Mercados campesinos y diferenciación social en la transición al capitalismo

Hace tiempo que, para el estudio de la transición del feudalismo al capitalismo, se consideran esenciales los procesos de transformación que afectaron al campesinado europeo de la Baja Edad Media. Este trabajo analiza la forma en la que se relacionan el proceso de diferenciación social y el desarrollo de los mercados locales en Castilla, en los siglos XIV y XV. En primer lugar se examinan distintas tesis historiográficas, que tienen en común el haber enfocado el problema desde una perspectiva lógico-abstracta, dejando de lado la forma específica en que funcionan los mercados campesinos. Luego se propone, por contraste, en base al análisis de la documentación de la ciudad de Ávila, una hipótesis alternativa, mostrando la existencia de formas de intercambio desigual que posibilitan la acumulación capitalista a nivel aldeano, y crean las condiciones para el surgimiento de una estructura de clases moderna.

Reestructuración productiva y configuración territorial : Pequeña industria metalmecánica en la Ciudad de Córdoba 2002-2012

El desarrollo de esta investigación se conforma como la búsqueda de vinculaciones territoriales a escala urbana en la Ciudad de Córdoba frente a un proceso de carácter global, como es el de la reestructuración productiva. Este concreto real se aborda desde un caso, el de la pequeña industria metalmecánica, que por presencia histórica y peso en el producto bruto geográfico de la ciudad se constituye en uno de los sostenes de la economía urbana. El abordaje del proceso de reestructuración productiva se realiza desde el análisis de las prácticas de los agentes. Por un lado, las del gobierno como agente que regula las relaciones productivas a través de políticas públicas industriales en el marco de un régimen de acumulación capitalista, y por otro lado, las prácticas de las pequeñas industrias metalmecánicas como agentes que se desenvuelven en el procesos de producción en una dialéctica entre las tendencias de producción de reestructuración de escala global y un entorno inmediato de relaciones productivas con otros agentes, procesos de producción, marco regulatorio y políticas públicas. Esta dialéctica se materializa en el territorio y da lugar a una configuración territorial industrial a escala urbana, que no solo se explica por las prácticas de los agentes industriales sino además por el juego de otros agentes que producen territorio. En el período postconvertibilidad a partir del 2002, el crecimiento de las actividades productivas en su conjunto, imprimen una dinámica compleja de expansión urbana y de relaciones entre agentes de distintos sectores, con distintos intereses y poder de actuar en el campo. Aquí se avanza en comprender las dimensiones de la expansión urbana que inciden en la configuración territorial industrial. La configuración territorial como vínculo indisociable entre las prácticas de agentes (sistema de acciones) y la estructura productiva territorial (sistema de objetos) muta permanentemente en el contexto postconvertibilidad debido al intenso dinamismo que adquiere la actividad industrial, entre habitus construidos históricamente y nuevas prácticas, que se encuentran en tensión permanente. Este concreto real va conformando un campo socio económico que discurre entre viejas y nuevas prácticas y configura un territorio fragmentado y disociado. El trabajo parte de la consideración de las políticas públicas industriales y las prácticas específicas de los agentes de las pequeñas industrias para luego analizar a escala urbana la configuración territorial, en donde las dimensiones de la expansión urbana interactúan con la especificidad de las prácticas de los agentes analizados. El cambio paulatino en las políticas destinadas al sector industrial postconvertibilidad manifiesta una presencia cada vez más relevante de PyMEs. No obstante la inercia heredada del periodo anterior revela, en la gestión de las políticas industriales y las prácticas empresarias, un camino caracterizado por la desconfianza e incertidumbre de las pequeñas empresas

