Academic literature on the topic 'Capitalist materialism'

The first three sections of this lecture address the need for better historical-materialist theorisations of capitalist competition, capitalist classes and capitalist states, and in particular the institutional dimensions of these – which is fundamental for understanding why and how capitalism has survived into the twenty-first century. The fourth section addresses historical materialism’s under-theorisation of the institutional dimensions of working-class formation, and how this figures in explaining why, despite the expectations of the founders of historical materialism, the working classes have not, at least yet, become capitalism’s gravediggers. While recognising that a better historical materialism along these lines will not necessarily provide us with a gps route to a socialist world beyond capitalism, it does suggest a number of guidelines for socialist strategy, with which the lecture concludes. This includes the need for building new institutions capable of defining, mobilising and representing the working class broadly, as well as recognising that the types of parties that can transform working classes into leading agents of social transformation have yet to be invented. A strategic priority must be to start anew at creating the kinds of working-class political institutions which can rekindle the socialist imagination, and develop the socialist capacities to get there.

No curso dos 520 anos de capitalismo no Brasil, foi instalado, consolidado e expandido um ambiente favorável, antes de tudo, à concretização das relações capitalistas de produção-circulação-distribuição-consumo no Brasil. Este artigo possui como objetivo principal discutir o permanente processo de construção deste ambiente em Recife, capital do estado federado de Pernambuco, como uma tendência homogeneizadora ligada aos interesses das classes dominantes. A metodologia utilizada para a operacionalização desta discussão fundamentou-se na abordagem do materialismo histórico-dialético a fim de evidenciar as contradições suscitadoras de tensões e conflitos inerentes a uma realidade dinâmica que se movimenta permanentemente em algum sentido, nas escalas do tempo e do espaço. Destarte, foi mostrado que a implantação do referido ambiente não aconteceu de maneira harmônica e pacífica como dizem as classes dominantes brasileiras na medida em que aconteceram protestos e mobilizações sociais que, reagindo contra o ambiente puramente capitalista, conseguiram obter conquistas interessantes para as classes subalternas e oprimidas. The permanent construction of a capitalist environment during the historical time in Recife, Pernambuco: tendency to homogenize the dominant interests A B S T R A C TDuring the 520 years of capitalism in Brazil,a favorable environment was installed, consolidated and expanded, above all, for carrying out the production-circulation-distribution-consumption capitalist relationships. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the permanent process of this environment construction in Recife, capital of Pernambuco federal state, as a homogenizing trend linked to the domintant classes’ insterests. The methodology used for the operationalization of this discussion was based on the historical-dialectical materialism approach in order to highlight the contradictions that raise social tensions and conflicts inherent to a dynamic reality that moves permanently in some sense, in the time and spatial levels. Thus, it was shown that the implantation of the referred environment did not happen in a harmonious and peaceful way, as the Brazilian dominant classes say, insofar as social protests and mobilizations occurred, which, reacting against the purely capitalist environment, managed to obtain interesting achievements for the subordinated and oppressed classes.Keywords: Technical-instrumental rationality. Neoliberalism. Urban environment. Environmental racionality.

Marx believed that what most clearly distinguished him and Engels from the nineteenth-century French socialists was that their version (or vision) of socialism was “scientific” while the latters' was Utopian. What he intended by this contrast is roughly the following: French socialists such as Proudhon and Fourier constructed elaborate visions of a future socialist society without an adequate understanding of existing capitalist society. For Marx, on the other hand, socialism was not an idea or an ideal to be realized, but a natural outgrowth of the existing capitalist order. Marx's historical materialism is a systematic attempt to discover the laws governing the inner dynamics of capitalism and class societies generally. Although this theory issues in a prediction of the ultimate triumph of socialism, it is a commonplace that Marx had little to say about the details of post-capitalist society. Nevertheless, some of its features can be discerned from his critical analysis of capitalism and what its replacement entails.

O texto trata da construção da modernidade colonialidade, a partir de um diálogo entre o Materialismo Histórico-Dialético (LUKÁCS, 2010; MARX, 2007; 2013) com as Epistemologias do Sul (SANTOS, 2010A; QUIJANO, 2005; MIGNOLO, 2011). Três são os pontos centrais da reflexão: o rompimento do silêncio absoluto que envolve a importância da América Latina na construção da modernidade capitalista; a vinculação metabólica entre modernidade e colonialidade, uma vez que a o estágio das forças produtivas e da consolidação do eurocentrismo como núcleo duro da vida intelectual mundial possuem uma vinculação estreita com o regime de acumulação primitiva, colonização e racialização dos territórios latino-americanos e, por fim; a introdução de uma premissa ontológica materialista ao debate epistemológico do Sul Global, é o de que a colonização foi o momento matricial da imposição planetária da Forma-Mercadoria (MARX, 2013).Pachakuti and the history of the modernity beyond the Southern seasABSTRACT The text deals with the construction of modernity-coloniality, starting from a dialogue between Historical-Dialectical Materialism (LUKÁCS, 2010; MARX, 2007; 2013) and Southern Epistemologies (SANTOS, 2010A; QUIJANO, 2005; MIGNOLO, 2011). Three are the central points of reflection: the breaking of the absolute silence that surrounds the importance of Latin America in the construction of capitalist modernity; the metabolic linkage between modernity and coloniality- since the stage of the productive forces and the consolidation of Eurocentrism as the core of the intellectual world life have a close connection with the regime of primitive accumulation, colonization and racialization of the Latin American territories and, finally, the introduction from a materialist ontological premise to the epistemological debate of the Global South, is that colonization was the matrix point of the planetary imposition of the Form-Merchandise (MARX, 2013).

