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I agree with Buu-Sao's observations that indigenous communities are 'far from homogenous', and more attention should be paid to 'the heterogenous responses to the oil industry'. Although she doesn't reference the work of Gayatri Spivak, these points bring to mind Spivak's assertions in "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Buu-Sao specifically draws upon Foucault's work on governmentality and the reciprocal interaction between power and knowledge to conclude that 'the effects of government strategies are [...] contingent on the agency of the governed'; however is she under-estimating the asymmetric nature of the relationship in this case?

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Much of this article reminded me of Checker’s (2011) article on gentrification in Harlem, NYC (from w5) and how supposedly sustainable enterprises are framed as “post-political” modes of governance, when they clearly draw upon a politics of repression. In some cases, the more that a local community is able to ‘participate’ in such projects, the less able they are to resist, and this can be seen in how communal enterprises in Peru masked “existing asymmetries and power relationships” (p69).

I was pleasantly surprised to see how dissent was nevertheless still alive in Pastaza villages and think it is quite a hopeful conclusion for Buu-Sao to make. I think Nigel is right that more needs to be done structurally to address the power asymmetry between state/corporations and indigenous communities. I’d say we need doses of hope to avoid disillusion. Given that these communities have varied priorities (particularly upstream vs downstream) how can these be reconciled?

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This article is really intriguing and has demonstrated that sustainable capitalism is an oxymoron. The project of Catalyst in Nairobi started with very good objectives but in its operation, it has demonstrated the very core ideas of capitalism: Winner take it all and keeping the other one on the minimum so that he or she keeps depending on the company. The entrepreneurs they sort to make are actually sales people for them; sales of the image of Catalysts to the international community for more funding but also sales of their product. Capitalism is always about maximizing profit for the already rich.

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I found this article extremely insightful. Beyond thinking about the effects that this kind of corporate schemes have on the general dualism promoted by capitalism between productivity/non-productivity and on the young "entrepeneurs" themselves, I would also like to raise another problematic: the fact that these companies instruct young people (easy to manipulate) to sell "life changing products" to other people that are also easily manipulated and are not able to recognize deceptive marketing strategies. This allows the companies to make easy profits at low costs... but are these "life changing" products really improving the lives of the people who buy them, or just aggravating their poverty? Elena (695342)

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I found the concept of Catalyst entrenched in capitalism. I felt the company was conveniently using the issue of the unproductive youth in the community for its own profit. Especially how from a sale of 75,000 the young could receive only 8,000-10,000. It felt like they were using naivety of the young, showing them promises of a kind of individual growth/future that may not come.

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In response to 695342, I completely agree with what has been pointed out. I think if the intentions of the company were actually to uplift the youth, the actions would have been different. While it can be argued that they've changed the mindset of an otherwise "idle" youth to be more productive. Had they really cared they could have avoided such a huge profit margin or actually invested in the people (for eg: the person who wanted to be a singer). 695002.

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Response to Nigel
I agree on what you have highlighted of the text when it’s said that “Indigenous communities are far from being homogeneous”; in regards of this topic I found interesting how Buu-Sao talks about the “ethnic identity rhetoric”. This sentence made me wonder if perhaps there is a conscious strategy that might sometimes be employed by indigenous peoples in order to have higher chances of being heard: labelling themselves with a category familiar and understandable for the West.
-696519

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I found this article extremely interesting but what particularly struck me was Buu-Sao looking at how women are the first suffering from the consequences that come from these new governability processes. “One of the most striking effects of the appropriation of industrial artifacts is the privatization of domestic space” (p.76). Through these processes new gender divisions and hierarchies are created, divisions that were not there before and that are embedded in the rhetoric strategy of modernity “women carry on reproductive tasks—a symbolic frontier at the heart of capitalist societies” (p.76).
-696519

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I agree that it is entrenched in capitalism and therefore can never be ‘inclusive’, as capitalism as an economic system relies on the perpetuation of a class of people living in poverty. This is illustrated in the article which explains that the “success [of BoP entrepreneurship] hinges on bracketing off the ‘economically active’ from the underproductive poor” (p525). It’s clear that people are shifting from one form of precarity to another, because the market is still a risky thing to be involved in. What I wondered is how people will be able to afford the consumer products (like solar lamps) that are being peddled by Catalyst entrepreneurs, if most people in the community are below the poverty line?