Mercados campesinos y diferenciación social en la transición al capitalismo

Hace tiempo que, para el estudio de la transición del feudalismo al capitalismo, se consideran esenciales los procesos de transformación que afectaron al campesinado europeo de la Baja Edad Media. Este trabajo analiza la forma en la que se relacionan el proceso de diferenciación social y el desarrollo de los mercados locales en Castilla, en los siglos XIV y XV. En primer lugar se examinan distintas tesis historiográficas, que tienen en común el haber enfocado el problema desde una perspectiva lógico-abstracta, dejando de lado la forma específica en que funcionan los mercados campesinos. Luego se propone, por contraste, en base al análisis de la documentación de la ciudad de Ávila, una hipótesis alternativa, mostrando la existencia de formas de intercambio desigual que posibilitan la acumulación capitalista a nivel aldeano, y crean las condiciones para el surgimiento de una estructura de clases moderna.

Cotidianidades territorializadas entre la proxemia y la diastemia : Ritmos espacio-temporales en un contexto de aceleración

La aceleración de las sociedades contemporáneas constituye un fenómeno insoslayable, ampliamente instaurado desde las últimas dos décadas del siglo XX. La aceleración tuvo su mayor impulso con el desarrollo tecnológico del siglo XX y su origen ha radicado en el proceso de acumulación capitalista actual. Sin embargo, ha desbordado lo tecnológico y lo económico, se ha entronizado culturalmente y también se ha articulado como parte nodal de la construcción social del mundo actual. En este documento, se analiza la aceleración y los ritmos sociales asociados a ella desde la perspectiva de los sujetos en su mundo de la vida cotidiana. Como toda perspectiva focalizada en el sujeto en la vida cotidiana, esto trae consigo el interés analítico por la acción y las prácticas, el sentido y los significados. No obstante, en esta ocasión esas dimensiones de la cotidianidad son consideradas junto a la corporeidad-emocionalidad del sujeto y su espacio-temporalidad. El documento aborda ciertas estrategias que desarrollan algunos tipos de sujetos sociales que están inmersos enteramente en dicha aceleración. En ocasiones forjan de manera espontánea estrategias de adaptación a la aceleración, otras veces configuran estrategias de resistencia. En otros casos se orientan hacia estrategias híbridas que incluyen tanto la adaptación como la resistencia. Así, estas estrategias buscan cotidianidades inmersas en distintas formas de proxemia corporal y afectiva, y otras veces se persiguen cotidianidades fundadas en la diastemia corporal y afectiva través de la distancia y el aislamiento. El texto aborda primero algunas estrategias cotidianas de tipo proxémico. En la segunda parte,se abordan estrategias de carácter diastémico. Por último, se presentan algunas reflexiones finales

Post-Fordism, the welfare state and the personal social services: A comparison of Australia and Britain

The Post-Fordist welfare state thesis locates contemporary social welfare change within a wider analysis of the transformation of capitalist accumulation regimes. Whilst this analysis is useful in directing attention to macro socio-economic change, it has for the most part contained three shortcomings. First, the Post-Fordist thesis has overemphasized the role of historical 'breaks' in the development of social welfare as it purportedly passes from Fordism to Post-Fordism. Second, the thesis has assumed a degree of convergence between welfare states as a result of global economic forces. In doing so, it has underemphasized the mediating impact of existing institutional arrangements within nations. Third, the thesis has assumed, rather than demonstrated, the specific changes which are alleged to be taking place in various fields of social welfare. As a consequence, aspects of continuity in social welfare have been neglected. These three lacunae are addressed through a comparative analysis of developments in the personal social services in Australia and Britain. Services to older people are employed as the specific context of comparison in relation to three dimensions of measuring transformation along a Post-Fordist trajectory: a shift from a unitary economy to a mixed economy of service provision; changes in the model of service delivery and consumption; and strengthening the governance function of the central state. This comparative analysis suggests the need for refinement of the Post-Fordist welfare state thesis concerning the restructuring of social welfare and its impact on the personal social services.

