Anything but a story foretold

Sugarcane and oil palm agribusinesses are in the vanguard of an emergent project of agrarian capitalism in Guatemala, which is defined here as a financialized and flexible type of agrarian extractivism. Meanwhile, Maya-Q´eqchi´ residents of the northern lowlands believe that the changes in the labor regime, land relations and the agroecosystem that the expansion of these agribusinesses has brought threaten their subsistence in multiple and unfamiliar ways. Indeed, growing difficulties in dealing with (vital) grievances is leading many, even those who initially welcomed the corporate sugarcane and oil palm plantations, to transform their unrest into a practice of resistance. Elaborating on what is presented here as a multiple politics perspective, this contribution discusses the nature and character of such contemporary political dynamics of agrarian change. The forms, strategies and practices of the two main and most antagonistic repertoires of contention are explored here: the one in ‘defense of territory’ and the one in the promotion of the ‘agrarian extractivist project’. The tensions across and within multiple corporate, state and social actors who are pushing for, resisting, complying with or operating at the most violent margins of the agrarian extractivist project are also examined. By assessing continuities and ruptures between current and previous cycles of contention around the control of land, water and other natural resources, this paper stresses the often forgotten lesson about trajectories of agrarian change not being a story foretold, but the product of multiple and dynamic politics

Can optical spectroscopy directly elucidate the ground state of C20?

The optical response of the lowest energy members of the C20 family is calculated using time-dependent density functional theory within a real-space, real-time scheme. Significant differences are found among the spectra of the different isomers, and thus we propose optical spectroscopy as a tool for experimental investigation of the structure of these important clusters.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. To be published in J. Chem. Phy

The discursive flexibility of ‘flex crops’

‘Flex crops’ such as corn, oil palm and soy are understood to have multiple, interchangeable uses; they have material flexibility. We propose that discursive flexibility – the ability to strategically switch between discourses to promote an objective – equally shapes the political economy of flex crops, and thereby patterns of agrarian and environmental change. Comparing oil palm and Jatropha curcas, we find that actors who cast oil palm as a multi-scale solution to food and energy insecurity, climate change and (rural) poverty successfully reinforce its high material flexibility. Jatropha’s proponents compensate for low material flexibility by positioning the crop as a ‘sustainable’ energy source that achieves both global and local goals. While this paper focuses on discourses that reinforce the oil palm and jatropha projects, understanding the power of discursiv

La intervención del derecho de patronazgo en las disputas entre jurisdicciones eclesiásticas: la colegiata de Aguilar de Campoo y el arzobispo de Burgos en 1748

The present paper is an attempt to underscore a question that affected all levels of the Church’s structure: jurisdictional conflicts. In this case, we shall focus on one of the critical junctures in the tension existing between the Collegiate Church of Aguilar de Campoo and the Burgos’ bishopric. Although both institutions quarrelled about jurisdictional issues during most of the Modern Era, there were moments when the level of violence reached such degree that called for the intervention of different judicial authorities and, at last, for the intervention of the lay patron of the Collegiate Church, the only one who could fix the difficult situation.Con este trabajo se pretende poner de relieve una realidad que afectaba a todos los niveles jerárquicos del organigrama de la Iglesia: los conflictos jurisdiccionales. En este caso concreto se presenta uno de los puntos álgidos de la tensión vivida entre la colegiata de Aguilar de Campoo y la mitra burgalesa. Aunque ambas instituciones estuvieron enfrentadas por cuestiones jurisdiccionales durante buena parte de la Edad Moderna, hubo momentos en que los acontecimientos alcanzaron cotas de violencia que hizo necesaria la intervención de diferentes autoridades judiciales y, finalmente, de la figura del patrón laico de la colegial, que fue el único capaz de reconducir la situación

The Rise of Agro-Extractive Capitalism : insights from Guatemala in the early 21st century

Research question: _How does early 21st-century resource extractivism shape directions of agro-environmental change, and with what implications for whom?_ In this research, addressing this main research question involves dealing with two research subquestions: _i) What are the social relations of production in the Guatemalan flex cane and palm complexes in the early 21st century? ii) What are the politics of agro-environmental change in Guatemala during the convergent world crises conjuncture?

