Category Archives: Critique

Against Spectacle? “Crises” and the Infographic

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

So there’s been a lot of interesting infographics published recently that help visually represent a host of contemporary issue and crises: from Euro Debt, U.S. income inequality, and the increasingly consolidated power of corporations and banks, to the Afghan quagmire … Continue reading →

Posted in #Occupy, Bandits, Critique, Elites, Everyday Life, Guy Debord, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Networks, Political Economy, Power, Spectacle, Violence | 2 Comments

The Country and the City

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Williams, Raymond. 1973. The Country and the City. Oxford: Oxford University Press. At the end of The Country and the City, Raymond Williams offers the reader an appendix on the origins of the keyword “country.” The word, he writes, “is … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, City, Critique, Land, Marxism, Place | Comments Off

Street Art and Protest

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Like many others around the world, I was appalled by Troy Davis’ execution—along with capital punishment in general. But I was again reminded about the power of street art and its striking potential to politically express the ineffable when I … Continue reading →

Posted in City, Critique, Everyday Life | 4 Comments

Violent Entrepreneurs

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Volkov, Vadim. 2002. Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Vadim Volkov’s extremely impressive book details how an entire class of “violent entrepreneurs” became the handmaidens of the Soviet transition … Continue reading →

Posted in Bandits, Critique, Dialectics, Elites, Everyday Life, Illegality, Law, Networks, Power, Sovereignty, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Primitive Accumulation: A Reinterpretation

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

De Angelis, Massimo. 1999. “Marx’s Theory of Primitive Accumulation: A Suggested Reinterpretation.” University of East London. Available online. De Angelis makes a distinction between those that view Marx’s “primitive accumulation” as “historical”—a one-off, big-bang of capitalism—and those that understand the … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Critique, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Marxism, Political Economy, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Scale, Spatiality | Comments Off

The Trinity Formula

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Marx, Karl. 1967. Capital, Vol. III. New York: International Publishers. [Ch. 48] The chapter is simply titled, “The Trinity Formula.” I was interested in this chapter from Volume III of Capital for two reasons. The first reason is its importance … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Critique, Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Land, Marxism, Political Economy, Spatiality | 1 Comment

The Great Arch

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Corrigan, Philip, and Derek Sayer. 1985. The Great Arch: English State Formation as a Cultural Revolution. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. I had high hopes for this book. First, because I’m a big fan of Derek Sayer’s other work and, secondly, because … Continue reading →

Posted in Critique, Gender, Historical Materialism, Karl Marx, Law, Max Weber, Nation/Nationalism, Political Economy, Power, The State | Comments Off

Lefebvre: State, Space, World

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Lefebvre, Henri. 2009. State, Space, World: Selected Essays. Edited by Neil Brenner and Stuart Elden. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press. [Intro, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 11] So far, as this particular reading confirmed, no other thinker seems better equipped than … Continue reading →

Posted in Antonio Gramsci, Carl Schmitt, Critique, GWF Hegel, Henri Lefebvre, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Karl Marx, Law, Marxism, Nation/Nationalism, Political Economy, Power, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Violence | 3 Comments

Guha: Dominance Without Hegemony?

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Guha, Ranajit. 1997. Dominance Without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Intro & Ch. 1] Intuitively, it’s odd that the Subaltern Studies crowd has drawn so heavily on Gramsci, since he had surprisingly little to … Continue reading →

Posted in Antonio Gramsci, Critique, Hegemony, Historical-Geographies, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Post-Colonial, Power, The State, Violence | 5 Comments

The Poverty of Theory Debate

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Thompson, E.P. 1978. “Poverty of Theory or An Orrery of Errors” Anderson, Perry. 1980. Arguments Within English Marxism. London: Verso. Is there any polemic more biting in its wit, rigor and distaste than E.P. Thompson’s (EP) “Poverty of Theory”? Today, … Continue reading →

Posted in Critique, Historical Materialism, Marxism, Political Economy, Power, The State | 2 Comments