TRANSFORMAÇÕES NO MUNDO DO TRABALHO NA REGIÃO DO GRANDE ABC: UMA ANÁLISE COMPREENSIVA A PARTIR DO FILME PEÕES

Com o advento da revolução industrial o capitalismo assumiu uma forma assombrosa jamais vista anteriormente em outras passagens do mundo do trabalho, ao se alimentar de um ritmo acelerado de produção, consumo e acumulação. Esta nova era baseada na mecanização e numa nova divisão do trabalho impôs ao trabalhador o principio da fragmentação, que seguindo o modelo do cronômetro da gerência científica e a linha de produção do açougue dividiu a força de trabalho do empregado e multiplicou a acumulação do empregador. Na década de 1970 o capitalismo sofreu uma crise estrutural que viria a transformar o mundo do trabalho novamente. Esta nova transformação do capital fundamentado na globalização e nos conceitos neoliberais visando ainda mais a lucratividade em cima da força de trabalho atingiu a objetividade e a subjetividade da classe-que-vive-do-trabalho ao (des)re regulamentar seus direitos e conquistas. No mundo do trabalho brasileiro as transformações do capital mundial tiveram seu impacto nos anos 1990 abalando regiões produtivas inteiras como a do Grande ABC, com o desemprego estrutural e com a reestruturação produtiva. Em 2002 o diretor de cinema Eduardo Coutinho filmou um documentário Peões com 21 operários que narram suas origens, suas participações no movimento nas décadas de 1970-1980-1990 e os desfechos de suas vidas fazendo uma construção de si pela fala. Desta forma, Peões será para esta dissertação o corpus de análise para uma aproximação entre ciência e arte, onde será utilizado o método fenomenológico para a análise das narrativas que se apresentam para compreensão da divisão do trabalho capitalista que vem transformando o mundo do trabalho e atingindo perversamente a classe-que-vive-do-trabalho ao fragmentar sua subjetividade que se explicita objetivamente na fragmentação da relação intersubjetiva com o outro, os objetos e o mundo. Por meio da aplicação do método para a compreensão das narrativas pode se chegar à seguinte síntese: os homens e mulheres, de Peões, viveram e vivem ainda hoje intensamente entre a linha tênue da resistência e da submissão, da desalienação e alienação, do despontar e do anonimato na esfera pública evidenciando a importância ainda em nossos dias do alargamento do pensamento dialético entre a lógica da acumulação capitalista versus a lógica da sobrevivência humana.

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.

A racionalização das condições de trabalho nos hospitais: uma análise crítica baseada em relatos de ginecologistas obstetras e pediatras atuantes na urgência e emergência

Hospitals are a big part of the service sector. Thus, such institutions are highly influenced by the logic of the capitalist accumulation, technology and forms of labor organization, especially by private organizations. Starting with the restructuring process motion and incorporation of technologies, many changes in the working process occur, therefore, the activities of medical professionals as well. During the preparation of this research items regarding the banalization of evil were identified. This banalization and resignation of the professionals face to violence are caused by the adoption of collective defense strategies. Therefore, this research aims to analyze how the rationalization of working conditions by gynecologists obstetricians and pediatricians working in the emergency rooms of public and private hospitals in Curitiba and metropolitan region occurs. An approach of mixed methods was used as methodological procedures. The naturalization of violence, the suffering which professionals are submitted to, are combined with the political and ideological control, bureaucratic control, the imaginary built about hospitals and collective defense strategies. It is therefore possible to understand that labor conditions of gynecologists obstetricians and pediatricians in emergency rooms are rationalized. When social injustice is naturalized, political strategies for changes are not possible. For this reason, the first step is to gather awareness, there is a need to unveil the reality, to understand the phenomena at its core and discard superficialities. It is also necessary that the actions and expressions of indignation to come hand in hand with political actions in order to change to happen.

O acesso à habitação no Brasil em tempos de capitalismo financeirizado : uma análise do Programa Minha Casa, Minha Vida

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Humanas, Departamento de Serviço Social, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Política Social, 2016.

