Neoliberal Capitalist System Research Articles

A construção da sociedade neoliberal brasileira: qual o lugar da democracia?

Abstract The paper aims to analyze how democracy is structured within the neoliberal capitalist system in the Brazilian context. While neoliberalism requires market liberalization, reduction of the social state, and financialization of life, democracy presupposes political and economic equality, public apparatus, and inclusion; thus, it is necessary to discuss this conflicting relationship. The first session of the work discusses the economic, political, and social system of neoliberalism, understanding its requirements and characteristics, as opposed to democratic pretensions, to enter into Brazilian particularities. The second topic analyzes the construction of a neoliberal society in the country, establishing the investigation through the clash between social development and neoliberal advancement in Brazil. Finally, it examines the presence of neoliberal capitalism from the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) governments to the first two years of the Bolsonaro government, questioning the place of democracy. For this, the research used the deductive approach method and type of bibliographical and documentary research with a qualitative approach. In conclusion, we highlight the obstacle that neoliberalism imposes to realize a substantial, egalitarian, and plural democracy, marginalizing its power and restricting it to the electoral sphere.

GESTÃO DEMOCRÁTICA ESCOLAR: POSSIBILIDADES E DESAFIOS EM UM SISTEMA NEOLIBERAL VIGENTE NO BRASIL.

The present work aimed to analyze possibilities and challenges in the consolidation of democratic management in Brazil, a capitalist country. The study, based on bibliographic analyses and field research, was organized into three chapters, which will be presented to understand the challenges and possibilities of action regarding democratic management in schools. Within this perspective, we analyzed the neoliberal capitalist system and its implications for the educational context. We also reflected on the Brazilian economic and social system in order to understand its interrelation with Brazilian education. It was necessary to conduct a study on democratic school management in public schools. To do so, a visit was made to a school, where we could observe the management. We studied its pedagogical political project, observed the actions carried out in school management, and conducted interviews in order to understand the organization of the management of this school. Theoretically, we relied on Libâneo (2009), Saviani (2002), Frigotto (2003), Paro (2001), Dourado (2001), and Sapelli (2004), among other scholars. This study proved to be important not only to understand the challenges imposed by the economic system on education but also to point out the possibilities of action in the face of these challenges. Its importance also lies in the possibility of indicating a transformative bias for the implementation of democratic management in public schools in the state of Paraná

Pınar BEDİRHANOGLU, Çağlar DÖLEK, Funda HÜLAGÜ and Özlem KAYGUSUZ (Eds.), Turkey’s New State in the Making: Transformations in Legality, Economy, and Coercion (London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020)

Turkey’s political history has seen recurring shifts between democratic ideals and authoritarian tendencies, notably during the two decades of the Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) rule. This transition marked a departure from a relatively democratic façade that emerged in response to the European Union (EU) accession process towards a more authoritarian regime characterized by increased government control and curtailment of civil liberties. It is a shift accentuated after the 2013 Gezi protests which culminated in a significant regime change in 2018. This transformation was marked by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of power through constitutional amendments, leading to the transition from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential system. To comprehend this transformation, it is imperative to examine the interplay between economic dynamics and the state within the neo-liberal capitalist system, aligning with Poulantzas’ observations on global trends. It can be argued that the accumulation and state crises, exacerbated by the 2008 global economic crisis, have contributed to Turkey’s authoritarian shift in parallel with global developments.

How Neoliberal are You? Development and Validation of the Neoliberal Orientation Questionnaire

We created a novel instrument to assess individual orientations toward the neoliberal capitalist system, the Neoliberal Orientation Questionnaire (NOQ), which is comprised of four dimensions: competitiveness, individual self-regulation, relational detachment, and public divestment. The instrument was intended to complement existing scales by (a) adopting a European perspective, and (b) incorporating personal as well as societal values, including lifestyle considerations. We sought to validate the NOQ in a European country with a strong history of public investment and social welfare provisions, namely France. In three nationally representative French samples, and one US student sample we assessed the internal consistency and construct validity of long and short versions of the scale. In terms of convergent and divergent validity, NOQ scores were positively correlated with scores on the Neoliberal Beliefs Inventory (NBI), general and economic forms of system justification, social dominance orientation, social and economic conservatism, internal locus of control, belief in free will, future-orientation, and a tendency to look on the ‘bright side’ in the face of hardships. The NOQ should prove useful for understanding the antecedents, concomitants, and consequences of attitudinal support versus opposition to the neoliberal capitalist system that dominates contemporary Western societies.

