in service of capitalist power—. The hegemon is thus an organization of human-and-extra-human space that extensively and intensively re/produces, organizes, mobilizes and maximizes human-and-extra-human wealth, knowledge and interaction better than any other organization in the modern world-ecology. In short: before projecting power outward, the hegemon must develop a socioecological formula. Thus, from a complete hegemon’s perspective, hegemony is firstly an inner actual world-ecological design of the world. This is the idea behind the methodological and historical investigation of world-ecology to be carried out. Part I maintains that hegemonic power is the product of a trialectic unity of state, capital and society in which multiple overlapping and intersecting spatial networks of power, and the attendant immanent relations, are viewed as constitutive of the working totality. A hegemon deploys the most coherent – efficient and effective – design and operationalization of infrastructural power. Complementary then, hegemonic infrastructural power is to be also seen as the specifically-organic product and conflation of extensive and intensive power – firstly, within its own legal space and borders. The hegemon is a regime of power accumulation that extensively and intensively re/produces, organizes, mobilizes, and maximizes wealth, knowledge and interaction better than any other organization in the modern world-system. Hence, compared to any other jurisdiction that vies with it, a hegemonic regime manages to generate and combine the highest organizational cooperation (put simply: cooperation among the largest number of people with and through the most expansive management of resources – extensive power) with the greatest organizational command (put simply: the highest level of commitment from participants and utilization of resources – intensive power). The investigation of networks and relations, (bundled by) extensive and intensive power, is, in short, the method being argued for. As a whole, this will allow us to see the socio-spatial dynamic of infrastructural power production and to account for (the coherence of) the hegemon’s structure – the hegemony’s source. Finally, this is to prepare the ground, on the one hand, for the factual analysis of the hegemons’ historical development, since it purports to provide a useful framework to investigate the hegemons’ historical organization as well as the manifold web of power relations contained within it. On the other, it provides, as a whole, the springboard through which to unfold the world-ecological perspective on the hegemon, both methodologically and historically.

This paper deals with a symptom: that of an ideological change, a historical break in the fantasmatic production of social organization – the transition from East to West. Following Žižek’s recommendation to ‘enjoy your symptom’, I explore my own historical experience of the Eastern European ‘Wende’ from ‘realexisting socialism’ to ‘real-existing capitalism’. This exploration is done through a variety of different images, the most recognizable being perhaps the well-known film Good Bye Lenin, which deals with the complexities of the transitions of not only political and economic regimes but their implications for the make up of subjectivities. The paper ends with an affi rmative outlook, as it claims that history has not ended, and that breaks in the ideological and fantasmatic production of society are still possible today. Keywords: Ideology. Transition. Capitalism. Socialism. Change. Resistance. Este artigo trata de um sintoma: o de uma mudança ideológica, uma fratura histórica na produção fantasmática da organização social - a transição de Leste para Oeste. Ao seguir a recomendação de Žižek para “usufruir do sintoma”, exploro minha própria experiência histórica do “Wende” europeu Oriental de “socialismo real existente” para “capitalismo real existente”. Esta exploração é feita através de uma variedade de imagens diferentes, sendo, talvez, o famoso filme Adeus, Lênin! a mais reconhecida, que lida não apenas com as complexidades das transições de regimes políticos e econômicos, mas também das suas implicações na construção de subjetividades. O artigo é concluído com perspectiva afirmativa, enquanto reinvindica que a história não terminou e que fraturas na fantasmática e ideológica produção da sociedade são possíveis ainda hoje. Palavras-chave: Ideologia. Transição. Capitalismo. Socialismo. Mudança. Resistência.

The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct Foucault’s reflections on the birth of modernity, paying particular attention to the role of capitalism and discipline within it. The thesis we will defend is that in Foucault’s work in the first half of the 1970s—especially between 1973 and 1975—both dimensions appear as two aspects of the same continuum, thus establishing a necessary link between them. This approach, which contests certain Marxist positions, attempts to reveal that the research on disciplinary power can be conceived as a complement, and not a correction, of the analyses deployed by Marx in Das Kapital.

This paper analyzes some of the results of the research program “The foundations of violence against women in Brazil”, which investigates the origin and structure of this. In 2020, a documentary analysis based on the “Atlas of Violence 2020”, in the “Yearbook of Public Security 2020” and in the “Gender statistics social indicators of women in Brazil (IBGE-2018)” document, to collect data referring to situations of violence against women. After this summing up, a review of the empirical literature, that is, reinterprets the data from a theoretical debate that connects violence against women, racism, and patriarchy. The main result points out that violence is one of the consequences of the overlapping of the three systems of domination-exploitation, namely: patriarchy, racism, and capitalism.

