Download or read book The Tragedy of the Commodity written by Stefano B. Longo and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2017 Paul Sweezy Marxist Sociology Book Award from the American Sociological Association Although humans have long depended on oceans and aquatic ecosystems for sustenance and trade, only recently has human influence on these resources dramatically increased, transforming and undermining oceanic environments throughout the world. Marine ecosystems are in a crisis that is global in scope, rapid in pace, and colossal in scale. In The Tragedy of the Commodity, sociologists Stefano B. Longo, Rebecca Clausen, and Brett Clark explore the role human influence plays in this crisis, highlighting the social and economic forces that are at the heart of this looming ecological problem. In a critique of the classic theory “the tragedy of the commons” by ecologist Garrett Hardin, the authors move beyond simplistic explanations—such as unrestrained self-interest or population growth—to argue that it is the commodification of aquatic resources that leads to the depletion of fisheries and the development of environmentally suspect means of aquaculture. To illustrate this argument, the book features two fascinating case studies—the thousand-year history of the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and the massive Pacific salmon fishery. Longo, Clausen, and Clark describe how new fishing technologies, transformations in ships and storage capacities, and the expansion of seafood markets combined to alter radically and permanently these crucial ecosystems. In doing so, the authors underscore how the particular organization of social production contributes to ecological degradation and an increase in the pressures placed upon the ocean. The authors highlight the historical, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape how we interact with the larger biophysical world. A path-breaking analysis of overfishing, The Tragedy of the Commodity yields insight into issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change.
Download or read book The Body written by Chris Shilling and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this introduction, Chris Shilling considers the social significance of the human body, and the importance of the body to individual and collective identities. He examines how bodies not only shape but are shaped by the social, cultural, and material contexts in which humans live.
Download or read book The Human Commodity written by Elizabeth Savage and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Commodifying Bodies written by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2002-10-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With rapid developments in reproductive medicine, transplant ethics and bioethics, a new `ethic of parts' has emerged in which the body is increasingly seen as a commodity which can be bartered, sold or stolen. This book combines perspectives from anthropology and sociology to offer compelling new readings of the body.
Download or read book Commodity written by Photis Lysandrou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-11-02 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 21st century marks a watershed in the history of the human economic condition. Income and wealth inequalities are now greater than ever before – and their role in the global financial crisis is one of the burning issues of today. Commodity looks at the great financial crisis from an entirely original perspective – that of the global commodity system as a newly operational totality. In the 19th century, the commodity system as defined by Karl Marx was limited to a few regions and embraced only the labour and capital capacities and their outputs. By the end of the 20th century, it encompassed the entire planet and embraced government capacity as well as private capacities, financial securities and material goods and services. This book shows how the financial crisis and its causes can only properly be understood as a result of this vast, unprecedented extension of the commodity system – a system which benefits the rich. The author makes the watertight case that it is only through the creation of a global tax authority – to coordinate national tax regimes and to implement a tax on global wealth – that we can avoid another crisis and create a fairer and more equitable world. Addressing a broad range of themes, Commodity offers a new perspective which will be of interest to political economists as well as researchers specialising in other related fields of social enquiry. Written in a clear and engaging way, the book’s concise nature also makes it accessible for the non-specialist reader, and it will especially appeal to all those who want a more just society.
Download or read book Contested Commodities written by Margaret Jane Radin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001-11-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work looks at ethical and moral questions surrounding certain economic "commodities" such as body parts and babies. It argues that commodification should remain incomplete, with some contested things being bought and sold only under strict regulation.
Download or read book Special Issue the Human Commodity written by Elizabeth Savage and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Emotions as Commodities written by Eva Illouz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capitalism has made rationality into a pervasive feature of human action and yet, far from heralding a loss of emotionality, capitalist culture has been accompanied with an unprecedented intensification of emotional life. This raises the question: how could we have become increasingly rationalized and more intensely emotional? Emotions as Commodities offers a simple hypothesis: that consumer acts and emotional life have become closely and inseparably intertwined with each other, each one defining and enabling the other. Commodities facilitate the experience of emotions, and so emotions are converted into commodities. The contributors of this volume present the co-production of emotions and commodities as a new type of commodity that has gone unseen and unanalyzed by theories of consumption – emodity. Indeed, this innovative book explores how emodity includes atmospherical or mood-producing commodities, relation-marking commodities and mental commodities, all of which the purpose it is to change and improve the self. Analysing a variety of modern day situations such as emotional management through music, creation of urban sexual atmospheres and emotional transformation through psychotherapy, Emotions as Commodities will appeal to scholars, postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Sociology, Cultural Studies, Marketing, Anthropology and Consumer Studies.