Kawa, Nicholas C. 2016. Amazonia in the Anthropocene: People, Soils, Plants, Forests. Austin: University of Texas Press. [e-book].Starosielski, Nicole. 2015. The Undersea Network. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Tsing, Anna L. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Until recently, most commentators, including ecological Marxists, have assumed that Marx’s historical materialism was only marginally ecologically sensitive at best, or even that it was explicitly anti-ecological. However, research over the last decade has demonstrated not only that Marx deemed ecological materialism essential to the critique of political economy and to investigations into socialism, but also that his treatment of the coevolution of nature and society was in many ways the most sophisticated to be put forth by any social theorist prior to the late twentieth century. Still, criticisms continue to be leveled at Marx and Engels for their understanding of thermodynamics and the extent to which their work is said to conflict with the core tenets of ecological economics. In this respect, the rejection by Marx and Engels of the pioneering contributions of the Ukrainian socialist Sergei Podolinsky, one of the founders of energetics, has been frequently offered as the chief ecological case against them. Building on an earlier analysis of Marx’s and Engels’s response to Podolinsky, this article shows that they relied on an open-system, metabolic-energetic model that adhered to all of the main strictures of ecological economics – but one that also (unlike ecological economics) rooted the violation of solar and other environmental-sustainability conditions in the class relations of capitalist society. The result is to generate a deeper understanding of classical historical materialism’s ecological approach to economy and society – providing an ecological- materialist critique that can help uncover the systemic roots of today’s “treadmill of production” and global environmental crisis.

The 2011 Historical Materialism Conference in London saw the launch of a Marxist-Feminist set of panels. This issue is inspired by the success of those panels, and the remarkably sustained interest in reviving and moving beyond older debates and discussions. The special issue’s focus, Social-Reproduction Feminism, reflects and contextualises the ongoing work and engagement with that thematic that has threaded through the conferences in the 2010s. This Introduction provides a summary overview of the Social-Reproduction Feminism framework, situating it within Marxist-Feminist thinking and politics more generally, and calls on readers to consider its promise and potential as an historical-materialist approach to understanding capitalist social relations in terms of an integrated totality.

Research and the theory of historical and dialectical materialism suggest that tradition and modes of production would shape the individual's value structure. Corresponding ideologies of modes of production, namely, socialism, capitalism, and feudalism would have their corresponding value factors on Chinese. A study of 1,221 China's and 1,174 Hong Kong's college students provided a test of the proposed 3-factor structure defining socialist/Confucian, capitalist, feudalist values. Confirmatory factor analysis verified its validity. The 3-factor structure was also more theoretically, methodologically, and empirically adequate than Bond's (1988) conceptualization of Chinese values. In addition, indifference in levels of the three values between students in Mainland China and Hong Kong reflected the students' common orientation to Chinese culture.

At the end of the 19th century, a debate emerged among academics of historical materialism on the apparent divergence between Engels’ and Marx’s theoretical developments. During the 20th century, those who wanted to argue that there was a dichotomy between the two authors identified Engels as responsible for historical materialism’s crises. This paper aims to demonstrate that Engels, far from distancing himself from Marx’s central positions, contributed to the formation of historical materialism as a revolutionary praxis that seeks a more rational regulation of the human metabolism with nature through overcoming the alienating conditions of the capitalist system. For this reason, the paper analyses Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, one of Engels’ most controversial texts, and exposes the correlation with the historical development of the revolutionary praxis in the Engels’ and Marx’s work. The article will be drawing on Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez’s Philosophy of Praxis, understood as a ‘revolutionary’ activity, and his analysis of Marx’s and Engels’ work. It is argued that one of Engels’ primary purposes, in Ludwig Feuerbach, was to show the demystification process of the Hegelian dialectical method, resulting in the formation of historical materialism as a dynamic epistemic model, that seeks to transform social reality through revolutionary praxis. The Feuerbachian ontological categories and Feuerbach’s perception of nature were the objects of the same process of demystification and critique, resulting in the characterisation of the human being in Marxism as a generic, social and historical being. Finally, it is shown that Engels demonstrates the possibilities for transformation of the human subject; for that reason, Engels’ argument is associated with the revolutionary praxis.

AbstractFollowing the publication of my book The New Dialectic and Marx's 'Capital', and the symposium on it in Historical Materialism 13.2, a critique by Roberto Finelli recently appeared: 'Abstraction versus Contradiction: Observations on Chris Arthur's The New Dialectic and Marx's “Capital”' in Historical Materialism 15.2. Finelli argues that my systematic dialectic is not taken sufficiently far, in that I retain presuppositions not posited by the capitalist totality. Here, I argue against Finelli's closed totality of wholly abstract forms, not least because it affords no realistic exit strategy. I reaffirm that the logic of contradiction is required to conceptualise the capital relation.

Este estudo pretende investigar, a partir do confronto da tese elaborada por Fredric Jamseon em Pós-modernismo ou a lógica cultural do capitalismo tardio com uma análise voltada para a materialidade histórica, o alcance da fusão da base e da superestrutura no capitalismo tardio. Nesse sentido, busca esclarecer em que medida o ensaio de Jameson ajuda a compreender a dominância do pós-modernismo, e o quanto é insuficiente, por outro lado, para explicar a situação da produção material nas regiões em que o neoliberalismo e a globalização não estão desenvolvidos, e que, portanto, não respondem integralmente à lógica cultural que anima o capitalismo financeiro. Noutras palavras, reinvindica-se o teste da realidade da ideologia do pós-modernismo para além das fronteiras do mundo anglo-saxão. Sendo assim, é debatida a possibilidade da tese de Jameson sobre a fusão da base e da superestrutura no estágio do capitalismo tardio estar circunscrita aos países onde ambos, a acumulação flexível e a globalização financeira, de fato, vingaram. Sem prejuízo do conteúdo da crítica, esta pesquisa visa igualmente traçar considerações acerca da prosa jamesoniana, a fim de apontar para alguns de seus efeitos e sua relação com o caráter de denúncia apresentado no ensaio e estabelecer suas correspondências com o método da Escola de Frankfurt, mais especificamente, o de Theodor Adorno.
This study intends to investigate, from the confrontation of the thesis prepared by Fredric Jameson in Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, with an analysis on the historical materiality, the extent of the fusion of the base and superestructure in late capitalism. In this sense, it seeks to clarify where Jamesons essay helps to understand the dominance of postmodernism and how it is unsufficient to explain the situation of material production in areas where neoliberalism and globalization are not developed and, therefore, do not respond fully to the cultural logic that animates financial capitalism. In other words, it is necessary a reality test of the ideology of postmodernism beyond the borders of the Anglo-Saxon world. Thus, it is discussed the possibility of Jamesons thesis of base and superestructure stage of late capitalism be restricted to countries where both flexible accumulation and financial globalization indeed ocurred. This research also aims to make considerations about Jamsons prose in order to point some of its effects and its relations with the denouncing contents of this essay and estabilish their correspondences with the method of the Frankfurt School, more specifically, the one of Theodor Adorno.

Este es un documento con texto e imágenes, que produce cierto impulso eléctrico variable sobre algunos lectores. Redactado por un artista en el marco de un programa de doctorado de una Facultad de Bellas Artes. En el texto se habla, probablemente de forma distorsionada y torpe, de lo que otros escribieron o hicieron. Un paquete de información filtrada, condensada, desgranada, orientada e introducida con cierta libertad a través de la mirada sobre el trabajo de ocho artistas, esto es también una forma de proyectar y performatizar mi propia práctica artística. Una cadena de citas, referencias e ideas impulsadas por la necesidad de dilucidar y dar forma a la intuición de que el progreso técnico y el conocimiento científico en la entrada del siglo XXI, han logrado colonizar al propio lenguaje artístico, delimitando su campo de acción y subyugándolo a esa fuerza discursivo-material que lo invade todo, incluyendo, el momento de encuentro entre tú y las partículas que mantienen de forma estable los distintos soportes donde se expresan estas palabras escritas.
This is a document with texts and images which produces a kind of variabl electric impulse for some readers. It is written down by an artist in the PHD context of a Fine Arts University. The text deals about the work that others have already written and made, in a distort and clumsy way. A packet of filtered data which has been condensed, guided and introduced by a certain degree of freedom through the eight-artist works. This is also a way of projecting and performing my own artistic praxis. A chain of quotes and ideas which have been impulsed by the need for explaining and giving shape to the intuition that the technical progress and the scientific knowledge (at the beginning of the 21st century) have been colonized by the own artistic language; drawing its action área and subjugating it to a discursive material power which involves everything, including the meeting moment between you and the particles which maintain stable shapes of the different supports where these written words are pronounced.

