Contesting culture: a case study of commodification in Cuban music

After more than three decades of isolation from the West and a paralyzing economic crisis in the early 1990s, Cuba is increasingly globally active in both cultural and economic realms. In this paper I use Bourdieu’s (The fields of cultural production, 1993) fields of cultural production as a general frame through with to inspect the commercialization of Cuban music. Through a case study with Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the creator of the Buena Vista Social Club, I explore the dialectical relationship of music as an expression of cultural and a cultural asset, and at the same time a commodity for the international market. I show that de Marcos uses his position between the international music industry and the local music scene in order to preserve cultural authenticity and survive economically. In doing so he challenges the all-to-typical place of the artist in the contested space of cultural production between the West and the Third World.

Entangled exchange: Reconceptualising the characterisation and practice of bodily commodification

Richard Titmuss’ classical 1970 study of blood donation has provided a powerful conceptual model for characterising transactions involving human bodily materials. This now paradigmatic model suggests that such transactions are typically organised in accordance with one or other of two dichotomous, and mutually exclusive, modes of exchange: gifting or commodification. In this paper I utilise findings from my own and others’ empirical research to illustrate the range of complex, multiply constituted, and contested modes of commodification that now typically attend the exchange of human body parts and tissues of which Titmuss’ model can take no effective account. Drawing on work by Radin, Callon, and Miller I illustrate the complex justificatory work that those involved must perform to fit their lived experiences of tissue exchange into this now outmoded paradigm. I then consider how the protagonists themselves ontologise their practices and with what effects. In the second part of the paper I consider how neo-liberal ideologies and instruments are being employed to suborn a variety of highly differentiated and geographically distinct practices of bodily commodification to the ‘logic of the market’. I explore here what the operative effects of defining the global circulation of body parts and tissues as a new ‘economy’ might be. I then consider how, if at all, a market logic could ‘Value’ all those ‘calculations of interest’ and ‘values’ that underpin exchanges of human body parts and tissues in specific national, communal or institutional settings. I conclude by reflecting on the desirability or possibility of performing normative assessments of the ethicacy of highly geographically and culturally differentiated practices of bodily commodification.     

Losing ground: The marginalization of the St. Lawrence eel Fisheries in Québec,Canada

The world׳s eel fisheries are in a state of crisis. While an increasing number of studies have documented the biophysical dynamics of the decrease in eel populations in Canada and around the world, studies documenting fishing practices, fisheries management, and the impact of eel declines on the livelihoods of fishermen are still rare. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by examining the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) fishery in the St. Lawrence River Estuary, positioning it within larger historical, economic, and socio-environmental contexts. More particularly, it explores the issues these fishermen face as a consequence of the declining eel population, changing management practices, global trends in eel commercialization, and initiatives taken to promote eel fishing and the landscape that surrounds it as an important component of natural and cultural heritage. It is argued that these changes, many of which have been amplified by neoliberal policy shifts, have contributed to the marginalization of eel fishers and are making their future increasingly uncertain.     

“Traditional” women, “modern” water: Linking gender and commodification in Rajasthan, India

In this paper, I analyze the connections made between women and water in a Rajasthani drinking water supply project as a significant part of drinking water’s commodification. For development policy makers, water progressing from something free to something valued by price is inevitable when moving economies toward modernity and development. My findings indicate that water is not commodified simply by charging money for it, but through a series of discourses and acts that link it to other “modern” objects and give it value. One of these objects is “women”. I argue that through women’s participation activities that link gender and modernity to new responsibilities and increased mobility for village women involving the clean water supply, a “traditional” Rajasthani woman becomes “modern”. Water, in parallel, becomes “new”, “improved” and worth paying for. Women and water resources are further connected through project staff’s efforts to promote latrines by targeting women as their primary users. The research shows that villagers applied their own meanings to latrines, some of which precluded women using them. This paper fills a gap in feminist political ecology, which often overlooks how gender is created through natural resource interventions, by concerning itself with how new meanings of “water” and “women” are mutually constructed through struggles over water use and its commodification. It contributes to critical development geography literatures by demonstrating that women’s participation approaches to natural resource development act as both constraints and opportunities for village constituents. It examines an under-explored area of gender and water research by tracing village-level struggles over meanings of latrines.     

‘Letting them go’ - Agricultural retirement and human-livestock relations

Through a focus on agricultural retirement, this paper extends on the recent work considering human-livestock relations. Drawing on research conducted in Hampshire and West Sussex (UK), the paper utilises farmers’ narratives of farm work and retirement to explore the themes of [dis]connection between farmers and their dairy cattle. The paper attempts to add complexity and nuance to assumptions about the nature and extent of animal objectification with commercial dairy farming, and consider the intricate moral geographies [re]created within the individual farm. The discursive and material ‘placings’ of animals are considered alongside an exploration of how the intricate temporality and spatiality of these are disturbed and disrupted by the move to retirement. In discussing these relations the paper examines how animals are central to the everyday lives and identities of farmers and how separation from them alters farmers’ attachment to particular practices, places and social networks.     

