Oil and Water: The Contrasting Anatomies of Resource Conflicts

2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Selby
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Water Conflicts ◽  
Resource Conflicts ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
International Water

AbstractIt is often said that while many of the twentieth century's wars were fought over oil, those of the twenty-first will be fought over water. This paper seeks to counter this argument, as well as the assumption implicit in it that the two resources engender, or will engender, broadly similar types of conflict. Specifically it argues 1) that within the context of the contemporary global capitalism, oil and water are marked by starkly divergent political economies; 2) that the two resources thus have starkly contrasting impacts upon patterns of state formation; 3) that these factors together militate against the development of violent international water conflicts; and 4) that notwithstanding the above, water is already a significant cause of local violence in many parts of the global South.

Introduction

Gender Effect ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Third World ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
Corporate Profit ◽  
Labor Practices

As corporations search for new frontiers of capitalist growth in the context of ongoing economic crises, they are making a business case for investing in poor, racialized girls and women in the Global South as a way to end poverty and promote economic growth and corporate profit. This chapter identifies this phenomenon as an instantiation of corporatized development and situates it within the context of the interrelated discourses of bottom-billion capitalism, philanthrocapitalism, gender equality, and third world difference. It introduces Nike Inc.’s investment in the Girl Effect through the Nike Foundation in the context of the corporation’s attempt to recover from transnational criticism of its well-documented abusive labor practices, and it situates the Girl Effect within the context of the racialization and feminization of global capitalism.

Capitalism as Envy-Machine

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-122
Author(s):  
Ilan Kapoor
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Global South ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
The Social

This chapter argues that the dominant affect of late global capitalism is not egoism, as is commonly held, but envy. The social inequality inherent in capitalist accumulation in the global South (and North) breeds a mix of coveting and malice, so that it is not just that those on top of the social hierarchy must win but equally that those on the bottom must lose, generating enjoyment (jouissance) on both sides. The chapter focuses on two contemporary manifestations of such an envy-machine. The first is consumption, which exploits the urge to “keep up with the Joneses.” The second is corruption, born of socioeconomic resentment and aspiration. Each case involves enjoyment — both in envying and being envied — thus helping to reproduce capitalist development and social inequality.

scholarly journals Critical Reflections on Time and Capitalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Klikauer
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Clock Time ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Time Concepts ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Critical Reflections

Abstract: Wayne Hope’s book on Time, Communication and Global Capitalism highlights how capitalism depends on two central issues: communication and time.  In that, Hope’s analysis goes well beyond the famous quote on time by the comedian Dave Allen “we spend our lives on the run: we get up by the clock, eat and sleep by the clock, get up again, go to work - and then we retire. And what do they [fucking] give us? A clock”. Hope emphasises the conflicts between two key time concepts: a) real-time and b) clock time. But the books also discusses ideas such as presentism, temporality, coevalness and allochronism. All these notions affect how capitalism communicates time to us. The book, rather convincingly, argues that all these versions of time are part of global media capitalism, financial regimes and the political economies in general. As a consequence, they also shape today’s workplaces and everyday life.

Time and Global Capitalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Hope
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Strike Activity ◽  
Brand Culture ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
State Governance ◽  
Global Television ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Worker Exploitation ◽  
Digital Communication Networks

This article cross-relates four epistemes of time (epochality, time reckoning, temporality, and coevalness) with four materializations of time (hegemony, conflict, crisis, and rupture). Understanding the terms within this framework allows us to depict global capitalism as epochally distinctive, riven by time conflicts, prone to recurring financial crises, and vulnerable to collective opposition. Time conflicts materialize across the areas of financialization and capital realization, worker exploitation and transnational supply chains, and the political economies of national and transnational state governance. Initially, these critical insights about the historicity and instability of global capitalism were obscured by the perpetual now-ness of corporate brand culture, 24/7 global television, and digital communication networks. Worldwide structural exclusions of the poor and their experiences of time were also obscured, a process the article defines as a “denial of coevalness.” With the 2008 financial crisis, the time conflicts of financialized capitalism became obviously unmanageable. National and transnational attempts to resolve the crisis simply reproduced the time conflicts of financialization. And structural exclusions of the global poor were further entrenched. However, these developments triggered a confluence of occupation movements, riots, protests, strike activity, and anti-austerity activism, raising the prospect of a sustained collective challenge to global capitalism.

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