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The dissertation talks about the necessity of doing a reflection about the criminal enforcement out of merely dogmatic delimitations, in other words, there is a necessity of doing analysis of the criminal enforcement and its relation with the capitalism, essencially how the production’s relations influence to make decisions in a criminal system enforcement. Such connection has been estudied firmely based on Critical Criminology and developed in three chapters. On Chapter I, there is a demonstration of the punishment by a historical view with theirs transformation’s results. On Chapter II, there is an approach about the historical materialism in the same way of the critical view by Kichheimer and Rusche that examine the prision system related to class conflict and its relation with the capitalist system.At last, the chapter III shows a criticism about the jail as a way to make the prisioner to be reintegrated to the capitalism by the relations between the punitive system and the capitalism system based on Michel Foucault, Melossi and Pavarini reference works. increments
A dissertação versa sobre a necessidade de se refletir a execução penal fora de contornos puramente dogmáticos, ou seja, requer a análise da execução penal e sua relação com o capitalismo, essencialmente sobre como as relações de produção influenciam na tomada de decisões em um sistema de execução penal. Tal relação é explorada com base na Criminologia Crítica e desenvolvida em três capítulos. No capítulo I, há a demonstração da pena sob uma perspectiva histórica com as suas consequentes transformações. No capítulo II, existe a abordagem sobre o materialismo histórico nos termos da abordagem crítica inaugurada em Kichheimer e Rusche que analisam o sistema carcerário no contexto da luta de classes e sua consequente relação com o sistema capitalista. Por último, o capítulo III apresenta uma crítica ao cárcere como meio socialização do preso para o capitalismo por meio das relações entre o sistema punitivo e o sistema capitalista fundamentadas nas obras de Michel Foucault e Melossi e Pavarini.

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze how modernization theory of values change and capitalist ideology affect individuals' attitudes toward generosity. Because generosity is a concept rooted in our human value system, it would be worthwhile attempting to explain the interplay between individuals' values and larger socio-economic environment. From modernization theory explanations of values change, it is expected that noble, higher-order values such as generosity will receive more approval and support as economic pressures decline as result of economic development. However, individuals' values are also being influenced by principles of the specific type of economic ideology embraced in each country around the world. This study will explain how the different types of capitalist ideology impact individuals' values. In relation to these, it is suggested that the notion of `economic ideology' should be taken into consideration as a factor interacting with the modernization thesis of values change in influencing individuals' predisposition toward generosity. An economic ideology motivates behavior and determines norms for many human interactions. In this study, `economic ideology' is constructed as the interaction between capitalism characteristics and materialistic values. One hypothesis suggests that capitalism is negatively correlated with the emergence or advancement of generosity. A second hypothesis, examines whether the effect of capitalism is moderated through the presence of materialistic values or specific type of economic ideology. Within this enquiry the study uses a cross-national and a multilevel approach that mainly concentrates on the analysis of the World Values Survey which presents a broad examination of cross-national differences. The results indicate the validity of the economic ideology effect. Initially, at the individual level capitalism is associated significantly, albeit weakly, to generosity. When this relationship is allowed to vary across countries, then capitalism coefficient is not significant. Nevertheless, when the original argument about the influence of the economic ideology on individuals' values is considered, the new model modifies the previously reported results. The capitalism coefficient not only turns out to be significant, but also changes the direction of its coefficient demonstrating the moderating effect of the economic ideology hypothesis.

Orientador: Lígia Marcia Martins
Banca: Newton Duarte
Banca: Fernando Ramalho Martins
Banca: Ângelo Antonio Abrantes
Banca: Almir Paulo dos Santos
Resumo: Este trabalho trata o conceito de Identidade Profissional do Professor, sob o enfoque do Materialismo Histórico-Dialético. A discussão da identidade profissional do professor ganha destaque especificamente durante o processo de reestruturação capitalista da produção e normatização do padrão flexível de acumulação. A mesma se apresenta como prerrogativa para a formação de professores numa perspectiva crítica e autônoma no âmbito do profissionalismo docente, com o propósito de superar a crise de identidade sobre o trabalho do professor. Do mesmo modo, as determinações da reestruturação produtiva ecoam sobre o magistério sob a forma do empobrecimento dos conteúdos escolares e da substituição de um ensino calcado nos conhecimentos científicos objetivos, por uma formação em afinidade estrutural com as novas exigências do capitalismo contemporâneo. Nesse sentido, problematizamos o conceito de Identidade Profissional do Professor questionando a sua prerrogativa como forma de superação da crise instaurada pelas mudanças do capitalismo. Entendendo-o como uma maneira de adaptação as demandas impostas por essa dinâmica produtiva, discutimos as suas bases teóricas, colocando em suspeição o conceito de identidade. Por fim discutimos a insuficiência da identidade do professor circunscrita a sua particularidade profissional e a necessidade histórica da apreensão da universalidade do trabalho educativo para a formação docente
Abstract: This work deals with the concept of Teacher Professional Identity, from the standpoint of historical materialism-Dialectical. The discussion of teacher professional identity is highlighted specifically during the capitalist restructuring of the production and standardization of flexible accumulation pattern. The same is presented as a prerogative for the training of teachers in a critical and autonomous perspective within the teaching professionalism, in order to overcome the identity crisis of the teacher's work. Similarly, the determinations of productive restructuring on the magisterium can influence the in the form of impoverishment of school subjects and replacing a based education in objective scientific knowledge by training in structural affinity with the changing demands of contemporary capitalism. In this sense, we put in question the concept of Teacher Professional Identity, questioning his prerogative as a way of overcoming the crisis brought by the changes of capitalism. Understanding it as a way to adapt the demands imposed by this productive dynamic, discuss their theoretical bases, putting on suspicion the concept of identity. Lastly we discuss the failure of the identity of the teacher limited to his professional particularity and the historical necessity of the apprehension of universality of educational work for teacher training
Doutor