Financialisation, Capital Accumulation and Economic Development : A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of the Nigerian Economy

The primary focus of this study is to highlight those unobtrusive, yet fundamental, factors undermining economic development in Nigeria. To begin with, it posits that the decelerating pace of capital accumulation in Nigeria, which naturally occasions rising unemployment and poverty levels, and widening inequality gap, is the result of the ‘low possibility’ of capitalist enterprises in the country of earning an adequate rate of profit from their productive processes. In turn, the ‘low possibility’ is argued to be the result of the uneven development inherent in the modern capitalist structure, the high cost of capital and of production peculiar to Nigeria, and the ineffective demand for goods made in Nigeria: these elements are viewed as been precipitated by the contradictions of the contemporary political-economic arrangement that organises the Social Structures of Accumulation. For Nigeria to ‘develop’, it is contended that the unobtrusive elements inherent in the contradiction of the political-economic economic that undermine the capitalists’ ability to earn a commensurate rate of profit in the country needs to be fully addressed first. Furthermore, this study suggests that it is crucial the country embraces knowledge-based industrialisation if it is to achieve some form of ‘competitive advantage’ in the global market, which could enable its productive processes extract a commensurate level of profit from the market. To facilitate the knowledge-based industrialisation, the state should, not only create a conducive environment for industrial development but also play the lead role in transforming the peripheral and oil dependent economy to a knowledge-based economy by coordinating business organisations and investing in high-risk innovations.

A Historical Materialist Approach to the Eurozone Crisis: Fictitious Capital, States, and Capital Accumulation

This dissertation examines the ongoing European sovereign debt crises that began with Greece in 2009, in the wake of the US subprime mortgage crisis. Through the application of a historical materialist approach, I attempt to understand the on-going crisis in the European Monetary Union (EMU) by investigating root causes of sovereign debt crises, relations of power, and main beneficiaries of the policy responses. My theoretical framework hinges on three contradictions in capitalism: the tendency towards overaccumulation, the tension between fictitious capital and the productive base, and the contradiction inherent in capitalist states between their role as a national state and as a class state. In contrast to the dominant positions that locate the cause of the crisis within either: debtor states; creditor states; or the framework at the EMU, I argue that these sovereign debt crises are actually a broader crisis of crisis of capitalism within the EMU itself. In order to do so, I trace the evolution of the political economy of the Eurozone in the post-Bretton woods era, with a particularly focus on the credit system. More specifically, I argue that these crises are the result of an interaction between three meso-level contradictions that have developed within the EMU region: 1) Germany’s postwar accumulation regime, which has produced a deep crisis of overaccumulation; 2) the contradictory processes associated with the neoliberal logic of the EMU, by which I mean the rush to lower barriers to credit and finance at the expense of all else; and 3) credit-fueled, consumption-based EMU integration in the periphery; and. These three contradictions came together in the wake of the 2007-2008 US subprime crisis to form an overall crisis of capitalism in the Eurozone, expressed, as I suggest, as a crisis of fictitious capital. This dissertation aims to contribute to the ongoing project among critical political economists to de-naturalize and re-politicize money, while challenging the hegemony of monetarism within neoliberalism. Second, there has yet to be a comprehensive study that examines the EMU, Germany, and the crises in the periphery from a holistic, historical materialist analysis.

Inactivation Of Ampk Mediates High Phosphate-induced Extracellular Matrix Accumulation Via Nox4/tgfß-1 Signaling In Human Mesangial Cells.

