Lançamentos imobiliários na Freguesia: consumo da habitação na hipermodernidade. O marketing do discurso verde de do lazer

A Freguesia de Jacarepaguá, do Rio de Janeiro, nos últimos cinco anos recebeu mais de 80 lançamentos. Juntamente com a Barra da Tijuca, vem sendo um dos principais alvos do mercado imobiliário carioca, correspondendo a 95% das construções da cidade. Tornou-se bairro na década de 1980. Nas últimas décadas, tem sido foco de expansão urbana. Foi escolhida como espaço privilegiado para a análise das construções e práticas discursivas do mercado imobiliário. O objetivo foi entender o processo de comercialização e lançamento das habitações. Anúncios e materiais de propaganda de 52 empreendimentos permitiram identificar 21 grupos de discursos, ancorados em enunciados e imagens do verde, de famílias felizes e inúmeros itens de lazer que se constituíram em objetos de análise. Novos conceitos e produtos habitacionais são postos no mercado com o uso de inúmeras táticas e estratégias, embasadas no imaginário carioca do verde local e no ideário da casa própria. O marketing dos discursos é utilizado como produtor de sentido sobre o consumidor, sujeito urbano hipermoderno, desejoso de segurança, maior qualidade de vida, sustentabilidade, novos luxos e facilidades a sua disposição. O discurso sedutor é voltado para uma sociedade de consumo, onde inovações mercadológicas, crescentes facilidades financeiras e de crédito fomentam e retroalimentam o desejo e o sonho da casa própria. O crescente número de unidades lançadas estimula a concorrência, assume o posto de investimento lucrativo e fomenta a lógica de uma economia neoliberal. Paradoxalmente, destrói a casa-oïkos planetária. A nova habitação ganha itens ecoeficientes, certificações ecológicas e itens de entretenimento, serviços e lazer que extrapolam as necessidades básicas de abrigo e proteção para atingir o encantamento e o novo status do público alvo: o consumidor da classe média. Surgem novos conceitos de moradia, spas, clubes e boutiques. O mundo urbano é transportado para dentro dos muros. O espaço da habitação ganha inúmeros atributos de distinção e consumo. Desta forma, o produto habitação assume definitivamente a categoria de bem de consumo.

What a girl's gotta do: the labor of the biopolitical celebrity in austerity Britain

This article debunks the widespread view that young female celebrities, especially those who rise to fame through reality shows and other forms of media-orchestrated self-exposure, dodge “real” work out of laziness, fatalism, and a misguided sense of entitlement. Instead, the authors argue that becoming a celebrity in a neoliberal economy such as that of the United Kingdom, where austerity measures disproportionately disadvantage the young, women, and the poor, is not as irregular or exceptional a choice as previously thought, especially since the precariousness of celebrity earning power adheres to the current demands of the neoliberal economy on its workforce. What is more, becoming a celebrity involves different forms of labor that are best described as biopolitical, since such labor fully involves and consumes the human body and its capacities as a living organism. Weight gain and weight loss, pregnancy, physical transformation through plastic surgery, physical symptoms of emotional distress, and even illness and death are all photographically documented and supplemented by extended textual commentary, usually with direct input from the celebrity, reinforcing and expanding on the visual content. As well as casting celebrity work as labor, the authors also maintain that the workings of celebrity should always be examined in the context of wider cultural, social and real economies.

A interface entre educação e mercado : uma análise crítica das mudanças socioculturais no contexto educacional

In the context of late modernity, the socio-cultural transformations established new social practices which corroborate discursive changes in dialectic movements, contributing to the order of the educational discourses to be more and more affected by typical market discourses and values which are covered by ideologies, hegemonic struggles and power relations. In this sense, this research study, which is based on the theoretical tenets of the Critical Discourse Analysis in its interdisciplinary branch (FAIRCLOUGH, 2006; ORMUNDO, 2010; PEDROSA, 2010; RAMALHO E RESENDE, 2011), aims at discussing how the sociocultural changes in the context of private education interact with the market proposal of neoliberal and economical policies. The research was methodologically based on the qualitative approach (CHIZZOTTI, 1991; BOGDAN e BIKLEN, 1994; MINAYO, 1994), especially on the principles of contemporary Applied Linguistics (SIGNORINI, 1998; MOITA-LOPES, 2006; MENEZES, SILVA, GOMES, 2009). Data were gathered from advertisements used in campaigns by private educational institutions and agencies in Natal/RN; the advertisements were collected in primary and secondary levels and in language courses from October to December, 2010. The data analysis indicate that education, in the context of globalization and late modernity, has become a market agency and that the new face of the educational discourse of private institutions is interwoven with a social representation of education as a site of struggle and hegemonic dispute. Therefore, the research leads us to infer that, as the educational public policies based on hegemonic economy and on ideological assumptions of international agents (Global Bank, FMI, etc.) have become widespread, education has become an arena of dispute and a powerful economic product to the market of cultural and commercial industry, thus emphasizing a society in which everything is economically based

El estado como eje articulador de las relaciones sociales

El presente trabajo intenta realizar una síntesis de cómo se fue articulando la sociedad a partir del modelo capitalista de producción en el período histórico que transcurre desde el impulso desarrollado en la Segunda Revolución Industrial, a finales del siglo XIX , hasta la primera década del siglo XXI. Este período determinará una forma de integración social que va estar vinculada al trabajo asalariado y ligada a un Estado más presente, articulador y distribuidor de la riqueza social. Algunos de los elementos constitutivos que sostuvieron este modelo fueron el New Deal y la política económica keynesiana, que van a perdurar hasta bien entrada la década de 1970. En esta etapa, la relación capital-trabajo va a entrar en crisis; el modelo keynesiano de pleno empleo no le es útil al capitalismo; y, por lo tanto, el Estado va a permitir la incorporación de un nuevo discurso, enarbolado por los denominados economistas liberales ortodoxos y, ya en la última década del siglo XX , por el economista norteamericano John Williamson, relacionado con un movimiento intelectual denominado "Consenso de Washington"; esto dando lugar una nueva forma de estructuración social en la que van a coexistir ganadores y perdedores del sistema. Se intenta explicar, además, el impacto que provocó en la Argentina adherir al modelo neoliberal a través de una economía abierta (1989-2002). Por último, describimos la situación de la Provincia de San Luis; los dispositivos y mecanismos que utilizó para contrarrestar los dos dígitos de desocupación producidos después del año 2002; para ello, nos referimos al Plan de Inclusión Social, expuesto a través de datos estadísticos tomados del INDEC y de la Dirección Provincial de Estadísticas y Censos de la Provincia de San Luis

El estado como eje articulador de las relaciones sociales

El presente trabajo intenta realizar una síntesis de cómo se fue articulando la sociedad a partir del modelo capitalista de producción en el período histórico que transcurre desde el impulso desarrollado en la Segunda Revolución Industrial, a finales del siglo XIX , hasta la primera década del siglo XXI. Este período determinará una forma de integración social que va estar vinculada al trabajo asalariado y ligada a un Estado más presente, articulador y distribuidor de la riqueza social. Algunos de los elementos constitutivos que sostuvieron este modelo fueron el New Deal y la política económica keynesiana, que van a perdurar hasta bien entrada la década de 1970. En esta etapa, la relación capital-trabajo va a entrar en crisis; el modelo keynesiano de pleno empleo no le es útil al capitalismo; y, por lo tanto, el Estado va a permitir la incorporación de un nuevo discurso, enarbolado por los denominados economistas liberales ortodoxos y, ya en la última década del siglo XX , por el economista norteamericano John Williamson, relacionado con un movimiento intelectual denominado "Consenso de Washington"; esto dando lugar una nueva forma de estructuración social en la que van a coexistir ganadores y perdedores del sistema. Se intenta explicar, además, el impacto que provocó en la Argentina adherir al modelo neoliberal a través de una economía abierta (1989-2002). Por último, describimos la situación de la Provincia de San Luis; los dispositivos y mecanismos que utilizó para contrarrestar los dos dígitos de desocupación producidos después del año 2002; para ello, nos referimos al Plan de Inclusión Social, expuesto a través de datos estadísticos tomados del INDEC y de la Dirección Provincial de Estadísticas y Censos de la Provincia de San Luis

El estado como eje articulador de las relaciones sociales

El presente trabajo intenta realizar una síntesis de cómo se fue articulando la sociedad a partir del modelo capitalista de producción en el período histórico que transcurre desde el impulso desarrollado en la Segunda Revolución Industrial, a finales del siglo XIX , hasta la primera década del siglo XXI. Este período determinará una forma de integración social que va estar vinculada al trabajo asalariado y ligada a un Estado más presente, articulador y distribuidor de la riqueza social. Algunos de los elementos constitutivos que sostuvieron este modelo fueron el New Deal y la política económica keynesiana, que van a perdurar hasta bien entrada la década de 1970. En esta etapa, la relación capital-trabajo va a entrar en crisis; el modelo keynesiano de pleno empleo no le es útil al capitalismo; y, por lo tanto, el Estado va a permitir la incorporación de un nuevo discurso, enarbolado por los denominados economistas liberales ortodoxos y, ya en la última década del siglo XX , por el economista norteamericano John Williamson, relacionado con un movimiento intelectual denominado "Consenso de Washington"; esto dando lugar una nueva forma de estructuración social en la que van a coexistir ganadores y perdedores del sistema. Se intenta explicar, además, el impacto que provocó en la Argentina adherir al modelo neoliberal a través de una economía abierta (1989-2002). Por último, describimos la situación de la Provincia de San Luis; los dispositivos y mecanismos que utilizó para contrarrestar los dos dígitos de desocupación producidos después del año 2002; para ello, nos referimos al Plan de Inclusión Social, expuesto a través de datos estadísticos tomados del INDEC y de la Dirección Provincial de Estadísticas y Censos de la Provincia de San Luis

A sphere of resonance for networked learning in the ‘non-places’ of our universities

The logic of ‘time’ in modern capitalist society appears to be a fixed concept. Time dictates human activity with a regularity, which as long ago as 1944, George Woodcock referred to as The Tyranny of the Clock. Seventy years on, Hartmut Rosa suggests humans no longer maintain speed to achieve something new, but simply to preserve the status quo, in a ‘social acceleration’ that is lethal to democracy. Political engagement takes time we no longer have, as we rush between our virtual spaces and ‘non-places’ of higher education. I suggest it’s time to confront the conspirators that, in partnership with the clock, accelerate our social engagements with technology in the context of learning. Through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) I reveal an alarming situation if we don’t. With reference to Bauman’s Liquid Modernity, I observe a ‘lightness’ in policy texts where humans have been ‘liquified’ Separating people from their own labour with technology in policy maintains the flow of speed a neoliberal economy demands. I suggest a new ‘solidity’ of human presence is required as we write about networked learning. ‘Writing ourselves back in’ requires a commitment to ‘be there’ in policy and provide arguments that decelerate the tyranny of time. I am though ever-mindful that social acceleration is also of our own making, and there is every possibility that we actually enjoy it.

Small-scale Fisheries and the Global Economy: Understanding Common-pool Resource Governance in the Context of Market Pressures, Neoliberal Policies, and Transnational Institutions

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of how global seafood trade interacts with the governance of small-scale fisheries (SSFs). As global seafood trade expands, SSFs have the potential to experience significant economic, social, and political benefits from participation in export markets. At the same time, market connections that place increasing pressures on resources pose risks to both the ecological and social integrity of SSFs. This dissertation seeks to explore the factors that mediate between the potential benefits and risks of global seafood markets for SSFs, with the goal of developing hypotheses regarding these relationships.

