"Wise cities" in the Mediterranean?: challenges of urban sustainability, 2018, ISBN 978-84-92511-57-0, págs. 115-122, 2018
I suggest that we examine the city as the outcome of the history of development. Thus, we ought t... more I suggest that we examine the city as the outcome of the history of development. Thus, we ought to regard Tunis as it is not as teleology, but as the outcome of choice and struggle – the outcome of history, not the object of timeless social-scientific modelling. By understanding choices made and unmade, we might better understand the choices before Tunisian policymakers today, understand which choices are not on the agenda, why they are not there, and in turn push some alternative, affordable, feasible, and real Utopias for arresting the cascade of crisis that is Tunis today.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Articles by Max Ajl
Slaheddine el-Amami carried out a path-breaking research program
at what was then the Centre de Recherche et de Génie Rural. He
wrote technical studies ranging from the agricultural capacities of the
unjustly-marked-as-barren Kerkennah Islands, to possibilities for drip
irrigation, to attempts to quantify the energy use of Tunisian
agriculture, to a wide-ranging investigation of indigenous hydraulic
systems. There is little explicit mention in this work of a then-dominant strand of heterodox Arab and Third Worldist social science–the emphasis on delinking, or removal from Western commodity,
technical and financial flows. Yet through an examination of his work
in the context of the delinking paradigm, as put forth by scholars like
Samir Amin, Fawzy Mansour and Mohamed Dowidar, I show the use
and need for independent agronomic expertise to be deployed
within analytical paradigms such as delinking, forged by heterodox
political economists. Through delinking, countries could proceed on a
path of auto-centered development. The possibility and time frame
of delinking is necessarily a socio-technical question linked to
indigenous capacities, technical and natural, and the social relations
with which they are woven. It is also a question of creating and
mobilizing a surplus in the agricultural sector. Through examining
Amami’s life’s work, I show the use and need for interdisciplinary
methods and research programs, which must braid the social and
natural sciences–if not simply take threads from each to create a
holistic knowledge–in order to arrive at appropriate developmental
programs. Such knowledge and programs were appropriate in that
they offered ways of working agriculture without capital-intense
inputs–thus resolving rather than aggravating current account
imbalances and labor surpluses. They also relied on a decentralization
of planning, based on the skills and knowledges of the direct
producers. In analyzing such knowledge, systematized in the work of
Amami, I will also show how moving from underdevelopment to
development requires a mélange of knowledges. Crucial and
neglected are those knowledges which have been developed to
inform sustainable ways of living on land-bases, in order to produce
the rural surplus which is the sine qua non of a successful move
beyond developmental malaise in the Global South. I will then link
this to the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,
Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) Synthesis Report,
showing this paradigm’s continuing relevance.
sovereignty in Southwest Asia and North Africa, and examines
some older currents resembling the food sovereignty discourse.
The author first historically situates the emergence of food
sovereignty. He discusses agro-ecology – the ‘technics’ (or social
embeddedness of technology) of food sovereignty – and its
national-popular content, before then developing elements of the
delinking paradigm. He goes on to discuss Tunisian national-popular and Third Worldist agronomists’ and economists’ efforts
to develop technics and frameworks for food sovereignty in the
1970s and 1980s. The article compares the food sovereignty
paradigm with auto-centred, self-reliant development proposals,
and the proposals of the Tunisian economists and agronomists.
Book Chapters by Max Ajl
The Research Handbook brings together thirty-three scholars of Marx, Marxism, and law from around the world to offer theoretically informed introductions to the Marxist tradition of social critique, contemporary Marxist analyses of law and rights, and future orientations of Marxist legal analysis. Chapters testify to the strength of Marxist critical tools for understanding the role of law, rights, and the state in capitalist societies.
Exploring Marxist critique across an extraordinarily wide range of scholarly disciplines, this Research Handbook is a must-read for scholars of law, politics, sociology, philosophy, and political economy who are interested in Marxism. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these and related disciplines will also benefit from the Research Handbook.
The volume is edited by Paul O'Connell (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London) and Umut Özsu (Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University).
