Tag Archives: politics

Land Rush

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This post was contributed by Sonia Rothwell, an alumna of Birkbeck’s MSc International Security and Global Governance. This event was part of a series of film-screenings leading up to Surplus: A Sypmosium on Wealth, Waste and Excess, which takes place on 21 June.

There is sometimes a danger when discussing Africa and big business in the same sentence to see commerce as the hawkish outsider taking advantage of fragile or indeed non-existent governance. Hugo Berkley’s film, “Land Rush”, about agribusiness, produced for the Why Poverty? strand on BBC Four last year, has a more ambiguous, cautiously optimistic slant. Could big business bring big bucks to Mali and turn some of its smallholders into sugar cane growing specialists?

In the fascinating Q and A session after the film screening, with Birkbeck’s Isobel Tomlinson, Berkley admitted he had a whole raft more material and this already hot topic would certainly bear more airings. The thrust of the story is that land poor rich nations such as Saudi Arabia are leasing fertile tracts from countries such as Mali to feed their own populations.  The case studies Hugo Berkley has found represent the dilemma facing subsistence farmers whose own livelihoods and needs appear to be at odds with the ambitions and financial needs of their state. Some farmers appeared to back the project which was being developed by SOSUMAR (the Markala Sugar Company) while others complained of a land-grab. The balance of the film was fine: can development increase at the pace which Mali arguably needs without the involvement of the global private sector?

Tantalisingly, there was no conclusion to the story, the project which was to have brought sugar cane farming to Mali’s central region was delayed by bureaucracy and the outbreak of serious civil unrest: the investors moved elsewhere. And it is that same unrest which has exacerbated the food security situation recently with some NGOs estimating that one in five households in the North of the country is facing severe food shortages there. Could the food shortages trigger more long-term unrest, forcing families to migrate elsewhere, with all of the potentially unsettling consequences that suggests?

One has to question however, the decision to grow sugar cane. What is motivating nations like Ukraine to invest in these crops, is it to satisfy the appetites of domestic markets or is it to satisfy quotas on the production of bio-fuels (of which sugar cane is a source)? Another question which the film does not answer but which merits further discussion, is whether land in the world’s poorest countries ultimately is being used to help prop up global commodities corporations and if so, what can or should be done to regulate such trade?

The film is a curtain-raiser to Birkbeck’s upcoming event, Surplus: a Symposium on Wealth, Waste and Excess, a debate which promises to be as compelling as it is timely.

Ideology Now – part 1

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This post was contributed by Eliane Glaser, Honorary Research Fellow in Birkbecks Department of English and Humanities.

On Saturday 28 April a diverse group of academics, journalists, commentators and students gathered in Gordon Square to explore the role of ideology today. The premise of the conference was the strange death of ideology within political discourse. When politicians use the word ‘ideology’ now, it’s invariably an insult. Politics is supposed to be pragmatic, consensus-building, about doing ‘what works’.

But is the narrative of the death of ideology itself an ideological move? Are ideologies and agendas still in operation, just under cover? Is ideology today primarily a covert force, creating a topsy-turvy world in which appearance is the very opposite of reality? In my book Get Real I lament the fact that Conservatives boast that they are the party of the poor, BP petrol stations are coloured an environmentally-friendly shade of green, and our TV screens are filled with celebrity chefs baking sourdough as sales of ready meals soar.

Is it time to revive ideology critique, both inside and outside the academy? And is it time to restore overt ideologies to our political culture? Since the financial crash, the Occupy movement has revitalised citizen activism. But would that movement be more effective if it embraced overt objectives and ideals?

These are some of the questions I set out in my introductory remarks, before handing over to Esther Leslie, professor in political aesthetics at Birkbeck. Esther gave a wonderfully rich and provocative talk in which she simultaneously illustrated the workings of ideology in culture today and also critiqued the very notion of ideology, arguing for a version of the term that is more rooted in social being and action. Matthew Beaumont, who teaches English at UCL, then did a fascinating reading of disaster films such as Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, arguing that at a time in which capitalism is in crisis, these films enact Fredric Jameson’s observation that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.  

Two former heads of policy at Number 10 reflected on ideology in political culture. Ferdinand Mount, author of the newly published The New Few, was head of policy under Margaret Thatcher, and he argued for a post-ideological liberal democracy which allows for a diversity of positions. Nick Pearce, director of the IPPR and head of policy under Gordon Brown, made the case for a single ideology: social democracy.

