It is still the case, centuries after the onset of orientalizing tropes became codified in the formal “study of India,” that caste is still treated as a cultural and therefore not a material, historical, or economic phenomenon. I have not myself undertaken a quantitative assessment of this, but it would be interesting to classify [...] Source ..read more

A recent study led by Kuan-Chi Wang found that the legacy of imperialism gave rise to diverse agricultural trajectories in Asia, with countries embracing varying models of development. Some embraced capitalist-driven “green revolutions,” while others pursued socialist-inspired approaches to agricultural modernization. These divergent paths reflected each nation's unique historical context and ideological leanings, contributing to the complexity of contemporary food regimes in the region. Adding another layer to this rich complexity, agricultural experts and institutions emerged as key actors i ..read more

Latin America is usually recognized as the most unequal region in the world. It seems clear that the region faces important obstacles to development. But how do we understand the challenges to Latin America’s development? In a recent article, Emilia Ormaechea analyzes the changes in the idea of development in the contributions of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) from its creation, in 1948, to the present day. She argues that ECLAC had a very critical understanding of the challenges that a development strategy for Latin America entailed, especially during the ..read more

A narrow focus on "treatment effects" has led much academic research to ignore the broader institutional work that "right-to-work" laws accomplish – changing the balance of power between political parties, allowing for new policy bundles to be enacted, and changing the perceived realm of the reasonable and possible for new labor market entrants. Source ..read more

As a critical theory of algorithmic capitalism, our contribution is grounded in an emancipation project. We explore paths of reform, revolution, and exit strategies from algorithmic capitalism. We develop a virtue ethics approach to favor collective resistance and emancipation from algorithmic capitalism. Source ..read more

One of the terms frequently appearing on the news regarding the Palestinian genocide is “humanitarian crisis.” In my head, the imagery of humanitarianism raises memories of the old UNICEF commercials with the exploitative spectacle of starving African or third-world children and women staring at the camera. Humanitarianism depends on a currency of sympathy and [...] Source ..read more

In October 1862, a sixteen-month-old baby died from an opium overdose in East London. Her baby plagued by a cough, the mother secured a prescription from a local chemist, who inadvertently and fatally doubled the dosage. Another doctor concluded that the baby died from narcotic poisoning and moreover suggested opium should never have been [...] Source ..read more

Over the academic year 2020-21, with the world in a state of limbo owing to the COVID-19 crisis, a group of Marxist scholars and activists at the University of Toronto came together to set up a reading group. The initiative may not seem like an unusual or a remarkable occurrence. After all, the isolation [...] Source ..read more

We stand in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people. Since October 7th, 2023, over two million people have faced a brutal onslaught by the Israeli military and state. They have been forced to flee with nowhere to go as homes, shelters, evacuation routes, border crossings, hospitals, places of worship and entire neighborhoods have been bombed. We [...] Source ..read more

A majority of the world’s workers lack formal jobs. Yet, in the popular imagination, and among many contemporary Marxist scholars, the idea of the working class and the labor movement largely revolves around traditional conceptions of workers as formalized wage workers engaged in commodity production or some other supposed relatively structurally significant job. As a result, informal workers, especially informal workers in Africa, have been largely overlooked as working-class actors and as labor movement participants. Source ..read more