Capitalist Penetration Research Articles

Water Troubles: Peruvian Capitalists, Mining Infrastructure, and the First Copper Bonanza

This essay examines struggles over a water drainage tunnel as a window into the politics of mining, infrastructure, and national development in early twentieth-century Peru. It argues that the Peruvian mining elite operated as an organized network of entrepreneurs, mobilizing capital, environmental technology, and the power of the state to challenge the rising hegemony of US interests in Peru's copper corridor. Unlike the classic literature on nineteenth-century mining in Peru, which has presented Peruvian mineowners as a struggling bourgeoisie, this study focuses on this group's innovations and dynamism in the wake of the copper bonanza. It also studies its discursive strategies, which appealed to preexisting skepticism of free trade and anxieties about foreign influence. Altogether, this essay contributes to the literature on US imperialism and capitalist penetration by centering local actors and studying US hegemony as a contentious and contingent process.

Capitalist development and land struggles in Africa: the role of engaged scholarship

The expansion of capitalism into Africa induced significant transformations of African societies which have continued to influence what people on the continent do today. Africa’s encounter with capital, though still limited in scope, has always been ruthless, coercive and violent, as displayed in the slave trade, colonial occupation and current neocolonial incursions. Although some political economy analysts have suggested that capitalism in Africa has not exploited Africans enough, this article shows that the encounter with capitalism on the continent has been, and continues to be, vicious, with its brutality often obscured by its stunted nature. The article draws on Lungisile Ntsebeza’s work on land to show that engaged scholarship can play a critical role in unveiling the mechanisms and nature of capitalist exploitation and brutality in Africa, often masked by weak capitalist penetration. Using examples of current land struggles, it shows that capitalist exploitation in Africa is not only limited to those engaged in capitalist relations of production (wage labour) but extends to people outside these relations.

NEOLIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK: AN ANALYSIS OF BANKING SUPERVISION REGULATION

The contemporary world financial crisis is characterized by complexity in global effects, which has not been recorded in economic history so far. The crisis originated in the financial sphere, but it spread to the entire real sector and the world economy as a whole. The question is often asked: was the crisis orchestrated or the result of tectonic disturbances in the functioning of the modern neoliberal credit-market system. Entering into the analysis of the world crisis, it is indisputable that the imposed neoliberal and monetarist model experienced its complete collapse, which fundamentally shook the pillars of neoliberal capitalism. Neoliberalism "opened up" national economies and made them vulnerable to the penetration of Western capital, and unprecedented exploitation through the virtual clapboard and dollar, as national and world money without a real basis and cover. With worthless paper, everything was bought around the world and broke the "disobedient, Basically, it is about the creation of "peripheral states and economies in the interest of large financial capital.
 In the paper, we analyze the scope of financial regulations, primarily banking supervision, with the aim of assessing possible limitations and effects as well as implications for the financial systems of countries on the way to European integration.

The Transition from Subsistence to Cash Crop Farming in Abogeta Sub County of Meru from 1937 -1980

This study is about a history on the transition from subsistence to cash crop farming in Abogeta Sub-County is in Meru County, Kenya from 1937-1980. Before 1937 farming practices were mainly for subsistence. Crops grown included millet, sorghum, peas, arrowroots, yams, beans and cowpeas. The purpose of this study was to examine the transition from subsistence to cash crop farming in Abogeta Sub County of Meru from 1937 to 1980. It was guided by Articulation of Modes of Production theory whose main precept is that penetration of capitalism in Africa affected modes of production. The study employed descriptive research design to describe the events as they occurred systematically. The instruments of data collection were interview schedules, focused group discussions and observation schedule. The sources of data included oral sources, archival sources and secondary sources which were corroborated to meet the reliability and objectivity of the research. The study was analyzed and presented through Qualitative Data Analysis. The study revealed that traditionally people from Abogeta Sub County engaged in subsistence farming. Farming shifted to cash crop farming from 1937 with introduction of cash crops like coffee and tea. This drift was fueled by search for money and industrialization. The study also noted that the transition had both positive and negative impacts on people of Abogeta. Food insecurity and migration were noted while on positive side it became the major economic activity and hence a source of livelihood to those that practiced. The study may be useful to future researchers in related area. Policy makers in the government may use the study to find solutions to food insecurity in Abogeta Sub County of Meru-County.

Does Power Sector Reform Facilitate Informal Economy Development? A Study of Nigeria’s Experience in the Southeast Geopolitical Zone

This study examines the efficacy of the power sector reform in enhancing the development of the informal economy in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It interrogates explicitly the effect of the unbundling of the electricity sector on job creation and livelihoods of the operators of the informal economy. Utilizing the mixed methods data approach and the Marxist theory of the postcolonial state, this study argues that the power sector reform is part of the grand strategy aimed at expanding capitalist penetration and protecting the economic interests of the advanced capitalist states. This self-serving interest of the capitalist institutions, which the power sector reform intends to protect explains the crisis in the power sector manifesting in poor electricity supply and increased tariffs for electricity consumers. Indeed, these untoward outcomes have negatively affected the development of the informal economy in southeast Nigeria. It, however, recommends a reevaluation of the market-based power sector reform in Nigeria.

Исторические аспекты возникновения и развития азиатского типа предпринимательства

The history of the development of entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan is considered. In the development of market relations and the sprouting of entrepreneurship, the so-called “Asian mode of production” had its own color. The penetration of large business capital into the irrigation of the land of Turkestan marked the beginning of the end of small peasant fragmented farming in this region. In conclusion, the author concludes that the historical and economic role of the entrepreneurial movement in the irrigation construction of Uzbekistan is relevant at the present stage.

A historical perspective of Nigerian immigrants in Europe

The world is gradually shrinking that at the press of a button events happening in a far-flung part of the earth could be followed live via a cable network. Globalization or capitalist penetration ...

Основные пути проникновения германского капитала в Китай в конце XIX – первой трети XX в.

Основные пути проникновения германского капитала в Китай в конце XIX – первой трети XX в.

The Economic Community of Pesantren Al-Ittifaq: Opposing Market Capitalism and the Improvement of Competitiveness

This study aims to elaborate on the solution the pesantren economic community takes in dealing with the penetration of market capitalism in the competitive era. This case study was conducted in Pesantren Al Ittifaq Bandung. Pesantren can successfully build a strong economic community through integrated education implementation including role modeling, facilitation, empowerment, and economic culturing in social capital-based communities. This article concluded that high consciousness of cooperation can improve competitiveness and be an appropriate strategy to oppose market capitalism penetration. The community’s capital asset leads to bargaining position and independence in partnership cooperation thereby can be beneficial and results in welfare. Keywords: pesantren, economic community, social capital, capital asset, cooperation, welfare

Guerra Vilaboy, Sergio, y Roberto González Arana. 2017. Dictaduras del Caribe. Estudio comparado de las tiranías de Juan Vicente Gómez, Gerardo Machado, Fulgencio Batista, Leónidas Trujillo, Los Somoza y los Duvalier

El libro Dictaduras del Caribe, hace un estudio comparativo de Cuba, Venezuela, Haití, República Dominicana y Nicaragua pues éstos países tienen en común, el haber sido -a través de las figuras representativas de Gómez, Machado, Batista, Trujillo, Somoza y Duvalier- aliados de Estados Unidos a través del corolario Roosevelt a la doctrina Monroe. Dicha política norteamericana se basó más que todo en afianzar el poderío militar y económico de éste país angloparlante, hacía América Latina, para frenar la injerencia de los paises europeos en tierras americanas hacía finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. Estados Unidos para detener la intromisión de los países europeos en América Latina, se basó en todo tipo de métodos colonialistas con las más modernas formas de penetración del capitalismo para dicho fin.

Debating the African Land Question with Archie Mafeje

This article provides a synthesis of Archie Mafeje’s views on the land and agrarian question in Africa, including land tenure and agrarian labour relations, technological change and agricultural productivity, agrarian class formation processes, and the politics of agrarian reform. 1 His enduring argument was that the fundamental land and labour relations of Africa’s pre-capitalist modes of economic and political organization had persisted during and after colonialism and capitalist penetration in the former non-settler territories of Africa. And he also rejected the dominant view that agrarian transformation in Africa was constrained by alleged deficiencies in African land tenure systems. Mafeje’s views had a unique impact on the debates on the land and agrarian questions, in both settler and non-settler Africa, as well as on my own intellectual development.

Neoliberal Capitalism and Its Crises In Europe: Towards a Luxemburgian Interpretation

This article recapitulates Rosa Luxemburg's considerations on the capitalist penetration of non-capitalist economies as a condition for capital accumulation, as well as her arguments about the limits of social reform and the shortcomings of claims for national self-determination. The theoretical tools Luxemburg developed around these issues are then used to analyse the rise, consolidation and crisis of neoliberal capitalism in Europe. This analysis stresses the reintegration of previously communist countries into the capitalist world system and the China boom as drivers of this neoliberal wave of accumulation. It concludes with pointing at the economic limits of this wave and at emerging left and right alternatives to neoliberal capitalism

The natural and capital infrastructure of potential post-electrification wealth creation in Kenya

BackgroundIt is widely accepted that electricity is an important element for improving levels of human development and wealth creation in rural areas. Yet, little research has explored the conditions under which electrification could lead to wealth creation post-electrification. Using Kenya as a case study, this paper uses natural capital (NC) and infrastructural capital (IC) data to compare the enabling environments under which electrification could lead to wealth creation (and persistent demand for electricity) post-electrification.MethodsWe use multiple spatial data sets to create three different metrics for NC and IC and use them to create a micro-enterprise development index (MED index). NC data is composed of water body data (major rivers and access to irrigation infrastructure), soil data (soil quality and agro-ecological potential), and agricultural data (crop intensity and diversity). IC is composed of spatial data spanning major towns, first and second tier roads, electricity infrastructure (transmission grid, location of government, and entrepreneur run off-grid electrification projects), population density, access to education, trade centers (markets), healthcare, and access to financial services. We perform feature scaling on NC and IC data and use them to create a MED index, which we use to represent the potential for rural micro-enterprises to create wealth, post-electrification. We compare this spatial proxy to a nightlights GDP per capita proxy developed by the World Bank in 2015 and provide a discussion highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of our approach and of using nightlights as a single metric for wealth in rural areas.ResultsIn Kenya, infrastructural capital follows natural capital. Regions with greater natural capital have relatively higher development and penetration of infrastructural capital. We observe a large discrepancy between our MED index and the nightlights income proxy, which could be caused by an underestimate of economic activity by nightlights, and an overestimate by the MED index, being that it is a measure of “potential” wealth (as opposed to current wealth).ConclusionsA spatial aggregation of natural and infrastructural capital, and nightlights data, could be an accurate demand-side input for electrification supply-side models including grid-expansion and off-grid strategies.

Men, Women, and Environmental Change in Indonesia: The Gendered Face of Development among the Dayak Benuaq

The increasing penetration of global capitalism, ambitious development efforts, and related environmental change have significantly transformed Kalimantan and its indigenous population, commonly referred to as Dayak, during the last decades. This article analyzes these processes from a gendered perspective and explores how gender relations among the Dayak, who generally are characterized by well-balanced gender relations, have been influenced by what is commonly referred to as ‘development’. A review of the existing literature shows that new asymmetries between men and women are emerging mainly due to different ways of inclusion in new economic systems. Based on research among the Dayak Benuaq, the article shows that far-reaching gender equality has been so far upheld within Benuaq society while gender gets interwoven with an increasing variety of inequalities. I argue that in order to capture this complexity, research on the gendered impacts of development should a) aim for a better understanding of the intertwinement of gender with other aspects, such as ethnicity, class, age, or education, b) pay more attention to how these aspects play out in different contexts, and c) differentiate more clearly between gender ideals, norms, and actual practice.

Productivity Gap: A Chance or an Obstacle in Absorbing Benefits from FDI in a Host Country

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between labour productivity in Poland, the presence of foreign direct investment and productivity gap between Poland and the EU-15. Research Design & Methods: Panel data techniques including pooled, fixed and random effects models, as well as diagnostic tests were used in this study. The idea was to find the relation between labour productivity measured by gross value added per employee (or hours worked) and the degree of the penetration of foreign capital. Findings: While investment decisions regarding the choice of a country are determined by the size of the target market, the distance is still a negative factor in the creation of FDI volume. Additionally, the backwardness of business or its relative proximity in terms of labour productivity in relation to the EU-15 is an unfavourable factor when it comes to the improvement of productivity. Implications & Recommendations: The results that we have obtained confirm the hypothesis that there exists an optimal level of productivity gap implying high absorption benefits of FDI presence. Moreover, an increasing involvement of foreign investors in different sectors implies both higher productivity of these sectors and the gap reduction. This may prove that too small or too huge productivity gap is an obstacle to the absorption of benefits from the presence of foreign capital to boost productivity by local firms. Contribution & Value Added: The study contributes to the observation in the existing literature that an increasing accumulation of FDI is accompanied by the progressive convergence of productivity between the UE-15 and Poland almost across all sectors. The heterogeneity of the phenomenon is noticeable on the sectoral level, which seems to be unsaid in the majority of empirical studies basing on national-aggregated data.