This collection of work grew from a guided journey and an exploration of ideas that has not only encouraged my growth as an artist, but as a responsible citizen sharing this world with others. Over the duration of this evolution I have become increasingly attentive to what I feel is our collective manufactured existence; the things that we produce and the influence that this production has on our lives. From the built environment, material and immaterial commodities, advertising and marketing, consumption, sustainability, etc., all these continuously shifting factors act as constants in our lives and shape our psychosocial development. To better understand this, I have delved into looking at both myself and others for evidence of the various effects from living in a consumer culture. Drawing also from extensive research in the history of as well as contemporary theories on production, mass media culture, addiction, exploitation of people and resources, and the growth of technology, I look to increase not only my own awareness on these subjects, but to also educate others. My process of making work is a meditation in order to better facilitate inspection intertwined with introspection. A finished piece becomes an externalization of this effort, but not as a conclusion. The various mixed media included in All These Things is the culmination of an ongoing search that encourages conversation and further evaluation of our roles in a commodity culture. By coming at this multi-faceted topic from different directions, I am offering a radial view into the many possible considerations for what it means to be a consumer and how this affects us all.

Memoria (licenciado en ciencias jurídicas y sociales)
Este trabajo tiene como objetivo principal pensar la posibilidad de la justicia, presentando y criticando el proyecto de la Dra. Adela Cortina. El primer momento de esta investigación, se sitúa en historia de la filosofía, donde se explica la posible relación entre la ética, la economía y la justicia. El segundo momento, explicara el proyecto de justicia de Adela Cortina. Finalmente se realiza una crítica para poder esbozar un proyecto de participación -económica- radical.

The author of the monograph, written on the original material, restores the classical scientific social philosophy, which allows the means of dialectical methodology and materialism in sociology to predict the end of the prehistory of antagonistic epochs and the beginning of the true history of a single humanity. The new industrialization at the moment of transition from prehistory to history creates civilizational neo-industrialism as a dialectical synthesis of traditional civilization and progressive formation in the form of new socialism. The global project of neo-industrialism civilizes humanity — saves it from barbarism, wars, social inequality, and the destruction of nature. In historical Russia, civilizing development is realized at the expense of new industrialization and the solution of general democratic tasks with the transition to post-capitalist tasks. Conceptually, civilizational neo-industrialism acts as the fifth world theory, which makes it possible to understand the future of the dialectic of new social forces in the transition from prehistory to history. It is of interest to postgraduates, researchers and a wide range of readers in order to determine the worldview position, clarify the philosophical base of science and search for scientists, understand the dialectics of social existence and social consciousness.

This chapter identifies a materiality of social bonds that is not reducible to the logic of exchange value between alienated subjects. It analyses different forms of relationship of the human body to the milieu, following Marcel Mauss’s techniques of the body and André Leroi-Gourhan’s definitions of evolution. The producing body, it is argued, does more than only embody norms in a process of subjectivation. The externalization of the body in gestures cannot be reduced, therefore, to the evolutionary level that produces ethnic and social norms.

Uno de los autores más prolíficos de las últimas décadas es sin duda Slavoj Žižek. Su propuesta política, se aleja de las posturas habituales de la izquierda, centradas en la defensa de lógicas de la diversidad, y propone la recuperación de un materialismo dialéctico fuerte, fundamentado en su lectura lacaniana de Hegel. Es importante, a mi parecer, analizar por un lado, la consistencia teórica de la versión del materialismo dialéctico propuesto por Žižek, pero no es menos importante, por el otro, responder a la cuestión acerca de «¿qué política debería defender hoy en día un materialista dialéctico?», pues reside en estos dos puntos la viabilidad de su pensamiento. En primer lugar, Žižek trata de posicionarse como materialista pero conservando la posibilidad de la acción política, lo que equivale a no caer, por un lado en un determinismo naturalista tan de moda hoy en día por parte de posiciones neurocientíficas, constructivistas y cognitivistas. Pero también se desvincula del materialismo dialéctico ortodoxo, al cual se refiere como la «perspectiva del juicio final». En segundo lugar, la respuesta del esloveno a la pregunta de qué acción política cabe desde el materialismo dialéctico, sin bien es en ocasiones ambigua, especialmente en su pretensión de recuperación del leninismo, parece apuntar a posiciones político–teológicas negativas, en el sentido del famoso lema del Bartleby de Melbille que Žižek hace suyo: «preferiría no hacerlo». No se trata de una re–fundación de cierta resistencia pasiva, sino que la apuesta Zizekiana tiene más que ver con la construcción de subjetividades capaces de romper con la seducción fetichista del capitalismo, punto en el cual el filósofo esloveno reivindica la herencia marxista, aunque reformulándola y ampliándola. Para Žižek, el fetichismo capitalista, delimitado inicialmente por Marx, abarca prácticamente la totalidad de las prácticas colectivas e institucionales, pero no sólo aquellas que se realizan desde un evidente componente libidinal del capitalismo, sino también aquellos procesos de construcción identitaria que nos permiten pensarnos nosotros mismos a distancia de tales fetiches. El materialismo dialéctico que propone, tiene la pretensión de traducirse en la construcción de subjetividades políticas que, tal como el Judío Job estaba dispuesto a experimentar la impotencia divina, se dispongan a reconocer que el capitalismo ya no tiene nada que ofrecernos.

