MES Major Papers
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Browsing MES Major Papers by Subject "Activism"
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Item Open Access Confronting Hegemony A story of river defense in southern Costa Rica(2020) Bolaños Dávila, Raquel; Barndt, DeborahThis paper examines the historical Socialist Calculation Debate, some critiques of the command economies in the late 20th century as well as some New Socialist economic models. These models were assessed with regards to their feasibility for practice as well as their relation to a theorized historical trajectory in style of immanent critique. This trajectory can be broadly sketched in terms of the implicit dynamics of capital accumulation, the size of the state sector and relative class power. This paper finds that although critics of both socialist models and socialist historical economies present some significant obstacles to the prospects of central calculation and planning, their feasibility is likely to increase with greater data processing capacity and through the increasing feasibility of greater firm growth. It is contended that critics and some advocates misrepresent the obstacles confronting socialist states by assuming that various limited unidimensional criteria are the basis for decision making and economic organization in these states. For instance, one of the major assumptions they make is that shortterm institutional economic efficiency is the key target of decision making. These assumptions overlook key contingencies and neglect the dynamics of real decision-making, instead assuming habit or mere formalism can just be imposed without sufficient leverage. Despite their flaws, some of these critiques might reveal an unfolding rationalization mechanism that begins with less computational capacity, relying on more crude political direction to those that would rely on a more detailed form, which could progressively shrink the domain of the market. I argue that although many models might be presented as competitors, they might be better understood as highlighting different aspects that might be emphasized at different stages in a developmental progression towards greater economic centralization and greater class power in a progressively more socialist regime. Like Marx’s immanent critique of capitalism, the growing inefficiency of v lower forms should progress to more efficient detailed modes of calculation as is required by the scope of economic responsibility of the state. Their structural limitations do not invalidate them as potentially useful for a period of time, they just reveal the need for more nuanced forms of ex ante calculation that suits its economic breadth of responsibility as more of the economy comes under its purviewItem Open Access Migrant Dreams: Documentary as Cultural Resistance for Social Change(2014) Lee, Min Sook; Barndt, DeborahI made a documentary fifteen years ago that I still haven't finished making. I didn't realize this until I starting writing this paper – but its become clearer to me that the process of creating doesn't obey spatial or temporal boundaries. Fifteen years ago I made a documentary about migrant Mexican men working in Canada called El Contrato. It was the first feature documentary I'd ever made. I had no formal training in filmmaking and was largely unfamiliar with documentary as a form. Somehow I made a watchable film and in the subsequent years El Contrato has been used as a tool for discussion and political engagement on migrant worker issues in Canada. With this project, Migrant Dreams, I am able to revisit the political and creative goals of my first film through a self-reflexive process that takes me back to the beginning but with a new set of questions that are explored in this paper.Item Open Access Migrant Dreams: Documentary as Cultural Resistance for Social Change(2014) Lee, Min Sook; Barndt, DeborahI made a documentary fifteen years ago that I still haven’t finished making. I didn’t realize this until I starting writing this paper – but its become clearer to me that the process of creating doesn’t obey spatial or temporal boundaries. Fifteen years ago I made a documentary about migrant Mexican men working in Canada called El Contrato. It was the first feature documentary I’d ever made. I had no formal training in filmmaking and was largely unfamiliar with documentary as a form. Somehow I made a watchable film and in the subsequent years El Contrato has been used as a tool for discussion and political engagement on migrant worker issues in Canada. With this project, Migrant Dreams, I am able to revisit the political and creative goals of my first film through a self-reflexive process that takes me back to the beginning but with a new set of questions that are explored in this paper.Item Open Access “We Are the Movement”: Tkaronto-based Indigenous Youth Explore Environmental (In)Justice(2018) Dellavilla, Meagan; McGregor, DeborahWith concern for the world they’re inheriting, young people across Turtle Island are rising up to address local and global concerns. Building from a long lineage of resistance, Indigenous youth, whose communities are often the first to face the consequences of environmental degradation, frequently find themselves on the front lines of these battles. And yet, largely across “Canada”, particularly in urban contexts, their voices remain routinely muted. Honing in on the theory and practice of environmental justice – a concept that arguably lays at the nexus of contemporary youth-led pursuits - this inquiry aims to re-center the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous youth who reside in Tkaronto. Weaving together existing literature with the findings of an arts-based workshop series attended by 10 youth, it recounts these experiences in relation to their understandings of enacting change. Emphasizing the cyclical nature of environmental violence, youth point to the importance of land connection, cultural continuity and collaboration in re-establishing balance amongst our relations. Ultimately contending with their capacity as water and land protectors, this papers seeks to advance discussion on how to better support Indigenous youth in their efforts to move toward (environmental) justice while simultaneously striving to ensure that the voices of city-based, Indigenous youth are represented in a parallel pursuit to develop a distinct environmental justice framework informed by Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), legal orders, conceptions of justice and the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples.