Category Archives: Agriculture

Agrarian Political Economy & Ecology

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

My path into agrarian political economy and ecology partly picks up where Marx left off. In culminating his magnum opus, Marx departs from his more dualistic model of the capitalist mode of production, which emphasizes the dialectic of labor-and-capital, … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Antonio Gramsci, David Harvey, Forests, Frontiers, Gender, Karl Marx, Land, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Territory, Violence | 1 Comment

The Sicilian Mafia

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Gambetta, Diego. 1996. The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Diego Gambetta’s hugely important book conceptualizes the Sicilian mafia as not an organization but as an industry that’s in the business of producing, promoting, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, City, Drugs, Elites, Illegality, Law, Political Economy, Scale, The State, Violence | Comments Off

The Mafia of a Sicilian Village

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Blok, Anton. 1974. The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860-1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs. Cambridge: Waveland Press. Anton Blok’s Mafia of a Sicilian Village is one of my favorite books. It shows how “the mafia” in Sicily emerged … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Elites, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Networks, Power, Scale, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press. Barrington Moore’s classic study seeks to understand the role of landed upper classes and peasants in the makings … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Elites, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Post-Colonial, The State | Comments Off

Coffee and Power

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Paige, Jeffery M. 1997. Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Jeffrey Paige’s book Coffee and Power is an exemplary piece of comparative research. In addressing three Central American countries tortured … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Elites, Historical-Geographies, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Wolf, Eric. 1969. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. Eric Wolf surveys the histories of six different cases of peasant involvement in rebellions and revolutions in the twentieth century. In the final chapter, he draws … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Frontiers, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Scale, Territory, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

States of Violence

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Coronil, Fernando and Julie Skurski, eds. 2006. States of Violence. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. [Ch. 1-3] This brilliant collection edited by Fernando Coronil and Julie Skurski critiques one of the main stories that modernity likes to tell … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Gender, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Post-Colonial, Sovereignty, Spatiality, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

What Makes Peasants Revolutionary?

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Skocpol, Theda. 1982. “What Makes Peasants Revolutionary?” Comparative Politics 14(3): 351-375. In this review essay, Theda Skocpol basically argues that studies of peasant-based revolutions have focused too narrowly on the peasants themselves. She argues for a more holistic approach that … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Political Economy, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Guevara: Guerrilla Warfare

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Che Guevara’s manual for guerrilla warfare was published a year after his bearded rebels marched triumphantly into Havana. Rebels across the world have thumbed its pages for tactics and strategies aimed at defeating their much more powerful foes. Unfortunately, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, City, Forests, Marxism, Nation/Nationalism, Political Ecology, Territory, Violence | Comments Off

Insurgent Collective Action

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Wood, Elisabeth J. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elisabeth Jean Wood’s book explores why some Salvadoran peasants decided to collectively thrust themselves toward that country’s insurgency in the 1970s-1990s. Through a … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off