Papers by Ricardo F. Macip
Agricultura, sociedad y desarrollo, Dec 1, 2011
Dialectical Anthropology
In this article, we offer an ethnographic and historical analysis of the avocado enclave of Micho... more In this article, we offer an ethnographic and historical analysis of the avocado enclave of Michoacán, Mexico, from a Gramscian theoretical perspective. The apparent contradiction between the export boom in avocados and criminal violence in the region must be seen in the context of the ideological content necessary to achieve "export quality." Regional comparative advantages, far from being a simple prescription to justify the dominance of the North American Free Trade Agreement, are the sine qua non of the intended integration. These advantages are not limited to types of soil and the availability and appropriation of water. They demand articulations between companies and legal sanction from various levels of government in Mexico and the USA, the ordering of factors of production, and the moral and intellectual leadership of antagonistic groups moving in the same direction. All available resources are mobilized to meet these criteria, including those of an extralegal nature, making it impossible to act or think outside the workings of the dominant framework. To approach this research problem, we draw on the concepts of Gramsci's historical bloc and Agamben's state of exception. Our analysis will allow for comparisons with other regions of the world, particularly other agro-export enclaves, and a better understanding of the contemporary transformations of Mexican state formation. Keywords Agroindustry • Historical bloc • State of exception • Self-defense groups • Hegemonic process • Mexico 2017 marked the 20th year of the Hass avocado export agreement between Mexico and the USA. Since the agreement's inauguration in 1997, producers in the state * Denisse Román-Burgos
Relaciones. Estudios de Historia y Sociedad (México) Num.143 Vol.XXXVI, Apr 11, 2021
Dialectical Anthropology, 2022
In this article, we offer an ethnographic and historical analysis of the avocado enclave of Micho... more In this article, we offer an ethnographic and historical analysis of the avocado enclave of Michoacán, Mexico, from a Gramscian theoretical perspective. The apparent contradiction between the export boom in avocados and criminal violence in the region must be seen in the context of the ideological content necessary to achieve "export quality." Regional comparative advantages, far from being a simple prescription to justify the dominance of the North American Free Trade Agreement, are the sine qua non of the intended integration. These advantages are not limited to types of soil and the availability and appropriation of water. They demand articulations between companies and legal sanction from various levels of government in Mexico and the USA, the ordering of factors of production, and the moral and intellectual leadership of antagonistic groups moving in the same direction. All available resources are mobilized to meet these criteria, including those of an extralegal nature, making it impossible to act or think outside the workings of the dominant framework. To approach this research problem, we draw on the concepts of Gramsci's historical bloc and Agamben's state of exception. Our analysis will allow for comparisons with other regions of the world, particularly other agro-export enclaves, and a better understanding of the contemporary transformations of Mexican state formation. Keywords Agroindustry • Historical bloc • State of exception • Self-defense groups • Hegemonic process • Mexico 2017 marked the 20th year of the Hass avocado export agreement between Mexico and the USA. Since the agreement's inauguration in 1997, producers in the state * Denisse Román-Burgos
Relaciones. Estudios de historia y sociedad, Jan 9, 2015
Dialectical Anthropology
About Mexican Formations: Selective Hegemony Under Neoliberal Multiculturalism is a coordinated e... more About Mexican Formations: Selective Hegemony Under Neoliberal Multiculturalism is a coordinated effort to debate an ethnographic present within a Gramscian perspective. Taking such an approach to the Mexican transformations of the first two decades of the twenty first century has demanded analytical clarity as much as dedicated fieldwork. Building on the contributions of a generation of scholars who were committed to engaging the work of Antonio Gramsci, we took up their approach for our ethnographic projects, proposing a particular reading of Mexican landscapes and populations driven by specific class directions. The contributors have come together to engage in this endeavor from 2015 to the present. We met at a proseminar ("Power, Class & Culture) hosted subsequently in two different graduate programs of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Some of us were students, other professors, and some guests. We were never all together but were close enough to cultivate the common thread of the discussion. When we started this process in 2003 with the good and auspicious backing of Nancy Churchill and Leigh Binford, we could not have anticipated the hard lessons we learned, nor the joy of endurance. Over the years other colleagues would join, enriching the seminar as it was turning into the research network it has now become. This is not the space to acknowledge them individually, but they know who they are, and we hope they will recognize their influence and insights in the articles and their "intertextuality". Yet, we dedicate this special issue to the teachings and comradery of Luis Vázquez León (1951-2021), who departed while we were working on it. It was Luis who proposed that we craft our discussion into a special issue in a journal that could provide the space and exposure he deemed we had earned. For this and many other things we are indebted to his memory and honor him accordingly.
Revista Humanidades, 2018
La economía de las actividades creativas: una perspectiva desde España y México, 2017
Dialectical Anthropology, 2021
Dialectical Anthropology, 2020
The news regarding the spread and reach of coronavirus or Covid-19 struck early on. By the third ... more The news regarding the spread and reach of coronavirus or Covid-19 struck early on. By the third week of January, a (ethnically identified Chinese) foreign family toured Mexico City and used Uber, among other means of transportation. The older man in the group was supposedly diagnosed with Covid-19 and was admitted to a hospital upon arrival in Los Angeles, California. After they have left Mexico City, Uber shut down 240 user accounts and put two drivers under observation (DW (DEUTSCHE WELLE) n.d., 2ND 2020). The news did not reach much beyond Mexico City and the attitudes towards the contagious disease were mostly ambivalent. Perhaps this story was true, Uber users thought, but if so, it could not be as bad as international broadcasters were depicting it. A few days later, it was no more than another expression of xenophobia identifying Chinese persons as the sources of potential danger (EHDP 1, 30TH 2020). As the weeks went by, the public who followed the news debated whether the pandemic was real, whether it was capable of reaching Mexico, and if it was real how serious it could be. Very few had the humility to accept the fact that they lack the education, much less the knowledge, to understand what was being talked about. This same scenario happened with authorities at all levels of the government as they became engulfed into the imbroglio. The news during February focused on the city of Wuhan in China and it was treated with exotic sensationalism. By early March, the contagion spread first to other Asian countries and then Mediterranean Europe and North America, which was when the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic (EHDP 3, 11TH 2020), prompting debates involving public figures, business leaders, foreign ambassadors, and academics. These discussions eventually framed the federal government's only consistent approach to the pandemic, known as "Sana Distancia" (healthy distance), abbreviating the nonsensical use of "Jornada Nacional de Sana Distancia" (National Workday of Healthy Distance) as the official title for the policy. This was
Dialectical Anthropology, 2018
Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 2017
This paper proposes an agent-based model (ABM) that combines ethnographic and economic methods to... more This paper proposes an agent-based model (ABM) that combines ethnographic and economic methods to analyse how the social interaction between creative actors generates new creative knowledge. The chosen case of study is Puerto Vallarta, a sun and beach international destination in Mexico. Puerto Vallarta contains, potentially, many of the key elements that are discussed in the literature on creative economy. Our methodological strategy identifies ethnographically types of knowledge that are associated with a standard typology of creative industries in a city. The model is evaluated by simulations of agents engaged in producing ideas based on these types of knowledge either collectively or individually. Among the main findings are the presence of ‘elevated common knowledge’ between creative agents (which can be an important constraint for rising creativity) and that mixed behaviour of knowledge production (collective and individual) can boost better the production of ideas in Puerto Vallarta. Finally, we claim that the proposed methodology can be extended to and implemented in other similar contexts.