In order to understand the essence of digital and virtual world relations and their outcomes, as they gain more social relevance in contemporary society, this paper investigates the category of intellectual property not from the prism of the law but rather on philosophical terms. Such philosophical analysis is based on immanent critique. The starting point is the axiomatic notion of modern capitalism, where the categories of property and intellectual property are regarded as two separated entities. Hegel’s philosophy of law enables an important reflection on these two categories since, already in its method, it apprehends the contradictions of bourgeoisie society. Accordingly, contrasting reality and Hegel’s understanding, a conflict arises within the notion of intellectual property and its praxis under the rule of law. The state appears as a necessity to guarantee and mediate an immanent conflict that arises from the privatization of intellectual property. As an insoluble problem that emerges within such praxis, the present analysis offers an alternative to the paradigm of a split between property and intellectual property. Based on Lukács’ non-essentialist-ontology of the social-being, intellectual property is explained through the prisms of labour and cultural development of human thought.

Amidst the many socio-ecological crises facing the world today, the biodiversity crisis is considered one of the most foundational. According to scientists, we have entered yet another mass extinction event in the history of the planet, though the first triggered by the impacts of the combined, uneven actions of one species. This introductory paper to a Special Section on the "Political ecologies of extinction" frames this crisis through political ecology, and explores what political ecologies of extinction could look like and focus on in the 21st century. Building on emerging literatures and the author contributions, it agrees that extinction is much more than the endpoint of a long and rocky road of the decline of a species. It is an uneven, historical process that conjoins political, geographical, socio-ecological, and other factors. Most of all, a political ecology of extinction highlights the intertwined forces of political economy, power and ecology whereby I argue that a special focus should be on how biological diversity and our understanding of it has changed over time, especially the last two centuries. The capitalist intensification of pressures on biological diversity combined with changing perceptions of the value of diversity during this time have led to a moment where extinction decisively moves from a biological endpoint to a political inflection-point. How to relate these two 'points' to historical and contemporary, local and global forces of political economy and power is central to political ecologies of extinction, as exemplified by the articles in this Special Section. This introductory article lays out their core themes, and derives from them further pointers and questions for developing this field.

In this paper, a critical inscription is made about women in space, based on four fundamental works by Roberto Bolaño —Los detectives salvajes (1998), Amuleto (1999), Putas asesinas (2001) and 2666 (2003) —, in these analyze the concepts of space of reality and time that are presented in the literary narrative. Prior to the perspective offered by Roberto Bolaño is the vision of the german philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who reflects on spatial worldly relations and circumstances through the concept of posthumanism. The objective is to reconstruct the criticism of the literary city and trace the possible horizons through a philosophical interpretation around the exposure of the feminine icons; that is, the voice of women at the time of the industrial city that explodes in Gore Capitalism, proposed by Sayak Valencia, ramifications with intimacy, violence and urban contours in necrosis. Something comparable in geometry with graceful and simple figures such as circles, and in this case the sphere. Those voices that a priori are lost among the immensity of capitalism, male oppression, and are constricted with the feeling of emptiness. The emptiness of the spheres that roll without stopping through the words that others narrate in a changing world. In this work we will proceed to contrast that association between the feminine voice and the simplest and most complex bolañian geometry: the dyadic and the Gore space.

It is undisputed that fewer and fewer people own and control more and more of the total material wealth of the world, and conversely, that more and more people—the vast majority of mankind—own and control less and less of it, which situation is rapidly worsening. This paper identifies and examines the primary instrumental cause (i.e., prescinding from human avarice) for that phenomenon, which we argue is the usurpation of the sovereign right of money creation, known as seigniorage (from the Old French seigneuriage, “right of the lord to mint money”). This usurpation has been accomplished by a cunning and complex banking technique known as fractional reserve banking, which enables banks to make loans based on the fraudulent representation that they possess sufficient reserves to back the loans (described in detail in the article). Originally considered criminal, and its practitioners even subject to the death penalty, over the last three centuries by hook or by crook fractional reserve banking has been legalized in nearly all the nations of the world, to the benefit of bankers and the harm of all other economic sectors and the public. The article then examines the deleterious effects of fractional reserve banking on capitalism, and how its extirpation may be accomplished, thereby reforming capitalism—“which is not of its nature vicious”—into a more just economic system. Finally we note how socialism—in any of its various stripes—is radically contrary to the private ownership of material goods necessary for proper human liberty, and rooted as it is in the purely materialistic notion that man should be subject to the State or society in order to to maximize production, cannot be acceptably reformed. Economics is not necessarily a zero sum game: even when vitiated by fractional reserve banking capitalism will result in greater total wealth, but shared more and more unequally, whereas socialism inevitably results in less total wealth, recalling Winston Churchill’s apt observation that: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of the miseries.”

