The Urbanization of Capital and the Production of Capitalist Natures

Author(s):  
Erik Swyngedouw

In the corpus of Marxist thought as well as in mainstream socialist strategies and politics, the theoretical and politically strategic position and role of space, nature, and the urbanization process in the expanded production and reproduction of capitalism, and in the transformation to socialism, remains—with a few notable exceptions—largely marginal and residual. Nonetheless, cities are hotbeds of anti-capitalist struggles and socio-ecological conflict, offer experimental spaces for emancipatory socio-ecological transformation and action, and remain pivotal for the organization and management of the creative destruction that animates a continuously revolutionizing capital circulation process. This chapter explores how emancipatory-egalitarian political movements, in conjunction with urban political-economic and political-ecological transformation, demonstrate the vital role of space, urbanization, and socio-ecological processes both in sustaining the expanded reproduction of capitalism and in choreographing the dynamics and configuration of class struggle.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Randall Newnham

Abstract President Putin has embarked on a program of restoring Russia to world-power status. A key facet of his effort has been to establish a sphere of influence in the ‘Near Abroad,’ the countries of the former Soviet Union. While the world has focused on the dramatic events in Ukraine since 2013, much less attention has been paid to the vital role of Belarus in Putin’s plans. Belarus has long had closer relations with Russia than any other former Soviet state, dating back to the Yeltsin years. This paper will show that Russia has devoted considerable resources to Belarus, showering the country with a variety of economic inducements, including access to the Russian market, subsidized oil and gas, and outright grants and loans. In return, Belarus has tightened its political, economic, and military ties to Moscow. Yet, surprisingly, Belarus also has some bargaining power in this relationship. Its quixotic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is well aware of his importance to the Kremlin, and uses it to gain even greater economic rewards – thus cementing his own power. This case thus can make an valuable contribution to extending the literature on patron-client relations in International Relations, showing that a client can stand up to its patron in certain circumstances.


Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10 (108)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Rustam Begeulov

The article discusses issues related to the problem of the occurrence of the peoples of the Northwest Caucasus in the Russian state in the 19th century. In the centre of this study — the Karachay Principality and its military-political cooperation with Russia, the theocratic state formations of the Caucasus Islamists and the Ottoman Empire primarily in the 1850s. The focus of this article is paid to the causes and consequences of anti-Russian uprisings in Karachay in August 1855. Examines religious (thestrengthening of Islam in the Karachay society and its potential for integration in relations between highlanders) and ethnic (attempts at building different ethnic groups of the joint political and military strategy) aspects of the incident; analyzes the destabilizing role of foreign factors in the events. The paper examines the policy of Shamil's Naib to the Kuban Muhammad-Amin against the Karachay, highlights the reasons for his persistent attempts to involve people in Karachay on its side and include it in the composition of its public education. The authors dwell in detail on the description of attempts of military-political rapprochement Muhammad-Amin with the Karachai people, their political, economic, ideological contacts in the period preceding military conflicts, anti-Russian rhetoric in 1855. The article notes that the revolt in Karachay in 1855 were not of a local character, and was closely connected with religious-political movements in North Caucasus in the period under review and attempt the practice established in the end of eighteenth century ideas on the creation of a single theocratic state in the region.


Author(s):  
Manuel A. Gómez

Latin American lawyers have been usually acknowledged for their influence and involvement in the formation, organization, and functioning of the state. Since the political movements that led to the independence from the European colonial powers more than two centuries ago until today, lawyers have always been front and center in the life of every Latin American country. From their most obvious occupations as judges, advocates, and legislators, to several other less visible roles, legal professionals are both ubiquitous and important. The intensification of globalization in recent decades has inevitably affected the role of Latin American lawyers, thus compelling us to look beyond national borders. This chapter does precisely that. It examines the transnational dimension of Latin American lawyers by looking at the contributing factors that led to its development. The chapter describes some of the common traits of transnational lawyers in the region. This chapter also explores the rise of mass torts and consumer protection in Latin America, two of the most visible areas that showcase the transnationalization of legal practice. The time frame of this chapter is the last three decades, a period of important political, economic, and social developments across the region, and also for the legal professions globally. In a more general way, this chapter engages with the broader discussion about the transnationalization of law in contemporary society, and the transformation of the legal profession.


Author(s):  
Budi Rustandi Kartawinata ◽  
Muhammad Ikhwan Mubaraq

Currently women hold a vital role both in business even in household. Given that the group has a very strategic position because this group becomes a determinant in decision making of household financial. Therefore, the financial literacy of women is very needed to be a guide in the financial decision making process so that the role of women can run properly and appropriately. This research aims to determine the influence of financial behavior, financial attitude, and financial knowledge on financial literacy of well educated women in Makassar city. This research is a quantitative research with descriptive and causal data analysis. Respondents studied in this research numbered to 100 well-educated women in Makassar. This study uses four variables, namely three independent variables and one dependent variable. The independent variable consists of financial behavior, financial attitude, and financial knowledge while the dependent variable is financial literacy . The results of this study indicate that the financial behavior is in the position of 73.74% and included in good category. Financial attitude has a percentage of 82.47% and included in good category. Financial knowledge has a percentage of 84.57% and included in excellent category. Financial literacy has a percentage of 78.52% and included in good category. The results of this research indicate that financial knowledge has a significant influence on financial literacy.