Download or read book Commodity Frontiers and Global Capitalist Expansion written by Sabrina Joseph and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-19 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary edited collection explores the dynamics of global capitalist expansion through the concept of the ‘commodity frontier’. Applying an inductive approach rather than starting at the global level, as most meta-narratives have done, this book sheds light on how local dynamics have shaped the process of capitalist expansion into ‘uncommodified’ spaces. Contributors demonstrate that ultimately the evolution of frontier zones and their reconfiguration over time have transformed human ecology, labour relations and social, economic and political structures across the globe. Chapters examine agricultural and pastoral frontiers, natural habitats, and commodity frontiers with fossil fuels and mineral resources located in various regions of the world, including South America, Asia, Africa and the Arabian Gulf.
Download or read book Hot Commodities written by Jim Rogers and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The next bull market is here. It’s not in stocks. It’s not in bonds. It’s in commodities - and some smart investors will be riding that bull to record returns in the next decade. Before Jim Rogers hit the road to write his best-selling books Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist, he was one of the world’s most successful investors. He co-founded the Quantum Fund and made so much money that he never needed to work again. Yet despite his success, Rogers has never written a book of practical investment advice - until now. In Hot Commodities, Rogers offers the low-down on the most lucrative markets for today and tomorrow. In late 1998, gliding under the radar, a bull market in commodities began. Rogers thinks it’s going to continue for at least fifteen years - and he’s put his money where his mouth is: In 1998, he started his own commodities index fund. It’s up 165% since then, with more than $200 million invested, and it’s the single-best performing index fund in the world in any asset class. Less risky than stocks and less sluggish than bonds, commodities are where the money is - and will be in the years ahead. Rogers’s strategies are simple and straightforward. You can start small - a few thousand dollars will suffice. It’s all about putting your money into stuff you understand, the basic materials of everyday life, like copper, sugar, cotton, corn, or crude oil. Once you recognize the cyclical and historical trading patterns outlined here, you’ll be on your way. In language that is both colourful and accessible, Rogers explains why the world of commodity investing can be one of the simplest of all - and how commodities are the bases by which investors can value companies, markets, and whole economies. To be a truly great investor is to know something about commodities. For small investors and high rollers alike, Hot Commodities is as good as gold . . . or lead, or aluminium, which are some of the commodities Rogers says could be as rewarding for investors.
Download or read book Industrial Hemp as a Modern Commodity Crop 2019 written by David W. Williams and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-22 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hemp as a Modern U.S. Commodity Crop provides an overview of industrial hemp as an agronomic crop in western cropping systems. Emphasis is given to the long history of hemp, mostly in the United States, and to current production issues pertinent in the US as well as Europe and Canada. There are many questions still to be answered – starting with those to be addressed by the most basic classical plant breeding techniques and continuing to the most modern analytical techniques of plant tissues and genetics.
Download or read book Taking Southeast Asia to Market written by Joseph Nevins and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent changes in the global economy and in Southeast Asian national political economies have led to new forms of commodity production and new commodities. Using insights from political economy and commodity studies, the essays in Taking Southeast Asia to Market trace the myriad ways recent alignments among producers, distributors, and consumers are affecting people and nature throughout the region. In case studies ranging from coffee and hardwood products to mushroom pickers and Vietnamese factory workers, the authors detail the Southeast Asian articulations of these processes while also discussing the broader implications of these shifts. Taken together, the cases show how commodities illuminate the convergence of changing social forces in Southeast Asia today, as they transform the terms, practices, and experiences of everyday life and politics in the global economy.