El término industria cultural nos remite directamente tanto a elementos estéticos como políticos. Los cambios materiales que tuvieron lugar en el siglo XIX y XX produjeron un cambio cualitativo en la forma de producir y recibir arte. Frente a algunas posiciones más favorables a estos cambios, como la de Walter Benjamin, Adorno y Horkheimer criticaron los efectos políticos y sociales que esta industria cultural tienen para las sociedades. Como leemos en Dialéctica de la Ilustración, estos nuevos métodos artísticos forman parte del mismo sistema capitalista que rechaza aprovechar la técnica para cuestiones sociales como acabar con el hambre. Partiendo de este análisis, pretendemos mostrar tres consecuencias políticas fundamentales que nos permitirán entender mejor la relación entre estética y política. Por un lado, el ocio como extensión del trabajo, convirtiéndose el primero en el nuevo opio del pueblo. Por otro lado, el papel que la publicidad desempeña en las sociedades, que ayuda a mantener la distancia entre lo que somos y lo que queremos ser, así como convertir la elección de consumo en un sustitutivo de la democracia. Por último, la obligación de estar al día, repetir mecánicamente las palabras que todos pronuncian y, en definitiva, hacer lo que todos hacen, muestra la capacidad de exclusión social de la industria cultural de aquellas personas que no se someten al sistema hegemónico. También se tendrán en cuenta los cambios producidos en los últimos años, en los que el neoliberalismo ha hecho todo lo posible por propagar un arte social, incluso crítico, consiguiendo convertir estas prácticas, que anteriormente podíamos considerar disidentes, en inofensivas para el sistema, lo que Alberto Santamaría ha catalogado como “alta cultura descafeinada”, y que haría referencia a los mecanismos de absorción y asimilación que el capitalismo posee. No obstante, frente a este poder cuasi omnicomprensivo que desempeña la industria cultural, el propio arte será el que nos dé algunas herramientas para combatir al sistema dominante. Si el arte supone una crítica de lo existente, podrá mostrarnos aquello que todavía no es, pero puede llegar a ser. Esto es, mostraremos la función del arte como herramienta crítica frente al orden hegemónico, abriendo nuevas vías y caminos intransitados; en definitiva, su capacidad para, como refiere Eduardo Galeano en “La función del arte/1”, ayudarnos a mirar, tanto lo que ya es como lo que puede llegar a ser.

Diante de todas as medidas de isolamento social provocadas pela pandemia do Coronavírus, o presente artigo busca relacionar os efeitos desta crise com o cenário da crise estrutural do capital dentro da ótima do neoliberalismo no Brasil. Enfoca-se as premissas fundamentais da ordem capitalista neoliberal e seus efeitos para a educação pública brasileira, destacando a formação oferecida nos Institutos Federais. Diante da possibilidade do uso da educação a distância como forma de trabalho das instituições federais, serão analisados dados do Ministério da Educação e de pesquisas relacionadas ao acesso à recursos digitais. Embasada em referências do materialismo histórico dialético, a pesquisa sinaliza para os riscos da privatização, da flexibilização e de relações precárias de trabalho na educação, enfatizando a necessidade do desenvolvimento de novas formas de sociabilidade no período pós-pandemia.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar através da Análise de Discurso Critica, os documentos do Programa Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Técnico e Emprego (PRONATEC) e as orientações do Banco Mundial. Mediante a crescente desigualdade social, pobreza e a exclusão que se instauram cada vez mais em nome do desenvolvimento econômico, há a necessidade de invocar ilusoriamente conceitos como os que sustentam o PRONATEC, com o objetivo de internalização de uma nova cultura de conformação, fragmentação e despolitização dos grupos subalternos, uma vez que a base capitalista em que se materializam essas políticas não possui a pretensão de reformas estruturais, mas de mudanças pontuais que são colocadas como se fossem de interesse universal, quando na realidade mascaram interesses da minoria dominante.

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee uses a liquid mercury target that is bombarded with protons to produce a pulsed neutron beam for materials research and development. In order to mitigate expected cavitation damage erosion (CDE) of the containment vessel, a two-phase flow arrangement of the target has been proposed and was earlier proven to be effective in significantly reducing CDE in non-prototypical target bodies. This arrangement involves covering the beam “window”, through which the high-energy proton beam passes, with a protective layer of gas. The difficulty lies in establishing a stable gas/liquid interface that is oriented vertically with the window and holds up to the strong buoyancy force and the turbulent mercury flow field. Three approaches to establishing the gas wall have been investigated in isothermal mercury/gas testing on a prototypical geometry and flow: (1) free gas layer approach, (2) porous wall approach, and (3) surface-modified approach. The latter two of these approaches show success in that a stabilized gas layer is produced. Both of these successful approaches capitalize on the high surface energy of liquid mercury by increasing the surface area of the solid wall, thus increasing gas hold up at the wall. In this paper, a summary of these experiments and findings is presented as well as a description of the path forward toward incorporating the stabilized gas layer approach into a feasible gas/mercury SNS target design.