Wisdom as the universal category was mostly replaced by its instrumental variant in the intellectual discourse of the 20th century. Dystopian thought, that brings nihilism and absurd in the life of a contemporary man, dominated in the mentioned century. Universal life values as the connective tissue of the civilization, ideal which was permanently present in history of the human race, is not on the prominent place in modern era. Despite those unfavorable circumstances certain philosophers will answer to modern challenges through their creativity and show the existence of values the civilization cannot live without. Erich Fromm was an important person who was thinking about life in affirmative way and searching for the current status alternative. This paper connects his essentialism with the widely known and applicable term “nobility of spirit”. It also describes Fromm’s critics of capitalism and socialism as unsuitable social systems. Fromm’s vision of the ideal human nature or the character type whose aim are growth and development of all human capabilities is opposed to the modern reality which is considered as the world without alternative. Productive thinking and productive love belong to the most valuable human capabilities. The highest form of productivity is attributed to the revolutionary character or life orientation which is identified with mankind, it uses universal criteria and nourishes propensity and love for life. It is concluded in the end that the vision of mature life cannot last without spiritual nobility.

This paper aims to analyze black´s genocide logic due to capital actual transformations. This study is based on Karl Marx (2011; 2013), Robert Kurz (1992),Mészaros (2005) analysis of merchandise´s fetishism, in order to understand bourgeois society contradictions and socioeconomic basement where racism is set. Barbarism is the key to analyse contemporary capitalism(MENEGAT, 2006), whose crisis produced from one side a big excessed population mass and from the other side social control attempts and the raise of genocide, trough necropolitics , a solution to control and eliminate physically this mass who have not function for capital reproduction(MBEMBE, 2011).

This paper presents and analyses shifts in the signifier ‘technology’ over time. It focuses on two historical periods: Classical Greece and Modernity. After verifying general patterns present for twenty centuries, this work considers the changes in the meaning of the signifier ‘technology’ that are due to the emergence of capitalist production. Thus, modernity is described as a crucial moment when the new meanings of such signifier are formed, but also when contingency appears as an essential phenomenon that is verified in the various nuances of the term in different languages. Finally, the multiple meanings of this signifier do not constitute the impossibility of conceptual apprehension. Specifically, the meanings that were found range from an association with rhetoric and grammar started by Aristotle, including the discourse, description, and terminology of arts and techniques, to the point at which the signifier designates the object made by using technical, scientific, and industrial knowledge. We observe an increasing shift towards the latter meaning that is reinforced in the present.

Ottoman and Turkish perceptions of Europe have commonly been analyzed with an emphasis on the contradictions they embody, and using the frame of a "love and hate relationship." In this paper I analyze the writings of the late Ottoman intellectual Ahmed Midhat Efendi who not only produced many works on Europe that exemplify these inconsistencies, but also acknowledged and analyzed his self-contradictory attitudes towards Europe. I argue that Midhat's inconsistent representations of Europe were not simply due to the turbulent political and cultural relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Great Powers; Midhat's observations were also about the contradictions of industrial capitalism as well as colonialism themselves. Finally, I show that Midhat saw in science and the professional identities of modern scientists the solution to the problem of Europe's inconsistencies.