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Meagher's article on the 'cannibalizing' of the informal economy (2018) really interested me, especially regarding the way she showed how economic inclusion in Africa is, in reality, not very inclusive at all. Her comparison of frugal investment to colonialism, in which parts of Africa were distinguished as being 'usable' and 'unusable', was one that really hit home and is certainly visible on the continent today. Aspects of the informal economy that can be profitable to MNCs are used, whilst aspects that might cause e a loss in profits are discarded. Additionally, her discussion of power and who gains from inclusive investment was a good one, showing how inclusive schemes can actually act in very excluding ways a lot of the time. Whilst these schemes can be inclusive to some, they are often very disempowering to others

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Buu-Sao's description of the changes to life that occurred following the implementation of communal enterprise was of particular interest to me, echoing the Foucauldian notions of power on 'docile bodies' that are mentioned earlier on in the article. The changes that are embodied by the inhabitants of the settlement with regard to their time-keeping and the 'flow' of their life, as well as gendered divisions that grew shocked me. This process of 'normalizing' echoes the desire of capitalist enterprises to imprint their desires under the guise of 'help.'

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I found this article really helpful in understanding the ambivalent process of normalization where the indigenous people neither radically reject the rationality nor passively accepting it. The practice of communal enterprise, on the one hand, derives from and reflects the existing asymmetries and the power relationships, on the other hand, masks and reinforces the asymmetries.

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This reading was interesting because in one of the previous tutorials for this class when we discussed how corporations and oil drilling could become more ethical my group pitched the idea of giving indigenous peoples the power, the say, and the leadership in these corporate-type decisions in  what’s done and how it’s done in their communities. This is a similar idea to this reading called “communal enterprise.” It was interesting to read about what this actually looks like in the Peruvian Amazon communities in that while it seems like a good solution or compromise, there is still a dark underbelly. Unsurprisingly, it was shown that corporations do this as a way of manipulating the people to get what they want while also appearing like they’re trying to the public when that is not the reality. CSR reminds me of the term that’s been commonly used in recent times “greenwashing” where companies pretend to care so they can seem more “woke” and continue their profits without backlash. At the end of the day corporations are essentially looking at profits and their goals will not likely align with the goals of communities. This is showcased in the protests by communities that oppose the natural resource extractions in their countries.

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I enjoyed reading Buu-Sao's work since it has a clear structure and accurate language. What's more, it revealed the relationship between industry and indigenous societies which is not romantic or simplistic. Agree with Nigel that the asymmetric powers should be emphasized more. This case reminded me of many cases in the global capitalism context. Chao's work Children of the Palms also revealed the transformation power of capitalism and how 'socialization' changed the way in which their parents educated the new generation. However, though this transformation sounds 'evil', could it be viewed as a dynamic process in which the indigenous people develop their lifestyles? Can we view capitalism as the same thing as 'an earthquake' or 'a flood' which would also transform the community?

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Does the author underestimate the asymmetric nature of the power relationships? This is also the question that I have when I'm reading this article. A lot of examples from this article have demonstrated the appropriation and negotiation between the indigenous people and the companies and the state. However, one cannot deny that the violence they are faced with in the forms of displacement, pollutions, alienation, and uncertain livelihood options. As the normalization deepens, the difficulty for them to negotiate or resist also goes up. 695184 Tingting Ye

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This article and the concept of the logic of equivalence helped me understand some of the discomfort I have with the terms ‘carbon neutral’/ ‘net zero’ and carbon credit schemes, which permit the carbon-emitting activities of airline and energy companies so long as they are ‘offset’. In reality, this ‘offsetting’ falls short of addressing socioenvironmental harms, just as the $60m compensation offered by Barrick to members of the Junta has done in Chile.

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I agree with you I thought this reading was interesting and enjoyable and I agree with you, the relationship between industry and indigenous societies is not romantic or simplistic at all. The questions you asked made me think of the idea through a new perspective. Though I generally view capitalism as the cause for so many of our problems today, it’s interesting to think of it in this context where it could be a push to move indigenous groups into transforming and developing their community for the better—though that’s quite controversial so I look forward to discussing it further in the tutorial.

—695210

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235786 - Darla Rudakubana

Buu-Sao did a great job of highlighting how CSR can be used by big companies to shape the cultures of host communities, as well as pacify them in the case of resistance. Prior to this, I had always thought that CSR was a strategy by companies (especially financial institutions) to build trust and subsequently ensure the loyalty of their customers.

Two key things stood out to me in the example of Pluspetrol and their Peruvian Amazon host community: 1) Their recruitment of "pioneers", as Buu-sao described them, to drive their communal enterprises projects. Although this group is more educated, experienced and exposed, this could also be seen as their vulnerability. Their desperation for change, like the youth recruited into the 'Catalyst' programme described in Dolan+Rajak's article, makes them easy targets and useful tools in producing "docile bodies" (formalisation); 2) The fact that, in the end, locals design projects aligned with the objectives of these big companies/potential funders in order to secure the much needed funding for otherwise transformational initiatives - creating and maintaining a cycle of dependency on these companies/funders.

