Edward Simpson: The future of the rural world?
The conference “The Future of the Rural World? Africa and Asia” was hosted by SOAS, University of London during October 2015. The event marked the end of a…
Tag: Blog
Carlos E. Chardón: Masking Puerto Rican state failure
With the recent default on debt payment (see Franqui Rivera and Colón-Garcia 2015), Puerto Rico became a failed state. State failure is the inability or incapacity of a…
Lisa Jahn & Sarah Molinari: New developments in Puerto Rican economic readjustment?
This commentary comes from a discussion panel hosted on Tuesday, September 8, by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies (CLACLS) at the Graduate Center, CUNY, featuring…
Justyna Kajta & Adam Mrozowicki: The new Polish parliament: Between the Right and the radical Right
The new parliament in Poland resembles in its makeup the one in Hungary, almost completely dominated by right-wing political parties. The Law and Justice party beat the Civic…
Manuela Bojadžijev and Sandro Mezzadra: “Refugee crisis” or crisis of European migration policies?
“The refugee crisis in Europe is fabricated,” Prem Kumar Rajaram writes in the opening post of this series. It is certainly true that the framing of current events…
Wisseling van de wacht
Door Georgette Veerhuis. StandplaatsWereld mag een nieuw lid verwelkomen in haar redactie en dat – je raadt het misschien al – ben ik! In deze introductieblog vertel ik…
Prem Kumar Rajaram: Beyond crisis: Rethinking the population movements at Europe’s border
Crisis The refugee crisis in Europe is fabricated. Like most “crises,” the recent onset of people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan trying to cross into the…
NEW! — Stef Jansen: Yearnings in the Meantime
“Normal lives” and the state in a Sarajevo apartment complex Yearnings in the Meantime is a volume of the “Dislocations” series published by Berghahn Books. The immense dislocations…
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Can’t get enough FocaalBlog? Like us on Facebook! Stay up to date on the latest FocaalBlog posts, interviews, forums, events, and special features. Plus, get insights into the latest…
NEW! — Mallika Shakya: Ethnicity in Nepal’s new constitution
From politics of culture to politics of justice Nepal promulgated its constitution on 20 September—the first after ending the monarchy, and one replacing the interim constitution in place…
NEW! — Chris Hann: The new Völkerwanderungen: Hungary and Germany, Europe and Eurasia
I spent the last weeks of August and the first days of September in Hungary, close to the European Union’s border with Serbia. Never before had a routine…
FocaalBlog Event: CUNY Panel Discussion on Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis
On Tuesday, September 8, the City University of New York (CUNY) Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies is hosting a free panel discussion and presentation based…
NEW! — Joe Trapido: Elections, politics, and power in central and southern Africa
The conference “Elections in central and southern Africa, dynamics of exclusion and participation,” at SOAS on 26 June 2015, prompts me to some personal reflections. Elections in central…
For the record: A commentary by Csibra, Senju, et al. on gaze following
In 2008, Atsushi Senju and Gergely Csibra published in Current Biology (18, 668–671) an often quoted and important contribution to natural pedagogy theory: “Gaze following in human infants…
NEW! — Ismael García Colón & Harry Franqui-Rivera: Puerto Rico Is NOT Greece
Notes on the Role of Debt in US Colonialism Early July 2015, at an event discussing the Greek debt crisis hosted by the German Federal Bank in Frankfurt,…
NEW! — Alan Bradshaw: European austerity and collective blame
According to Richard Seymour (2015), current European austerity politics ought to be regarded not as a temporary period of economic rationalization during crisis but rather as a shift…
“Drugs are bad,” he said, sipping his beer: Legality vs. social acceptability
I’ve found it highly interesting to hear drug users trash talk other drugs, even while they’re high on their own preferred substance. Gina* thinks that alcohol is the…
I’m in a book
I was looking in Blackwell's bookshop the other day – the big famous bookshop on Broad Street in Oxford – and I came across The Indo-European Controversy…
A state of trance: Inner peace rising from chaos
The experience of getting inside Sound Academy for Armin van Buuren was the low point of the night. After an evening of rain and dancing at the electronic…
Making Mess
Success stories are a powerful trope of international development and conservation work. They structure the way NGOs, governments and companies engage with powerful donors and public opinion. They…
NEW! — David Cooney: The Montréal student protests
Vers un Automne Érable?1 Whenever threatened, the first thing power restricts is the ability to linger or assemble in the street. —Henri Lefebvre2 In September of 2014, I…
NEW!—Theodoros Rakopoulos: Of direct and default democracy: The debt referendum in Greece
Thessaloniki, 4–5 July 2015 Default has a twofold meaning: it means both “taken for granted,” or the known path, and an economic halt on someone’s debts. Greece has…
Sharryn Kasmir: Mondragón coops and the anthropological imagination
In 2013, Fagor Electrodomésticos, the home appliance division of the world-renowned Mondragón cooperative group, declared bankruptcy. The announcement disheartened coop advocates who consider Mondragó…
Manissa Maharawal: Shut it down: Notes on the #blacklivesmatter protests – Part 2
Part 2. Breaking windows and broken windows policing: “Do we have the same level of outrage when a young black person gets killed as we do when a…