Contributors include Max Ajl (Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Social Sciences, Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University & Research), Rémi Bachand (Professor of Law, Université du Québec à Montréal), Miriam Bak McKenna (Lecturer in Law, Lund University), Clyde W. Barrow (Professor of Political Science, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Enzo Bello (Associate Professor, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro), Bill Bowring (Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London), Honor Brabazon (Assistant Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo), Gustavo Capela (PhD Candidate in Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley), Cosmin Sebastian Cercel (Associate Professor of Law, University of Nottingham), B. S. Chimni (Distinguished Professor of International Law, OP Jindal Global University), Pablo Ciocchini (Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool), Natalia Delgado (Lecturer in Law, University of Southampton), Matthew Dimick (Professor of Law, University of Buffalo), Radha D’Souza (Reader in Law, University of Westminster), Michael Head (Professor of Law, Western Sydney University), Nate Holdren (Associate Professor of Law, Politics, and Society, Drake University), Rob Hunter (Independent Scholar, PhD in Politics, Princeton University), Talina Hürzeler (Independent Scholar, LLB, University of New South Wales), Bob Jessop (Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Lancaster), Rene José Keller (Independent Scholar, PhD in Law, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, and PhD in Social Work, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul), Rafael Khachaturian (Lecturer in Critical Writing, University of Pennsylvania), Stéfanie Khoury (Independent Scholar, PhD in Sociology of Law, Università degli Studi di Milano and Universidad del País Vasco), Dimitrios Kivotidis (Lecturer in Law, University of East London), Daniel McLoughlin (Senior Lecturer in Law, Society, and Criminology, University of New South Wales), Eva Nanopoulos (Senior Lecturer in Law, Queen Mary, University of London), August H. Nimtz (Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota), Paul O’Connell (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London), Chris O’Kane (Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Rebecca Schein (Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University), Igor Shoikhedbrod (Assistant Professor of Political Science and Law, Justice, and Society, Dalhousie University), Nimer Sultany (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London), Christine Sypnowich (Professor of Philosophy, Queen’s University), and Ahmed White (Professor of Law, University of Colorado at Boulder).
Slaheddine el-Amami carried out a path-breaking research program
at what was then the Centre de Recherche et de Génie Rural. He
wrote technical studies ranging from the agricultural capacities of the
unjustly-marked-as-barren Kerkennah Islands, to possibilities for drip
irrigation, to attempts to quantify the energy use of Tunisian
agriculture, to a wide-ranging investigation of indigenous hydraulic
systems. There is little explicit mention in this work of a then-dominant strand of heterodox Arab and Third Worldist social science–the emphasis on delinking, or removal from Western commodity,
technical and financial flows. Yet through an examination of his work
in the context of the delinking paradigm, as put forth by scholars like
Samir Amin, Fawzy Mansour and Mohamed Dowidar, I show the use
and need for independent agronomic expertise to be deployed
within analytical paradigms such as delinking, forged by heterodox
political economists. Through delinking, countries could proceed on a
path of auto-centered development. The possibility and time frame
of delinking is necessarily a socio-technical question linked to
indigenous capacities, technical and natural, and the social relations
with which they are woven. It is also a question of creating and
mobilizing a surplus in the agricultural sector. Through examining
Amami’s life’s work, I show the use and need for interdisciplinary
methods and research programs, which must braid the social and
natural sciences–if not simply take threads from each to create a
holistic knowledge–in order to arrive at appropriate developmental
programs. Such knowledge and programs were appropriate in that
they offered ways of working agriculture without capital-intense
inputs–thus resolving rather than aggravating current account
imbalances and labor surpluses. They also relied on a decentralization
of planning, based on the skills and knowledges of the direct
producers. In analyzing such knowledge, systematized in the work of
Amami, I will also show how moving from underdevelopment to
development requires a mélange of knowledges. Crucial and
neglected are those knowledges which have been developed to
inform sustainable ways of living on land-bases, in order to produce
the rural surplus which is the sine qua non of a successful move
beyond developmental malaise in the Global South. I will then link
this to the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,
Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) Synthesis Report,
showing this paradigm’s continuing relevance.
sovereignty in Southwest Asia and North Africa, and examines
some older currents resembling the food sovereignty discourse.