Looking forward to discussing this in the tutorial.

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I also thought back to the Harlem reading and the similarity seen in these processes that "discipline dissent' by co-opting narratives in the areas where the project is taking place. This article was very helpful though in seeing how dissent can co-exist with this, which I personally feel like is often underestimated.

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I agree with many above that Buu-Sao accurately highlights the heterogeneity of responses from different community members, challenging the prevailing representation/imaginary of indigenous groups as being intrinsically (and permanently?) homogenous. I find that the methodological approach that the author uses to back this claim is what renders the article very rich and nuanced: looking beyond the ‘strategical essentialism’ that some leaders tend to perform by shifting the attention to community members that are more distant from this influence. (Although this poses a bigger challenge in terms of access to the field, as stated by the author) - MJ 685585

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I found this article really engaging in regard to the inclusion and opportunity for the youth who are from a family below the poverty line and different ways to allow these people to thrive and prosper. However, the main issue I came out of this thinking is that capitalism does not allow the workers to thrive economically. From what I have read it seems as though it's a case of "selling a dream of riches" to the poverty-stricken youth, when in fact they are in the same position within the social hierarchy but under a corporate umbrella. For businessmen this scheme can be used to maximise on their profit whilst spending a lot less on young workers. It's almost a cheat code for businesses.

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This article was really insightful and the details of initiatives such as Catalyst were incredibly frustrating. Two words/ phrases that stuck out to me as encapsulating of the project was "moral mission" and "frontier" which signal colonial frameworks of "converting" subjects into agents of work under the guise of respectability, ethics, and responsibility. The section on "rituals of readiness" highlighted the conversion that is an exploitative process masking as an uplifting and empowering one. I am curious to know more details about "Catalyst" including its origins, donors, executives, etc.

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Opportunity to self-actualise or burden?

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Opportunity to self-actualise or burden?

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235786 - Darla Rudakubana

Very thought provoking.
Promoting youth entrepreneurship as a way to 'unleash' the power of the youth/respond to youth unemployment, especially in African and East Africa, has lately been the go-to strategy for Governments, NGOs and development agencies. Youth, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, have been called on to be/find solutions to their own challenges - resulting in a surge of young entrepreneurial "problem-solvers" and "Change-makers". To a certain extent this has enabled youth to gain a seat at the table (inclusion) but it has also unearthed the challenges with this strategy.
The example of Catalyst and aspiring entrepreneurial youth in Kawangware does a good job of bringing some of these issues to the surface. e.g 1) the idea of using capitalist models to ensure equal opportunity; 2) the idea that youth themselves can take on a challenge as complex as youth unemployment, and if resilient or innovative enough, can solve it and that; 3) self-reliance beats demanding for the much needed help in alleviating poverty and dwelling on the shortfalls of responsible institutions.

I look forward to exploring this further in the tutorials.

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Reading Buu-Sao's analysis on CSRs and the use of them, specifically towards the indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon, was interesting. On the face of it, the prospect of corporate companies taking social responsibility for any malpractice or damage to the habitat sounds great. Along with the idea of allowing the indigenous people to be a part and overseeing the work. However, from the reading and analysis, I feel the use of CSRs is just a marketing ploy to reduce any social backlash against them, using the old saying "we had permission, and they know full well of the practices". Another way for corporate conglomerates to take advantage of the natural resources and in doing so may harm the indigenous people.

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Li’s concept of the ‘logic of equivalence’ was an interesting way of expanding on previous Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focused literature. This fusion of a mathematical formula of commensuration, allowed for a compelling read into the examination of the consequences of mining projects with the mining companies ‘environmental responsibility’ mitigation plans. The case of Pascua-Lama, a mine in Chile, bore similarities with previous case studies throughout the course: Cepek’s reading of Texaco oil company in Amazonian Ecuador, Dwinell’s reading of Bechtel corporation privatization of water supply in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. Looking back at our readings, I wonder how useful the lens of commensuration is to re-examine these case studies.