Post-Auschwitz Dramaturgy: Toward the Later Edward Bond

Although British playwright Edward Bond is well known for his early plays during the 1960s–80s, his later works, from the late 1990s onward, have been relatively overlooked and underexplored. In this article, I aim to bridge these two phases and propose a theoretical framework to approach Bond’s evolution as a playwright. I will first examine Bond’s critical engagement with Brecht, and then I will proceed to analyse Bond’s evolving dramaturgy of the Holocaust, which will help to demonstrate how Bond has developed what we might call his post-Auschwitz dramaturgy. While criticizing Brecht’s theatre for being the “Theatre of Auschwitz,” Bond bases his post-Brechtian dramaturgy on his specific understanding of the infamous Nazi concentration camp. Bond regards Auschwitz as not only a localized historical event but also a trans-historical structure of biopolitics, manifested in both the camp and an ensuing neoliberal capitalist system. By drawing on two pivotal passages of the Palermo improvisation (which took place in 1983) and the Russian guard’s story, both of which Bond describes in “Commentary on The War Plays” (1991), I will elucidate how these examples herald a “post-Auschwitz” dramaturgical model that can be understood through Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics and Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitics. Building on this analysis, I will analyse Bond’s plays The Crime of the Twenty-First Century (1999) and Born (2006) to argue that it is the dissonance between the biopolitical paradigm exemplified in Auschwitz and the human subject’s fundamental creativity that defines Bond’s later works.

Gender and Intersectionality in Business and Human Rights Scholarship

AbstractIn this article, we explore what intersectionality, as an analytic tool, can contribute to business and human rights (BHR) scholarship. To date, few BHR scholars have explicitly engaged in intersectional analysis. While gender analysis of BHR issues remains crucial to expose inequality in business activity, we argue that engagement with intersectionality can enrich and support this and other BHR scholarship. Intersectional approaches allow us to move beyond single-axis analysis, contest simplistic representations about gender issues and expose the complexity of human relations. It draws our attention to structures that sustain disadvantage such as racism, colonialism, social and economic marginalization and systematic discrimination. Moreover, intersectionality emphasizes the need to centre the contributions of those who have been marginalized. It can be used to challenge the legitimacy of the state and support subaltern, decolonized or postcolonial, including indigenous, perspectives. Adopting an intersectional approach can help problematize the neoliberal capitalist system and its constructs, in which the BHR normative framework is embedded, calling into question the reification of economic growth and its impact on individuals, communities and the planet. We must, however, remain cautious of attempts to co-opt intersectionality in the service of neoliberalism and remain conscious of our own privilege and discursive practices.

State, Labour and Emerging Natural Resource Regimes: A Case Study of Forest- Based Livelihoods in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh

Third world environmental policies are increasingly moving towards market-based mechanisms for conservation of natural resources. In India, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, a key element of current policy on forest restoration, reflects this shift. While it has not been explicitly formulated as payment for ecosystem services, this policy relies on the use of market-based valuation techniques to finance equivalent afforestation for diverted forest land by the state. Using a mix of government reports, secondary data and primary survey, this article studies the manifestation of conservation in a hilly, forested and remote region within India and its implications on sustainability and equity for local resource users. The primary data shows the continuing process of encroachment of the commons, commodification and devaluation of natural resources at the local level. Simultaneously, a re-articulated notion of conservation is being used to bring the natural resource sector within the ambit of capital. This article examines the shift in forest policy in Himachal Pradesh, India, the changing relationship of state, local institutions and private investment, and how the articulation of conservation has interacted with policy and practice. As a beleaguered neoliberal capitalist system searches for avenues for profit, this article re-emphasizes the role of a democratic state and the inability of private capital to address social needs.

The Reconfiguration of Urban Public–Private Spaces in the Mall: False Security, Antidemocratization, and Apoliticalization

In cities across the world, public spaces are being reconfigured, and their functions are being appropriated by private areas, such as shopping malls. The aim of the present article was to analyze this problem and, more specifically, to study shopping centers as secure spaces in cities, as well as the antidemocratic and apolitical nature of such malls. The study takes a positivist approach, beginning with the existing theoretical framework and using data from case studies to generate findings. The theoretical framework is established through a review of the literature, while the case study data are drawn from an analysis of news content from digital media and from autoethnography. The findings suggest malls are perceived as safe spaces, also in addition to being home to minor offenses, as well as a number of tragic events and crimes. Additionally, a growing number of demonstrations and political acts are being staged inside malls, which are seen as symbols of consumption and the neoliberal capitalist system. The owners and managers of shopping centers condone and permit the least conflictive acts and ban and repress the remainder, on occasions with the support of state security forces. The relocation of civic life to malls reduces the use of public spaces and erodes the value of the public sphere. The article ends by proposing public actions to reverse this process.

Three Risks That Caution Against a Premature Implementation of Artificial Moral Agents for Practical and Economical Use

In the present article, I will advocate caution against developing artificial moral agents (AMAs) based on the notion that the utilization of preliminary forms of AMAs will potentially negatively feed back on the human social system and on human moral thought itself and its value—e.g., by reinforcing social inequalities, diminishing the breadth of employed ethical arguments and the value of character. While scientific investigations into AMAs pose no direct significant threat, I will argue against their premature utilization for practical and economical use. I will base my arguments on two thought experiments. The first thought experiment deals with the potential to generate a replica of an individual’s moral stances with the purpose to increase, what I term, ’moral efficiency’. Hence, as a first risk, an unregulated utilization of premature AMAs in a neoliberal capitalist system is likely to disadvantage those who cannot afford ’moral replicas’ and further reinforce social inequalities. The second thought experiment deals with the idea of a ’moral calculator’. As a second risk, I will argue that, even as a device equally accessible to all and aimed at augmenting human moral deliberation, ’moral calculators’ as preliminary forms of AMAs are likely to diminish the breadth and depth of concepts employed in moral arguments. Again, I base this claim on the idea that the current most dominant economic system rewards increases in productivity. However, increases in efficiency will mostly stem from relying on the outputs of ’moral calculators’ without further scrutiny. Premature AMAs will cover only a limited scope of moral argumentation and, hence, over-reliance on them will narrow human moral thought. In addition and as the third risk, I will argue that an increased disregard of the interior of a moral agent may ensue—a trend that can already be observed in the literature.

Materializing Tension: The Laborious, Woven Documentation Of a Black, Queer, Crip Bodymind in Indira Allegra's Documented Disability

Materializing Tension:The Laborious, Woven Documentation Of a Black, Queer, Crip Bodymind in Indira Allegra's Documented Disability Tamir Williams (bio) The right not to work is the right not to have your value determined by your productivity as a worker, by your employability or salary....It is about our relation not only to labor but the significance of performing that labor, and to the idea that only through the performance of wage labor does the human being actually accrue value themselves. It is about cultivating a skeptical attitude regarding the significance of work. -Sunaura Taylor, "The Right Not to Work" To the viewer, the fluffy, large pillow against which they rest their back might appear to belie the difficulty of their performance and the labor in generating their woven document. Sitting uncomfortably upright in their bed, they work to produce a warp with silk threads whose ends are secured between their lower teeth and tied to a wooden warping paddle that they tightly cradle between their thighs. (see Fig. 1.1)1 The tension between the paddle and their mouth is thus achieved through a consistent straining or warping of their own body: locked thighs, tilted head, and hunched shoulders. It is this straining—this labor of holding tension—that enables them to weave. Over the course of an eight-hour filmed performance, they work to produce a woven account of their labor value and their social navigation as a queer person of color living with an invisible disability. Each word of this account is slowly and laboriously enunciated, as they simultaneously work to insert thin strips of paper (the weft) between the shed of their oral loom using a shuttle (see Fig. 1.2).2 Though barely discernible in the performance—as listening and reading are not the modes of engagement that they wish the viewer to have with their document (see Fig. 1.3)—the transcript for the testimony held in the woven document reads: [End Page 82] I have a disability. Because I have a disability you cannot see, I have to prove that I deserve to have the right to [tell] you the level of production I can offer to society without being stigmatized for it. Today I stayed home. Whatever I could not accomplish in bed was not accomplished today. I have the right to be believed even though you cannot see my disability.3 Contemporary textile and performance artist Indira Allegra works with "tension as creative material" to explore issues of the bodymind,4 disability, institutional violence, and (bodily) memory.5 Allegra's pieces Documenting Disability (2013) and Documented Disability (2013) are an eight-minute-long, triptych video documentation of their bed-bound performance, and the woven account produced from that performance, respectively. Each was exhibited in the "Creative Labor: Queer-It-Yourself (QIY)" show at the San Francisco SOMArts Cultural Center in 2016. The video work does not present a linear visual progression of them weaving the document; rather, the film confounds the process. Examining the three asynchronous shots, the viewer constantly oscillates between different points in the document's creation. Arguably, Allegra creates a "cripping" of this craft practice.6 As the three videos loop, the viewer witnesses Allegra's radical self-assertation of the value of their labor capacities, which deviate from neoliberal capitalist definitions of "productive." By turning to the Western, traditionally femme labor of weaving to enact this radical documentation, Allegra calls our attention to the ways in which the labor capacities and labor values of certain bodies have always been brought into question. The labor of this craft process is akin to the labor of making the needs of their Black, queer, invisibly disabled/crip bodymind believable within the U.S. neoliberal capitalist system. [End Page 83] Bodyminds are assigned values that equate to their levels of productivity under neoliberal capitalism. Enmeshed in this institutional power structure, disability documentation in the United States thus works to simultaneously legitimize and justify the labor capacities and value of bodyminds that deviate from "normative" levels of productivity. This is particularly true with regard to cases concerning access to accommodation and government aid. Allegra's Documenting Disability and Documented Disability provide...

Latidos sentipensantes de un maestro como forma de resistencia a la calidad de la educación

La presente reflexión propone una lectura crítica sobre la influencia de los discursos, políticas y reglamentaciones de la calidad de la educación en la escuela, los cuales consideran a la educación un bien esencialmente privado y cuyo valor es ante todo económico. En primer lugar, se narra la experiencia de un maestro de una institución educativa privada con los discursos de la calidad de la educación, en segundo lugar, se problematizan los “antilatidos de la calidad”, entendiendo por estos aquellos efectos de los discursos de la calidad en la educación que actúan en detrimento del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje. Finalmente, se plantean los “latidos sentipensantes de un maestro y la pedagogía social”, refiriéndose a aquellos elementos pedagógicos para pensar otras posibles formas de resistencia en defensa de una escuela que recupere la educación como valor social. Así pues, los latidos en la presente reflexión es un llamado para que las maestras y los maestros conformemos espacios de criticidad para reflexionar, cuestionar y transformar con nuestras manos y acciones, desde el pensamiento y el corazón, la visión reduccionista, eficientista y mercantilista de la educación que se nos ha querido imponer desde el sistema capitalista neoliberal.

Hong Kong's New Trade Union Movement

18 | International Union Rights | 27/4 FOCUS | TRADE UNION RIGHTS IN ASIA Hong Kong’s New Trade Union Movement For a whole year from mid-2019 to mid-2020, Hong Kong was rocked by mass demonstrations and street violence. At its height, two million out of Hong Kong’s population of seven million marched in a huge demonstration against a proposed extradition bill. The international press heavily covered the mass protests; but what the press has not covered is the birth of a new trade union movement from within this political and social movement. The protests, and the new unions, were led by a generation born a few years before and after 1997, the year when China gained sovereignty over Hong Kong, a British colony for 150 years. Hong Kong was to be governed by a constitution known as the Basic Law, which guaranteed that for the next fifty years Hong Kong’s neoliberal capitalist system and civil liberties would not be tampered with by China’s authoritarian regime. It did not turn out this way. In the past two decades China gradually began to intervene in Hong Kong politically, instigating increasing resistance from the Hong Kong populace in the form of mass rallies. This led to the Umbrella Revolution of 2014 in which the central business district was occupied for months by protestors. When it was suppressed, the protesters left behind a huge banner declaring “We’ll Be Back!” In June 2020 they did come back with a vengeance. The young activists had come to an agreement they would be united despite their differences in political beliefs and strategies. It would be a leaderless movement driven by urban guerrillalike spontaneous tactics. There would be no organisational structure. Communication would be by social media platforms. The youth who were willing to engage in physical confrontation with the police could do so. Those who could not or would not do so instead played supportive roles at the rear. But when months of street actions did not extract any concessions from the authorities, part of the protest movement branched off in a new direction that was more formal and organised—the establishment of small independent trade unions. Unions in Hong Kong Hong Kong is a global commercial hub dominated by free-market beliefs with a weak trade union culture. Collective bargaining rights are not recognised. The largest and oldest union federation, established in 1948, is the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), with 191 affiliates and 426,000 members as of 2019. It is well-resourced and largely controlled by the PRC government as a counterpart of China’s official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). The second biggest federation is the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU). This has been far more active in organising workers and assisting them in industrial disputes and fighting for collective bargaining rights. It was formed in 1990 and today has 93 affiliate unions and 145,000 members. It is an affiliate of the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC) and is situated politically in Hong Kong’s prodemocracy camp, openly criticising the ACFTU. It is one of the main participatory organisations every year commemorating the suppression of China’s Tiananmen Uprising of 1989. The new unions that sprang up during the recent protests of 2019-20 have sought advice and training from the HKCTU. While providing this, the HKCTU has hesitated to intervene in a new spontaneous trade union movement. From Loose Sand to a United Front These new unions did not start out as products of traditional unionising efforts. Their birth was conceived out of a political movement which initially did not propose any economic demands such as better work conditions, higher wages, collective bargaining rights, or affordable public housing. The earliest new unions emerged from white collar professions. Among the first participants were nurses, doctors, paramedics, and journalists who were appalled to witness police violence against protestors, while they themselves were also often tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, and beaten up for trying to help the injured. Two motivating forces drove the initial formation of unions. The first was a desire to hold a general strike and the other was to participate...

La falsa democracia del espacio público Geopolítica, producción discursiva y cartografías del poder en América Latina

En los últimos veinte años, el concepto de espacio público se ha vuelto dominante tanto en los discursos gubernamentales como académicos, sobre todo en regímenes políticos progresistas y democráticos de América Latina, y eso por el arbitrio ideológico y abstracto de lo público, del orden democrático y de la opinión pública moderna, lo cual ha sido determinante como marco legitimador de prácticas geopolíticas y discursos hegemónicos que determinan un statu quo que ha permitido al sistema capitalista neoliberal seguir reproduciéndose a partir de las estructuras urbanas y el desarrollo urbanístico en contextos de dominación y dependencia. En este sentido, el presente trabajo procura (des)mistificar la conformación hegemónica occidental del concepto de espacio público (como ámbito de la filosofía2 y esfera pública de deliberación política), desde la teoría crítica urbana y la teoría política feminista y cómo el mismo ha encontrado un territorio fértil de materialización discursiva y anclaje espacial de control y dominación de los países hegemónicos hacia Latinoamérica, reproduciendo un statu quo de colonización y explotación asociada a formas progresivas de politización teórica, a través de una trasnacionalización de la política, que se hace visible en los grandes proyectos de renovación urbana. Este trabajo se apoya de reflexiones teóricas, como marco analítico que permití hacer visible que el uso del concepto de espacio público no es neutral, pero está subsumido a una lógica política de legitimidad social y empoderamiento del capital hegemónico, y que ha tenido consecuencias espaciales, como una mayor segregación y fragmentación socioespacial, bajo un discurso democrático de “para todos”, inclusivo y del bien común que ha perpetuado en la reestructuración de nuevas formas de control y dominación.