Download or read book Commodities and Capabilities written by Amartya Sen and published by OUP India. This book was released on 1999-06-17 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commodities and Capabilities presents a set of inter-related theses concerning the foundations of welfare economics, and in particular about the assessment of personal well-being and advantage. The argument presented focuses on the capability to function, i.e. what a person can do or can be, questioning in the process the more standard emphasis on opulence or on utility. In fact, a person's motivation behind choice is treated here as a parametric variable which may or may not coincide with the pursuit of self-interest. Given the large number of practical problems arising from the roles and limitations of different concepts of interest and the judgement of advantage and well-being, this scholarly investigation is both of theoretical interest and practical import.
Download or read book A Colonial Lexicon written by Nancy Rose Hunt and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1999-11-15 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Colonial Lexicon is the first historical investigation of how childbirth became medicalized in Africa. Rejecting the “colonial encounter” paradigm pervasive in current studies, Nancy Rose Hunt elegantly weaves together stories about autopsies and bicycles, obstetric surgery and male initiation, to reveal how concerns about strange new objects and procedures fashioned the hybrid social world of colonialism and its aftermath in Mobutu’s Zaire. Relying on archival research in England and Belgium, as well as fieldwork in the Congo, Hunt reconstructs an ethnographic history of a remote British Baptist mission struggling to survive under the successive regimes of King Leopold II’s Congo Free State, the hyper-hygienic, pronatalist Belgian Congo, and Mobutu’s Zaire. After exploring the roots of social reproduction in rituals of manhood, she shows how the arrival of the fast and modern ushered in novel productions of gender, seen equally in the forced labor of road construction and the medicalization of childbirth. Hunt focuses on a specifically interwar modernity, where the speed of airplanes and bicycles correlated with a new, mobile medicine aimed at curbing epidemics and enumerating colonial subjects. Fascinating stories about imperial masculinities, Christmas rituals, evangelical humor, colonial terror, and European cannibalism demonstrate that everyday life in the mission, on plantations, and under a strongly Catholic colonial state was never quite what it seemed. In a world where everyone was living in translation, privileged access to new objects and technologies allowed a class of “colonial middle figures”—particularly teachers, nurses, and midwives—to mediate the evolving hybridity of Congolese society. Successfully blurring conventional distinctions between precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial situations, Hunt moves on to discuss the unexpected presence of colonial fragments in the vibrant world of today’s postcolonial Africa. With its close attention to semiotics as well as sociology, A Colonial Lexiconwill interest specialists in anthropology, African history, obstetrics and gynecology, medical history, religion, and women’s and cultural studies.
Download or read book Commercial Transitions and Abolition in West Africa 1630 1860 written by Angus E. Dalrymple-Smith and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-12-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commercial Transitions and Abolition in West Africa 1630–1860 by Angus Dalrymple-Smith offers a new interpretation of the move from slave exports to ‘legitimate commerce’ in the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra.
Download or read book The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World written by Brad Weiss and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the center of this subtle ethnographic account of the Haya communities of Northwest Tanzania is the idea of a lived world as both the product and the producer of everyday practices. Drawing on his experience living with the Haya, Brad Weiss explores Haya ways of constructing and inhabiting their community, and examines the forces that shape and transform these practices over time. In particular, he shows how the Haya, a group at the fringe of the global economy, have responded to the processes and material aspects of money, markets, and commodities as they make and remake their place in a changing world. Grounded in a richly detailed ethnography of Haya practice, Weiss's analysis considers the symbolic qualities and values embedded in goods and transactions across a wide range of cultural activity: agricultural practice and food preparation, the body's experience of epidemic disease from AIDS to the infant affliction of "plastic teeth," and long-standing forms of social movement and migration. Weiss emphasizes how Haya images of consumption describe the relationship between their local community and the global economy. Throughout, he demonstrates that particular commodities and more general market processes are always material and meaningful forces with the potential for creativity as well as disruption in Haya social life. By calling attention to the productive dimensions of this spatial and temporal world, his work highlights the importance of human agency in not only the Haya but any sociocultural order. Offering a significant contribution to the anthropological theories of practice, embodiment, and agency, and enriching our understanding of the lives of a rural African people, The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World will interest historians, anthropologists, ethnographers, and scholars of cultural studies.
Download or read book Transhumanism and Transcendence written by Ronald Cole-Turner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.