The empirical investigation consists of a series of case studies from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This is a particularly rich context in which to study global market connections with SSFs because the SSFs in this region engage in a variety of market-oriented harvests, most notably for octopus, groupers and snappers, lobster, and sea cucumber. Variation in market forms and the institutional diversity of local-level governance arrangements allows the dissertation to explore a number of examples.

The analysis is guided primarily by common-pool resource (CPR) theory because of the insights it provides regarding the conditions that facilitate collective action and the factors that promote long-lasting resource governance arrangements. Theory from institutional economics and political ecology contribute to the elaboration of a multi-faceted conceptualization of markets for CPR theory, with the aim of facilitating the identification of mechanisms through which markets and CPR governance actually interact. This dissertation conceptualizes markets as sets of institutions that structure the exchange of property rights over fisheries resources, affect the material incentives to harvest resources, and transmit ideas and values about fisheries resources and governance.

The case studies explore four different mechanisms through which markets potentially influence resource governance: 1) Markets can contribute to costly resource governance activities by offsetting costs through profits, 2) markets can undermine resource governance by generating incentives for noncompliance and lead to overharvesting resources, 3) markets can increase the costs of resource governance, for example by augmenting monitoring and enforcement burdens, and 4) markets can alter values and norms underpinning resource governance by transmitting ideas between local resource users and a variety of market actors.

Data collected using participant observation, survey, informal and structured interviews contributed to the elaboration of the following hypotheses relevant to interactions between global seafood trade and SSFs governance. 1) Roll-back neoliberalization of fisheries policies has undermined cooperatives’ ability to achieve financial success through engagement with markets and thus their potential role as key actors in resource governance (chapter two). 2) Different relations of production influence whether local governance institutions will erode or strengthen when faced with market pressures. In particular, relations of production in which fishers own their own means of production and share the collective costs of governance are more likely to strengthen resource governance while relations of production in which a single entrepreneur controls capital and access to the fishery are more likely to contribute to the erosion of resource governance institutions in the face of market pressures (chapter three). 3) By serving as a new discursive framework within which to conceive of and talk about fisheries resources, markets can influence norms and values that shape and constitute governance arrangements.

In sum, the dissertation demonstrates that global seafood trade manifests in a diversity of local forms and effects. Whether SSFs moderate risks and take advantage of benefits depends on a variety of factors, and resource users themselves have the potential to influence the outcomes of seafood market connections through local forms of collective action.

The Political Economy of Reproduction: Motherhood, Work and the Home in Neoliberal Britain

This thesis investigates how the processes and practices of reproduction have been transformed not only by the ascendant political rationality of neoliberalism but also by women’s struggles that have reconfigured motherhood, the domestic home and the gendered organisation of employment. Through exploring both the 1970s feminist demand for “free 24- hour nurseries” and the contemporary provision of extended, overnight and flexible childcare, care that is often referred to as “24-hour childcare”, the research contributes to feminist understandings of the gendered and racialised class dynamics inside and outside the home and the wage. The research repositions the ‘Woman Question’ as, yet again unavoidable and necessary for comprehending and intervening in the brutalising consequences of capitalist accumulation. Situated within the Marxist feminist tradition, the work of reproduction is understood as a cluster of tasks, affective relations and employment that have historically been constructed and experienced as ‘women’s work’. The interrelation between the subjectivity of motherhood and the political economy of reproduction is analysed through a feminist genealogy of 24-hour childcare in Britain. Using ethnographic encounters, archival research and interview data with mothers and childcare workers, the research tells a story about the women who have worked both inside and outside the home, raised children, cooked and cleaned, and who, both historically and in the present, continue to create an immense amount of wealth and value. As women's labour market participation has steadily increased over the last 40 years, the discourse of reproduction has shifted to one in which motherhood is increasingly constructed as a choice. Within neoliberal discourse the decision to have a child is constructed as a private matter for which individuals bear the costs and responsibility. The thesis argues that, as a result of motherhood being constructed more and more as something that is chosen, the spaces of resistance and opposition towards motherhood have been limited and resistance has been individuated and privatised.

