At the turn of the nineteenth century, global capitalism has introduced an unprecedented phenomenon: the reorientation of temporality and spatiality. Capitalist temporality and global space allowed Asian intellectuals to imagine, for the first time, a synchronized globe, where Asia became consciously worldly. Asian intellectuals began to reinterpret the indigenous categories such as the tributary system in order to make sense of the regionalization of Asia in the capitalist world system. The unity of Asian countries formed an alliance which resisted the homogeneity and universality claimed by European hegemony. Along with the revival of the Asian ideal, the tributary system was reimagined as the incarnation of Asian heterogeneity, a source that could be utilized in the common struggle of resisting European hegemony. What the tributary system represented in the discourse of Asianism at the turn of the twentieth century, then, is a new possibility of relation between nation-states.

This thesis is an attempt to understand the suspicion of money implied in Jesus' statement that it is impossible to serve both God and Mammon. I argue on the basis of Scripture, reason and tradition that problems associated with money do not arise simply from the way it is used, but from the nature of money itself. This is argued in three sections. First I consider the history of money and in particular of the commodity theory of money. Second I consider the issues of debt and interest, of central concern in the Christian Scriptures. Finally I consider money through four different lenses: justice, value, desire and power. The argument as a whole leads up to the last of these. As was already suggested by Jacques Ellul fifty years ago, I argue that money must be understood as a cosmic power to which we are all subject and which is in need of redemption. In the second and third sections I make suggestions as to what the redemption of money might look like. I summarise the argument in a final section, 'De-coding Mammon'.

Restoration seeks to heal the environment and make amends for damages done by human interference. Preservationists, however, claim that restoration is anthropocentric, hubristic, and ultimately misguided. I defend restoration against these criticisms, and examine narratives from Karl Marx and Lynn White, Jr. to explain human alienation from nature. I use a synthesis of lessons from Marx and White to favor a restoration paradigm over a preservationist model.

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Environmental historians usually discuss American colonists as if they were all the same. Thus, the Puritan communities that grew rapidly after John Winthrop's arrival in 1630 often overshadow the earlier Separatist colony at Plymouth, which leads to the assumption that all settlers acted in similar ways with regard to land use and the environment. By analyzing Bradford and Winthrop, it becomes possible to see a different picture of colonization in New England. It becomes evident that deforestation happened over time, and in spite of early resistance. It is also clear that colonial settlers viewed resources in different ways. The authorities strictly regulated land use and ownership, but there were fewer restrictions on exportable resources like fur and later timber. Population change and the growth of a proto-capitalist market in the post-1630 Puritan communities as well as a gradual shift from communalism to individualism led to deforestation in New England.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Nigeria, like many African countries is caught up in the uncertainty of the effectiveness of agricultural intervention in achieving food security, poverty reduction and improved quality of life. This ambiguity is more pronounced especially in rural areas where majority of the poor and those involved in agriculture reside. Indeed, issues relating to resource utilization and productivity in the agricultural sector and how they affect livelihoods and food security of smallholder households remain underexplored. The study examines the contribution of small-scale irrigation agriculture towards ensuring food security and poverty alleviation among smallholder households. It assesses the productivity, food security and livelihoods status of smallholder households in the Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Project, North West Nigeria, the relationship that exist between the phenomena, as well as factors influencing them. It also explores smallholder households’ differentials on the basis of their efficiency, food security and income status, and what other factors determine the smallholder typologies. The research was situated within three bodies of theoretical work; political ecology, political economy of food and agriculture, and sustainable livelihoods. This was done with a view to providing a nuanced understanding of both the micro and macro processes and factors influencing agricultural production, food security and livelihoods of smallholder households. A concurrent triangulation mixed methods research design was adopted for the study. This involves the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods of research to drive the research agenda. Systematic random sampling technique was used to collect data for the quantitative aspect and purposive sampling was used to select participants for semi-structured interviews for the qualitative research. A total of 370 questionnaires were administered but 306 questionnaires were successfully completed and returned, representing an 83% response rate. Also eight respondents were interviewed for the study. While thematic content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data, quantitative data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Thesis (M.Com. (Development Theory and Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016 / Lenin's theory of imperialism is a strong basis of contemporary analysis for the interaction between countries in the core and those in the periphery. This paper examines the theoretical coherence of his theory in light of the advent of global value chains. The distribution of benefits between countries in the core and the periphery is a topic that is aimed at describing the distribution patterns that prevail as a result of the globalisation of trade and the decentralization of production activities by multinational firms [Information taken from introduction. No abstract provided]. / MT2017