Weapon-Carrying Among Young Men in Glasgow: Street Scripts and Signals in Uncertain Social Spaces

Our work contributes through a cultural criminological perspective to a contextualised knowledge of street violence and its constructed meanings; uncertainty, familiarity and strangeness in spaces of urban disadvantage as perceived by Scottish white youths are examined. Youth criminal and anti-social behaviour associated with knife-carrying is widely reported and structures political and media discourses which classify street culture. In our article we argue that a particular symbolic construction of social space, as experienced and constructed by weapon-carrying young white men in Glasgow, informs the landscape of violence judged in terms of official statistics and fear of crime. Signal crime theory as a particular type of cultural criminology affords insights about why weapons are carried. Links with a hierarchical codification of consumer culture inform the findings and resonate with the penetration of capitalism in the lives of the marginalised street youth.

Disputas de tierras y aguas en la planicie de inundación del lago Tonlé Sap de Camboya

El presente trabajo aborda la movilización de una comunidad y el conflicto suscitado en torno de los embalses de irrigación en la planicie de inundación del lago Tonlé Sap, en un subdistrito de la provincia de Kampong Thom de Camboya.

Bolivia's soy complex: the development of ‘productive exclusion’

A significant transition is underway in Bolivia where both domestic and foreign capital are monopolizing commercial agriculture and leading a highly mechanized, capital-intensive production model which has considerably diminished the need for labour. This paper explores mechanisms and processes of ‘productive exclusion’ in the soy-producing zones of Santa Cruz in relation to the expansion, concentration and mechanization of the ‘soy complex’. We provide an analysis of how the agrarian structure has developed since soy was adopted – from ‘putting land into production’ to ‘expanding the agricultural frontier’ and ‘controlling the agro-industrial chain’. We explore how and the extent to which the penetration of new capital is leading to new processes of agrarian change which exclude the rural majority from accessing the means of production. While a process of ‘foreignization’ of land began to take shape in the early 1990s, new processes of capital accumulation are eroding the ability of small farmers to engage in productive activity, potentially leading to ‘surplus’ populations no longer needed for capital accumulation.

Capital Accumulation and Class Struggles from the “Long 19th Century” to the Present—A Luxemburgian Interpretation

This article reconstructs Rosa Luxemburg's theories of capital accumulation, class formation and class struggle against the background of the “long 19th century.” It then uses these theories to analyse the “short 20th century” and ends with some preliminary thoughts about capital accumulation and class formation today. It is argued that the working classes that had developed over the 19th century were integrated into statist development projects—welfare capitalism in the West, state socialism in the East, or developmental states in the South—in the 20th century. It is further argued that this integration was accompanied by the capitalist penetration of non-capitalist milieus that the strategies of colonial expansion in the 19th century could not reach. After a period of intense conflict within these “three worlds of statism,” capitalist restructuring led to the unmaking of hitherto existing working classes. Yet, this restructuring not only produced a great crisis but also laid the foundation for the remaking of international working classes.

Petani dan Pedagang: Perubahan Ekonomi dan Agama di Buton

This article examines a dispute over proper religious practice in an all-Muslim village in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi. Traditionalists and modernists disagree over whether agricultural ceremonies involving offerings for territorial spirits should be allowed to continue. Local views on this dispute are explored with reference to the historical context of religious practice in the village, and processes of social change over the past several generations. It is argued that key social, political and economic dynamics which are relevant to the current religious dispute include the decline of agriculture in the village, the eclipsing of the Butonese Sultanate and integration into the Indonesian state, and new patterns of mobility whereby many villagers have become migrants to urban centers in eastern Indonesia. Thus it traces how processes of the increasing penetration of capitalism, the decline of traditional authority, and new patterns of mobility have played out in this particular village in the context of a dispute over religious practice.   Key words: Islam, trade, Buton, Indonesia, agriculture, religion, migration