Spiritual Mining: Augustinian Images of Extraction in Colonial Peru

The climate change metanarrative, state of exception and China's modernisation

McCarthy, G. (2010) ‘The climate change metanarrative, state of exception and China’s modernisation’, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, 6(2), pp. 252–266. doi: 10.1080/19480881.2010.536675. Abstract: Part one will argue that the climate change discourse has all the hallmarks of a new metanarrative. However, the emergence of this metanarrative was in contradiction to neoliberal theory of the environment. Therefore, in an effort to reconcile the two metanarratives, an economic discourse emerged that conceptualised climate change with the neoliberal market model. The economic merging of climate change and the market discourses proved politically unsustainable, as was evident at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. Part two places the contradictions between the climate change-come-neoliberal metanarrative into a global political context, arguing that neoliberalism has so marginalised many developing countries that their sovereignty is in question, with a state of exception always in play. As such, they are highly vulnerable to any global climate change solution imposed by the corporate market on them. Lastly, the paper will argue that China is unique in its response to climate change. It is a rapidly developing state with a unique history of modernisation that places it in a position to use non-market means to address climate change. What limits the Chinese state from doing so is the political instability that this would cause to the Chinese Communist Party's legitimacy built on socialist–capitalist modernisation and by the vested interests tied to economic growth. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com [https://necropolitics.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Spiritual Mining: Augustinian Images of Extraction in Colonial Peru

Benavides, A. (2022) ‘Spiritual Mining: Augustinian Images of Extraction in Colonial Peru’, The Art Bulletin, 104(4), pp. 46–69. doi: 10.1080/00043079.2022.2070393. Abstract: Prints and paintings that celebrate the conversion of Indigenous peoples to Christianity can be perceived as “spiritual mining” in light of an underlying extractive ethos that structured the colonial enterprise. This article discusses seventeenth-century artworks commissioned by the Augustinian Order in Peru, which equated evangelization with the mining of precious minerals. Analysis of the artworks paired with a close historical reading of the book of Job identifies an agenda that objectifies Indigenous souls as treasure in order to normalize gestational events in global capitalism—the extraction of mineral resources from American lands and exploitation of Indigenous labor. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com [https://necropolitics.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Transit Spaces: Thinking Urban Change in South Africa

Barac, M. (2007) ‘Transit Spaces: Thinking Urban Change in South Africa’, Home Cultures, 4(2), pp. 147–176. doi: 10.2752/174063107X209000. Abstract: This work looks at aspects of urban development in post-apartheid South Africa. It concerns the tension between the symbolic town, represented by the “Rainbow Nation,” and the practical town: a topography conceived as a plan of action. Located in Khayelitsha township at Cape Town's metropolitan periphery, Victoria Mxenge's shack settlement provides an informal silhouette against which the journey from apartheid to the “Rainbow Nation” is staged. Understanding change on this scale and of this nature entails deciphering the city's transformational urban order. This task demands that we situate individual endeavors within a common world. As a reciprocity anchored to place, such a dialogue is most explicitly played out between the home and the town, between self and city. Domestic visual culture often appears to be at odds with official policies and professional practices that administer urban transformation. This research draws on field studies that have tracked changes to the environment at the scale of a neighborhood block, and in particular the concern for public space at the recently completed Bangiso Tandazo Link project. Conceived as a sign of change and a vehicle for its delivery, this “transit space” frames the larger question of the urban future: the prospect of a topography connecting township to town. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com [https://necropolitics.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

On Environmental Communication as a Care Discipline

Pezzullo, P. C. (2024) ‘On Environmental Communication as a Care Discipline’, Environmental Communication, 18(1–2), pp. 1–7. doi: 10.1080/17524032.2023.2300361. Abstract: This is a Special Issue opening essay. The theme of the Special Issue is Care, edited by the author in the inaugural issue of her three-year editorship of the journal. The author furthers her argument for redefining the field of environmental communication as not just a crisis discipline, but also a care discipline. She addresses limitations and possibilities of care as an ethic and discourse today. In conclusion, she turns attention to the aspirations of her editorship, this issue, and invites more research that reflects on the ethical considerations of the field. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com [https://necropolitics.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Empire or Imperialism: Implications for a 'New' politics of resistance

Ahluwalia, P. (2004) ‘Empire or Imperialism: Implications for a “New” politics of resistance’, Social Identities, 10(5), pp. 629–645. doi: 10.1080/1350463042000294278. Abstract: Globalisation raises questions about the capacity of the nation-state to function within the national interest. Hardt and Negri argue that nation-state sovereignty is in decline and that Empire -- a new supranational and deterritorialising form of sovereignty -- has superseded it. The question then arises, where does sovereignty reside if it is no longer existent within the nation-state. It is here that post-colonial theory may well provide insights as post-colonial subjects have had to confront these issues. The following questions are explored through a critical engagement with recent social theory. What is the relationship between the biological and political body within such a context? Furthermore, what are the implications of this for a politics of resistance? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com [https://necropolitics.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]