High phosphate (Pi) levels and extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation are associated with chronic kidney disease progression. However, how high Pi levels contribute to ECM accumulation in mesangial cells is unknown. The present study investigated the role and mechanism of high Pi levels in ECM accumulation in immortalized human mesangial cells (iHMCs). iHMCs were exposed to normal (0.9 mM) or increasing Pi concentrations (2.5 and 5 mM) with or without diferent blockers or activators. NOX4, phosphorylated AMPK (p-AMPK), phosphorylated SMAD3 (p-SMAD3), fibronectin (F/N), collagen IV (C-IV) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression was assessed via western blot and immunofluorescence. Lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence, and dihydroethidium (DHE) assessed NADPH oxidase activity and superoxide (SO), respectively. In iHMCs, a Pi transporter blocker (PFA) abrogated high Pi-induced AMPK inactivation, increase in NADPH oxidase-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, NOX4, p-SMAD3, α-SMA and C-IV expression. AMPK activation by AICAR, NOX4 silencing or NADPH oxidase blocker prevented high Pi-induced DHE levels, p-SMAD3, F/N, C-IV and α-SMA expression. AMPK inactivation with NOX4-induced ROS formation and transforming growth factor ß-1 (TGFß-1) signaling activation mediates high Pi-induced ECM accumulation in iHMCs. Maneuvers increasing AMPK or reducing NOX4 activity may contribute to renal protection under hyperphosphatemia.

Nitrogen Starvation For Lipid Accumulation In The Microalga Species Desmodesmus Sp.

Recently, to obtain lipids from microalgae has been the object of extensive research, since it is viewed as a promising feedstock for biodiesel production, especially when compared with crops such as soybean and sunflower, in terms of theoretical performance. The reduction of nutrient availability in culture media, especially nitrogen, stresses the microorganisms and affects cell growth, thus inducing lipid accumulation. This is an interesting step in biodiesel feedstock obtention from microalgae and should be better understood. In this study, four levels of nitrogen concentration in the BG-11 culture medium were evaluated in the growth of the chlorophycean microalga Desmodesmus sp. Both cell growth and lipid content were monitored over 7 days of cultivation, which yielded a final cell density of 33 × 10(6) cells mL(-1) with an initial NaNO3 concentration of 750 mg L(-1) in the medium and a maximum lipid content of 23 % with total nitrogen starvation. It was observed that the microalgae presented high lipid accumulation in the fourth day of cultivation with nitrogen starvation, although with moderate cell growth.

Leaf Manganese Accumulation And Phosphorus-acquisition Efficiency.

Plants that deploy a phosphorus (P)-mobilising strategy based on the release of carboxylates tend to have high leaf manganese concentrations ([Mn]). This occurs because the carboxylates mobilise not only soil inorganic and organic P, but also a range of micronutrients, including Mn. Concentrations of most other micronutrients increase to a small extent, but Mn accumulates to significant levels, even when plants grow in soil with low concentrations of exchangeable Mn availability. Here, we propose that leaf [Mn] can be used to select for genotypes that are more efficient at acquiring P when soil P availability is low. Likewise, leaf [Mn] can be used to screen for belowground functional traits related to nutrient-acquisition strategies among species in low-P habitats.

Herbage accumulation, growth and structural characteristics of Mombasa grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.) harvested at different cutting intervals

The objective of the present study was to evaluate herbage accumulation, morphological composition, growth rate and structural characteristics in Mombasa grass swards subject to different cutting intervals (3, 5 and 7 wk) during the rainy and dry seasons of the year. Treatments were assigned to experimental units (17.5 m(2)) according to a complete randomised block design, with four replicates. Herbage accumulation was greater in the rainy than in the dry season (83 and 17%, respectively). Herbage accumulation (24,300 kg DM ha(-1)), average growth rate (140 kg DM ha(-1) d(-1)) and sward height (111 cm) were highest in the 7 wk cutting interval, but leaf proportion (56%), leaf:stem (1.6) and leaf:non leaf (1.3) ratios decreased. Herbage accumulation, morphological composition and sward structure of Mombasa grass sward may be manipulated through defoliation frequency. The highest leaf proportion was recorded in the 3-wk cutting interval. Longer cutting intervals affected negatively sward structure, with potential negative effects on utilization efficiency, animal intake and performance.