Guerrillas, Peasants, and Communists: Agrarian Reform in Cuba's 1958 Liberated Territories

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-673
Author(s):  
Sara Kozameh
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Agrarian Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Guerrilla War ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractIn October of 1958, amidst the guerrilla war to topple Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro's Rebel Army passed an Agrarian Reform Law that would serve as an embryo for the Cuban Revolution's 1959 land reform. Relying on rare documents from the insurgency, this paper reanimates the debate over the role of peasants during the war, arguing that peasants not only helped shape the movement to topple Batista, but that their mobilization led to the articulation of important guerrilla agrarian policies—including land reform. As the liberated territories became a laboratory in which rebels experimented with how to run a state, peasants took part in civil projects, simultaneously bestowing legitimacy on the movement and harnessing its organizational apparatus for the achievement of the peasants’ own goals. In highlighting the political subjectivity of Cuban peasants, this paper also gives new insight into everyday life during the rebel insurgency.

On Metaphysics and the Political: A Polemics of Reading Baudelaire in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.

Turbulent Property Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Gray
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
High Growth ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
Export Agriculture ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Political Settlement

This chapter explores the role of the political settlement in shaping outcomes of land investments by analysing struggles in key sectors of the economy. Land reform during the socialist period had far-reaching implications for the political settlement. Reforms to land rights under liberalization involved strengthening land markets; however, the state continued to play a significant role. Corruption within formal land management systems became prevalent during the period of high growth. Vietnam experienced a rapid growth in export agriculture but, in contrast with stable property rights for smallholders, Tanzania’s efforts to encourage large land investments were less successful. Industrialization in both countries generated new forms of land struggles that were influenced by the different distributions of power between the state, existing landowners, and investors.

scholarly journals Role of Statues in the Artistic Commemoration of African Political Leaders: Analysis of 20 Selected National Statues in African Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-77
Author(s):  
Kamau Wango
Keyword(s):  
Public Art ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Visual Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Artistic commemoration of leaders and other iconic personalities has been in existence for centuries. Statues in particular have been used as a fitting avenue for the commemoration of political leaders and other luminaries in many fields. The premise upon which statues are made is that the subjects featured initiated and attained, in their lifetimes, concrete achievements that significantly impacted upon the lives of their fellow human beings. Other criteria for commemoration include proven integrity, dedication and selflessness in the service of the country and citizens. Statues as an integral part of public art have often generated substantial controversy on various fronts in many countries. Some of these gravitate around issues such as disputed likeness, queries about the fundamental achievements cited of the subject, at times open protests on the actions, character and integrity of the subject as well as the location of the statues. Other areas of contention include the implication of the presence of statues upon the political psyche of the country and their long-time impact on history, the youth and posterity. This paper examines the extent to which African countries have embraced this mode of artistic rendition to commemorate African political leaders in a way that is commensurate to their achievements. It is outside the scope of this paper to delve into the intricate web of back-and-forth arguments about the ‘concreteness’ of the legacies of the featured leaders who are mainly founding political figures of the respective countries. The paper, however, analyses the artistic essence of the selected statues in terms of their visual impact and whether they are indeed useful in articulating the legacies of the subjects and further, whether they ultimately bear ‘enduring visual value’ that spurs conversation and insight into these legacies. Statues must, at the very least, spur debate and conversation into the legacy of the featured subject. It becomes a form of constant interrogation as history itself takes its course; controversy is not necessarily a negative occurrence since it forms part of this discourse. The concept of immortalization, which is what initiators of statues often hope for is much harder to achieve and difficult to define. The paper examines 20 statues of African political leaders in different African Countries.

scholarly journals Visual autoethnography and international security: Insights from the Korean DMZ

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Bleiker
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
North Korea ◽  
International Security ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Army Officer ◽  
Demilitarized Zone ◽  
Visual Autoethnography ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to introduce and explore the political potential of visual autoethnography. I do so through my experience of working as a Swiss Army officer in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Drawing on my own photographs I examine how an appreciation of everyday aesthetic sensibilities can open up new ways of thinking about security dilemmas. I argue that visual autoethnography can be insightful not because it offers better or even authentic views – it cannot – but because it has the potential to reveal how prevailing political discourses are so widely rehearsed and accepted that we no longer see their partial, political, and often problematic nature. I illustrate this potential in two ways: (1) how a self-reflective engagement with my own photographs of the DMZ reveals the deeply entrenched role of militarised masculinities; (2) how my positionality and my photographs of everyday life in North Korea show that prevailing security discourses are highly particular and biased, even though they are used to justify seemingly objective policy decisions.

scholarly journals Norman Henry Ashton CBE. 11 September 1913 – 4 January 2000

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Luthert ◽  
Cynthia Medford Langley
Keyword(s):  
Eye Disease ◽  
The Political ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Ocular Toxocariasis ◽  
Cotton Wool Spots ◽  
Ocular Infections ◽  
Retinal Vascular Disease ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Insight Into

Norman Ashton, the first ophthalmic pathologist in the UK, spent his career furthering the understanding and treatment of eye disease and exercising the political acumen to garner the funding necessary to advance this new field. His demonstration of the obliteration of growing retinal endothelial cells caused by the excessive administration of oxygen in premature infants is perhaps his best–known work. Apart from this, his casts of the choroidal and trabecular meshwork circulation and Schlemm's canal were the first to display the exact anatomy of these structures to the ophthalmic community. Studies of the pathogenesis of cotton wool spots, neovascularization and microaneurysms and the behaviour of retinal vessels contributed lastingly to the understanding of retinal vascular disease. With associates he demonstrated the role of the endothelium in the blood–retina barrier. Investigation of diabetic, hypertensive and other retinopathies provided fundamental contributions to the comprehension of these conditions. Original studies established an insight into amoebic ocular infections, ocular toxocariasis, nosematosis and a collection of eye diseases in animals and fish. Fight for Sight and the European Ophthalmic Pathological Society owe their beginnings, in large part, to his foresight and energy. He is remembered as a worthy researcher, a witty speaker, a respected supervisor and a kind man.