This relationship is expressed in four different ways: alienation from the product, alienation from productive activity, alienation from the human species-being and finally alienation from other human beings. In this paper I offer an analysis of the idea of alienated labour and a description of its four expressions that can be found in the Manuscripts. Finally I will try to relate alienated labour with the appearance of private property and I will try to show briefly why Marx introduces communism as a solution to the problems generated by the alienation of labour

La promoción de Pacioli como tecnócrata, desconoce intencionalmente los aspectos sociales de su trabajo y otros textos antiguos, pues constituyen una visión eurocéntrica y post-colonial, que unge al italiano como pionero contable y señala a otras civilizaciones como subdesarrolladas, premodernas, y hasta bárbaras, a las que se puede invadir, ocupar y ‘salvar’. Este documento, en contraste con la sabiduría ortodoxa, busca redimir la noción de ‘Contaduría’ de Littleton, para que abarque las prácticas contables de diferentes formaciones sociales antiguas y contemporáneas. Así, proponemos sepultar a Pacioli el tenedor, y redimir a Pacioli el actor social, mediante la explicación del incipiente contenido social, cultural y político de su obra, el cual es más explícito en los registros pre-paciolianos, particularmente aquellos de África, que se remontan a los albores de la civilización. The promotion of Pacioli as technocrat, willfully ignores the social aspects of his work and other ancient texts, as it constitute a Eurocentric and postcolonial vision, that anoint to the italian as accounting pioneer and simultaneously marks to other civilizations as underdevelopeds, pre-moderns and even barbarians to which it can invade, occupy and “saving”. This paper, in contrast to the orthodox wisdom, seeks to redeem the notion of ‘Accounting’ of Littleton, to encompass accounting practices of diff erent ancient and contemporary social formations. In summary, we propose bury to Pacioli “the bookkeeper” and redeem to Pacioli “the social actor”, through the explicating the social, cultural and political inchoate content in his work, which is more explicit in the pre-paciolians records, particularly those from Africa, that reach back to the dawn of civilization. A promoção de Pacioli como tecnocrata, desconhece intencionalmente os aspectos sociais de seus trabalhos e outros textos antigos, na medida em que constituem uma visão eurocêntrica e borne-colonial, que unge ao italiano como pioneira da contabilidade e simultaneamente rotula outras civilizações como subdesenvolvidas, pré-modernas, e mesmo bárbaras as quales se pode invadir, ocupar e “livrar”. Este documento, em contraste com a sabedoria ortodoxa, pretende resgatar a noção de ‘Contabilidade’ de Littleton, de maneira que abrange as práticas contábeis das diferentes formações sociais, antigas e contemporâneas. Em resumo, propomos enterrar a Pacioli o técnico contábel, e resgatar a Pacioli o ator social, através da explicação do conteúdo emergente social, cultural e política de seu trabalho, que é mais explícito nos registros pre-paciolianos, particularmente os africanos, remonta aos primórdios da civilização.

Constituting a transnational web of anti-systemic movements, since 2011 new social actors put on the contemporary agenda the discussion about power and democracy. In questioning liberal representative democracy, they proposed a radical democratic egalitarianism, which asks about the possibilities of reinvention of democracy from new social grammars. Such movements develop symbolic and practical dimensions characteristics of cyberculture, in spaces not yet consolidated in the context of contemporary institutions. Thus, this paper presents, as the centerpiece, the political culture implied in the concepts of power and democracy of "Occupies" in contemporary dispute on the meaning of citizenship and power.

One of the most troubling aspects of cultural studies, is the lack of comparative cases to expand the horizons of micro-sociology. Based on this, the present paper explores the effects of gentrification in one neighborhood, Riverwest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. This essay-review explores the role of arts, not only as creating an image of neighborhoods, but as a mechanism to prevent the commoditization of spaces. Riverwest has never been commoditized as a tourist-product like many other tourist-sites. The concept of patrimony and heritage are placed under the lens of scrutiny in this investigation. To some extent, some cities are produced to be consumed while others do not, is one of the intriguing points this research explores.

El capitalismo “verde”, como se presenta en las tres Conferencias de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo, se ha propuesto para enfrentar las crisis del medio ambiente (ecológicos) y social (pobreza) que se vive actualmente en todo el mundo. Este "enverdecimiento" es una nueva etapa de acumulación de capital que implica: el uso de mecanismos financieros, como los intercambios de deuda por naturaleza; la licencia de las ongambientales para negociar los recursos de los países endeudados con las grandes corporaciones, el establecimiento de los valores monetarios de los “bienes comunes globales”. Por otro lado, los nuevos trabajadores son mujeres y hombres campesinos e indígenas que han adquirido nuevos papeles como proveedores de servicios en las nuevas industrias, como el llamado turismo ecológico. En este artículo se considera Costa Rica en esta etapa del capitalismo y se hacen las críticas al respecto. ---- Green Capitalism, as presented at the three linked United Nations Conferences on Environment and Development, has been proposed as a means to confront the environmental (ecological) and social (poverty) crises currently being experienced around the world. This “greening” is a new stage of capital accumulation that entails: the use of financial mechanisms, such as debt-for-nature exchanges; the license of environmental ngos to broker the indebted countries’ resources with large corporations, and to establish the monetary values of the ‘global commons’. Meanwhile, the new labourers are peasants and Indigenous women and men who have acquired new roles as service providers in the new industries, such as eco-tourism. This paper considers this stage of capitalism in Costa Rica and the critiques to it.