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​Gardener's term, ‘disconnect development’ is a good starting point for looking at the unstable and contradictory power relation between CSR rhetorics and how it manipulates communities in Bangladesh around the Bibiyana Gas Fields​. They are lead to believe they are helping themselves and being empowered when in fact this abdicates Chevron from any social responsibility. The neo-liberal 'partnership development' is again a facade, as also highlighted in Buu-Sao's paper, for co-option, extraction, and covert operations under fuzzy ill-defined governmental speak intended to look like these companies are doing the poor a favour when in fact they are implementing tools of distraction.  683385

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I completely agree that this use of CSR and incorporating indigenous people into work is a propaganda tool to reduce activist responses and maintain the companies’ operations. I felt slightly uncomfortable whilst reading, especially the notion of indigenous communities working for large enterprises as it reeks of exploitation, specifically within the context of manual labour. I don’t mean to suggest all indigenous people are inherently vulnerable, but many stories and first-person accounts don’t look positive on the indigenous and non-indigenous capitalist corporation relationships.
(I read this article straight after visiting the ‘Amazonia’ exhibition at the National Science Museum, so my mind was still immersed in the Amazon and with the indigenous communities shown. The link is above)
- Jake 695008

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Buu-Sao, Privatization and Indigenous Peoples

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Buu-Sao, Privatization and Indigenous Peoples

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I found Buu-Sao's insights fascinating, especially as I feel it elucidates on the profound clash between modernity and tradition. In a sense, the Quechua-speaking peoples are in the the midst of a great flux: fundamental aspects of their way of life (social order, kinship ties, values) are influenced or altered as urbanization and privatization ultimately encroaches on their traditional culture. Everyday aspects like family and identity seem to be affected (perhaps for the worse). As much of this is contextualized under the appropriation of the oil industry, I felt that it was as much a great case to observe the powerful influence and infiltration of neoliberal capitalism on people's core. (612049)

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694963

I think the point you raise about how can youth themselves take on a challenge as complex as youth unemployment is really interesting, and makes me think of how much governments push the responsibility of our society's issues onto the people who are the victims of it, rather than onto the people who make the policies to change the system. Similar to the charity industry - and the feeling that even though they do "good", it is still a market, there are still financial goals to be made, and it's still an industry that they can make money from.

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A couple of movie recommendations that came to my mind after reading Buu-Sao. In case someone's interested in knowing more about the events mentioned in the article. Both can be rented in the links below:

'When Two Worlds Collide' - a documentary about the 2009 Bagua conflict

https://www.takeoneaction.org.uk/film/when-two-worlds-collide/

'La Revolución y la Tierra' - a documentary about the 'revolutionary government' of president Velasco and the agrarian reform in Perú. Based on archive material, testimonies and interviews

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/revolucion

- MJ

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When Two Worlds Collide - Take One Action!

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An indigenous environmental activist takes on the large businesses that are destroying the Amazon.

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I found it really interesting as well about the constructions of space in relationship to the homes and how their proximity to the actual oil operations made them more likely to be constructed in a way that made them more closed off. Almost as though the idea of security(STOP) that was discussed in relationship to the factory actually had a perimeter around the oil operation that had less impact the further away from the factory but had impacted those who lived closest to the factory. These constructions of space have an impact of course on the way individuals engage with community and makes people more insular and in pursuit of the family unit-a la margaret thatcher.

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CSR initiatives, especially that are aimed at youth employment are like the gold standard of marketing - 'how to create the market, the consumers and the marketing channels'. I had a 'aha' moment at the author's mention of Darwinian logic. I found that to be an apt way to describe the cultivation of the ambition-focused, cut-throat competition mindsets created in the 'young' employed via poverty alleviation schemes. Also got me thinking of the unspoken outcomes of displacement, anxiety and gender-related violence issues borne out of these masculinised systems.

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I found this article extremely informative. I agree with many of the posts above, as 696519 I also found very interesting the fact that women are the first suffering and how the gender divisions are being created again.  - 695883

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694981 - I did watch “When Two Worlds Collide” and also highly recommend it. Although it is depressing, it has an incredibly urgent message about capitalism and indigenous populations.

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This article demonstrated how the language used by enterprises such as catalyst can be really harmful. For example "efforts afoot to ‘modernise’ and ‘upgrade’ Africa’s ‘underproductive’ informal economies" places the blame on the individual rather the root cause. Whilst of course there are examples of how schemes like Catalyst have helped some individuals I think this might be the exception rather than the norm.

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I find really interesting the role of glaciers in this case study. How they created a new dynamic and discussion between the Pascua-Lama project, the local dwellers and the activist community. It makes me wonder what would have happened if they hadn't been glaciers. What if they were lagoons or rocks, probably the project would been carried out with (like in many other chilean mining project) a huge environmental impact with no compensation for the local dwellers.