(A)topia(s) se propone como una investigación basada en arte. Es un proceso de indagación que a través de la práctica artística trata de reflexionar sobre ciertas formas de malestar deslocalizado de la sociedad actual. Se recurre al concepto de atopía como metáfora de una reacción hipersensible, que surge como respuesta (individual o social) frente a diversos estímulos ambientales que caracterizan el contexto de la globalización. Lo atópico alude a lugares inespecíficos, cambiantes y de difícil localización, pero cuyas reacciones se encarnan en situaciones concretas y particulares. (A)topia(s) se inicia en 2006 como un diario gráfico y textual que exploraba territorios difusos entre lo documental y la ficción, de forma lúdica, crítica y reflexiva. Posteriormente se van ampliando los medios de experimentación visual: objetualizando los textos, construyendo objetos y explorando posibilidades gráficas y narrativas audiovisuales. Este proceso de experimentación práctica se desarrolla de forma paralela a la investigación y definición de un glosario de conceptos clave, definitorios de la sociedad globalizada y que tiene como rasgo común su difícil localización y su condición de invisibilidad, como son: poder, capitalismo, precariedad, miedo, vigilancia, censura, amor, deseo, libertad, conocimiento. (A)topia(s) se plantea como una experimentación crítica de resistencia, posicionándose desde el hacer y asumiendo la duda, la discontinuidad y la interferencia como aspectos clave del proceso. La materialización se concibe como parte del proceso reflexivo, prestando atención a lo cercano, poco visible o infravalorado, como los objetos cotidianos, los materiales débiles y los actos mínimos. El proceso experimental se ha centrado metodológicamente en la exploración del tránsito ente medios, las posibilidades simbólicas y narrativas del “montaje” y el desarrollo de estrategias audiovisuales de invisibilización como recursos disruptivos del discurso.http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ANIAV.2017.6138

