Marxism as a tool for uncovering hegemonic discourses on nature

Since its origins, geography has prioritized the study of nature. However, more recently the discipline has made advancements in studying power as a fundamental element in the social production of space and territory. What can Marxism offer to such investigations? In this brief article, I highlight some of the contributions of Marxist thought that I have found useful for geographic analysis and that stand out from the discipline’s other forms of analysis. Firstly, I recover elements from the thinker Antonio Gramsci that I consider important for debates regarding the social production of space and territory as an expression of power relations. Secondly, I retrace some aspects of Marx's concept of nature to examine certain notions that prevail in today's environmental debates. In this way, I look to denaturalize the hegemonic thought with which institutions and dominant classes exercise power in this area.

The effect of geometry and illumination on appearance perception of different material categories

The understanding of material appearance perception is a complex problem due to interactions between material reflectance, surface geometry, and illumination. Recently, Serrano et al. collected the largest dataset to date with subjective ratings of material appearance attributes, including glossiness, metallicness, sharpness and contrast of reflections. In this work, we make use of their dataset to investigate for the first time the impact of the interactions between illumination, geometry, and eight different material categories in perceived appearance attributes. After an initial analysis, we select for further analysis the four material categories that cover the largest range for all perceptual attributes: fabric, plastic, ceramic, and metal. Using a cumulative link mixed model (CLMM) for robust regression, we discover interactions between these material categories and four representative illuminations and object geometries. We believe that our findings contribute to expanding the knowledge on material appearance perception and can be useful for many applications, such as scene design, where any particular material in a given shape can be aligned with dominant classes of illumination, so that a desired strength of appearance attributes can be achieved.

Challenging Bourdieu’s Theory: Dialogic Interaction as a Means to Provide Access to Highbrow Culture for All

According to Bourdieu, class position is related to cultural capital, taste, and preferences. Accordingly, the author states that, because of their “habitus,” those from high social classes have higher cultural capital and preferences for highbrow culture, which gives them more chances to succeed in life. On the contrary, those from low social classes have lower cultural capital because of their lowbrow cultural preferences, which makes it more difficult for them to achieve in a system that favors the dominant classes. Through the review of articles on Dialogic Literary Gatherings published in peer-reviewed journals, this article aims to provide more insights on how the principles of dialogic learning occur. The results of the review challenge Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus,” providing evidence of how socioeconomic status (SES) is not determinant to cultural capital.

A permanente construção no tempo histórico de um ambiente capitalista em Recife, Pernambuco: tendência à homogeneização dos interesses dominantes

No curso dos 520 anos de capitalismo no Brasil, foi instalado, consolidado e expandido um ambiente favorável, antes de tudo, à concretização das relações capitalistas de produção-circulação-distribuição-consumo no Brasil. Este artigo possui como objetivo principal discutir o permanente processo de construção deste ambiente em Recife, capital do estado federado de Pernambuco, como uma tendência homogeneizadora ligada aos interesses das classes dominantes. A metodologia utilizada para a operacionalização desta discussão fundamentou-se na abordagem do materialismo histórico-dialético a fim de evidenciar as contradições suscitadoras de tensões e conflitos inerentes a uma realidade dinâmica que se movimenta permanentemente em algum sentido, nas escalas do tempo e do espaço. Destarte, foi mostrado que a implantação do referido ambiente não aconteceu de maneira harmônica e pacífica como dizem as classes dominantes brasileiras na medida em que aconteceram protestos e mobilizações sociais que, reagindo contra o ambiente puramente capitalista, conseguiram obter conquistas interessantes para as classes subalternas e oprimidas. The permanent construction of a capitalist environment during the historical time in Recife, Pernambuco: tendency to homogenize the dominant interests A B S T R A C TDuring the 520 years of capitalism in Brazil,a favorable environment was installed, consolidated and expanded, above all, for carrying out the production-circulation-distribution-consumption capitalist relationships. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the permanent process of this environment construction in Recife, capital of Pernambuco federal state, as a homogenizing trend linked to the domintant classes’ insterests. The methodology used for the operationalization of this discussion was based on the historical-dialectical materialism approach in order to highlight the contradictions that raise social tensions and conflicts inherent to a dynamic reality that moves permanently in some sense, in the time and spatial levels. Thus, it was shown that the implantation of the referred environment did not happen in a harmonious and peaceful way, as the Brazilian dominant classes say, insofar as social protests and mobilizations occurred, which, reacting against the purely capitalist environment, managed to obtain interesting achievements for the subordinated and oppressed classes.Keywords: Technical-instrumental rationality. Neoliberalism. Urban environment. Environmental racionality.

Reconhecimento social e seu contrário no Brasil / Social recognition and its opposed in Brazil

O artigo discute o uso que Roberto Schwarz e Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco fazem do conceito de reconhecimento. Desse modo, busca mostrar que reconhecimento é, ao mesmo tempo, um princípio normativo e revelador de uma subordinação a práticas arbitrárias nos textos de ambos sobre a sociedade brasileira. Assim, a ordem do favor e a rede de relações de dominação pessoal que Schwarz e Franco, respectivamente, descrevem podem ser vistas como formas derivadas da subordinação do reconhecimento às necessidades práticas das camadas dominantes. Com isso, ao identificar uma “dissonância vexatória” entre o que intenciona uma norma de reconhecimento recíproco e o que intencionam as práticas concretas de reconhecimento, Schwarz e Franco mostram ser possível denunciar criticamente a transformação de um princípio legítimo de organização da vida social em um mecanismo de reprodução de hierarquias.Palavras-chave: reconhecimento, favor, dominação pessoal.***This paper presents the concept of recognition, as used by Roberto Schwarz and Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco. It tries to show that recognition is, at once, both a normative principle and a concept that reveals how everyday practices were subordinated by arbitrariness in Brazil. Accordingly, the relations of favor and personal domination, which Schwarz and Franco respectively describe, could be taken as consequences of practical necessities of the dominant classes. So, in identifying a “shaming dissonance” between what the norm of recognition implies and what it becomes within Brazilian society, both authors are able to show that is possible to critically denounce the inversion of a legitimate principle of social life’s organization into a mechanism of reproduction of social hierarchies.Keywords: recognition, favor, personal domination.

Introduction

Musical events in early modern Europe have long been considered an essential element of the self-fashioning strategy of patrons and dominant classes, representing and symbolizing their wealth and intellectual finesse as well as promoting their cultural and political agendas. This interpretive key has proved effective in discussing the institution of patronage in early modern Europe, particularly in the contexts of the court and of religious institutions. The situation, however, became more complicated during the second half of the seventeenth century, at a time in which profound social and cultural transformations influenced the production and consumption of music in radical ways....

All Shook Up?

The Political Economy and Development of India (PEDI) outlined highly influential theories of both the Indian state and its bureaucracy. Professionals within the public sector were one of Bardhan’s three competing dominant classes, yet he was also clear that the state was an autonomous actor distinct from the rent-seeking officials who populated its lower ranks. Three decades later, economic reforms have ostensibly challenged the public sector’s economic, ideological, and policy dominance. This chapter argues that the Indian system remains more statist—and correspondingly less ‘pro-business’—than many scholarly interpretations today allow. Nonetheless, elite public sector professionals have become fragmented that challenge their coherence as a class, while new obstacles to effective state autonomy have arisen from the nexus between politicians and the petty bureaucracy.

Malgudi on the Move

In his seminal book The Political Economy and Development of India (PEDI), Pranab Bardhan recognizes the ‘ferment’ of subordinate classes but does not tackle the questions of their origins and roles. In this chapter we examine three aspects of the impact on the ‘rest of India’ of the coalition of dominant proprietary classes, whose competitive jousting over scarce resources in the 1970s and 1980s led Pranab Bardhan to conclude they had slowed investment and growth. We conclude that much of the economy is neither purely agrarian nor industrial, a heterogeneity that challenges distinct class categories. Not only is the persistent mass of small firms indispensable to dominant classes but also, to driving growth and livelihoods, the power of numbers is able to challenge the power of capital.

Dalit Girls and Sexual Harassment in the University

Little is known about the frequency, severity and types of violence dalit women go through in higher education institutions in India. This article explores the lived experiences of dalit girls in a university in North India and elaborates their experiences of sexual harassment in their everyday social interactions on campus. This issue has been gaining more attention recently, but most studies focus on gender, not caste. How do dalit girls experience sexual harassment in ways that differ from harassment suffered by upper caste girls? This article focuses on the specificities of dalit girls’ experiences in a university which is controlled by the upper castes and dominant classes. It also highlights the ways in which dalit girls articulate and interpret sexual harassment, and the circumscribed ways in which they try to negotiate with their predicament while seeking higher education.