Author(s):  
Erik Swyngedouw

The problems outlined in the previous chapter evolve from particular historical political ecological processes. As the urbanization process is predicated upon the mastering and engineering of nature’s water, the ecological conquest of water is an integral part of the expansion and growth of the city. At the same time, the capital required to build and expand the urban landscape is itself, at least in the case of Guayaquil, generated through the political ecological transformation of the city’s hinterland. In this and the following chapters, we shall explore the historical dynamics of the urbanization process through the lens of this double ecological conquest. The city’s growth created the need for water systems, which stretched further and further from the city in order to tap additional water resources. Foreign capital had to be generated to finance the imported technology of these projects. This necessitated a sound export-based economy, initially driven by cocoa (until the early twentieth century), bananas (from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s), and oil (from 1973 onwards). The urban process was consequently embedded in a double ecological conquest: ever greater flows of water became urbanized, while the city’s hinterland was socially and ecologically transformed. The latter conquest, in turn, plugged the Ecuadorean economy into the international division of labour. Guayaquil was the arena and medium through which those circuits of transformed nature and money were organized. The contemporary social struggle around water is evidently the result of the deeply exclusive and marginalizing ways in which political, economic, and ecological power have been worked out. The current water system and water politics exemplify the wider socio-economic and political processes that characterized Guayaquil’s urbanization process. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Guayaquil was just a large port village on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, surviving in the shadow of the political and former colonial centre of Quito and the economically dominant Sierra (Andean highland) hacienderos. In 1780, Quito had a population of 28,500 compared to 6,600 in Guayaquil, and by the mid-nineteenth century these figures had risen to 36,000 and 25,000 respectively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Chow ◽  
Stephen Yortsos ◽  
Najmedin Meshkati

This article focuses on a major human factors–related issue that includes the undeniable role of cultural factors and cockpit automation and their serious impact on flight crew performance, communication, and aviation safety. The report concentrates on the flight crew performance of the Boeing 777–Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident, by exploring issues concerning mode confusion and autothrottle systems. It also further reviews the vital role of cultural factors in aviation safety and provides a brief overview of past, related accidents. Automation progressions have been created in an attempt to design an error-free flight deck. However, to do that, the pilot must still thoroughly understand every component of the flight deck – most importantly, the automation. Otherwise, if pilots are not completely competent in terms of their automation, the slightest errors can lead to fatal accidents. As seen in the case of Asiana Flight 214, even though engineering designs and pilot training have greatly evolved over the years, there are many cultural, design, and communication factors that affect pilot performance. It is concluded that aviation systems designers, in cooperation with pilots and regulatory bodies, should lead the strategic effort of systematically addressing the serious issues of cockpit automation, human factors, and cultural issues, including their interactions, which will certainly lead to better solutions for safer flights.


2004 ◽  
pp. 121-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Avdasheva

The chapter of “Institutional Economics” textbook is devoted to the development of business-groups as a specific feature of industrial organization in the Russian economy. The main determinants of forming and functioning of business-groups such as allocation of property rights in Soviet enterprises, networks of directors and executive authorities in the Soviet economic system as well as import of new institutes and inefficient state enforcement are in the center of analysis. Origins, structure, organization and management within the groups and the role of shareholding and informal control rights are considered.


2008 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
A. Libman

The paper surveys the main directions of political-economic research, i.e. variants of economic and political approaches endogenizing political processes in economic models and applying economic methods to policy studies. It analyses different versions of political-economic research in different segments of scientific community: political economics, evolutionary theory of economic policy, international political economy, formal political science and theory of economic power; main methodological assumptions, content and results of positive studies are described. The author also considers the role of political-economic approach in the normative research in economics.


Author(s):  
Palky Mehta ◽  
H. L. Sharma

In the current scenario of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), power consumption is the major issue associated with nodes in WSN. LEACH technique plays a vital role of clustering in WSN and reduces the energy usage effectively. But LEACH has its own limitation in order to search cluster head nodes which are randomly distributed over the network. In this paper, ERA-NFL- BA algorithm is being proposed for selects the cluster heads in WSN. This algorithm help in selection of cluster heads can freely transform from global search to local search. At the end, a comparison has been done with earlier researcher using protocol ERA-NFL, which clearly shown that proposed Algorithm is best suited and from comparison results that ERA-NFL-BA has given better performance.


Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020


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