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I found this article to be a very engaging read. The part that interested and saddened me the most was also the one where Buu-Sao mentions that it is women who are the first victims of this “partitioning process” which depreciates the importance of traditional activities, which in the Amazon, are traditionally led by women. This makes the women feel abandoned and creates new gender divisions, as we can see through Lola’s testimony.

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In addition to what you said, I think an important aspect is also the foundation of risk management and crisis management strategies inherent in the creation of these hollow 'partnerships'. They are almost always crafted for corporations to have a way out of taking accountability while simultaneously claiming honours for aiding development.

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This article also got me thinking about COP26 and the global shift towards NetZero. It raised some excellent questions about commensuration and the flaws in the logic of equivalence. It's really got me questioning  whether CSR initiatives can outweigh the bad...? Or, like Li said, does it just encourage minimal action and more business as usual since "Companies will only implement mitigation plans in line with legal requirements and will only adopt initiatives that are considered cost efficient".

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l2_3ybP5E4

found this TedTalk very insightful and thought it would be of some interest to you all

685469

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Why there is no fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: Ramakrishna N K at TEDxIMTDubai

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When reading this piece I was thinking a lot about corruption, and if this was monitored, or if it can be, and what impact that makes on decision making. I thought the point Li makes:

CSR thus in-corporates communities, governments, NGOs, and other actors into the participatory process, creating relations of collaboration that give an illusion of consensus

Nodded to this, with the 'illusion' of consensus, when in reality, it could be down to who does more for another party's favour.

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Very good point about rethinking those case studies through the logic of commensuration.
This also  brought to mind the negative externalities imposed on to deprived neighborhood in cities, impacting the health of their residents as well as the value of their houses. Does principle of commensuration get applied to urban environment in the same way as it does to natural environment? What makes an environment worthy of compensation? 687127 Elena R

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I was also interested in how Buu-Sao looked at affects of the new governing on women. It goes to compare how in capitalist societies reproductivity is is valued but its often not categorized as labor by women. The effects on the new process on how home work was viewed was also interesting (cooking and childcare)

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Indeed! I was also incredibly surprised by how easily corporations, who - as you said - always have to follow detailed and controlled procedures of risk and crisis management, can actually completely dismiss all this and have no responsability of local people's health and wellbeing simply by hiring them through subcontractors. The fact that the locals weren't even warned about the fires that were going to happen during the night, shows that using "local leaders" and subcontractors lifts these corporations completely from all the obligations that they would usually have to follow. Elena (695342)

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This article and topic in general is fascinating to me. The idea of BoP development sounds, in theory at least, like a practical solution for lifting people out of poverty. However, it ends up exploiting impoverished populations and bases development on consumerism, and markets traits that are beneficial to business owners as crucial for success in life, when really they are being used for cheap labour. This then puts the onus onto the 'entrepreneurs' to succeed rather than the system they are entrapped in.

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Buu-Sao's article was effective in demonstrating some of the ways that local communities engage in extractive industry, demonstrating the agency of indigenous communities and resisting the notion that their responses are always homogenous. However, I agree with 695184, in that the article does not necessarily address the unequal power balance between the actors, and to what extent normalisation reduces agency as it deepens. Further, the section about Lola, the woman who cries as the men in her family will not assist her, shows that potentially the women in the area are not enthusiastically participating, and I think the author could have focused more on the gendered impact of CSRs. (695716)

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I also thought this article was very interesting in how it described the framework proposed by Catalyst. They followed a popular tactic by companies to promote capitalism as a way of "unleashing power". Not to mention some of the rhetoric surrounding 'modernization', given this was an enterprise in Africa. It all follows a very familiar and deliberate marketing technique, I though this article did a great job of challenging the realities of what the company was selling.

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What does it mean for NGOS and entrepreniul efforts to profit from the ideas of marginalized groups without sustainable support of these ideas and entreprenuers. The way we see people re creating systems of oppression in efforts to create some sort of upward mobility is harsh. This article is incredibly interesting and really challenging.

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I have never been to the natural history museum but would love to go and situate this article a bit. The way indegeounous communities are forced to mimic western and coorporate actors is really concerning but also really complicated. I look forward to discussing this in class with you all today.

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This made me think of multi level marketing schemes with the  addition of funding being collected towards the "good cause" ("the story sold out well and they started receiving funds" p 226). Multi-level marketing and direct selling are being promoted in South Africa in conjunction with a drive to integrate most of the African population into the formal financial system: the direct sellers go hunting for any money that is kept at home and kept outside from the "official" money channels. The only reason I see for choosing some individuals over others deemed not fit for the role is that this pyramid system is sustainable only as long as there are "sellers" and "buyers". If recruitment reaches its limit, the MLM scheme stops being sustainable since the only good really marketed here is the aspiration for social mobility (and the initial investment the newly recruited sellers are willing to make) ,rather than the actual goods.

