The use of case studies in researching the conversion to organic farming systems

This poster reviews the use of case studies in studying farms converting to organic production. Particular reference is made to the 'Conversion to organic field vegetable production' project, which is making use of case studies. Case studies facilitate an in depth analysis of a farm during the conversion to organic production and enable researchers and farmers to gain a greater understanding of the complex changes that take place. Case studies also provide a valuable tool for disseminating the result

Genome-wide dynamics of a bacterial response to antibiotics that target the cell envelope.

BACKGROUND: A decline in the discovery of new antibacterial drugs, coupled with a persistent rise in the occurrence of drug-resistant bacteria, has highlighted antibiotics as a diminishing resource. The future development of new drugs with novel antibacterial activities requires a detailed understanding of adaptive responses to existing compounds. This study uses Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) as a model system to determine the genome-wide transcriptional response following exposure to three antibiotics (vancomycin, moenomycin A and bacitracin) that target distinct stages of cell wall biosynthesis. RESULTS: A generalised response to all three antibiotics was identified which involves activation of transcription of the cell envelope stress sigma factor σ(E), together with elements of the stringent response, and of the heat, osmotic and oxidative stress regulons. Attenuation of this system by deletion of genes encoding the osmotic stress sigma factor σ(B) or the ppGpp synthetase RelA reduced resistance to both vancomycin and bacitracin. Many antibiotic-specific transcriptional changes were identified, representing cellular processes potentially important for tolerance to each antibiotic. Sensitivity studies using mutants constructed on the basis of the transcriptome profiling confirmed a role for several such genes in antibiotic resistance, validating the usefulness of the approach. CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic inhibition of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis induces both common and compound-specific transcriptional responses. Both can be exploited to increase antibiotic susceptibility. Regulatory networks known to govern responses to environmental and nutritional stresses are also at the core of the common antibiotic response, and likely help cells survive until any specific resistance mechanisms are fully functional.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Towards a new dialectics of dependency theory

Dependency theory is arguably the most important theoretical tradition to emerge from Latin America. Functioning as a vital source of counter-representation and contestation, it challenged the prevailing developmental orthodoxies of the time. During its heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s it served simultaneously to critique prevailing power relations within the global political economy and as a political programme for domestic and regional transformation, defined in terms of self-determination and political autonomy. However, with the broader crisis of developmentalism in the 1970s, a counter movement to the radicalism of dependency analysis was provided by authoritarian populism. The victory of authoritarian populism helped contribute to the death of Third Worldism as a political project and with it, dependency theory fell into decline. In the current conjuncture, this paper calls for a new dialectics of dependency theory. A reinvigorated dependency critique is needed to address the prevailing developmentalism of the left in Latin America that has remained in thrall to extractivism and thus continues the region’s peripheral role as a commodity exporter to the Global North, built on the foundations of cheap nature and cheap labour. Furthermore, a dependency-informed analysis is required to challenge contemporary modes of authoritarian populism and statism that are being celebrated geopolitically in the form of the BRICS grouping. To do so, I make the case for considering dependency theory as a radical contribution to the literature on the production of space

Lost in space: Putting the transnational state in its place

This article explores the notion of a transnational state (TNS) as advanced by scholars working within Historical Materialism. In recent decades, Historical Materialist approaches to the Social Sciences have enjoyed a major intellectual renaissance. Fittingly, the reasons for this renaissance can be found in some major developments within contemporary capitalism. The first of these developments can be located in a renewed interest in the topic of imperialism as an interpretive category of geopolitics, especially following military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The second development concerns the viability of the capitalist system itself - or at least its neoliberal iteration - following the global financial crisis of 2007/8. One major attempt to comprehend these issues has come through the postulation of an emergent TNS apparatus as part of a new global capital relation. This article explores this thesis but argues that it fails to adequately account for continued plurality, contingency and struggle at the nation-state scale which in turn provides the basis for potential conflict

Building a Digital History of Canada

We were delighted when the CHA Bulletin invited us to write a brief description of our electronic history project, Canada, Confederation to Present. The project has consumed our lives for the better part of the last three years. It has been a fascinating rime, requiring us to meet challenges we never contemplated when we began our history careers. In addition to learning the obvious technical and design skills, we have had to become adept at fundraising in a mixed public-private environment and at business and project management

A Gramscian conjuncture in Latin America? Reflections on violence, ideology and geographies of difference

This article addresses whether the concepts of Antonio Gramsci still “travel” to Latin America. During the 20th century, Gramsci was one of the most important social theorists invoked to understand forms of social order in Latin America, as well as providing resources to reflect upon subaltern culture, resistance and the construction of alternatives. However, over the past two decades there have been several theoretical and practical challenges to the hegemony of Gramsci. These challenges are multifarious, but can be reduced to several important contentions that are explored in this article. These include the enduring role of violence, the alleged decline of ideology and finally the challenge of state‐centrism in the face of geographical difference. In the current regional conjuncture, marked by the return to power of right‐wing social forces, I therefore examine whether Gramscian concepts are still apposite for understanding the political economy of Latin America in the 21st century

The urban revolution(s) in Latin America: Reinventing Utopia

This chapter explores Lefebvre’s key ideas about class struggle taking place through the production of space. It does so by examining the transition from import-substitution industrialisation (ISI) to neoliberalism in Latin America using his spatial triad as a key tool of research. Moreover, it subsequently explores the contestation of neoliberalism in the region by subaltern classes, examining how this can be linked to Lefebvre’s broader notions of differential space, urban revolt and autogestion

Between Pachakuti and passive revolution: The search for post-colonial sovereignty in Bolivia

From the period 2000-2005, Bolivia experienced a profound political convulsion as social movements rose-up to contest the neoliberal model of development.  This was most markedly inspired by contestation over the control of natural resources, namely water and gas. The period of mobilisation brought down two successive governments and propelled the MAS, led by Evo Morales, to power in 2006.  This period also helped to revalorise indigenous culture and held out hope for a reimagining of power, politics and political economy. The transformation that would result from this uprising, effectively re-founded Bolivia as a ‘pluri-national state’, recognising 36 separate national groups with their own languages and cultures. This was, furthermore, a process based on the convergence of national-popular and indigenous struggles. However, following his disputed election for a fourth successive term in office, Evo Morales and other key leaders of the MAS have gone into exile, while right-wing, revanchist social forces are seemingly in the ascendency. How do we begin to make sense of this turn of events, which include the swirling combinations of reactionary capitalist interests but also left-indigenous critiques of development from marginalised sectors? In this article, I argue that we need to situate indigenous social movements in the struggle between Pachakuti (an Andean term referring to the desire to turn the world upside down and forge a new time and space) and passive revolution (a state-led process of modernisation that seeks to expand capitalist social relations whilst incorporating limited demands from below, ultimately diffusing their radical potential)

Spaces of capital/spaces of resistance: Mexico and the global political economy

Since 1994, Mexico has seen a proliferation of largely indigenous social movements asserting their right to land and territory, most notably within the southern part of the country. This thesis seeks to analyse why this has been the case by placing these movements within a theory of the production of space, and examining its role within the global political economy. It is submitted that events in southern Mexico can be explained as a clash between two distinct spatial projects; the spaces of capital on the one hand, and the spaces of resistance on the other. In order to make this argument, the inherent expansionary logic of capitalism as a mode of production is rendered, and it is detailed how the search for profit leads to constant alteration in socio-spatial relations. Using this framework, changes within the realm of production since the 1970s are investigated to reveal new socio-economic geographies, and the central role of class struggle in this process is asserted. The insertion of Latin America into global circuits of accumulation is then examined in relation to these arguments before the specific example of Mexico is turned to. Gramsci's concepts of passive revolution and hegemony are then deployed in order to analyse how spatial developments have been accomplished in Mexico though processes of state and class formation. Lastly, two regional case studies of the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas are explored in light of these theoretical contentions. These states serve to highlight not only the means by which capital is currently seeking to expand accumulation, but also underline the conflicts that arise from this process as new spaces of resistance have emerged that seeks to contest and remake space in radically new ways

Passive revolution: a universal concept with geographical seats

In this article, I argue that Antonio Gramsci’s concept of passive revolution makes a foundational contribution to International Relations (IR), yet has been relatively under appreciated by the broader discipline. Within the Historical Sociology of International Relations, uneven and combined development has recently been postulated as a key trans-historical law that provides a social theory of the ‘international’. Drawing from, but moving beyond these debates, I will argue that passive revolution is a key conditioning factor of capitalist modernity. I will demonstrate how the concept of passive revolution is the element that explains the connection between the universal process of uneven development and the manner in which specific combinations occur within the capitalist era as geo-political pressures, in tandem with domestic social forces become internalised into geographically specific state forms. It therefore offers a corrective to the frequently aspatial view that is found in much of the literature in IR regarding uneven and combined development. Additionally, passive revolution provides a more politicised understanding of the present as well as an important theoretical lesson in relation to what needs to be done to affect alternative trajectories of development