Monthly Archives: October 2017

This week Theme Thursday focuses on a globalization and technological revolution.

The world is in the throes of a technological revolution that differs from the periodic waves of technical change that have marked the progress of industrial society since its origins 200 years ago. A shift is occurring in the sociotechnological paradigm that underlies our current sophisticated industrial structure. This old paradigm consists of the mass production of essentially standardized goods in ever-larger units; an emphasis on quantitative goals for production, requiring ever higher inputs of capital, energy, and raw materials to produce more and more; and little attention to environmental impact, resource use, and conservation issues.

In contrast, the new paradigm taking shape is identified with an emphasis on quality and diversification of products and processes, diffusion of small but highly productive units that rely on new technologies and are linked to a process of decentralization of production, adoption of process and product choices requiring far less energy and materials input per unit of output, and a greater awareness of the need to preserve the quality of local and global environments.

Interested in reading more? Check out these books from Ames.

Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems

Provides an exciting approach to some of the most contentious issues in discussions around globalization—bioscientific research, neoliberalism, governance—from the perspective of the “anthropological” problems they pose; in other words, in terms of their implications for how individual and collective life is subject to technological, political, and ethical reflection and intervention.

• Offers a ground-breaking approach to central debates about globalization with chapters written by leading scholars from across the social sciences.
• Examines a range of phenomena that articulate broad structural transformations: technoscience, circuits of exchange, systems of governance, and regimes of ethics or values.
• Investigates these phenomena from the perspective of the “anthropological” problems they pose.
• Covers a broad range of geographical areas: Africa, the Middle East, East and South Asia, North America, South America, and Europe.
• Grapples with a number of empirical problems of popular and academic interest — from the organ trade, to accountancy, to pharmaceutical research, to neoliberal reform.

Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development: Transforming the Industrial State

In this work, the authors offer a unified, transdisciplinary approach for achieving sustainable development in industrialized nations. They present an insightful analysis of the ways in which industrial states are unsustainable and how economic and social welfare are related to the environment, public health and safety.

Modern biotechnology originated in the mid-1970s with new advances in genetics, immunology, and biochemistry. Biotechnology includes all techniques that use living organisms or substances from organisms to produce or alter a product, cause changes in plants or animals, or develop microorganisms for specific purposes. Biotechnology encompasses several techniques and methods, including genome mapping, gene splicing (or the transfer of one or more genes with certain prospectively useful qualities to plants, domestic animals, fish, and other organisms), and molecular breeding.

Gene editing allows scientists to cut and paste the DNA that makes up human genes with speed and precision, inside living human cells. It can be used to repair damaged genes and to accelerate research into how genes function. It can also be used to transmit genetic traits to future generations, including through human sperm, eggs and embryos, which is now widely considered unethical.

Learn more about the biotechnology and genetic revolutions with these resources from Ames.

Race and the genetic revolution : science, myth, and culture, edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan

Beyond biotechnology: The barren promise of genetic engineering by Craig Holdrege and Steve Talbott

Life’s greatest secret: The race to crack the genetic code by Matthew Cobb

Genetics & society, edited by Penelope Barker

DNA: How the biotech revolution is changing the way we fight disease, by Frank H. Stephenson; foreword by Herbert Boyer

Bio-revolution: DNA and the ethics of man-made life, by Richard Hutton

Didn’t get enough? Check out these videos available through Kanopy.

Biotechnology: Cleaning Up with Microbes – As achievements in engineering and manufacturing move us toward 21st Century lifestyles, problems emerge as a result of these processes. Moreover, cleanup concerns plague us as a legacy of the industrial revolution. This program focuses on an innovative yet natural solution science proposes for the cleanup of polluting by-products. Discover how science is Cleaning Up With Microbes. Throughout the world, scientists are exploring the use of living organisms to help solve the problem of waste disposal and recycling. They have found that microbes–such as bacteria, fungi, and algae can take care of almost any waste by-product by doing what they do best– eating!

Cracking Your Genetic Code – What will it mean when most of us can afford to have the information in our DNA–all three billion chemical letters of it–read, stored, and available for analysis? Cracking Your Genetic Code reveals that we stand on the verge of such a revolution.

On this Theme Thursday we move from literary revolutionaries in Latin America to political revolutions in the Middle East. Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011. The movement originated in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

Check out these texts, available from Ames, to learn more about this series of political movements that swept the Middle East.

The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism

This pioneering explanation of the Arab Spring will define a new era of thinking about the Middle East. In this landmark book, Hamid Dabashi argues that the uprisings occurring from Morocco to Iran and from Syria to Yemen have been driven by a delayed defiance that signifies no less than the end of postcolonialism. As he brilliantly explains, the permanent revolutionary mood has the potential to liberate not only those societies already ignited but ultimately many others as well.

Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal Stories from the Arab Revolutions

Narrated by dozens of activists and everyday individuals involved in the Arab Spring, this book documents the unprecedented events that led to the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Arab citizens were called to join the revolt during the second half of 2011, while the revolutionary moment was still unfolding. Their stories offer unique access to the message that inspired citizens to act, their experiences during revolt, and the lessons they learned from some of the most dramatic changes and appalling events to occur in the history of the Arab world. The riveting, revealing, and at times heartbreaking stories in this volume also include voices from Syria. Featuring participants from a variety of social and educational backgrounds and political commitments, these personal stories of action represent the true phenomenon of the Arab Spring’s united though broad social movements, collective identities, and youthful character. For years, these participants lived under regimes that brutally suppressed free expression and protest. Their testimony speaks to the multifaceted emotional, psychological, and cultural factors motivating citizens to join together and fight, putting a human face on events that might seem abstract or impersonal to many in the West.

The Transition Towards Revolution and Reform: The Arab Spring Realised?

The Arab Spring created a transition toward democracy for the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan, who initially elected moderate Islamist parties to lead them out of economic deprivation and corruption. This study looks at the relative success of the move to democracy in these four Middle Eastern countries, comparing the secular leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and their desire for revolution with the monarchs of Morocco and Jordan and their priority of reform.

Arab Spring: Negotiating in the Shadow of the Intifadat

Beginning in January 2011, the Arab world exploded in a vibrant demand for dignity, liberty, and achievable purpose in life, rising up against an image and tradition of arrogant, corrupt, unresponsive authoritarian rule. These previously unpublished, country specific case studies of the uprisings and their still unfolding political aftermaths identify patterns and courses of negotiation and explain why and how they occur. The contributors argue that in uprisings like the Arab Spring negotiation is “not just a ‘nice’ practice or a diplomatic exercise.” Rather, it is a “dynamically multilevel” process involving individuals, groups, and states with continually shifting priorities-and with the prospect of violence always near. From that perspective, the essaysits analyze a range of issues and events-including civil disobedience and strikes, mass demonstrations and nonviolent protest, and peaceful negotiation and armed rebellion-and contextualize their findings within previous struggles, both within and outside the Middle East. The Arab countries discussed include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. The Arab Spring uprisings are discussed in the context of rebellions in countries like South Africa and Serbia, while the Libyan uprising is also viewed in terms of the negotiations it provoked within NATO. Collectively, the essays analyze the challenges of uprisers and emerging governments in building a new state on the ruins of a liberated state; the negotiations that lead either to sustainable democracy or sectarian violence; and coalition building between former political and military adversaries.

Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond

This study examines the background to the 2011 uprising in Egypt, the limits of authoritarian rule and the rise of new secular movements. It studies the group dynamics of workers, young people, and women, evaluates the role of the military, and considers the impact of regime change and future prospects for pan-Arabism.

For our last Theme Thursday event highlighting Hispanic Heritage month, we consider the authors and poets who gave voice to people experiencing the political, cultural, and financial turmoil made real by the revolutions of their time.

Pablo Neruda was an important Chilean poet and politician. In the years following Neruda’s service as consular in Mexico, he developed his artist voice. During his service Neruda became immersed in the philosophy, goals, and consequences of the Mexican revolution and was well acquainted with muralismo and its proponents. His early works were mostly love poems, but as he matured and gained life experience he began to write and think more politically. His poetry gave a voice to a population that felt ignored by their government and by the upper classes. The poems gave courage and pride to the struggling working class. Chilean workers memorized his works by heart and gathered to hear their poet recite his writing.

Song of Protest by Pablo Neruda, translated and with an introduced by Miguel Algarín

The essential Neruda: Selected poems, edited by Mark Eisner; translated by Mark Eisner

Affectionately known as “Gabo,” Colombian novelist, screenwriter and journalist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was one of Latin America’s most iconic figures of modern literature. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his collective work “in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts.” Forever inquisitive, critical and creative, Garcia Marquez was not only a key figure of literature in the region, but was an important figure in leftist politics. Garcia Marquez’s story is heavily linked to Cuba, its socialist revolution and the late leader Fidel Castro. Known as a prolific reader, Fidel was known to read and correct Garcia Marquez’s manuscripts before they were sent to be published.

While Garcia Marquez drew inspiration from Cuba’s revolution in his writing, the pair did not always agree. At times the novelist was critical of Fidel’s views, in particular surrounding the Cold War and his support for the Soviet Union.

Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel García Márquez; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman

Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez; estudio introductorio, Gabriel García Márquez y sus Cien años de soledad por Joaquín Marco

La aventura de Miguel Littín clandestino en Chile by Gabriel García Márquez

The House of Spirits was Isabel Allende’s debut novel. The story details the life of the Trueba family, spanning four generations, and tracing the post-colonial social and political upheavals of Chile – though the country’s name, and the names of figures closely paralleling historical ones, such as “the President” or “the Poet”, are never explicitly given. The story is told mainly from the perspective of two protagonists (Esteban and Alba) and incorporates elements of magical realism. Read this and other publications of hers, available from the library.

Afrodita: Cuentos, recetas y otros afrodisíacos por Isabel Allende ; ilustraciones, Robert Shekter ; recetas, Panchita Llona

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden

Aphrodite: A memoir of the senses by Isabel Allende ; drawings, Robert Shekter ; recipes, Panchita Llona ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden

Want to read other Latin American authors who were influenced by revolutions? Check out some of these authors.