Two new power indices based on winning coalitions

Deegan and Packel (1979) and Holler (1982) proposed two power indices for simple games: the Deegan–Packel index and the Public Good Index. In the definition of these indices, only minimal winning coalitions are taken into account. Using similar arguments, we define two new power indices. These new indices are defined taking into account only those winning coalitions that do not contain null players. The results obtained with the different power indices are compared by means of two real-world examples taken from the political field

Une approche formelle pour la génération d'analyseurs de langages naturels

[Abstract] Un processus d'analyse syntaxique et d'annotation efficace est déterminante dans l'élaboration de structures d'analyse de langages naturels. Ce papier introduit un environnement de programmation permettant l'implémentation du support formel des langages naturels depuis deux points de vue, analyse syntaxique et annotation. Le problème de l'analyse syntaxique se pose dans le domaine de l'analyse de grammaires algébriques sans restrictions, et celui de l'annotation dans le contexte des automates finis non déterministes. L'analyseur syntaxique prends en entrée un texte arbitraire, suivant la structure désignée par une grammaire algébrique. La structure de la forêt partagée résultante est étudiée par rapport à l'optimisation du partage syntaxique, de façon à favoriser l'élimination des ambigüités pendant le processus sémantique. Les automates à états finis sont utilisés comme formalisme opérationnel pour annoter les corpora de façon efficace, spécialement pour les langages autres que l'Anglais, pour lesquels l'analyse morphologique a une relevance accrue. Les deux activités, analyse syntaxique et annotation, sont intégrées dans un même outil, qui a pour nom Galena (pour Generador de Analizadores para Lenguages Naturales), fournissant l'incrémentalité comme fonctionnalité favorisant la réutilisabilité des composantes d'un point de vue génie logiciel.Xunta de Galcia; XUGA10501A9

Understanding the two-dimensional ionization structure in luminous infrared galaxies. A near-IR integral field spectroscopy perspective

We investigate the 2D excitation structure of the ISM in a sample of LIRGs and Seyferts using near-IR IFS. This study extends to the near-IR the well-known optical and mid-IR emission line diagnostics used to classify activity in galaxies. Based on the spatially resolved spectroscopy of prototypes, we identify in the [FeII]1.64/Br$\gamma$ - H_2 1-0S(1)/Br$\gamma$ plane regions dominated by the different heating sources, i.e. AGNs, young MS massive stars, and evolved stars i.e. supernovae. The ISM in LIRGs occupy a wide region in the near-IR diagnostic plane from -0.6 to +1.5 and from -1.2 to +0.8 (in log units) for the [FeII]/Br$\gamma$ and H_2/Br$\gamma$ line ratios, respectively. The corresponding median(mode) ratios are +0.18(0.16) and +0.02(-0.04). Seyferts show on average larger values by factors ~2.5 and ~1.4 for the [FeII]/Br$\gamma$ and H_2/Br$\gamma$ ratios, respectively. New areas and relations in the near-IR diagnostic plane are defined for the compact, high surface brightness regions dominated by AGN, young ionizing stars, and SNe explosions, respectively. In addition, the diffuse regions affected by the AGN radiation field cover an area similar to that of Seyferts, but with high values in [FeII]/Br$\gamma$ that are not as extreme. The extended, non-AGN diffuse regions cover a wide area in the diagnostic diagram that overlaps that of individual excitation mechanisms (i.e. AGN, young stars, and SNe), but with its mode value to that of the young SF clumps. This indicates that the excitation conditions of the diffuse ISM are likely due to a mixture of the different ionization sources. The integrated line ratios in LIRGs show higher excitation conditions i.e. towards AGNs, than those measured by the spatially resolved spectroscopy. If this behaviour is representative, it would have clear consequences when classifying high-z, SF galaxies based on their near-IR integrated spectra.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Inquiring into the political economy of oil palm as a global flex crop

Oil palm production and consumption, and the trade of its multiple commodities, have expanded exponentially in recent decades. This paper argues that this expansion will continue due to, and along with, the rise of ‘flexing’ among its increasing multiple uses, especially for more industrial and energy purposes. Oil palm has been extensively analysed in the context of land grabs and agrarian change, land conversion and deforestation. However, its nature as a flex crop remains unexplored, especially with respects to the convergence of global food, fuel and environmental crises. This paper provides a preliminary discussion of how oil palm fits in the flex-crop framework to analyse its enabling material and ideational bases, as well as who informs, decides and controls the nature of flexing. This is done through an analysis of the different roles played by state, corporate (private) and social actors in the flexing of oil palm across the globe. We conclude by drawing some implications for further research