Terras arrasadas, cenários distópicos: Violência e resistência nos desastres-crimes da mineração no Brasil

Os rompimentos das barragens nas bacias do Rio Doce e do Rio Paraopeba, respectivamente em novem­bro de 2015 e janeiro de 2019, para além das 300 mortes resultantes diretamente das duas catástrofes e da assustadora destruição ecológica por elas produzida, desencadearam a produção de um tecido de re­lações jurídico-econômicas de magnitude colossal orbitando em torno do processo de reparação. Para os argumentos apresentados neste artigo, recorre-se a dois instrumentos de análise: a aproximação meta­fórica às características das expressões artísticas distópicas e ao correlato efeito de estranhamento pro­vocado ao público, buscando a partir deles desenvolver argumentos e análises com o objetivo de desna­turalizar processos e práticas jurídicas e econômicas observadas neste contexto. Da mesma forma, bus­camos entender a relação de forças assimétricas dos atores envolvidos, atendo-nos contrastivamente às estratégias corporativas e às situações de resistência, mobilização e engajamento popular no contexto conflitual da luta por reparação integral. Discutimos de que modo as empresas violadoras constituem estratégias de poder que pressionam a desconstituição de saberes e práticas populares nos territórios atingidos e apresentamos a crítica ao uso da forma da violação do direito, oculta nas práticas de planeja­mento destas empresas. Por fim, são analisadas algumas das possibilidades de organização popular no contexto de uma reparação integral, balizadora das lutas mobilizadas contra a naturalização e a legitima­ção, da distópica violência dos desastres-crimes da mineração no Brasil. Palavras-chave: mineração; desastres-crimes; neoextrativismo; atingidos por barragens; reparação de danos. Abstract The dams bursts in the Doce River and Paraopeba River basins, respectively in November 2015 and January 2019, in addition to the 300 deaths resulting directly from the two catastrophes and the overwhelming ecological destruction they produced, triggered the production of a fabric of legal-economic relations of colossal magnitude orbiting around the reparation process. For the arguments presented in this article, two analysis arguments are used: the metaphorical convergence to the characteristics of dystopian artistic expressions, and the correlated effect of estrangement evoked, seeking to develop further arguments and analyses with the purpose of deconstruct established legal and economic processes and practices observed in this context. Similarly, we seek to understand the asymmetrical power relations of the actors involved, contrasting corporate strategies with situations of resistance, mobilization, and popular engagement in the conflictual context of the struggle for full reparation. We discuss how the violating companies constitute strategies of power that pressure for the deconstitution of popular knowledge and practices in the affected territories, and we present a critique of the use of rights violation hidden in the planning practices of these companies. Finally, some of the possibilities of popular organization in the context of full damage compensation are reviewed, underpinning the struggles mobilized against naturalization and legitimation, of the dystopian violence of the mining disasters-crimes in Brazil. Keywords: mining; disasters crimes; neoextractivism; affected by dams; damage repair. Tierras devastadas, escenarios distópicos: Violencia y resistencia en desastres-crímenes mineros en Brasil Resumen Las fallas de las represas en las cuencas de Río Doce y Río Paraopeba, respectivamente, en noviembre de 2015 y enero de 2019, además de las 300 muertes directamente resultantes de las dos catástrofes y la espantosa destrucción ecológica provocada por ellas, desencadenaron la producción de un tejido de re­laciones jurídico-económicas de colosal magnitud en torno al proceso de reparación. Para los argumentos presentados en este artículo, recurrimos a dos instrumentos de análisis: la aproximación metafórica a las características de las expresiones artísticas distópicas y el relacionado efecto de extrañamiento provo­cado en el público, buscando desarrollar argumentos y análisis con el objetivo de desnaturalizar procesos y practicas jurídicas y económicas observadas en este contexto. Asimismo, buscamos comprender la re­lación de fuerzas asimétricas de los actores involucrados, enfocándonos en estrategias corporativas y situaciones de resistencia, movilización y compromiso popular en el contexto conflictivo de la lucha por la reparación integral. Discutimos cómo las empresas violadoras constituyen estrategias de poder que presionan la desconstitución de saberes y prácticas populares en los territorios afectados y presentamos la crítica al uso de la forma de violación del derecho, escondida en las prácticas de planificación de estas empresas. Finalmente, se analizan algunas de las posibilidades de organización popular en el contexto de la reparación integral, que sustenta las luchas movilizadas contra la naturalización y legitimación, de la violencia distópica de los desastres-crímenes mineros en Brasil. Palabras-clave: minería; desastres-crímenes; neoextractivismo; afectados por represas; reparación de da­ños.