Reform and resistance: The political economy of land and planning reform in Kenya

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1164-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Bassett
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Public Land Management ◽  
Land Politics ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Land Question

In August 2010, Kenyans voted to adopt a new Constitution. Amongst its many provisions was devolved governance, which established 47 independent counties each led by a directly elected governor and legislative assembly. The Constitution also sought to address the country’s ‘land question’ by radically reworking land institutions and administration. The Constitution introduced an independent body, the National Land Commission, empowered to oversee public land management and allocation. Constitutional provisions devolved significant powers and responsibilities in land management and planning to the county level. These reforms – stressing transparency, accountability and greater community participation in land planning and administration – were intended to halt endemic corruption at the Ministry of Lands, address land injustices, enhance tenure security, and facilitate better-functioning land markets. This paper examines the unfolding institutional reform around land pursuant to the 2010 Constitution. It explores the political economy of land in Kenya by examining incentives for and impediments to institutional change toward better land management and long sought-after land justice. As with many reforms adopted throughout the Global South, Kenya’s land reforms were premised on ‘getting the incentives right’. Incentivising behaviour is extremely complicated in a sector as complex, dynamic and profitable as the land sector. The research highlights the role of urban planners, actors rarely examined in the literature on Kenya’s land politics. Kenya’s faltering land reform is a result of the internal conflicting incentives of land actors and the fact that no legal reform will be sufficient to alter entrenched behaviour without renewed pressure from a broad-based land justice/human rights movement.

scholarly journals Rethinking democracy in twenty-first century Europe: The role of ancient democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-708
Author(s):  
Bogdana N. Koljević Griffith ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Eu

In this article, the author discusses how the crisis of the contemporary European Union appears not merely as a crisis of the so-called “democratic deficit”, the way in which Habermas has most notably articulated this argument, but rather as a structural and original crisis of political subjectivity and democracy per se. In other words, the crisis of the EU is systemic and refers to the concept of the political — especially in the context of twenty-first century Europe. In this framework, the differentiation between the concepts of Europe and the EU particularly discloses the neoliberal and postmodern character of the latter, i. e., at the same time the struggle for self-governance and autonomy of the former. Moreover, it is argued how it is precisely the return to ancient democracy that reveals the path for rethinking true democracy of contemporary Europe. This is especially emphasized in reference to both practices and the concept of the polis. In conclusion, it is claimed that new politics of emancipation, which first and foremost go back to the meaning of isonomia and isegoria and as such presents the project of autonomy, presents a reappearance of ancient democracy in contemporary times. Finally, this project is articulated as one of politics of time and likewise politics of locality.

The Senate, the courts, and theSC de Cn. Pisone patre

1997 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 510-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Satisfactory Explanation ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Judicial Role

The origins and nature of the judicial role of the senate in cases which under the republic were the business of the permanentquaestioneshave been the subject of long debate, and a satisfactory explanation has yet to be found for the change that had undoubtedly taken place by the reign of Tiberius. The discovery and publication of the senatorial decree which concluded the investigation into the charge brought in A.D. 20 against Cn. Piso following the murder of Germanicus,2 in addition to the wealth of new material it provides for the political history of the period and the understanding of the methods of the historian Tacitus, allows an insight into the relation of the senate to thequaestio maiestatiswhich may prove useful in unravelling some of the puzzles which have troubled scholars hitherto.

scholarly journals Topology of narrative in the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin

2021 ◽  
pp. 214-232
Author(s):  
Radovan Popović
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Philosophical Foundation ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Philosophy ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Poetic Work ◽  
Friedrich Hölderlin

Significance and peculiarity of the appearance and influence that Friedrich Hölderlin had with his poetic work, both on the whole thematic-motive structure of later poetry (indications of this turn were already present in theoretical form with Diderot, but completely deprived of their true poetic articulation until Lamartine), as well as the character of the philosophical foundation of the new dialectical reversal of thought, brought by German classical philosophy, are thematised in this paper as an organically consistent and continuous process within the framework of the indicated problem, from attempts to enter the world of Hellenism, as a fundamental source of creative unity of poetry and reality, thought and action, battle and truth, to the disappointment in the possibility of objectifying the poetic experience into a coherent basis for reconciling the contradictions of the then social and political situation, which was expressed in the existential gap between alienated everyday life and his spiritual essence, which, in the end, led to Hölderlin's insight into the futility of his own poetic testimony and the role of poetry as a harbinger of the oncoming deduction-out-of-the-oblivion of the being of the existent in its original unity.

How Do Houses Make the Political Possible?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-149
Author(s):  
Joshua Mousie ◽  
Gabriel Eisen ◽  
Mahaa Mahmood ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Central Feature

We develop the concept “political residency” in this essay to highlight both the foundational role of built environments in our political life as well as how access to, and displacement from, built environments is therefore a central feature of political harms and goods. The example of housing and housing displacement is instructive for developing our concept because it is central to most people’s everyday life, yet residential security and stability—having control with other inhabitants over shared, built spaces—is often missing from peoples’ lives, especially those who are most socially and politically vulnerable.

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