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"What are the possibilities for a radical politics of universal humanity, at a time when the politics of identity increasingly defines the agenda of the left? What are the political and conceptual implications of such an emancipatory form of universality emerging through the struggles of Indigenous peoples on the extractive frontiers of global capitalism? How do such battles play out on the ground, and how should they be researched and conveyed? Extractivism and Universality tells the inside story of a spontaneous uprising in the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2017, in which mestizo, Black and Indigenous workers and communities confronted the combined forces of a multinational oil company and a militarized state. It documents a rapidly evolving battle that achieved a remarkable victory, and captures the flourishing of an insurgent form of political universality in which racial, ethnic, and cultural divisions were suddenly and powerfully overcome. Intervening in debates on the resistances and alternatives developed by the inhabitants of resource extraction zones, the book takes the reader deep inside a rebellion on an Amazonian oil frontier and offers a unique insight into insurgent universality in the lived reality of its material existence. It argues that the dominant decolonial dichotomy between Eurocentric universalism and an Indigenous pluriverse should be replaced by an approach that is attentive to manifestations of universality performed by diverse subaltern subjects. And it does so through a fast-paced fusion of radical political theory with the raw first-person style of gonzo journalism. It will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences with interests in political and social theory, social movements, labour relations, and the political ecology of extractivism"--

What are the possibilities for a radical politics of universal humanity, at a time when the politics of identity increasingly defines the agenda of the left? What are the political and conceptual implications of such an emancipatory form of universality emerging through the struggles of Indigenous peoples on the extractive frontiers of global capitalism? How do such battles play out on the ground, and how should they be researched and conveyed? Extractivism and Universality takes an unorthodox approach to these timely questions. It tells the inside story of a spontaneous uprising in the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2017, in which mestizo, Black, and Indigenous workers and communities confronted the combined forces of a multinational oil company and a militarized state. The book documents a rapidly evolving battle that achieved a remarkable victory and captures the flourishing of an insurgent form of political universality in which racial, ethnic, and cultural divisions were suddenly and powerfully overcome. Intervening in debates on the resistances and alternatives developed by the inhabitants of resource extraction zones, it takes the reader deep inside a rebellion on an Amazonian oil frontier and offers a unique insight into insurgent universality in the lived reality of its material existence. It argues that the dominant decolonial dichotomy between Eurocentric universalism and an Indigenous pluriverse should be replaced by an approach that is attentive to manifestations of universality performed by diverse subaltern subjects. And it does so through a fast-paced fusion of radical political theory with the raw first-person style of gonzo journalism. It will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences with interests in political and social theory, social movements, labor relations, and the political ecology of extractivism.

What are the possibilities for a radical politics of universal humanity, at a time when the politics of identity increasingly defines the agenda of the left? What are the political and conceptual implications of such an emancipatory form of universality emerging through the struggles of Indigenous peoples on the extractive frontiers of global capitalism? How do such battles play out on the ground, and how should they be researched and conveyed? Extractivism and Universality takes an unorthodox approach to these timely questions. It tells the inside story of a spontaneous uprising in the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2017, in which mestizo, Black, and Indigenous workers and communities confronted the combined forces of a multinational oil company and a militarized state. The book documents a rapidly evolving battle that achieved a remarkable victory and captures the flourishing of an insurgent form of political universality in which racial, ethnic, and cultural divisions were suddenly and powerfully overcome. Intervening in debates on the resistances and alternatives developed by the inhabitants of resource extraction zones, it takes the reader deep inside a rebellion on an Amazonian oil frontier and offers a unique insight into insurgent universality in the lived reality of its material existence. It argues that the dominant decolonial dichotomy between Eurocentric universalism and an Indigenous pluriverse should be replaced by an approach that is attentive to manifestations of universality performed by diverse subaltern subjects. And it does so through a fast-paced fusion of radical political theory with the raw first-person style of gonzo journalism. It will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences with interests in political and social theory, social movements, labor relations, and the political ecology of extractivism.