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I am enjoy reading the Buu-Sao’s work in terms of the CSR and its practice in the oil labour in the Amazon. I was resonate with the Peru’s indigenous contexts which could be shared with my indigenous friends who are living in the communities and combating with the similar ming company. Firstly, this article also provides the framework to consider the development in the community- One is the community enterprise while another is the elite-controlled extractive compony.Secondly, this studies also reminds us the complex context in the extractive govermetality, as well as highlights the significance of agency and internal diversity. Lastly, something interesting phenomenon in this ethnography is the drunkenness in the page 71, masato, which refer to the practice of solidarity and recipocity as a cultural custom. However, this cultural practice faces some critics towards alcoholism.

Posted by Yueh-Chou, aka Tuyuq (SOAS Numver 693655)

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I though this was a very insightful article. It highlighted ideas about Foucauldian governmentality and the heterogeneity of indigenous groups in the context of CSR in Peru. Through critically engaging with the agency of the "subaltern", Buu-Sao highlights the ambivalent nature of the effects of these governing strategies. Indigenous groups are often framed as a monolithic entity and, as we have read about previously, indigenous people sometimes strategically lean into this idea of homogeneity. However, this article prompts us to look beyond essentialism from the outside as well as inside the indigenous groups, as it shows that needs on the ground differ greatly within the indigenous group and therefore the response to the policies do as well (from gender to location, etc.).

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I found this article to be very interesting. It explained a lot but the part that triggered me the most was the part about women being the ones who are suffering from these processes. It is quite sad that a lot of issues result in women suffering and them being the ones affected by it most. Gender inequality is an issue that is present in all fields and contexts and is a present issue when it comes to sustainability as well. (695995)

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I also found the role of the glacier really interesting within this piece. The bizarre notion that the glacier being broken apart and moved to another location was deemed suitable was especially terrifying. The fact that the EIA was approved by the Chilean authorities demonstrates how necessary public disapproval is in fighting environmental and social issues. It also demonstrates that although Environmental Impact assessments should be providing accurate information about the environmental damage, their approval will often be given to suit the needs of the corporation.

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I definitely agree with you on the point that language is essential when conveying a concept and words need to be chosen correctly. Enterprises need to choose their words carefully so that the message is translated correctly. (695995)

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This is a really interesting article that gets you thinking about Bottom of the Pyramid initiatives such as ‘Catalyst’. Yes this is a successful strategy in encompassing social good, inclusive business and economic growth - it responds to youth unemployment  and invites those under the poverty line to harness their inner entrepreneur and create new products for the market and brings purpose to their lives. However as a strategy for development it comes with questions and challenges.
Is it fair to place the responsibility of youth unemployment onto the youth? With such a capitalist model, through which the key actor receives a minimal proportion of the money made- this is not equal opportunity.
It feels like a money making strategy for big business whilst also tying a message of ‘social good’ to their corporate approach. Yes this is a great way for the youth to thrive, make change in their own lives and be empowered but this allows businesses to thrive economically and maximise their own profits. Further questioning the role of development strategy’s as a whole. I look forward to discussing in tutorials. Eliza

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I found this article both interesting and uncomfortable to read. I found it disturbing how large TNC's are using those on the 'bottom of the pyramid' as actors or tools to access societies that they may not yet be selling too. Is is especially worrying how these young actors many of whom see to be aimless or vulnerable are given false promises and financial incentives to keep them interested. This article also prompted me to reflect on my role as a consumer and how these projects are marketed to other consumers as methods of community engagement or in fact activism. This appears to me that this is in fact a form of social green washing that does more harm than good and is disruptive to a society rather than helpful.

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I enjoyed this article (easy to read and interesting) - particularly the idea of the transformation of the self in line with the principles of a market discourse as a prerequisite to the realm of hope and possibility. making me feel slight despair to think how to rethink how to challenge the inherent inequality of capitalism.

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I was particularly interested in the performance and materialisation of the 'entrepreneur'. It is alluded to that informal economy work may have been engaged with previously, and that the difference was one of performance. The very bodies of the entrepreneurs in the program having such weight on whether they would be successful or not adds another layer of a 'capital' needed to engage with BoP capitalism and any capitalism.

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I also found the metaphors equating contemporary ‘evangelical projects’ (Rayak, quote on Buu-Sao’s article), such as Catalyst, to colonial missionary work very thought-provoking. As you mentioned, this article illustrates thoroughly how there is still a colonial logic operating at the base of the ‘conversion’ of subjects to the 'entrepreneurial habitus', both in this piece and in the case presented by Buu-Sao. - MJ 685585

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An insightful reflection of the parallels of Checker's article on Harlem, showing this sort of behaviour of using capitalism to control is alive across the world no matter the country. Also agree with you that the uprising gives me hope for the power of the local community to challenge colonial power and knowledge.

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In response to all x3 posts above, I agree. Gardener’s article encapsulates ‘disconnect development’. It makes me sad to read that these big companies are choosing to forget and reject all forms of health/risk/danger responsibilities. Placing this duty on the so called ‘contractors/local leaders’. It all feels extremely mismanaged and irresponsible - disconnected. It is as if all that they want to do is to be able to shout out about their work helping development and giving work to the poor – sticking ‘social responsibility’ to their company name like a plaster. Eliza 686948

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Very interesting demonstration of glaciers as anomaly in the equation of equivalence and helps expose the inadequacies of science and the law and challenge the company's narrative of CSR. 694624

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Measuring the success of BoP initiatives

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Measuring the success of BoP initiatives

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I wonder if data about sales made by these groups of African youths from the beginning of the training programme and how many of them actually have turned into entrepreneurs or became more productive citizens than they were before would shed some light on the effectiveness of the BoP initiative done by Catalyst and many others. 694624

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I spent a lot of time while reading this paper reflecting on what the definition of entrepreneurship is.  Here it is from Oxford "the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit".  I think that many individuals including myself, take on entrepreneurial pursuits because in some sense we believe we have AGENCY over the direction of our undertaking and we are therefore in some sense free from the system that we don't necessarily want to take part in-say an office space or a harm industry that results in physical pain .  In reality, what we are doing is reading and reacting to a socioeconomic and cultural landscape which we can navigate and find the avenues that will accommodate our particular venture.  In opposition to the agency entrepreneurs may seek, we actually forfeit all agency as we act as researchers for global capitalism to find new avenues for growth-a fact we know that the US state is aware of as the "gig" economy grows and more legislation is signed that makes big corporations able to classify their workers as "contract workers"-see Uber and Lyft in California. An entrepreneur who has benefited from nepotism, may have the capacity to financially reward themselves for their ingenuity and build a business based around it. While in the paper we read here, entrepreneurship acts as a form of subject-making and a way to pacify the threat of a population of African youth being made aware of capitalism not working for them and potentially taking action against it. I believe entrepreneurship as a word needs a more contextual definition that gives mention to agency, desperation, poverty, and hope attached to the word across various cultural and socioeconomic contexts.

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Agreed, I was particularly interested in the materialisation of the differences between upstream and downstream villages. The very structures in which they built and lived most clearly illustrated the different positions they found themselves in.

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Buu Sao demonstrates how CSRs are used to discipline dissent and the power they have to transform, which I thought accompanied the lecture extremely well and shows how CSRs have this nefarious/dark side to them. It would be interesting to talk about entrepreneurialism and creating consumers in reference to this reading. (695065)

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I found this article really interesting. This initiative does seem like a promising one especially as it seems to address the growing concerns of youth unemployment in Africa and create both economic growth and social good. However, the questions that it raises about the stability and long term profitability of these small business are also fascinating. It makes me think about how may of these initiatives put the blame on individuals, here specifically the youth for structural issues. Here it seems as though the youth is blamed for being idle but it is the systems and the jobless growth that Africa experienced that is to be blamed. It raises important questions in terms of the effectiveness of programs focused on the individual.

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It got me thinking about whether CSR initiatives can outweigh the bad too! Given the lecture content I'm leaning towards no.. and as you said, Li suggests that it only encourages bare minimum action thats cost efficient.

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I found this article very insightful, and in some ways harked back to previous discussions on individual responsibility - e.g. placing responsibility on 'entrepreneurs' to raise themselves out of poverty, rather than addressing the context that puts them there to start with.
Like 626705 pointed out, this made me reflect on my own role as a consumer, which was uncomfortable but hopefully productive (695716)

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I also found how glaciers added an affective quality to the mining debate interesting. The thing I thought was most puzzling about this was the notion of moving the glaciers. The glaciers were clearly integral to that specific location’s maintenance of the water cycle, and yet the mining company thought it a “commensurable” and therefore “sustainable” idea to simply relocate some glaciers to another area. It was astounding to really understand how almost trivially the natural environment was being treated in attempts to appease locals.
Roshni 637370

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I find myself going back to the concluding statements within the article that explains how villages “adopt and adapt communal enterprise”, and how they neither “passively absorb” nor “mechanically reject” the rationale of capitalist organisations. Does this ambivalence end up legitimising the extractive industries that are disrupting areas of the Amazon? I’m struggling to determine if this is a good/bad thing to happen, or if we can even subscribe such thinking to this issue?