The author first historically situates the emergence of food
sovereignty. He discusses agro-ecology – the ‘technics’ (or social
embeddedness of technology) of food sovereignty – and its
national-popular content, before then developing elements of the
delinking paradigm. He goes on to discuss Tunisian national-popular and Third Worldist agronomists’ and economists’ efforts
to develop technics and frameworks for food sovereignty in the
1970s and 1980s. The article compares the food sovereignty
paradigm with auto-centred, self-reliant development proposals,
and the proposals of the Tunisian economists and agronomists.
The Research Handbook brings together thirty-three scholars of Marx, Marxism, and law from around the world to offer theoretically informed introductions to the Marxist tradition of social critique, contemporary Marxist analyses of law and rights, and future orientations of Marxist legal analysis. Chapters testify to the strength of Marxist critical tools for understanding the role of law, rights, and the state in capitalist societies.
Exploring Marxist critique across an extraordinarily wide range of scholarly disciplines, this Research Handbook is a must-read for scholars of law, politics, sociology, philosophy, and political economy who are interested in Marxism. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these and related disciplines will also benefit from the Research Handbook.
The volume is edited by Paul O'Connell (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London) and Umut Özsu (Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University).
Contributors include Max Ajl (Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Social Sciences, Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University & Research), Rémi Bachand (Professor of Law, Université du Québec à Montréal), Miriam Bak McKenna (Lecturer in Law, Lund University), Clyde W. Barrow (Professor of Political Science, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Enzo Bello (Associate Professor, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro), Bill Bowring (Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London), Honor Brabazon (Assistant Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo), Gustavo Capela (PhD Candidate in Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley), Cosmin Sebastian Cercel (Associate Professor of Law, University of Nottingham), B. S. Chimni (Distinguished Professor of International Law, OP Jindal Global University), Pablo Ciocchini (Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool), Natalia Delgado (Lecturer in Law, University of Southampton), Matthew Dimick (Professor of Law, University of Buffalo), Radha D’Souza (Reader in Law, University of Westminster), Michael Head (Professor of Law, Western Sydney University), Nate Holdren (Associate Professor of Law, Politics, and Society, Drake University), Rob Hunter (Independent Scholar, PhD in Politics, Princeton University), Talina Hürzeler (Independent Scholar, LLB, University of New South Wales), Bob Jessop (Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Lancaster), Rene José Keller (Independent Scholar, PhD in Law, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, and PhD in Social Work, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul), Rafael Khachaturian (Lecturer in Critical Writing, University of Pennsylvania), Stéfanie Khoury (Independent Scholar, PhD in Sociology of Law, Università degli Studi di Milano and Universidad del País Vasco), Dimitrios Kivotidis (Lecturer in Law, University of East London), Daniel McLoughlin (Senior Lecturer in Law, Society, and Criminology, University of New South Wales), Eva Nanopoulos (Senior Lecturer in Law, Queen Mary, University of London), August H. Nimtz (Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota), Paul O’Connell (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London), Chris O’Kane (Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Rebecca Schein (Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University), Igor Shoikhedbrod (Assistant Professor of Political Science and Law, Justice, and Society, Dalhousie University), Nimer Sultany (Reader in Law, SOAS, University of London), Christine Sypnowich (Professor of Philosophy, Queen’s University), and Ahmed White (Professor of Law, University of Colorado at Boulder).
food import dependency – a world systemic process. The chapter traces how remittances levered Yemen into an irrigation system that
uses motors to withdraw water from aquifers, and shows how higher wages and the qat economy lubricated this shift. It highlights how
diesel subsidies have become a catalyst for the degradation of traditional irrigation, a mechanism of rural social differentiation, and a means for society-wide differentiation and the denial of development. The chapter concludes by discussing additional exacerbating factors, including ongoing external aggression, and comments on policies to cease and eventually reverse the social and ecological de-development of Yemen’s agricultural system, and the country itself.
of development. Thus, we ought to regard Tunis as it is not
as teleology, but as the outcome of choice and struggle – the outcome
of history, not the object of timeless social-scientific modelling. By
understanding choices made and unmade, we might better understand
the choices before Tunisian policymakers today, understand which
choices are not on the agenda, why they are not there, and in turn push
some alternative, affordable, feasible, and real Utopias for arresting the
cascade of crisis that is Tunis today.