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 both ideology and actuality. “We are equally concerned with criminality itself, the offences, the offenders and the popular myths of offenders (such as highwaymen and smugglers) as part-hero, part dreadful moral exemplars” (13). Though noting the real difference between “social crimes”—the socially accepted (if vaguely) kind, e.g. poachers, rioters, smugglers—and unqualified crimes, the authors admit the inability of separating the two. 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

Whigs and Hunters

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Thompson, E.P. 1975. Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act. New York: Pantheon Books.

EP Thompson’s classic Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act traces the confluence of property, law, and crime in a transitional moment of capitalist development in eighteenth century England. Thompson also shows this same confluence of factors was also tied to tremendously important shifts in class relations underway during the same period. As Thompson puts it: “We appear to glimpse a declining gentry and yeoman class confronted by incomers with greater command of money and influence, and with a ruthlessness in the use of both” (108). Through detailed presentation of a spotty historical record Thompson reveals the tectonic changes put in motion in eighteenth century England. The relevance of his historical analysis impinges on debates regarding the law, state, ideology, property, and class. Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Forests, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Marxism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Power, Spatiality, Terror, The State, Violence | 4 Comments

Moral Economy of the Crowd

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Thompson, E.P. 1993. Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture. New York: New Press. [Ch. 4 & 5]

E.P. Thompson’s essay “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd” questions the usual portrayal of eighteenth century food riots as “spasmodic episodes” bereft of deeper, sustained political consciousness and activity. Riot, a “simple four-letter word” (185), paints a picture of popular history composed of occasional social disturbances spurred in lock-step with some sort of economic stimuli that caused “rebellions of the belly”: a bad harvest, unfavorable weather, trade disruptions (186). As opposed to such accounts, Thompson offers his own views based on the “moral economy of the poor”: Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, City, Historical Materialism, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Marxism, Political Economy, Power, The State, Violence | 7 Comments

Marx: Law on Thefts of Wood

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Marx, Karl. 1842. “Debates on Law on Thefts of Wood.” Rheinische Zeitung. Nos. 298, 300, 303, 305 and 307.

As editor of the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842-1843, Marx found himself having to cover what he deemed the “uninspiring debates” of the Rhine Province Assembly on the theft of wood. Before turning toward questions surrounding political economy, I have noted that Marx first deployed his critical intellectual energies toward critiques of idealism and particularly ideologies of the state. A transition period came during his time as editor of Zeitung. As editor and beginning with his coverage of the debates on the theft of wood, Marx found himself in the “embarrassing position of having to discuss what is known as material interests.” It was this experience that “caused me in the first instance to turn my attention to economic questions.” Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Forests, Illegality, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Marxism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Power, Primitive Accumulation, The State | Comments Off on Marx: Law on Thefts of Wood

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 weaves subjects, theory, characters, and themes into lucid and dynamic narrative installments—the “understories” of northern New Mexico’s forests. At the root of these stories are the politics of nature and difference—the inseparability of nature and culture—and how the two are formed in reciprocal constitution with uneven and often worrisome results. Throughout this process, subjects, histories, natures, identities, institutions, and inequalities are forged, created, repurposed, and/or reinforced. 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

Weapons of the Weak

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Scott, James. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.

James Scott’s influential Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance offers a compelling thesis on peasant politics and social change in agrarian societies. Peasant revolutions are few and far between, he says; the real “action” is the everyday, more ordinary weapons of relatively powerless groups: foot-dragging, sabotage, gossip, feigned ignorance, and dissimulation. Widespread citation of the book normally refers to these more patient and silent acts of “small arms fire” in the low-intensity conflict (or Cold War) of “normal” class struggle. With few exceptions, less discussed are Scott’s strong arguments against notions of hegemony, mystification, and ideology—concepts he considers synonymous. Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Everyday Life, Hegemony, Land, Law, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

A Different Kind of War Story

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Nordstrom, Carolyn. 1997. A Different Kind of War Story. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Carolyn Nordstrom’s A Different Kind of War Story is an incredible work of scholarship. She pulls no punches when it comes to portraying the frontline horrors of Mozambique’s armed conflict, but she is just as faithful to the forms of creative resistance formed by everyday people against the terror-warfare. Nordstrom tells us how Mozambicans peacefully fought a war against War… and won. She describes the process as people “combating the insidious hegemony of violence in their daily lives, repairing ruptures in cultural viability maimed by the atrocities of lethal conflict” (xviii). Despite the utter and total destruction of the war, Nordstrom shows that Mozambique at no point resembled Hobbesian state of nature, a war of all against all—far from it. Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday Life, Hegemony, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Peace, Post-Colonial, Scale, Terror, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Culture of Terror, Space of Death

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Taussig, Michael. 1984. “Culture of Terror, Space of Death. Roger Casement’s Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26(3): 467-497.

In this essay, Michael Taussig wants to explore “the mediation of the culture of terror through narration” and specifically “the problems of writing effectively against terror” (467). He offers the “space of death” as a threshold that helps create meaning and consciousness in societies in which terror and torture are endemic. He traces how a horrific culture of terror can be produced from the fine, delicate fibers of mystery, fantasy, rumor, and the everyday—what Taussig calls a “dense web of magical realism” (469). In one of the most provocative passages of the essay, he writes: Continue reading →

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Engendering Everyday Resistance

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Hart, Gillian. 1991. “Engendering Everyday Resistance.” Journal of Peasant Studies. 19(1): 93-121.

Gillian Hart’s much-cited article “Engendering Everyday Resistance” seeks to answer why women in the Muda region of Malaysia came “to define and prosecute their interests as workers, whereas men [continued] to adopt a far more deferential stance” (93). Hart finds that the already gendered forms of collective work and women’s marginalization from patronage politics gave them more means and incentives to present their interests collectively as workers. Seen processually these gendered dynamics show the inextricable—and potentially radical—links between local community politics, the workplace, and the household, which are as important for men as they are for women. A companion of these arguments is that Hart challenges James Scott’s “everyday forms of peasant resistance” thesis by showing that a more gender-sensitive analysis reveals a broader and perhaps more forceful politics of resistance at work in Muda. Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Everyday Life, Gender, Land, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, The State | Comments Off on Engendering Everyday Resistance

Taking the Jungle Out of the Forest

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Peluso, Nancy and Peter Vandergeest. 2011. “Taking the Jungle out of the Forest: Counter-Insurgency and the Making of National Natures.” In Global Political Ecology edited by Richard Peet, Paul Robbins, and Michael Watts. New York: Routledge. 

What are the interconnected political ecologies of war and forestry? What role do forests play in the formation of “territorial solutions meant to quell insurgent violence?” (253). Nancy Peluso and Peter Vandergeest aim to “better examine the ways tropical forests as theatres of insurgency have been key in shaping them as political entities (political forests) in the first place” (254). Labeling forests as “jungles” underwrites the realization of “nation-building projects through violence, militarization, resettlement, and other territorial practices of counter-insurgency. The articulations of war and forestry thus help make both territorial nation-states and political forests” (254). The authors examine the Cold War cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In all three cases, “As insurgent violence was repressed, the shifting cultural politics of states discursive and spatial practices around forests and forest-based subjects became fundamental to understanding the making of the nation-states and national natures” (255). Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, Forests, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Political Ecology, Post-Colonial, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Scale, Science & Tech., Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Taking the Jungle Out of the Forest