States and Geo-Politics

Historical Materialism

Regimes of Extreme Permission? State-corporate repression and the realization of neocolonial accumulation in SE AsiaJoe Greener and Pablo Ciocchini, University of Liverpool in SingaporeThis article brings a critical state-corporate crime lens to bare on the economic and political processes that shape Global South located commodity production. This paper seeks to understand the functioning of “neo-colonial” corporate profiteering through elaborating the concept of regimes of extreme permission which are described as modalities of “intense” accumulation, defined by weaker or unstable forms of hegemony consolidation, state-corporate illegal/illicit practices including violence, and various socio-environmental degradations. An analysis of two types of regimes of extreme permission are described in the SE Asian context: Indonesian palm oil plantations and Export Processing Zones for garment production in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The paper reveals that even in SE Asia, where market forms of “development” are thought to have achieved various socio-economic goals, the reality is much more complex and contradictory. At its crux, these case studies show us that the specific forms of neo-colonial value creation and redistribution in these industries rest on state-led mobilizations of repressive capacities to permit and reproduce conducive social conditions. In other words, neo-colonial value appropriation is entangled with subjugating political instruments which seek to secure repressed labour and unbridled exploitation of the environment. Regimes of extreme permission conceptually converges issues around the instability of hegemony formation in the Global South with locally embedded economic practices and their related harms. AVAILABILITY: Tuesdays are generally not good. Also, I would like to indicate that I am based in Singapore so earlier GMT timings tend to be better – i.e. 9 am in the UK will be 5 pm in Singapore, but 4 pm will be midnight – so basically the earlier BST, the better. Thank you for considering our preferences.Agency in the Periphery: the controversy between Marini and Cardoso in Geopolitical termsRafael Alexandre Mello, University of BrasíliaPedro Salgado, Federal University of Bahia and University of BrasíliaThe recent revival of dependency theory has still not engaged directly with one of the main critiques aimed at the tradition: its supposedly structuralist and economicist account of (geo)politics. This article will address this question by tracking two different conceptions of geopolitical agency within the tradition, through an analysis of one its most important controversies: that between Ruy Mauro Marini and Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the pages of the Revista Mexicana de Sociología. By framing their debate in the broader context of their work, we can identify different conceptions of agency, with both metatheoretical and political consequences. These different conceptions of the structure-agency problem posit very different assessments of the conjuncture of peripheral capitalist (under)development, as well as of the possibilities for political intervention by governments and left-wing parties and movements. Finally, we reassess the metatheoretical formulations in Marini and Cardoso through this latest wave of dependencista literature, in contrast with recent methodological considerations about agency in the (broadly conceived) field of IR, as a way of recovering the discussion about the geopolitical possibilities for development through the lens of dependency. Conceptualising institutional disobedience in a context of authoritarian neoliberalism: The Catalan caseMonica Clua-Losada, (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA); Clara Camps Calvet, (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain); Shaun McCrory, (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA)The paper offers a conceptualisation of institutional disobedience as a mechanism for subnational governments, and even different government branches, to neutralise the increasingly enduring trends of authoritarian neoliberalism. The article uses a specific example, the role of the Catalan government and parliament during the events leading up to the 1st of October referendum in 2017. The rise of authoritarian neoliberalism in Spain, within a post-fascist context, has been wellresearched. The political crisis that followed the 2008 financial crisis, has been accompanied with a regression of political and civil rights, which has culminated with the imprisonment of elected representatives and civil society leaders. The paper develops explores how institutions can become rupturing points within the context of authoritarian neoliberalism.Chair Sai EnglertPLEASE NOTE: All events for HM Online are free to register, however we would ask comrades who are able to please consider making a donation, which would help us enormously in covering the costs of putting of this programme of events. Like all left organisations, HM has had a very tough period since the beginning of 2020 and our budgets are very stretched and bank balance is sinking all the time, with very little revenue coming in. If you can make a contribution to keep us afloat, please don’t hesitate! You can donate by selecting the &#x27;donation&#x27; ticket type at registration.Once you have registered, a link to the live session will be emailed to you on the day of the event. For any technical queries please contact historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.ukPlease consider subscribing to the Historical Materialism journal, published by BRILL. www.brill.com/hima

"Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen": A book launch with Nicolas Helm-Grovas

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