In this paper, we present a critical exposition on the play Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns, by Elfriede Jelinek, which aims to present the literary composition principles used by the writer in his proposition of a "parasitical drama". Concurrently, we will seek to retrieve the set of contextual references that precedes that dramatization. For this purpose, we will start by exposing the play's incubation context, then moving to the introduction of the author’s ironic and parodic approach on the market’s legitimization and naturalization mechanisms and its financial operations, in particular by econometric metaphysics and the media’s common sense. On a third point, we will present the specifically literary procedures by which the writer reveals the logic of the capitalist economy as a regime of bodies’ annihilation. Finally, we summarize the writer’s intention of using the theater as a viewers activation device by way of “horror”.

Herbert Simon formulated in 1979 a new approach to the theory of firm, which argued that economic rationality was not to be thought in the way that Milton Friedman did, i.e., in terms of utility maximization. This critical approach which Simon inaugurated has led to many critiques of mainstream economics. Besides the fundamental methodological criticism that can be formulated against Friedman’s perspective, the approach proposed by Simon involves a change of viewpoint. In fact, the theory of the firm, and of economic behaviour in general, is in Friedman and the “classical model” subordinated to market and price theory as the main object of economic analysis, but for Simon the actual behaviour of economic agents is the essential theme of that analysis. With this change in the way of understanding economic analysis many fundamental implications have been developed in many areas of economic research. In the present article the problem of the housing shortage in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina) is examined, focusing on the occupation of a public space by homeless people. The argument is that the free capitalist market is incapable, because of its internal dynamics, of solving that kind of problem in emergent countries. Herbert Simon planteó en 1979 una nueva manera de pensar la teoría de la firma, según la cual la racionalidad económica ya no era pensada a la manera de Milton Friedman, es decir, como maximización de la utilidad o del beneficio empresario. Esta crítica de Simon inauguró una serie de cuestionamientos a la ciencia económica dominante. Independientemente de las críticas metodológicas de fondo que pueden formularse contra la tesis de Friedman, la posición que propone Simon involucra un cambio de óptica, porque mientras que la teoría de la firma y en general del comportamiento económico está en Friedman y el “modelo clásico” subordinada a la teoría de los mercados y de los precios entendida como el objeto mismo del análisis económico, para Simon son los comportamientos efectivos de los agentes económicos los que constituyen un objeto esencial de ese análisis. A partir de este cambio de óptica se desarrollan implicancias fundamentales para numerosos campos de la investigación en economía. En especial, es posible pensar teóricamente el diseño de organizaciones con características diferentes a las de la empresa tradicional. En este trabajo vamos a examinar el problema del déficit habitacional en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Argentina) a partir de un hecho que causó gran conmoción pública en diciembre de 2010, como fue la ocupación de un parque público por parte de unas 16.000 personas sin techo, en un episodio que tuvo una enorme repercusión. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2049829

Se da una estadística trágica que revela una gran cantidad de personas muertas en Argentina producto de enfrentamientos en espectáculos de fútbol. La violencia en este deporte es algo del cual se ha hablado mucho, pero pocas medidas efectivas se han llevado a cabo por el estado argentino. Dentro de esta coyuntura, el presente trabajo de revisión conceptual intenta proveer un nuevo modelo para comprender el fenómeno. La violencia no solo es un motor de cambio entre los agentes sociales que mantienen los bordes de la identidad, sino que se articula o desarticula hacia fuera en tanto se pueden establecer pactos de hospitalidad (amistad) entre las hinchadas. No obstante, lejos de desaparecer, la violencia se canaliza hacia dentro del club. Por el contrario, aquellas hinchadas que no celebran pactos de amistad, disminuyen la violencia dentro de sus filas pero la exteriorizan. Al ser un deporte nacido de la lucha bélica, el futbol está condenado a la violencia. | Given the tragic and sad numbers of the killed persons in Argentina resulted from clashes and acts of hooliganism, the present paper explores not only in the nature of violence, a point well and widely debated in the media, but also in the State inefficiency to eradicate the problem. In this vein, this essay-review provides readers with an all-encompassed model to understand the hooliganism. Violence not only is a key factor to promote the solidarity among citizens, but also keep the borders of community and its sense of security. Our thesis is that those hooligans who celebrate hospitality with others are penchant to exert violence inner wards while the violence does not disappear, but she is re-channelled towards the boundaries. The lack of hospitality reduces the internal violence but increase the hostility beyond the limits of community. The discourse of football has emerged from the army machinery of West and violence is enrooted in its own nature.