Affective Labour and Neoliberal Fantasies: The Gendered and Moral Economy of School Choice in England.

This is the accepted manuscript of chapter 13 in, Vandenbeld Giles, M. (Ed.), 2014, Mothering in the Age of Neoliberalism, Demeter Press. For further details and how to order the title, please see: http://demeterpress.org/books/mothering-in-the-age-of-neoliberalism/

Comparing retail union strategy in a neoliberal context

Amongst the most vulnerable workers in a neoliberal world are retail employees. In many countries these low paid workers comprise around 10 per cent of the workforce. The retail labour market is highly feminised, in some countries quite youthful and often part time or in various forms of precarious employment. The industry and its unions have however rarely been studied by academics. A three-country research team (United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) is investigating retail union strategy across these Anglophone countries in order to determine how, and how effectively, unions are contributing to workplace justice for retail workers.

Friend or foe? The impact of the Hawke/Keating neoliberal reforms on Australian workers and the Australian public sector

Over the last three decades neoliberalism has transitioned from occupying the margins of economic policy debate to becoming the dominant approach by governments and their economic advisers, a process that has accelerated with the collapse of the former Stalinist states in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This thesis adopts a Marxist framework for understanding this process, beginning as it did in the realm of relatively abstract philosophical and ideological debate to the permeation of neoliberal values throughout all capitalist institutions, including the state bureaucracy. This necessarily means a focus on the dialectical relationship between the rise of neoliberalism and the shifting balance of class forces that accompanied the success of the neoliberal project in transforming the dominant economic policy paradigm. The extent to which neoliberal reforms impacted on workers and public sector institutions, along with the success or otherwise of traditional working class institutions in defending the material interests of workers will therefore be a recurring theme throughout this body of work. The evidence borne from this research and analysis suggests a major shift in the dialectic of class struggle in favour of the power of capital over labour during the period covered, with the neoliberal age being one of defeat for a labour movement that largely failed to adopt successful strategies for defending itself.

Negociar direitos? : legislação trabalhista e reforma neoliberal no governo FHC (1995-2002)

Ao longo do século XX, o Direito do Trabalho esteve associado a um arranjo político e social cujos sentidos estavam vinculados, entre outros aspectos, à civilização das relações de classe e à reprodução do capitalismo com democracia, no âmbito dos Estados nacionais. O propósito desta pesquisa é investigar como ocorreu o processo de deslocamento e reinterpretação desses sentidos (equivalente à codificação da razão do mais forte), no contexto da forte hegemonia política da coalizão de centro-direita que governou o país entre 1995 e 2002. Nesse período, o Poder Executivo Federal, as principais organizações patronais, setores importantes da mídia impressa e a Força Sindical estiveram empenhados na promoção de profunda alteração dos traços centrais do modelo brasileiro de relações de trabalho, no qual a lei é mais importante na definição dos direitos substantivos do trabalho do que os contratos coletivos. Para justificar politicamente essas alterações, o Poder Executivo e seus apoiadores apontaram a responsabilidade do modelo legislado pelos elevados custos do emprego formal, a perda de competitividade da indústria, o aumento da informalidade e do desemprego durante o governo FHC. Por meio da leitura das justificativas dos projetos encaminhados ao Congresso Nacional pelo Poder Executivo, das manifestações de suas principais lideranças e dos apoiadores na mídia e no meio sindical, a pesquisa busca interpretar o sentido político dessa leitura, apresentada como se fosse solução técnica e modernizante para uma legislação que estaria ultrapassada. Consideramos que a reforma trabalhista tinha claros propósitos políticos pois, além de repassar aos trabalhadores os custos do ajuste econômico nos anos 90, permitiu justificar na cena pública a retração do papel do Estado, bem como fortalecer o apoio de setores importantes do patronato a esse projeto político.

An Ethical Analysis of Neoliberal Capitalism: Alternative Perspectives from Development Ethics

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