Category Archives: Henri Lefebvre

Zapatistas and Territory

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Teo Ballvé

After their silent and momentary seizure of five municipal plazas on December 21, the Zapatistas issued a new communiqué (in Spanish or English). In sum, it describes how they will continue consolidating their “other way of doing politics.” Among their … Continue reading →

Posted in Henri Lefebvre, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Marxism, Media, Networks, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Territory, The State | 1 Comment

Frontiers and Deadwood as Geography

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

A piece titled “Deadwood as History” by Anne Hyde in Foreign Affairs on the historical content (or lack thereof) of HBO’s Deadwood begins: “All Westerns are stories of people attempting to impose order on a chaotic, lawless, and savage environment.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Boundaries, Frontiers, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Law, Political Ecology, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Violence | Comments Off on Frontiers and Deadwood as Geography

Everyday State Formation

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

I have a new article that was just published in the most recent issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space titled, “Everyday State Formation: Territory, Decentralization, and the Narco Land-Grab.” The lag between writing and printing, of course, … Continue reading →

Posted in Antonio Gramsci, Development, Drugs, Elites, Everyday Life, Hegemony, Henri Lefebvre, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Marxism, Primitive Accumulation, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Everyday State Formation

Territory and Autogestion

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

Marina Sitrin, who was part of the original #Occupy foco in Zuccotti Park, wrote a brief essay on “Horizontalism and Territory” drawing from her long-standing engagement with Latin American social movements, particularly those that gained force amid Argentina’s 2001 crash. … Continue reading →

Posted in #Occupy, Dialectics, Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre, Spatiality, Territory, The State | 2 Comments

Occupy Volume, Occupy Verticality

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

#Occupy. Where does it go from here? How ‘bout up? I’m not 100% serious, but it’s been fascinating to see how #Occupy has expanded occupation to mean more than parking our collective butts on a flat—or at least, horizontal—and usually … Continue reading →

Posted in #Occupy, City, Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Power, Spatiality, The State, Violence | 6 Comments

Spatiality & Power

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

“A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas… on the soft fibers of the brain is founded the unshakable base of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Antonio Gramsci, Assemblages, Carl Schmitt, Dialectics, Everyday Life, Governmentality, Hegemony, Henri Lefebvre, Illegality, Karl Marx, Law, Michel Foucault, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Intimate Enemies in Chiapas

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Bobrow-Strain, Aaron. 2007. Intimate Enemies: Landowners, Power, and Violence in Chiapas. Durham: Duke University Press. This book has a perfect hook: What about the vilified landowners on the receiving end of the January 1, 1994, uprising by the Zapatista rebels … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Antonio Gramsci, Boundaries, Frontiers, Gender, Hegemony, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Marxism, Nation/Nationalism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Scale, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Denaturalizing Dispossession

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Hart, Gillian. 2006. “Denaturalizing Dispossession: Critical Ethnography in the Age of Resurgent Imperialism,” Antipode 38(5): 977-1004. Through empirically grounded examples and encompassing debates on resurgent imperialism and ongoing primitive accumulation, Gillian Hart offers theoretical and methodological suggestions for analyzing dispossession. … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Antonio Gramsci, David Harvey, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Land, Networks, Place, Post-Colonial, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Scale, Spatiality | 2 Comments

Frontiers: Civil Society and Nature

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Redclift, Michael. 2006. Frontiers: Histories of Civil Society and Nature. Boston: MIT Press. Through a series of brief case studies, Michael Redclift explores the meanings, practices, and imaginaries associated with frontiers, which he analyzes through the mutually interacting interfaces of … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, Frontiers, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Place, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Frontiers: Civil Society and Nature

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