{"title":"Special Issue on Dispossession and Resistance in India and Mexico: Introduction","authors":"Vasundhara Jairath","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241260102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241260102","url":null,"abstract":"As literature on forced land acquisition, land grab, and its integral relationship with capitalist accumulation grows, Hall et al. caution against anticipating resistance to forced land acquisition as the natural or logical response. Instead, they make a call to examine the particular conditions and context within which such processes take place to understand the variety of ways in which “local communities” respond to land acquisition in the name of development. Heeding such caution and carrying the discussion forward, in this special issue, we examine the myriad processes that are unleashed in the aftermath of dispossession from lands and resistance to it in two Global South countries—India and Mexico. While the two nations have divergent histories of colonialism and postcolonial economic trajectories, by examining processes of dispossession and resistance in two countries of the Global South, we hope to initiate a discussion on the heterogenous and diverse forms of capitalist accumulation and people’s responses to them through the medium of a central resource of natural capital and primary factor of production.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Canoes as Tools of Resistance: Challenging Dispossession in Manipur, India","authors":"Ram Wangkheirakpam","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241262131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241262131","url":null,"abstract":"The Meitei people of Champu Khangpok, a floating village in the Loktak wetland system in the state of Manipur, India, have witnessed in recent years the mass burning of their floating huts. Rebuilding and reoccupying their natural space on this now permanent reservoir of a hydroelectric project involves constant negotiation with the state government, which is trying to craft laws that make living on floating huts and fishing in the reservoir illegal. This article explores the language, tools, and tactics, which have evolved to contest the state government’s actions.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"178 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nancy Merary Jiménez-Martínez, Mateo Carlos Galindo Pérez
{"title":"Territories of Trash: Accumulation by Dispossession in Morelos, Mexico","authors":"Nancy Merary Jiménez-Martínez, Mateo Carlos Galindo Pérez","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241262644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241262644","url":null,"abstract":"Accumulation by dispossession occurs in the waste sector because of the configuration of “trash territories.” This article is based on a study of the localization of sites for the final disposal of waste and the use of sociodemographic information of affected populations and for explaining why certain places become sites for the final disposal of waste and others do not. Further, we explore the implications of the “opening up” of new spheres of accumulation. The article argues that the metabolism of waste confirms that capital reproduces its own conditions of production (the use of nature and cheap labor) at the same time as the process of production continues. This means the final condition of accumulation is the reproduction of the conditions of accumulation. Capital has found the construction of territories of waste is a way of reproducing these conditions.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Eco-Political Conflict and Communal Environmentalism in the Struggle of Atenco Against the Construction of a New International Airport in Mexico City","authors":"César Enrique Pineda","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241258789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241258789","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores, from an eco-political perspective, the popular mobilization led by peasants in the municipality of Atenco against Mexico City’s new international airport. It provides a case study of the dramatic worldwide changes brought about by the construction of mega-infrastructure, the intimate link between peasant communities’ social and cultural values, the lake and agricultural land put at risk by the airport construction project, and the subsequent struggle in defense of the lake and land affected by this project. Finally, it narrates the experience of the #YoPrefieroElLago (Hashtag I prefer the lake) campaign, which, amidst the presidential transition in Mexico, resulted in the airport’s cancellation, a victory for the People’s Front in Defense of Land.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"178 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Future Uncertain!” — Dispossession by Mining and Young Men - Mining Company Engagements in Eastern India","authors":"Minati Dash","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241264315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241264315","url":null,"abstract":"A protracted movement emerged in Southern Odisha, eastern India, in 1993 that stalled for over 18 years India’s first private bauxite mining project, Utkal Alumina International Limited, in Kashipur. The movement went through several ups and downs and finally declined in 2010. The project involved the dispossession of 32 villages. The movement’s decline coincided with many young villagers turning to the mining company to obtain low-paying jobs and paltry benefits. Most of the villagers who did this were earlier at the forefront of the movement. This article explores why and how these young, semi-educated, and dispossessed men from Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes responded to this situation. It critically explores their actions and utilizes the sociological concept of responsibilization to understand the actions of these young men facing acute uncertainty about their futures in a context where their existing and familiar economic and social world was rapidly dissolving before their eyes.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women in Defense of Territory in Morelos, Mexico","authors":"Angela Ixkic Bastian Duarte","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241260122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241260122","url":null,"abstract":"Women in Mexico who take part in the defense of their territory face the concrete manifestations of capitalist accumulation and patriarchal logic, as well as the colonialist dynamics of extractive projects. These conditions transform their family relationships and their participation in community life. This article reflects upon the experiences of women who have fought against the Morelos Integral Project in central Mexico. It draws from the interviews conducted by the author between 2018 and 2022, as well the author’s participant observation in organizational meetings at the national, regional, and local levels.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142212016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Young Democracies of Latin America and the Caribbean","authors":"Ronn Pineo","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241253312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241253312","url":null,"abstract":"The young democracies of Latin America and the Caribbean, mostly all dating from the 1980s, can provide examples and inspiration for democracies elsewhere, positive models worthy of emulation. But if this is welcome news, all the developments from the region regarding the fate of its democracies are not good. Latin America and the Caribbean democracies are today facing several challenges that are both novel and serious. This essay offers an overall evaluation of the state of democracy in the region, analyzing the noteworthy gains and the troubling new dangers that democracies are confronting in Latin America and the Caribbean.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141503786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reorienting the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons from Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness","authors":"Katsu Masaki","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241241254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241241254","url":null,"abstract":"The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implicitly prioritize economic growth over social and environmental sustainability, and idealize industrialized, consumerist societies. In delving into ways to rectify these stances, the article takes up Bhutan’s policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which seeks to harmonize material prosperity, social and environmental concerns, and spiritual and emotional contentment. Unlike the SDGs that fail to acknowledge culture’s role in sustainable development, GNH pursues a vernacular pathway founded on a Buddhism-inspired holistic view of well-being. In reality, GNH is yet to elicit a structural shift toward a fully-fledged sustainable society. Nonetheless, it is worth analyzing how the Bhutanese state demarcates the space within which GNH is promoted, with recourse to a locally defined vision of sustainable development.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141503808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It Is Our Turn to Innovate: Innovation as the Engine of Economic Prosperity in South America","authors":"Christian Rodas","doi":"10.1177/0169796x241240068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0169796x241240068","url":null,"abstract":"The pivotal role of innovation in fostering economic growth is widely acknowledged, with a growing consensus emphasizing its correlation with elevated productivity levels and enhanced competitiveness. Yet, there is limited research exploring potential factors that could boost the positive effects of innovation. This study addressed this fundamental gap in the literature by exploring whether financial development factors (private credit, bank assets, and interest rate) significantly moderate the effect of innovation on GDP and GDP per capita in South America—a region where this topic has not been widely studied with data on patents and economic growth. Using regression analysis with panel data from 10 South American countries, this study presents empirical evidence that suggests that policies in the region should promote strategic collaborations between governments and financial institutions such as banks with the aim of creating an environment that allows researchers to increase innovation outcomes and that rewards firms and entrepreneurs for innovating and adopting new technologies. Moreover, the findings of this article underscore that it is imperative that South America allocates more resources to innovation, recognizing it as the driving force to fuel economic growth.","PeriodicalId":45003,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Developing Societies","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141503787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}