L'émergence du confessionnalisme au Liban est en corrélation avec le développement particulier du capitalisme dans la société libanaise, ce qui semble différent du modèle de modernisme de la société européenne et occidentale. C'est ainsi qu'on peut avancer que l'émergence historique de la formule politique confessionnelle n'était jamais un phénomène aléatoire ou spontané. Force est de constater que l'institutionnalisation du confessionnalisme était le corollaire de la déviation ou la déformation de la capitalisation ainsi que de la modernisation, un système confessionnel s'étant établi au lieu de l'instauration d'une institution étatique moderne sur la base du contrat social concrétisant l'unité nationale et la solidarité sociale à l'instar de la société européenne contemporaine. Ainsi, la pénétration du capitalisme occidental et l'articulation de l'économie nationale au marché capitaliste mondial incarnent la place du Liban dans l'économie internationale comme zone périphérique en marginalisant ses secteurs productifs. La bourgeoisie commerciale et bancaire s'impose alors dans le contexte d'une économie rentière tout en entreprenant la fonction d'intermédiaire entre Occident et Orient. Cette bourgeoisie intermédiaire contrôle l'intégralité du système libanais en coalition avec l'aristocratie traditionnelle. Elle s'applique à restreindre et à étouffer toute sorte de mobilité syndicale ou associative émanant d'une lutte des classes sociales tout en suscitant en contrepartie un alignement et un affrontement d'envergure confessionnelle, à quoi est dû le sectarisme marquant le parcours historique de la vie publique libanaise et la «configuration» de l'organisation constitutionnelle du pays. / The emergence of sectarianism in Lebanon is correlated with the particular development of capitalism in the Lebanese society, which seems different from the model of modernism in the Western and European society. This is how we can argue that the historical emergence of sectarian political formula was not a random or spontaneous phenomenon. It is clear that the institutionalization of sectarianism was the corollary of the deflection or deformation of capitalization and modernization; a sectarian system was established instead than the establishment of a modern state institution on the basis of the social contract that concretize national unity and social solidarity just like the contemporary European society. Thus, the penetration of Western capitalism and the articulation of the national economy into the world capitalist market embody Lebanon's position in the international economy as a peripheral area marginalizing its productive sectors. The commercial and banking bourgeoisie wins in the context of a rent economy by undertaking an intermediary function between West and East. This intermediate bourgeoisie controls the entire Lebanese system in coalition with the traditional aristocracy. It applies to restrict and stifle any form of syndicate or association mobility emanating from a struggle of social classes by creating confessional alignment and confrontation to which is due sectarianism that marks the historical track of the Lebanese public life and the "configuration" of the constitutional structure of the country.

This thesis places art heists in the context of their journalistic and online commentaries to examine their implications for subversive anti-capitalist criticism. The 2012 Rotterdam Art Heist functions as a case study that demonstrates how online trolling participates in the production of a culture that undermines the conventional dualisms between popular and high culture. By linking crime and its commentaries to game and performance theories the thesis promotes pop culture against its devaluation by 20th century cultural critics Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. Hence, it argues for folklore’s role in critically rethinking the scholarship on the work of these acclaimed cultural critics. Anti-establishment perspectives are set against bourgeois moments in the Frankfurt School’s critical theory.

Este trabalho expõe a estrutura conceitual básica da economia marxista, discute sua coerência à luz do debate das principais críticas que lhe são feitas, e procura mostrar sua utilidade para a compreensão da economia capitalista atual. Isto é feito a partir de uma chave de interpretação que destaca duas questões: o duplo caráter do trabalho produtor de mercadorias, e a caracterização do trabalho abstrato como substância social do valor. Uma das idéias centrais deste trabalho é a afirmação de que esta abordagem permite tratar o dinheiro, o capital e a dinâmica da economia capitalista de modo mais realista e adequado que outras vertentes teóricas. A solução dada por Marx para a transformação dos valores em preços de produção é um dos principais exemplos do emprego da concepção do valor como substância social, e ao mesmo tempo uma das construções mais criticadas na economia marxista; por isto esta discussão tem aqui um lugar central. Este trabalho procura ainda mostrar a utilidade analítica do quadro conceitual da economia marxista para tratar diversas questões atuais da economia capitalista, como o intercâmbio desigual. Argumenta, ainda, que este quadro é um ponto de partida capaz de recolher contribuições teóricas originadas de outras abordagens. / This work exposes the basic conceptual structure of Marxian economics, discusses its coherence in the light of the main criticisms made to it, and tries to show its utility to the comprehension of today's capitalist economy. This is done taking a key that stresses two questions: the dual character of the labor that produces commodities, and the characterization of abstract labor as substance of value. One of the main ideas of this work is the statement that this approach allows us to treat money, capital and the capitalist economy's dynamics in a more realist and proper way than other theoretical approaches. Marx's solution to the transformation of commodities values into production prices is one of the main examples of value as a social substance, and also is one of the more criticized constructs of Marxian economics; for that reason, this discussion has here a central place. This work still tries to show the analytical utility of the conceptual framework of Marxian economics to treat several questions of today’s capitalist economy, as unequal exchange. It still argues that this framework is a foundation able to gather theoretical contributions from other approaches.