The Wire (David Simon, HBO: 2002-2008) is usually considered one of the greatest television shows ever made, not only because of its quality and original narrative structure, but also thanks to its ability to display the current situation of the subject in a society dominated by the discourse of the untethered capitalism. We wonder about what The Wire tells its audience about human beings as individual in our context, but we are interested in how the series does it and what resources it employs too. In this paper we will focus on the specific case of Duquan Weems (Jermaine Crawford), known as “Dukie”, as a perfect example of how indigence and marginalisation are actually useful to the system, so such system does not really search for the solution but the cyclical perpetuation of these groups of population as inevitable collateral damage of the capitalist mode of production. We will analyse the character evolution from his appearance in the fourth season of the series to its final episodes, while also trying to draw paralellisms with other characters. The methodology will be a discoursive and textual analysis of the scenes in which the character is present, how he is shown on the screen and how he relates to all the other elements in the image. This way, we pretend to show how the mise-en-scene of The Wire emphasizes the main message of the series: to reveal the real functionning of the discoursive logic of capitalism.

Este artigo visa analisar a posição de Marshall em relação ao capitalismo de sua época e às possibilidades de mudança social. Argumenta-se que, apesar de ser um grande defensor do sistema de liberdade econômica, Marshall considerava fundamental sanar o problema da pobreza e da indigência que assolava e degradava física, moral e intelectualmente boa parte da população. Todavia, ao contrário dos socialistas e coletivistas que visavam extinguir as principais instituições vigentes (a concorrência, a propriedade privada, o trabalho assalariado, entre outras), o autor vislumbrava uma sociedade melhor ainda sob a égide dessas instituições capitalistas. Essa situação melhor poderia ser atingida por meio da intervenção do Estado e de mudanças importantes nos valores dos indivíduos - que envolveriam a adoção de uma postura mais nobre e cavalheiresca no seu agir econômico.This paper analyses Marshall's view in relation to capitalism and to the possibilities of social change. It is argued that in spite of being an important defender of the system of economic liberty, Marshall thought it was crucial to solve the problems of poverty and indigence that degraded physically, morally and intellectually a great part of the population. He rejected the socialists and collectivists solutions - that aimed at extinguishing the main prevailing institutions, such as competition in the market and private property, and wage-labor; and defended that a better society could be built preserving the key institutions of capitalism. He believed that this better situation could be achieved by prompt intervention of the State, and by important changes in the values of the individuals of society, that involved more nobility and chivalry in their economic action.

No presente artigo, o capitalismo é examinado historicamente como civilização e como poder. Como primeira civilização mundial da história, o capitalismo é considerado desde o seu surgimento, no final da Idade Média, como fator de desagregação da civilização indo-europeia, não só quanto à mentalidade coletiva predominante, mas também quanto às instituições sociais. No tocante ao poder social do capitalismo, o artigo procura mostrar como a burguesia mercantil, inserindo-se na sociedade feudal, acabou por sobrepor-se aos estamentos nela dominantes: o eclesiástico e o aristocrático-militar. Embora originado fora do mundo jurídico, como poder puramente privado, o capitalismo manifestou, desde o início da Modernidade, sua vocação hegemônica, superpondo-se em pouco tempo aos poderes públicos tradicionais. O poder capitalista, para subsistir, exige a contínua concentração de capital e uma expansão geográfica sem limites. Sua força ideológica, na atual sociedade de massas, funda-se na apropriação dos modernos meios de comunicação social. O exercício desse poder mundial, nos últimos séculos, provocou a maior disrupção social que a história jamais conheceu.This article examines capitalism from a historical viewpoint as a civilization and as a power. As the first global civilization in history, capitalism is seen here, since its inception in the late Middle Ages, as a disaggregating force of Indo-European civilization with regard not only to the prevailing collective mindset, but also to its social institutions. Concerning the social power of capitalism, this paper attempts to show how the commercial bourgeoisie, by foisting itself on feudal society, eventually superseded the dominant estates: the ecclesiastical and aristocratic-military. Although derived from outside the judicial world as a purely private power, capitalism manifested its hegemonic momentum since the onset of modernity and soon supplanted the traditional public powers. However, capitalist power, to survive, requires continuous concentration of wealth and unlimited geographic expansion. Its ideological strength in today's mass society is founded on its appropriation of modern media. The exercise of this world power in recent centuries has led to the greatest social disruption history has ever known.

