by Jakob Drews
The global capitalist system is characterized by inequality through exploitation and dependency. These attributes were fostered by European colonization. Different parameters of dependency were institutionalized since the “independence” of the formally colonized. They characterize the structure of the international system. Some economies are profiting from the global capitalist system, some are doomed to depend on those who profit. This structure is binary and consists of the profiting centre and the exploited periphery. Both substructures were not “born” into their respective position. They were constructed. In this work, I am stressing the relationship between centre and periphery from a historical perspective. What constituted the centre in the centre and why is the periphery dependent on the centre?
Author: thelionandthehunter
Private Security Companies in the extractivist industry in Africa
by Konstantin von Kleist-Retzow
Private Security Companies perform services that are integral to maintaining extractivism. Consequently, this work claims that PSCs safeguard neocolonial extractivist practices in Africa and thereby reproduce and intensify global power imbalances in political, economic, and social terms…
The involvement of the Rockefeller Foundation in the Green Revolution: Structural Underdevelopment through Agricultural Reforms
by Madalena Kresimon
The aim of this paper is to illuminate the Rockefeller Foundation started Green Revolution, with its strength and weaknesses in the context of its political meaning. The questions I will be trying to answer are which political goals it served and in which patterns of neocolonialism, global injustice and structural underdevelopment can be observed in these agrarian reforms. Central will be Mexico, were the program started, and India, as it has often been focused on in the perception of the green revolution, also because of the political role it played…
Glossary of the Institutionalized Regime of Underdevelopment
by Lisanna Kelz, Aikaterini Mouzaki, Zanê Aradine and Isabel Pearce
A Glossary narrating the Institutionalized Regime of Underdevelopment: A critical reflection of the market-oriented international order, reproducing neocolonial exploitation patterns. The glossary is divided into three sections: Institutions; Country Groupings, Unions and Organizations; and Terms of Economic and Financial Governance…
The Border Regime
by Lisanna Solara Kelz
The author about the Border Regime project: “The intent of this project is to approach the Border Regime in a rather non-scientific way and show how the Border operates, functions, works and is reproduced every day. Therefore, I try to give an overview and insight on the different ways the border appears in and beyond our daily live, within our state and beyond its official borders. I chose Prezi as a design where everyone can look at the topics they are interested in and chose the order in which they want to explore them…”
Toppling Statues, Challenging Silences and Systemic Oppression: Protest as an opportunity to critically reflect History
by Camilla Salim Wagner
“…Starting from the activists’ demands and claims regarding the violent character of some statues, I discuss howstatues are connected to systemic oppression and the role silence plays in that dynamic, as well as the relevance of the act of taking those symbols down. Rather than directly engaging with the different arguments of opponents and defenders of specific statues, I approach the topic with a theoretically informed perspective, reflecting not only about the statues but how we, as Western societies, understand our History. Besides the meanings and implications of who is (and isn’t) represented by statues, I question the power relations shaping our narratives of history and their political and social implications…”
Silences around the Memory of the Mpondoland Revolts in South Africa (1950s-1961)
by Jana Roth
“…This revolutionary movement called Congo Movement or iKongo opposed the white nationalist government by incorporating approaches of witchcraft and sorcery to create a separate nation and fight against the apartheid state. The fact that very little published work without a systematic study of the Mpondo resistance exists, is an example of resistance by the marginalized that remains widely hidden. In this context, urban anti-apartheid struggles like the Sharpeville and Langa protests are well remembered, yet rural resistances like the Mpondoland revolts remain largely absent in historical narratives (Kepe & Ntsebeza 2011: 3ff.). This points to different aspects of silence revolving around the memory of these revolts, especially in contemporary discourses. In the case of iKongo, it is relevant to study the silences around womxn and around witchcrafts, since both remain subjects of silence and prejudice throughout history…”
Norms of Beauty in India Fair is Beautiful: A legacy of Colonialism and Globalization
by Khesraw Majidi This paper describes and analyzes the norms of beauty in India by considering the whiteness of people’s skin, Caucasian looks, body shape, and its impact on social status. The paper also analyzes the relationship between skin color,Continue reading… Norms of Beauty in India Fair is Beautiful: A legacy of Colonialism and Globalization
Colonial Legacies – German Volunteer Tourism in Namibia
by Dimitra Dermitzaki
This paper aims at addressing the appropriateness of young “Westerners” when participating in projects of volunteer tourism, inter alia supported by governmental and state funds, while also discussing the complexity of Germany’s refusal of the formal recognition of its committed genocide and reparation payments.
Comic Strip “WHO KNOWS?”
by Tania Plunkett
While studying the subject, “The Invention of Africa,” which was based on V.Y. Mudimbe’s book of the same name, I was struck by the parallels I see in my own country, Australia, regarding the historical and present-day perceptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI). During my school years through the 1980s and 90s, schools taught Australian colonial history as “Australian history” and painted colonists largely as explorers and heroes. Indigenous histories were mostly excluded or simplified, and ATSI perspectives almost never included.