Mass Observation, Apathy, and Electoral Politics in England, 1937–1950

While various historians use Mass Observation sources to study popular engagement with politics in the 1940s, they tend to rely on file reports summarizing research or the writings of the national panel, which paid limited attention to how the public engaged with key aspects of electioneering. By contrast, we re-examine Mass Observation's various election surveys to explore people's assumptions about how election campaigns should be conducted, the qualities looked for in political parties, and their reflections on the records of governments. Our conclusions shed light on the transformation of British public politics after 1918. During the interwar years it became common thinking to assume that parties would centre their campaigning around a detailed programme for government. Whereas Mass Observation's employees often claimed that much of the public was apathetic about politics, a reanalysis of the survey results indicates that many people were eager to be seen to be able to offer a considered assessment of the veracity of the competing parties’ promises. Mass Observation's election studies were criticized for their supposed amateurism. However, they offer richer insights into how the public engaged with party programmes than the quantitative surveys that came to dominate election studies in the 1950s and beyond.

Identity: Obstacles and Openings

Progress regarding equality and social identities has moved in a bipolar fashion: popular engagement with the concept of social identities has increased even as courts have signaled decreasing interest in engaging identity. Maintaining and deepening the liberatory potential of identity, particularly in legal and policymaking spheres, will require understanding trends in judicial hostility toward “identity politics,” the impact of status hierarchy even within minoritized identity groups, and the threat that white racial grievance poses to identitarian claims.

Tax, Politics, and the Social Contract in Africa

Though traditionally thought of as the preserve of technical experts—lawyers, economists and accountants—the study of taxation has recently attracted growing attention, with mounting recognition that taxation is fundamentally political, and lies near the core of the relationship between states and citizens. The first, and most common, question about the politics of taxation is: what are the political barriers to more effective and equitable taxation, and how can these political barriers may be overcome? However, it is important that any discussion of the politics of taxation also consider a second question: How can the expansion of tax collection be linked to the construction of stronger fiscal contracts, thus ensuring responsiveness and accountability in the use of tax revenues? The expansion of taxation represents a transfer of wealth from private citizens to the state, but becomes publicly desirable only if it is then consistently translated in improvements in publicly provided goods and services, and broader improvements in the quality of governance. This makes it incumbent on those interested in taxation to consider not only how best to raise additional revenue, but how best to raise additional revenue in ways that increase the likelihood that new revenue will be translated into broader public benefits. It is now widely accepted that in many cases political resistance represents the most important barrier to more effective taxation in Africa—particularly with respect to the taxation of elite groups. This, in turn, reflects two broad political challenges: the expansion of taxation frequently confronts resistance from influential political and economic elites, while it has historically been very difficult to build popular coalitions in favor of taxation in contexts of limited transparency and significant distrust of taxation and the state. That said, recent research has shed growing light on the contexts in which reform is more likely, and the reform strategies that may contribute to overcoming political resistance. This has been accompanied by the growth of parallel research that has highlighted the contexts in which the expansion of taxation is most likely to spur public mobilization and demand-making—and thus the strategies that reformers might adopt in seeking to strengthen the links between revenue-raising and improvements in public services and accountability. Ultimately, it increasingly appears that the kinds of political strategies that can support more effective and equitable taxation are also likely to contribute to encouraging encourage expanded popular engagement and stronger links between taxation and public benefits. These include efforts to stress horizontal equity in tax collection, to expand transparency and popular engagement in tax debates and to more clearly link expanded revenue to specific public uses, in order to build popular support for reform. Such strategies have the potential to contribute to virtuous circles of reform in which new taxation is translated into valued public benefits; thus building popular support for the further expansion of more equitable taxation.

Schmitt’s Telluric Partisan in American Entertainment Media: Fantasies of Resistance and Territorial Defence

This article explores the political significance of the narratives of partisan warfare that appear in American popular culture. I draw on Carl Schmitt’s concept of the ‘telluric partisan’ – a figure that fights outside the normative boundaries of conventional war in defence of a homeland and the traditional identities that are rooted in it. These fantasies provide a sense of moral clarity, promote national unity, characterise enemy aggression, and glorify traditional values. They establish a ready-made narrative that can be invoked to frame conflicts in terms of the heroic defence of an innocent and victimised people protecting themselves against foreigners and their dangerous ideologies. As I show, this call for popular engagement in war generally serves a conservative project of directing potentially revolutionary expressions of populism and vigilante justice into defence of family and the territorial status quo.

Slow Television

Public-service broadcasters are compelled to seek innovative ways to fulfil their publicservice functions in an increasingly competitive environment. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has been experimenting with new programme formats and cross-media concepts. The concept of slow television was developed by the regional office in Bergen. On July 16, 2011, they started a five-day live broadcast from one of the cruise ships that sailed up the Norwegian coast from Bergen in southern Norway to Kirkenes near the Russian border. The broadcast was a huge success. I take this programme as a case study and provide an analysis from the perspective of innovation within public-service broadcasting. The article addresses the following questions: 1) In what way was the programme innovative? 2) How was the programme accepted and produced? 3) What accounts for the success of the broadcast in terms of number of viewers and popular engagement?