El trabajo estudia los dos modelos económicos y sociales que tuvieron vigencia en Mendoza entre 1870 y 1915. El primero, de ganadería comercial con agricultura subordinada, estaba centrado en el negocio de compra de ganado en el este del país, su engorde en los oasis mendocinos y su exportación a Chile. La modernización capitalista impuso el modelo agroindustrial vitivinícola orientado al mercado interno formando una de las primeras economías regionales de Argentina. El análisis de los modelos muestra las características centrales de cada uno y el proceso de grandes transformaciones económicas, sociales, políticas y territoriales que experimentó la provincia.This paper studies the two economical and social models that were in vogue in Mendoza between 1870 and 1915 which was oudined by the author's research. The commercial livestock with subordinate agriculture was centered on the buying of cattle in the eastern part of the country, its fattening in the oasis of Mendoza and its export to Chile. The capitalist modernization imposed the viticulture agro industrial model directed to the internal market. This model developed one of the regional economy of Argentine. The analysis of these two models shows the principal characteristics of each and the process of great economical, social, politics and territorial transformations of the province.

This paper discusses some of the proposals raised within the contemporary debate about normative models for a new international order. In the first part, the argumentative strategies of political realism, of John Rawls’ liberalism and of Jürgen Habermas’ deliberative model are presented. These authors’ objections to the cosmopolitan idea of a transformation in the international order based on the demands for global economic justice are debated. In the last part, the text shows that the proposal f global justice presented by Thomas Pogge is insufficient because, although it shows the implication of the global economic order in the increase of poverty and formulates a global redistributive proposal, it does not consider the problem of the transformation of the prevailing system of power relations within the current capitalist order.

This paper aims to analyse the process of professional Social Workers formation. It also aims to show the Brazilian University Education reality as well as the process of mercantilization in this level of teaching since the decade of 1990, in which, in a setorial world-wide context Social Policies reformulation took place. Such an analysis was developed from the gathering of the available data in the National Institute of Educational Researches (INEP/MEC), connecting them with bibliographical studies that enhance the themes: educational policies and Social Work.

This paper reports the current state of affairs about zooarchaeology of rural historical sites in the Pampas region (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) as from mid XIXth century to the first two decades of XXth century. It reflects on the taphonomy and site formation processes of the sites corresponding to the last decades of the previously mentioned time span and it poses some archaeological expectations. It is assumed that both structure and the typical processes of these sites are partly determined by cultural factors, related to theintroduction of industrialism logic associated to the capitalist process of modernization during the last part of the XIXth century. If this new type of logic is not taken into account any interpretation of the archaeological record is seriously biased.

The paper is based on two preliminary hypothesis: the first is that when Organised Crime (OC) encounters politics, a third type of system emerges and this is called the mafia. The second assumption is that the mafias, particularly following 1989, greatly benefitted from the neoliberal globalisation processes. Nowadays, the mafias tend to replace the State as the privileged partners of capitalism; and, with greater efficiency than the State, are able to combine the local dimension of control (plundering or appropriation) of the territory with the global dimension of the transnational markets (particularly but not exclusively with the illicit trades). We assume that Italy and Mexico, among the consolidated democracies, are the most largely affected by the diffusion of criminal powers, to such a degree that two different patterns of mafia-owned democracy have developed: consociational in Italy, based on cooperative attitudes and behaviour between the leaders of the different groups involved – mafiosi, politicians and entrepreneurs – and therefore, characterised by greater stability; centrifugal for Mexico characterised on the other hand by strongly competitive behaviour between the various leaders involved and associated with a much greater degree of violence compared to the Italian situation.