"Described by the New York Times as "probably the most important economist in the world," Jeffrey Sachs is also one of the most prominent public intellectuals in the Western world, shaping mainstream economic theory, advising governments on development policy, and appearing as a talking head in major media outlets. Though he achieved notoriety in the 80s and 90s by pioneering a brutal form of free market engineering he called "shock therapy," Sachs has since positioned himself as a voice of the center-left, providing moral condemnation of Third World debt and structural adjustment, and intervening on African development, especially through his Millenium Villages Project in Sub-Saharan Africa. But appearances can be superficial. Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock & Mr. Aid is an account of how Sachs successfully rebranded himself as an evangelical development expert and savior of the Third World, while in fact reinforcing the neoliberal project itself. Based on documentary research and on-the-ground investigation of the Millenium Villages Project, Jeffrey Sachs exposes its namesake's Jekyll/Hyde complex, showing Sachs to be no more than a new, more human face of the neoliberal project itself"--

This article develops a surrealist approach to researching and writing about the urban Anthropocene, as a critical contribution to existing literatures on "arts of noticing" and "staying with the trouble." Drawing on psychogeographical explorations of the city of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon and distancing itself from conventional modes of academic writing, the article presents a montage of surrealist images of this (post)apocalyptic metropolis. Iquitos emerges as a palimpsest of the wreckage of repeated resource booms, strewn with the ruins of a stillborn modernity and incubating an uncanny fusion of apocalyptic and utopian elements observable in the everyday practices of its subaltern inhabitants. Just as Paris was the capital of the 19th century for Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, so the interpretation of Iquitos as an extreme metaphor for our combined and uneven apocalypse designates it as the capital of the Anthropocene.

In 2014, a prominent radical publishing house released a book about the influential development economist Jeffrey Sachs. The published version was one chapter shorter than the final proofs. This chapter had been removed after the publisher sought legal advice on content pertaining to fieldwork conducted in Uganda on Sachs's Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an international development programme financed by some of the wealthiest individuals and most powerful corporations in the world. In contrast to the MVP's remarkable claims of success, the censored chapter documented allegations of mismanagement and corruption, and told the story of the author's detention, his pursuit by secret police on suspicion of 'sabotage of development', and subsequent threats of legal action made against him by the lawyers of Sachs's philanthropic foundation. This article presents the censored chapter in its entirety, as an example of the stakes involved in transgressing 'ethical research' protocols that function to shield power from scrutiny. The chapter is prefaced with a discussion of the MVP and the state-capital-academia nexus, and is followed by a postscript, which sets out the principles of 'renegade research'.

In 2014, a prominent radical publishing house released a book about the influential development economist Jeffrey Sachs. The published version was one chapter shorter than the final proofs. This chapter had been removed after the publisher sought legal advice on content pertaining to fieldwork conducted in Uganda on Sachs's Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an international development programme financed by some of the wealthiest individuals and most powerful corporations in the world. In contrast to the MVP's remarkable claims of success, the censored chapter documented allegations of mismanagement and corruption, and told the story of the author's detention, his pursuit by secret police on suspicion of 'sabotage of development', and subsequent threats of legal action made against him by the lawyers of Sachs's philanthropic foundation. This article presents the censored chapter in its entirety, as an example of the stakes involved in transgressing 'ethical research' protocols that function to shield power from scrutiny. The chapter is prefaced with a discussion of the MVP and the state-capital-academia nexus, and is followed by a postscript, which sets out the principles of 'renegade research'.

ABSTRACTInternational development is increasingly financed and implemented by a nexus of billionaires and corporate foundations known as 'philanthrocapitalism'. This article develops a critique of this paradigm, focusing on the case of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), and its implementation in Bonsaaso, Ghana. The author interprets the MVP as a staging of the neoliberal fantasy of origins — an imagined history of the spontaneous emergence of capitalism in the frugal activities of smallholder farmers. In Bonsaaso, this fantasy has been shattered by the violence of primitive accumulation — the separation of the peasantry from the land through which capitalist social relations are actually established. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Bonsaaso, the author describes how an influx of foreign gold miners has plunged the region into a profound socio‐ecological crisis. Despite producing several internal reports on this crisis, the MVP has failed to respond to it, and has instead sought to restage its fantasy in a new Village in the north of the country. Yet an analysis of its background documents and financial networks demonstrates the complicity of the MVP in the political economy of primitive accumulation underway in Bonsaaso. The case provides a cautionary tale against the promise of a good and pure capitalism.