Mahsuri’s curse—globalisation and tourist development in Pulau Langkawi

The legend of Mahsuri abounds in Malaysian school textbooks. Mahsuri was a beautiful and very charming village maiden who lived in Pulau Langkawi and was wrongfully put to death in 1819 or the year 1235 hijrab. Accused of adultery by a jealous member of the royal house, Mahsuri, who was married to the Chief Minister, was sentenced to death together with her alleged lover, a trader from a place which is now part of Thailand in Phuket. Killed with her own family’s keris (a traditional Malay sword), Mahsuri put a curse on Pulau Langkawi for seven generations. She swore before her death that there would be no peace or prosperity on the island for the duration of these seven generations. Mahsuri’s family moved to another village in what was then the territory of Thailand and finally settled in Phuket, illustrating the cultural and trading links that have existed in this northern part of Malaysia between the southern parts of Thailand and the states of Perlis and Kedah. Mahsuri’s family and she appear to have not been allowed to rest in peace since her premature death. Her tomb, which was enshrined by the villagers, has been relocated several times and the exact location of its whereabouts may not be known. The tombstone itself is now housed in a museum that has been constructed near to the site where the tomb is believed to be. A huge tourist complex called Kota Mahsuri is being developed around the site of Mahsuri’s tomb. Pulau Langkawi may be the island paradise lost. Perhaps Mahsuri’s curse lingers, no matter that seven generations have passed and with them the industries that integration with the global economy has seen developed, declined and disappeared. Then again, perhaps this is indeed the curse—the quest for prosperity in a globalizing world and its relentless exploitation of the heritage in strategic parts of Malaysia—both natural and cultural—for the gains of a few and questionable benefits to the rest.     

Genes are not information: Rendering plant genetic resources untradeable through genetic restoration practices

Genetic commodification relies on methods that treat genes as information. By representing genes as information, scientists produce standardized and stable objects that are easily tradable. In this paper, I argue that a Midwestern plant conservation science institution (MPCSI) challenges genetic commodification through distinct knowledge-making and social practices. In particular, scientists at this institution treat genes not as information, but as contextual and contingent entities. By employing genetic technologies that deemphasize the code metaphor of genes, these scientists make genes unavailable to trade as information.I analyze the socionatural implications of this institution’s use of genetic technology in native ecosystem restoration. Drawing from interviews and participant observation, I focus on specific techniques used by the MPCSI’s scientists to view genes as embodied relational entities, rather than abstract information. I illustrate how these technologies allow the MPCSI to challenge the epistemologies and methodologies that are crucial to producing genetic commodities.Additionally, I illustrate how the MPCSI serves as a model for plant science institutions to reconceptualize their use of banked plant genetic resources. This model complicates the commodity speculation paradigm common to bioprospectors. At the same time, this genetic restoration approach relies on and produces different engagements with markets. I detail the MPCSI’s emerging relationship with commercial seed nurseries to illustrate how decommodification is integral to commodification. Finally, I argue that although the MPCSI’s genetic restoration strategy necessitates limited market engagements, their scientific practices and institutional relationships produce drastically different socioecological outcomes compared to institutions that treat genes as information.     

Tradeoffs in carbon commodification: A political ecology of common property forest governance

Carbon markets have gained traction worldwide as an ostensibly win–win solution to climate change, providing low-cost emission reductions in the Global North and sustainable development in the Global South. However, sustainable development and livelihood co-benefits have largely failed to materialize in a range of carbon offset projects, particularly those in forest communities. While some scholars explain this failure as an outcome of fundamental tradeoffs between market efficiency and sustainable development, others argue that institutions of common property land tenure can resolve tradeoffs and generate important co-benefits for local communities. Using a political ecology approach, integrating insights of Karl Polanyi and Noel Castree on the commodification of nature and evidence from a carbon forestry project in Chiapas, Mexico, this article grapples with the ways in which carbon market requirements shape forest governance within common property tenure arrangements. I argue that the centralization of forest governance and decision making into the hands of project implementers and brokers, the necessity for legible land rights and boundaries, and the technical requirements for measurement, calculation, and monitoring of carbon have reshaped forest governance in ways that have undermined the social and ecological benefits often associated with common property management schemes. This research therefore demonstrates that so-called tradeoffs between market efficiency and equitable sustainable development goals may not be inherent to carbon forestry and calls into question the reliance on disembedding market mechanisms for climate change mitigation in forest ecosystems. As such, this work has important implications for REDD+.     

Blueprint for breakdown? Community Based Management of rural groundwater in Uganda

The belief that groundwater in rural areas is best managed according to the Community Based Management (CBM) model is the dominant paradigm across Sub-Saharan Africa. While donors and governments focus on extending the supply network to meet the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal access to clean water, at any one time a third of handpumps are non-functional. Basing our case on ethnographic fieldwork, surveys and interviews, and working closely with policy implementers over the course of three years in mid-west Uganda, we argue that non-functionality of handpumps, and the precarious status of many, cannot be blamed solely on poor technology or siting of wells: rather the problem stems from a dearth of maintenance funds and management failings. The CBM model is an uneasy coalition of ideologies from across the political spectrum that meshes neo-liberal inspired commodification with theories of collective action and Common Property Resources. We demonstrate conceptually and empirically how the wings of the CBM model individually and collectively are contributing to the disappointing outcomes amid the messy complex reality of rural environments. Recommendations calling for modifying participatory processes, technological solutions and more external support all fall within the existing CBM framework, which we will empirically demonstrate is a blueprint for breakdown in these contexts. A resolution to the financing of handpump maintenance must be found if the SDG is to be realised, and we argue that academics, policy makers and practitioners need to accept this may lie outside the CBM paradigm.