Category Archives: The Body

Medicating Austerity and Biopower

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

I read the article “Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School” this morning in the NY Times and it freaked me out. Then, the article was sent around on my department’s listserve and I just can’t get over it. … Continue reading →

Posted in Drugs, Everyday Life, Political Economy, The Body | Comments Off on Medicating Austerity and Biopower

Vibrant Matter

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press. Bennett begins her book stating, “This book has a philosophical project and, related to it, a political one” (vii). And, indeed, her book sometimes reads as … Continue reading →

Posted in Networks, Political Ecology, Power, Science & Tech., The Body | 2 Comments

Geographies of the Outlaw

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

The word “outlaw”—outside of the law—implicitly articulates the intimate relationship between geography and the law. From the perspective of state-makers and capitalists, the groups of outlaws I’m collectively labeling “Motley Crews” (as a shorthand) pose a grave ideological and spatial … Continue reading →

Posted in Bandits, Carl Schmitt, Drugs, Elites, Forests, Frontiers, Gender, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Michel Foucault, Networks, Pirates, Post-Colonial, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The Sea, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Geographies of the Outlaw

On the Postcolony

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Intro, Ch. 1-2] In On the Postcolony, Achille Mbembe writes against the making of Africa (and Africans) as a monstrous place, a timeless netherworld suspended from the forward march … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, City, Drugs, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Fighting for the Rain Forest

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Richards, Paul. 1996. Fighting for the Rainforest: War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford: James Currey. Paul Richards main aim in Fighting for the Rain Forest is to argue against what he calls the “New Barbarism” thesis, which presents … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Drugs, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Shattering Silence

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Aretxaga, Begoña. 1997. Shattering Silence: Women, Nationalism, and Political Subjectivity in Northern Ireland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Begoña Aretxaga explores the problems and promise of feminist change in Northern Ireland with the start of the “Troubles” in the wake … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, City, Everyday Life, Gender, Hegemony, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Place, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Formations of Violence

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Feldman, Allen. 1991. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Formations of Violence came highly recommended, and I was not disappointed. The overly dense theoretical introduction and Allen … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, City, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Michel Foucault, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Albion’s Fatal Tree

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Hay, Douglas et al. 1975. Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England. New York: Pantheon Books. In the preface of Albion’s Fatal Tree the authors explain that their main concern is the law in eighteenth century England as … Continue reading →

Posted in Bandits, City, Forests, Hegemony, Historical Materialism, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Marxism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Science & Tech., Terror, The Body, The Sea, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Understories in Northern New Mexico

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Kosek, Jake. 2006. Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press. Jake Kosek’s Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico is a solid model for the presentation of research. He brilliantly … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Governmentality, Historical-Geographies, Land, Law, Michel Foucault, Nation/Nationalism, Place, Political Ecology, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Science & Tech., Spatiality, Territory, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Caliban and the Witch

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Federici, Silvia. 2004. Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia. It’s become almost cliché to say that taking into account gender—and other forms of social difference—makes a real difference for how we build our … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Gender, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Marxism, Political Economy, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Science & Tech., The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments