Trabajo desnudo: poniendo a trabajar a Agamben

The article begins by exploring how the concept of "bare life" can be applied to labour in general (redefined as "naked labour") when the coercive conditions and regulatory techniques in which the production process is based are disclosed. It will be mentioned for this purpose, the way in which the labour became "naked" in the new production sites in the global South and in the work of undocumented migrants in Europe, studying how the concept of naked labour can provide more general explanatory framework for the world of labour in capitalist social orders. Our conclusion will argue that a reorientation of "bare life" to labour can take Marx's alienation theory -and contribute to its development. An expanded concept of alienation can allow us to link death and occupational disease to an extended process that eradicates the ability to live or to be human being, and help us design strategies of resistance to a deadly working conditions and dehumanizing produced by law.El artículo comienza explorando cómo puede aplicarse el concepto de vida desnuda al trabajo en general (redefinido como “trabajo desnudo”) cuando se desvelan las condiciones coercitivas y las técnicas regulatorias en las que se basa el proceso productivo. Se aludirá, para ello, a la forma en que el trabajo “se desnuda” en los nuevos enclaves de producción del Sur global y en el trabajo de los migrantes indocumentados en Europa, estudiando cómo ese concepto de trabajo desnudo puede dar un marco explicativo más general para el mundo del trabajo en los órdenes sociales capitalistas. Nuestra conclusión defenderá que una reorientación de la “vida desnuda” al trabajo puede aprovechar la teoría de la alienación de Marx – y contribuir a su desarrollo. Un concepto ampliado de alienación puede permitirnos vincular la muerte y la enfermedad laboral a un proceso ampliado que erradica la capacidad de vivir o de ser humano, así como ayudarnos a diseñar estrategias de resistencia a unas condiciones laborales mortales y deshumanizadoras producidas por el derecho.El artículo comienza explorando cómo puede aplicarse el concepto de vida desnuda al trabajo en general (redefinido como “trabajo desnudo”) cuando se desvelan las condiciones coercitivas y las técnicas regulatorias en las que se basa el proceso productivo. Se aludirá, para ello, a la forma en que el trabajo “se desnuda” en los nuevos enclaves de producción del Sur global y en el trabajo de los migrantes indocumentados en Europa, estudiando cómo ese concepto de trabajo desnudo puede dar un marco explicativo más general para el mundo del trabajo en los órdenes sociales capitalistas. Nuestra conclusión defenderá que una reorientación de la “vida desnuda” al trabajo puede aprovechar la teoría de la alienación de Marx – y contribuir a su desarrollo. Un concepto ampliado de alienación puede permitirnos vincular la muerte y la enfermedad laboral a un proceso ampliado que erradica la capacidad de vivir o de ser humano, así como ayudarnos a diseñar estrategias de resistencia a unas condiciones laborales mortales y deshumanizadoras producidas por el derecho

It's common sense, stupid! Corporate crime and techniques of neutralization in the automobile industry

This paper evaluates the usefulness of ‘techniques of neutralization’ and ‘denial’ theory for understanding how corporations respond to accusations of wrong-doing and criminal behaviour. It does so with reference to three recent cases in the automobile industry that have each been the subject of extended public outrage and regulatory response (the case of the Fiat Chrysler exploding Jeeps, the Toyota recall following a series of ‘uncontrollable acceleration’ incidents and Volkswagen’s emissions fraud). The paper shows how in each of those systematic cases, corporate strategies were based upon the systematic deception of the public and systematic attempts to resist any recall to safeguard consumers. It then uses those cases as a focus of analysis for reframing ‘techniques of neutralization’ theory in a form that takes account of the immense social, economic and political power held by corporations and foregrounding the hegemonic role played by corporations in shaping ‘common sense’ understandings of the world

Agrarian change in lowland scotland in the Seventeenth Century

This study considers the changes which occurred in the agrarian economy of Lowland Scotland during the seventeenth century. It tests the two hypotheses which have formed the basis of all previous work on Scottish agriculture. The first of these, which has been generally accepted until recently, was that prior to the Agricultural Revolution in the eighteenth century, Scottish agriculture was in a backward state. Farming was considered to have'been at a subsistence level and to have been stagnant, if not actually in decline, during the seventeenth century. The second hypothesis, which has only been formulated in recent years and which was not backed by a large body of evidence, stated, that there had been a significant degree of development in Scottish agriculture during this period. The limitations of previous work are first examined and the most likely source material for a study of seventeenth century agriculture in Scotland is identified. The delimitation of the study area and the time period are then discussed. Using the sources which have proved to be most informative, a series of themes is then developed. Each chapter considers a different aspect of the agrarian economy in which development can be demonstrated. In each chapter, the significance of the theme is discussed and previous ideas considered. Changes through time are then studied and, as far as possible, regional differences are brought out and explained. The themes are closely interrelated and, when taken together, build up a picture of dynamic change in the rural economy of Lowland Scotland during this period. The second hypothesis is thus confirmed and the first one refuted. The principal contribution of this study is towards the further understanding of the seventeenth century as a major formative period in the economic development of Scotland and secondly, to the study of the processes involved in the change from subsistence to commercial agriculture

Pre-industrial society and economy with particular reference to Scotland

This thesis comprises one book and 36 articles and chapters on the theme of pre-industrial economic and social patterns in Britain, which have been published over a period of fourteen years. The articles are presented in chronological order to demonstrate the way in which the author's ideas have developed through time. The research focuses on Scotland between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries. One of the most important themes concerns the nature of Scottish agriculture in the early modern period, its technology and practices, its regional variations and the chronology of agrarian change and improvement. Other topics include rural settlement patterns, rural housing and the structure of rural society, patterns of debt and credit, landownership and estate management, land tenure and the condition of tenant farmers, marketing and trading, the effects of climatic change on agriculture, migration and population mobility, urbanization, urban occupational and social structures, and protoindustrialization.An important element of the study is the evaluation of a range of historical sources, including estate papers, commissary court testaments, and records relating to migration which have so far received little attention, in a Scottish context, from social and economic historians. In several of the articles the author's training, as a geographer, in techniques of statistical analysis has been used to develop new ways of exploring historical data and to frame new hypotheses relating to economic and social patterns. The thesis also includes review articles relating to Scottish historical geography, Scottish rural settlement and the contributions of historical geographers to medieval studies within Britain.Taken together this material represents a significant contribution to scholarship relating to early -modern Scotland. A recurring theme throughout the thesis is the way in which detailed research by the author has demonstrated that the society and economy of Scotland between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries was more complex, more developed, more varied regionally and less primitive than has been accepted in the past. The results of the research highlight many of the ways in which Scotland developed between the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution.VOLUME I. • 1976 Rural housing in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century: the evidence of estate papers. Scottish Studies, 19, 55-68. 1977 Grain production in East Lothian in the seventeenth century. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 15, 39-47. 1978 Scottish historical geography: a review. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 94, 4-24. 1978 Was there a Scottish Agricultural Revolution? Area, 10, 203-5. 1979 Written leases and their impact on Scottish agriculture in the seventeenth century. Agricultural History Review, 27, 1-9. 1979 The evolution of rural housing in Scotland in a West European context. In P. Flatres (ed.) Paysages ruraux Europeens. Rennes. 51-68. 1979 The growth of periodic market centres in Scotland 1600-1707. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 95, 13-26. 1979 Infield-outfield farming on a seventeenth - century Scottish estate. Journal of Historical Geography, 5, 391-402. 1979 The East Lothian grain trade 1660-1707. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 16, 15-25. 1980 The emergence of the new estate structure. In M.L. Parry & T.R. Slater (eds.) The making of the Scottish countryside. Groom Helm, London, 117-36. 1981 Sources for Scottish historical geography: an introductory guide. Historical Geography Research Series, Geo Books, Norwich. 48pp. 1981 The evolution of rural settlement in Lowland Scotland in medieval and early- modern times: an exploration. Scottish Geograpical Magazine, 97, 4-15. 1981 George Dundas of Dundas: the context of an early eighteenth century Scottish improving landowner. Scottish Historical Review. 60, 1-13. 1981 The historical geography of rural settlement in Scotland: a review. Research papers series, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh. 62pp. 1981 Human responses to short- and long-term climatic fluctuations: the example of early- modern Scotland. In M.L. Parry & C. Delano -Smith (eds.) Consequences of climatic change. University of Nottingham. 17-29, 1983 Some aspects of the structure of rural society in seventeenth -century Lowland Scotland, In T.M. Devine & D, Dickson (eds.) Ireland and Scotland 1600-1850. Edinburgh, John Donald, 32-46. (With K.A. Whyte) . 1983 Regional and local variations in seventeenth-century Scottish farming: a preliminary survey of the evidence of Commissary Court testaments. Manchester Geographer, 3, 49-59. (With K.A. Whyte). 1983 Early- modern Scotland: continuity and change. In G. Whittington & I.D. Whyte (eds.) An Historical Geography of Scotland. London, Academic Press, 119-40. 1983 Scottish rural communities in the seventeenth century. Local Historian, 15, 456-63. (With K.A. Whyte).VOLUME II. • 1984 Continuity and change in a seventeenth -century Scottish farming community. Agricultural History Review, 32, 159-69. (With K.A. Whyte). 1984 Geographical mobility in a seventeenth- century Scottish rural community. Local Population Studies 32, 45-53. (With K.A. Whyte). 1985 Shielings and the upland pastoral economy of the Lake District in medieval and early- modern times. In J.R. Baldwin & I.D. Whyte (Eds.) The Scandinavians in Cumbria. Scottish Society for Northern Studies, Edinburgh, 103-18. 1985 Poisson regression analysis and migration fields: the example of the apprenticeship records of Edinburgh in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 10, 317-32. (With A.A. Lovett & K.A. Whyte.) 1986 Agriculture in Aberdeenshire in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries: continuity and change. In D. Stevenson (ed.) From lairds to loons: county and burgh life in Aberdeen 1600-1800. Aberdeen University Press, 10-31, 1986 Commissary Court testaments: a neglected source for Scottish local history. Local Historian, 17 4-10. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1987 Patterns of migration of apprentices into Aberdeen and Inverness during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 102, 81-91. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1987 The occupational structure of Scottish burghs in the late seventeenth century. In M. Lynch (ed,) The early modern town in Scotland. London, Croom Helm, 219-44. 1987 Medieval economy and society. In M. Pacione (ed.) Historical geography: progress and prospect. London. Groom Helm. 96-122. 1987 Marriage and mobility in East Lothian in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 19, 17-30. 1987 The function and social structure of Scottish burghs of barony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Proceedings of international urban history conference, Wolfenbuttel, West Germany. 1988 Debt and credit, poverty and prosperity in a seventeenth-century Scottish rural community. In P. Roebuck & R. Mitchison (eds.) Scotland and Ireland: a comparative study of develop - ment. Edinburgh, John Donald, 70-80. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1988 The geographical mobility of women in early -modern Scotland. In L. Leneman (ed.), Perspectives in Scottish social history; essays in honour of Rosalind Mitchison. Aberdeen University Press, 83-106. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1989 Scottish society in perspective. In R.A. Houston & I.D. Whyte (eds.) Scottish society 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press, 1-36. (With R.A. Houston.) 1989 Population mobility. In R.A. Houston & I.D. Whyte (eds.) Scottish society 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press, 37-58. 1989 Urbanization in early- modern Scotland: a preliminary analysis. Scottish Journal of Economic and Social History. Forthcoming. 1989 Protoindustrialization in early-modern Scotland. In P. Hudson (ed,) Regions and Industries. Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming. • • SUBMITTED SEPARATELY: • 1979 Agriculture and rural society in seventeenth - century Scotland. Edinburgh. John Donald. 301pp

State-Corporate Crime and the Process of Capital Accumulation: mapping a global regime of permission from Galicia to Morecambe Bay

This paper seeks to develop the principal concerns of the state-corporate crime literature by drawing connections between two incidents that occurred 15 months apart: the sinking of the oil tanker the Prestige in Galicia in November 2002 and the killing of 24 Chinese migrant workers at Morecambe Bay in the North West of England in February 2004. It begins by introducing the key features of the two cases, before exploring how they might be described and understood as state-corporate crimes. It then identifies a tendency within the literature to analyse state-corporate crimes as ‘moments of rupture’ in the regulatory relationship. Seeking to move beyond such ‘moments of rupture’, the paper argues for an understanding of regulatory relationships as part of a broader regime of permission that seeks the smooth and uninterrupted accumulation of capital. It thus identifies the ‘process’ that must be analysed as a process of capital accumulation. This process is illustrated by focussing on the spheres of production and distribution in this story of capital accumulation. In the course of describing the complex ‘regime of permission’, the paper uncovers a structure of impunity that generally enables the most powerful architects and beneficiaries of state-corporate crime to sustain a process of capital accumulation

Multiple range imaging camera operation with minimal performance impact

Time-of-flight range imaging cameras operate by illuminating a scene with amplitude modulated light and measuring the phase shift of the modulation envelope between the emitted and reflected light. Object distance can then be calculated from this phase measurement. This approach does not work in multiple camera environments as the measured phase is corrupted by the illumination from other cameras. To minimize inaccuracies in multiple camera environments, replacing the traditional cyclic modulation with pseudo-noise amplitude modulation has been previously demonstrated. However, this technique effectively reduced the modulation frequency, therefore decreasing the distance measurement precision (which has a proportional relationship with the modulation frequency). A new modulation scheme using maximum length pseudo-random sequences binary phase encoded onto the existing cyclic amplitude modulation, is presented. The effective modulation frequency therefore remains unchanged, providing range measurements with high precision. The effectiveness of the new modulation scheme was verified using a custom time-of-flight camera based on the PMD19-K2 range imaging sensor. The new pseudo-noise modulation has no significant performance decrease in a single camera environment. In a two camera environment, the precision is only reduced by the increased photon shot noise from the second illumination source