Demokratija, neoliberalizam i alternativa

In this paper author is dealing with the problem of democracy and neoliberal capitalism, through the prism of history; it explains the difference in certain socio-economic and political-economic systems. The concept of the neoliberal capitalist system that has been current for the last forty years has become unsustainable due to the enormous inequalities in the society that it has created. Therefore today, the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer. It has also been shown that without the economic intervention of a state, no economic system can survive. The growing protests throughout Europe and the world have prompted the author to consider the following questions' What are the alternatives to neoliberal capitalism? Why are Marxism and socialism always current when we talk about changing? Can we talk about socialism in the 21st century?

The Myth of McMindfulness

This article examines to what extent the teaching of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can accurately be referred to by the term “McMindfulness.” The application of this term appears to rest on the expectation that teachers of MBSR and similar mindfulness programs, in order to be true to their Buddhist heritage, should inculcate political awareness in their patients, motivating them to resist the neoliberal capitalist system. Moreover, another assumption seems to be that present-moment awareness, viewed as another departure from ancient Indian Buddhism, prevents critical thinking and thereby supports obedient submission to exploitative conditions. Closer examination shows that expecting mindfulness teachers to stimulate political activism is not in keeping with relevant Buddhist antecedents. The relevant sources even testify to the employment of mindfulness for mere health benefits already in ancient India. Besides, the same textual sources show that mindfulness of the present moment is not a later innovation. The belief that such mindful presence disables critical thinking appears to mistake the goal of the cultivation of mindfulness for the mere absence of thoughts. At least as far as MBSR and related programs in healthcare are concerned, the term “McMindfulness” is not justified and its recent indiscriminate application to any contemporary mindfulness practice appears to have turned it into a myth. Rather than being merely a tool to ensure subservience to the neoliberal capitalist system, in view of the impending climate catastrophe, mindfulness can offer an important resource to face the ravages caused by unbridled exploitation of the environment.

The capitalist voyeur: commodification, consumption and the spectacle of the cruise

ABSTRACTThis article explores the pervasive forms of consumerism which underpin the cruise experience. Drawing upon Baudrillard, among others, we examine the process of ‘magical thinking’ utilised by passengers to mask the hidden social, economic, environmental, and cultural harms that surround the international cruise industry and which in turn serves to reinforce inequalities and structural harms between the Global North and South, particularly in developing and ‘exotic’ destinations. In doing so we aim to unpack the construction of leisure cruising in contemporary western society, arguing that it has become the epitome of the normalisation of banal capitalist consumption which underpins the current global neoliberal capitalist system.

SLOWED SERBIAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY UNTIL WORLD WAR II

Permanently economic backwardness of Serbia (as, after all, and most of the Balkan countries) compared to the Western and Central Europe always makes actual causes of this trend. Of course, there is no simple and straightforward answer. The prevailing opinion is that the countries of South Eastern Europe, because of the specificity of its historical development, primarily in the age of the first industrial revolution lost pace compared to the rest of the continent and found themselves at a disadvantage, which can not fail to compensate. Such thinking usually implies the necessity to southeast Europe, or Balkans, pass the path of development identical western European way. However, whether it the only model that leads to creation of economically prosperous and socially stable society or priority should be given to understanding the local specificity and optimally use them in order to build a welfare state? Serbia can now be classified as countries that have not successfully passed the transition period from a socialist to neoliberal capitalist system. The reasons for this here we can not discuss in detail, but we will mention the most difficult challenges facing the country has faced since the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia until today. These are, first, the Yugoslav wars, including them in the armed conflict with the NATO alliance in 1999, economic sanctions and international isolation in the last decade of the last century, the unsuccessful privatization of public enterprises in the years of the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic after him and, as a consequence, worsening the situation of workers who will be a key generator of losing confidence in democratic government and return to the main political scene those who in the 1990s were the protagonists of the Yugoslav wars, and who were the main culprits for the degradation of the international reputation of the Serbian nation is unprecedented in the history of Serbia. Today Serbia is far closer to autocracy rather than democracy, exposed internal political violence, with non-free state institutions, unclear status of Kosovo and Metohija and undefined national borders. Omnipotent Government is trying to attract foreign investors by promoting its own citizens as cheap labor for which workers' rights are not applicable in the present developed societies. Essentially an important answer to the question why Serbia today so gloomy and hopeless.We will try to clarify the situation somewhat emphasis on the social history of modern Serbia.