Increased research into the chemistry, physics and material science of hydrogen cycling compounds has led to the rapid growth of solid-phase hydrogen-storage options. The operating conditions of these new options span a wide range: system temperature can be as low as 70K or over 600K, system pressure varies from less than 100kPa to 35MPa, and heat loads can be moderate or can be measured in megawatts. While the intense focus placed on storage materials has been appropriate, there is also a need for research in engineering, specifically in containment, heat transfer, and controls. The DOE’s recently proposed engineering center of expertise underscores the growing understanding that engineering research will play a role in the success of advanced hydrogen storage systems. Engineering a hydrogen system will minimally require containment of the storage media and control of the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation processes, but an elegant system design will compensate for the storage media’s weaker aspects and capitalize on its strengths. To achieve such a complete solution, the storage tank must be designed to work with the media, the vehicle packaging, the power-plant, and the power-plant’s control system. In some cases there are synergies available that increase the efficiency of both subsystems simultaneously. In addition, system designers will need to make the hard choices needed to convert a technically feasible concept into a commercially successful product. Materials cost, assembly cost, and end of life costs will all shape the final design of a viable hydrogen storage system. Once again there is a critical role for engineering research, in this case into lower cost and higher performance engineering materials. Each form of hydrogen storage has its own, unique, challenges and opportunities for the system designer. These differing requirements stem directly from the properties of the storage media. Aside from physical containment of compressed or liquefied hydrogen, most storage media can be assigned to one of four major categories, chemical storage, metal hydrides, complex hydrides, or physisorption. Specific needs of each technology are discussed below. Physisorption systems currently operate at 77K with very fast kinetics and good gravimetric capacity; and as such, special engineering challenges center on controlling heat transfer. Excellent MLVSI is available, its cost is high and it is not readily applied to complex shape in a mass manufacture setting. Additionally, while the heat of adsorption on most physisorbents is a relatively modest 6–10kJ/mol H2, this heat must be moved up a 200K gradient. Physisorpion systems are also challenged on density. Consequently, methods for reducing the cost of producing and assembling compact, high-quality insulation, tank design to minimize heat transfer while maintaining manufacturability, improved methods of heat transfer to and from the storage media, and controls to optimize filling are areas of profitable research. It may be noted that the first two areas would also contribute to improvement of liquid hydrogen tanks. Metal hydrides are currently nearest application in the form of high pressure metal hydride tanks because of their reduced volume relative to compressed gas tanks of the same capacity and pressure. These systems typically use simple pressure controls, and have enthalpies of roughly 20kJ/mol H2 and plateau pressures of at most a few MPa. During filling, temperatures must be high enough to ensure fast kinetics, but kept low enough that the thermodynamically set plateau pressure is well below the filling pressure. To accomplish this balance the heat transfer system must handle on the order of 300kW during the 5 minute fill of a 10kg tank. These systems are also challenged on mass and the cost of the media. High value areas for research include: heat transfer inside a 35MPa rated pressure vessel, light and strong tank construction materials with reduced cost, and metals or other materials that do not embrittle in the presence of high pressure hydrogen when operated below ∼400K. The latter two topics would also have a beneficial impact on compressed gas hydrogen storage systems, the current “system to beat”. Complex hydrides frequently have high hydrogen capacity but also an enthalpy of adsorption >30kJ/mol H2, a hydrogen release temperature >370K, and in many cases multiple steps of adsorption/desorption with slow kinetics in at least one of the steps. Most complex hydrides are thermal insulators in the hydrided form. From an engineering perspective, improved methods and designs for cost effective heat transfer to the storage media in a 5 to 10MPa vessel is of significant interest, as are materials that resist embrittlement at pressures below 10MPa and temperatures below 500K. Chemical hydrides produce heat when releasing hydrogen; in some systems this can be managed with air cooling of the reactor, but in other systems that may not be possible. In general, chemical hydrides must be removed from the vehicle and regenerated off-board. They are challenged on durability and recycling energy. Engineering research of interest in these systems centers around maintaining the spent fuel in a state suitable for rapid removal while minimizing system mass, and on developing highly efficient recycling plant designs that make the most of heat from exothermic steps. While the designs of each category of storage tank will differ with the material properties, two common engineering research thrusts stand out, heat transfer and structural materials. In addition, control strategies are important to all advanced storage systems, though they will vary significantly from system to system. Chemical systems need controls primarily to match hydrogen supply to power-plant demand, including shut down. High pressure metal hydride systems will need control during filling to maintain an appropriately low plateau pressure. Complex hydrides will need control for optimal filling and release of hydrogen from materials with multi-step reactions. Even the relatively simple compressed-gas tanks require control strategies during refill. Heat transfer systems will modulate performance and directly impact cost. While issues such as thermal conductivity may not be as great as anticipated, the heat transfer system still impacts gravimetric efficiency, volumetric efficiency and cost. These are three key factors to commercial viability, so any research that improves performance or reduces cost is important. Recent work in the DOE FreedomCAR program indicates that some 14% of the system mass may be attributed to heat transfer in complex hydride systems. If this system is made to withstand 100 bar at 450K the material cost will be a meaningful portion of the total tank cost. Improvements to the basic shell and tube structures that can reduce the total mass of heat transfer equipment while maintaining good global and local temperature control are needed. Reducing the mass and cost of the materials of construction would also benefit all systems. Much has been made of the need to reduce the cost of carbon fiber in compressed tanks and new processes are being investigated. Further progress is likely to benefit any composite tank, not just compressed gas tanks. In a like fashion, all tanks have metal parts. Today those parts are made from expensive alloys, such as A286. If other structural materials could be proven suitable for tank construction there would be a direct cost benefit to all tank systems. Finally there is a need to match the system to the storage material and the power-plant. Recent work has shown there are strong effects of material properties on system performance, not only because of the material, but also because the material properties drive the tank design to be more or less efficient. Filling of a hydride tank provides an excellent example. A five minute or less fill time is desirable. Hydrogen will be supplied as a gas, perhaps at a fixed pressure and temperature. The kinetics of the hydride will dictate how fast hydrogen can be absorbed, and the thermodynamics will determine if hydrogen can be absorbed at all; both properties are temperature dependent. The temperature will depend on how fast heat is generated by absorption and how fast heat can be added or removed by the system. If the design system and material properties are not both well suited to this filling scenario the actual amount of hydrogen stored could be significantly less than the capacity of the system. Controls may play an important role as well, by altering the coolant temperature and flow, and the gas temperature and pressure, a better fill is likely. Similar strategies have already been demonstrated for compressed gas systems. Matching system capabilities to power-plant needs is also important. Supplying the demanded fuel in transients and start up are obvious requirements that both the tank system and material must be design to meet. But there are opportunities too. If the power-plant heat can be used to release hydrogen, then the efficiency of vehicle increases greatly. This efficiency comes not only from preventing hydrogen losses from supplying heat to the media, but also from the power-plant cooling that occurs. To reap this benefit, it will be important to have elegant control strategies that avoid unwanted feedback between the power-plant and the fuel system. Hydrogen fueled vehicles are making tremendous strides, as can be seen by the number and increasing market readiness of vehicles in technology validation programs. Research that improves the effectiveness and reduces the costs of heat transfer systems, tank construction materials, and control systems will play a key role in preparing advanced hydrogen storage systems to be a part of this transportation revolution.

In the context of our current planetary crises, in a world that continues to be shaped by capitalist, colonialist, androcentric and anthropocentric visions, we are faced with the urgency of reconsidering, at the deepest levels, the way we relate with other human and nonhuman beings. This working paper aims to contribute towards that end by looking at human-nonhuman relations through the concept of conviviality, understood as the everyday living together with difference, and how it intersects with inequality. In the first part of this paper, more-than-human conviviality-inequality is investigated by critically analyzing onto-epistemological and methodological approaches that question, subvert or reproduce hegemonic thinking and worldviews on humannonhuman relations like historical materialism, new materialisms, transhumanism, posthumanisms, and indigenous relational ontologies. In the second part, I look at particular relational dimensions like incompleteness, translation, and affect, which can help us create new understandings of more-than-human conviviality-inequality in Latin America and beyond.