Bajo El Volcan, 2007
Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto RACISMO ... more Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto RACISMO Y SUPEREXPLOTACIÓN: LOS JORNALEROS INDÍGENAS EN EL EJÉRCITO INDUSTRIAL DE RESERVA 1 Ricardo F. Macip RESUMEN Este artículo examina dos aspectos íntimamente interrelacionados en el proceso de diferenciación social en la producción de café en el centro de Veracruz: la superexplotación y discriminación de peones agrícolas por productores organizados. Opuesto a propuestas liberales y comunitarias plantea el irresoluble dilema político jacobino de perder el principio o la colonia dentro del neoliberalismo. This article examines two intimately related aspects in the process of social differentiation in the production of coffee in the centre of Veracruz: the superexploitation and discrimination of agricultural labourers by organised producers. Contrary to liberal and communitarian arguments, it poses the insoluble dilemma of political Jacobinism of losing the principle or the colony within neo-liberalism.
Bajo El Volcan, 2004
Este artÍGulo examina la lucha por el liderazgo cnlre los productores del distrito cafetalero de ... more Este artÍGulo examina la lucha por el liderazgo cnlre los productores del distrito cafetalero de Huatusco en el centro de Vemenlz. Dicho liderazgo implica el control de las condiciones locales de producción y mercado por un gmpo de productores, y además persuadir al resto que la apuesta de ese gmpo es lógica y ventajosa para lodos. Su estudio demanda el uso de nociones de transclllturacion y lenguaje con• tencioso. Se trenza así la historia regional en el marco de un enclave de plantacióll. una etnografía que privilegia la impugnación y lucha en el entendimiento de la hegemonía neoliberaL This artic!e clffimines the stmggle ter leadership among the producers in the coffeegrowing district of Hualusco in central Veracn12. This leadership implies the con• trol of local conditions of prodllction and of the market by a grOllp of prodllcers. and also means persuading lhe rest or lhe prodllcers lhat lhe project of tlús grOllp is IOgical and advantageous for all. The study reqlÚres the use or notions of trans culturation and contentious language. In U\is way the regional history is woven in the rramework of a plantation enclave, an elhnography that emphasises prolest and struggle in the understanding of neo• liberal hegemony. En este artículo usaré el ténnino "transculturación" para referinne a la historia del centro de Veracruz, donde poblaciones de tres continentes concurrieron desarrollando órdenes sociales agrarios y capitalistas. También utilizaré dicha expresión para discutir los cambios en la cafeticultura y cafeticultores. 1 La planta del café, como todo tejido orgánico, es alta• mente susceptible al cambio por adaptación ambiental y, sobre todo, por manipulación humana. Tras dos siglos de cafeticu1tura, los cafetaleros del centro de Veracruz producen una planta sobre la que debaten con pa• sión: tomando como símil el cultivo, los cafeticultores cambian y cada
Dialectical Anthropology, 2011
Dialectical Anthropology, 2010
Dialectical Anthropology, 2012
Conservation is the ''common discursive framework'' through which any meaningful action takes pla... more Conservation is the ''common discursive framework'' through which any meaningful action takes place within a strip of land on the Coast of Oaxaca. What is meant by it is a contested process of class struggle given the strength of regional transformations since 1990. Spearheaded by the tourist industry, conservation is a hegemonic game of duplicity. This article discusses how this is a successful case of ''neoliberal conservation'' and provides an ideological analysis of such a consensus.
Critique of Anthropology, 2012
Turtle fishing – which defined life and work, and the tempo and contours of the coast of Oaxaca –... more Turtle fishing – which defined life and work, and the tempo and contours of the coast of Oaxaca – was halted by presidential decree in 1990. The industry’s workers converted from predators into guardians of nature under the stewardship of an emergent civil society that coordinated the efforts of environmental NGOs, the regulations of corresponding governmental agencies, and funding from private and public donors. Here I discuss the material and ideological transformation of the social relations of production in an ‘environmental’ class project. I argue an interpretation focused on the relation between coercion and consent in a hegemonic process of class rule.
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Papers by Ricardo F. Macip