After lunch, author and Guardian columnist Steven Poole exposed the financial metaphors that pervade everyday speech – with philosophy lecturer and activist Nina Power pointing out during questions that, conversely, capitalism is often clothed in humanising language. Author Dan Hind described how the ‘end of ideology’ thesis has obscured the rise of a single ideology, market capitalism, and pointed to new, non-hierarchical forms of public discussion and protest as the way forward.

We had two highly stimulating papers on ideology in architecture and theatre by writer Owen Hatherley and lecturer in theatre and performance at Birkbeck Louise Owen. While Owen Hatherley identified the ideologies embedded in a whole range of architectural styles, Louise Owen detected ideologies lurking beneath what passes as theatrical realism today.

In the final session, a lively and politically-engaged talk by Nina Power linked Althusser’s theory of interpolation to the current behaviour of the police and judiciary in ‘public order’ cases, and argued that protesters attempting to defend the public good are being penalised in the name of an imaginary ‘good’ public. And Renata Salecl, professor of law at Ljubljana University ended the conference with a brilliant and entertaining puncturing of contemporary assumptions about reality and wellbeing. 

What I loved about the conference was the way in which the papers linked theoretical analysis with urgent issues in today’s politics and culture. The perspectives were unusually broad for an academic conference, and the discussions over coffee, lunch, drinks and dinner were engaged and convivial. I was left with the positive sense that there is a great deal more to say on this subject; that in the contemporary world, reports of ideology’s demise are both symptomatic and premature.

All the papers are available to listen to online via the Backdoor Broadcasting Company.

The Politics of Population Change: Launch of Book and Research Group

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This post was contributed by Guy Collender, Communications Manager at Birkbeck’s Department of External Relations

The links between politics and population change – often deemed too controversial for debate – were explored during a frank discussion at a book launch held at Birkbeck.

Speakers urged academics and society to recognise the many implications of unprecedented and unfolding developments addressed in the new book Political demography: How population changes are reshaping international security and national politics.

The Population, Environment and Resources Group – a new part of Birkbeck’s Politics Department – was also launched at the event on Thursday 19 April.

Professor Eric Kaufmann, of Birkbeck’s Department of Politics and co-editor of the book, described the range of population dynamics affecting politics. Birth rates, urbanisation, sex ratios and the age structure of a population all have far-reaching consequences for nations, ethnic groups, religions, civilizations, and development.

He explained how we are living through “unprecedented” demographic shifts as the “population explosion” which began in the 20th century is being followed by a “fertility implosion.” These trends are much more exaggerated today in the developing world than they were during the demographic transition – the progression from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates – in the developed world between 1750 and 1900.

Kaufmann mentioned that such “great unevenness” promises to result in dramatic change. He suggested, for example, how high birth rates, a young population and high unemployment  – a combinations of factors relating to population – might lead to violence.

Fertility as a weapon

Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and co-editor of Political Demography, focused on the use of fertility as a political weapon in her presentation on “wombfare.” She said: “In international relations and politics numbers matter. If numbers shift and the political institutions do not this will lead to problems. It becomes a conflict if one group is out-birthing another.” In particular, Toft referred to the political importance of fertility between different groups in Lebanon (Christians and Muslims), and Israel and Palestine (Jews and Arabs, Jews and Muslims).

Population dynamics in Africa

Dr Elliott Green, of the London School of Economics, referred to the interaction between population and conflict in Africa. He emphasised Africa’s low population density, which has led to communal land rights as there is more demand for labour than land, and the existence of large states. Green discussed the phenomenon of rural to rural migration, and conflict between settler and native groups, particularly in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have both experienced population growth rates of four per cent since the mid-20th century.

Sensible debate needed

Professor Tim Dyson, of LSE, reiterated the significance of the demographic transition. He declared that “nothing is more important” in explaining the growth of democratisation as fertility decline leads to a greater proportion of adults in the population, and adults demand a voice in how they are governed. The positive impact on women’s lives because of fertility decline was also mentioned.

However, Dyson warned about the virtual disappearance of demography as a discipline in the English-speaking world, and the widespread aversion to raising population concerns, as well as discussing climate change. He added: “Human beings everywhere do not like to talk about difficult issues. We should be able to talk about these things in a balanced, sensible and civilized way.”

Listen to the podcast of The Politics of Population Change