Urban Prophets: Creating Graffiti as a Means of Negotiating the Constructs of Urban Public Spaces

For this examination, graffiti and neo-graffiti have been compared to public art in order to reveal the ideological constructions of urban public spaces. How does graffiti interact with the construction of urban public spaces? How is graffiti similar to and different from public art? Which of these art forms better represents the public and city living? By comparing public art to (neo)graffiti in Toronto, Ontario and Los Angeles, California, the gendered, racialized, and class-based exclusions present in R. Florida's (2002) creative cities framework as theorized by authors such as N. Smith (1996), Sharon Zukin (1996), and G. Standing (2011) can be revealed. Urban public spaces are carefully shaped by those in control, the government and corporations, with the intention of creating spaces and citizens within those spaces that can be a functioning part of their neoliberal capitalist system. Graffiti and neo-graffiti act as a visual interruption to this system, which in turn can be thought of as physically represented by public art. In this way (neo)graffiti is created by a minority of citizens with the hopes of reclaiming their right to exist in urban public spaces despite layers of ideological exclusions.For this examination, graffiti and neo-graffiti have been compared to public art in order to reveal the ideological constructions of urban public spaces. How does graffiti interact with the construction of urban public spaces? How is graffiti similar to and different from public art? Which of these art forms better represents the public and city living? By comparing public art (neo)graffiti in Toronto, Ontario and Los Angeles California, the racialized and class-based exclusions present in R. Florida’s (2002) creative cities framework theorized by authors such as N. Smith (1996), Sharon Zukin (1996), and G. Standing (2011) can be revealed. Urban public spaces are carefully shaped by those in control (the government and corporations) with the intention of creating spaces and citizens within those spaces that can be a functioning part of their system. Graffiti and neo-graffiti act as a visual interruption to this system as represented by public art. In this way (neo)graffiti is created by a minority of citizens with the hopes of reclaiming their right to exist in urban public spaces despite the layers of exclusions.

The Absence of Decent Work: The Continued Development of Forced and Unfree Labour in India

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has developed a concept of decent work and set this as a standard in 1999. However, in many places in the world people labour under conditions that are far from ‘decent’. Many people are subject to forced labour and experience unfreedoms, which raises important theoretical and practical issues. In this contribution we set out some of the ways in which forced labour manifests and how it has been changing over recent years in India. India is of particular interest because, according to the ILO, Asia, and India within Asia, has more victims of forced labour than any other region. India illustrates that specific structures of social relations underpin one’s vulnerability to becoming a victim of forced labour. It illustrates also that forms of forced labour integrate into and develop within capitalism. Although neo-liberal policy prescriptions are formally opposed to forced labour, the neo-liberal capitalist system also facilitates its reproduction and spread.

Disrupting the flow: Still-activism redirecting neo-liberal capitalism

Abstract The performance of stillness is a potent tool of contemporary activism, utilized in the Chipko movement against forest privatization in Uttarakhand, India, protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline in North America, and Pick Up America’s litter clean-up across the United States. These activists choreograph stillness to interrupt the ontological flow of modernity – and concurrently the material flow of capital and resources – in order to intervene in the unsustainable components of the neo-liberal capitalist system. This investigation highlights the body as central to interrupting regimes of capital and subjectivity through non-violent means – in this case, through what the author calls still-activism.