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I wrote this response after the lecture to learn more about how CSRs are used in modern capitalism production system. I think it reflects well in this Buu-Sao artical about the indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon. When countered with a moderalization production institute, the local people was under an unbalanced power relationships. It is worth noting that how are they respont to it.

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I agree with at the points made above. I think Gardener characterising CSR as 'the license to operate' was specifically interesting to me because it highlights the purpose of CSR, which often isn't social good but rather it is appearing to be socially conscious, sustainable, etc. Using buzzwords can therefore give a false sense of a company being socially responsible. This is similar to the green-washing that is done by many companies. Thus it is important to critically look at the results of CSR initiatives.

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Agree with the general assessment that other commenters have made. I think this piece really gets to the core of how capitalism sells a dream to people largely in order to exploit them. The value that markets produce for the few creates a compelling narrative for the many, that they can attain that high status if they make the right moves. Unfortunately it seems to be a money-making scheme for the businesses to hire cheap labour and exploit systemically impoverished groups. It puts the blame on individuals for systemic economic problems (that I'd wager can largely be traced back to colonialism and global neoliberal policy) and forces them to be "entrepeneurs" in order to not live in poverty.

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Thanks for sharing the website! I have not been to the National Science Museum yet. I will definitely go and visit the Amazonia exhibition especially after this reading. Many of our reading materials are about the relationship between indigenous people and modern world, partitularly the capitalism.

694929

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I agree with this point in that the youth are in the same position within the social hierarchy just under the corporate umbrella. The companies are getting large profits from this and not paying the youths much in comparison to it but disguising it under a program to help the youth. 696262

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Similarly to you, I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of “carbon offsetting” and how big polluting companies can avoid reducing their emissions, just because they are “offsetting”. This article made me reflect further on how it often does not make sense to believe that anything can be “commensurable” and how offsetting pollution or water usage with monetary compensation is clearly not going to stop climate change. (695224)

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Agree with you that governments push the responsibility of our society's issues onto the victims and using rhetoric to cover what they were actually doing- making money from the poor! Also, it inspired me to think of 'autonomy', which is often seen as a solution in development project. We should examine to what extend 'autonomy' is enforced in the real cases.

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I think the "cycle of dependency" is an extremely crucial point across many of the readings for this week. Corporate initiatives that may seem inclusive, even if they are not necessarily directly exploiting marginalised groups (as often does seem to be the case), inherently build the corporate value structure systemically into people's lives to maintain hegemony over them.

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Really interesting article that for me is about market solutions to the problem of the 'African youth', a growing surplus population that can either be seen (from the perspective of capitalist development) as a threat or an opportunity. State absence and lack of formal job opportunities leaves the 'private sector to fill the void, offering consumable products in place of services or infrastructure (for example, solar lamps instead of power lines) and entrepreneurial opportunities in place of jobs for those willing to sell them' and has the effect of converting a potentially hostile and political population to one seduced by individualistic and entrepreneurial sources of progress and wealth.

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This piece essentially just shows capitalism at its finest. Hiring cheap labour to sell and promote products to make large profits for the company and labelling it as CSR. It is essentially a pyramid scheme and these are illegal in some places due to their exploitative nature.

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I thought this article was really interesting. Buu-Sao writes that “corporate social responsibility has developed into a key defensive technique aiming to preclude protests”. I liked the wording of this sentence from the introduction, making it clear since the beginning that too often, CSR’s aim is not to contribute positively to society and the environment, but just to appease any negative backlash against them. The article illustrates this very well through the example of communal enterprises.

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Response to 658729
You interestingly use the words that capitalist enterprises 'imprint their desires' under the guise of help, which is more connected to the process of normalisation and a more Foucauldian perspective on power and discipline. I wonder about the intentions of the community enterprise project, if it is primarily about seeking support and winning over a resisting community or whether this idea of converting subjects by imprinting the desires of capitalist enterprise onto individuals and the wider community.

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In this article, the phrase "boundary object" shows how the issues raised between private corporates, state and public, can be disputable in the global and local arena. In this case, if we add the cruciality of GDP for chile's government to be a developing nation in the world arena, we can append another meaning to these "glaciers". The law, which was established for the national interests, is not adequate anymore for two reasons: first, climate change considerations and second indigenous people identity.
We can see that global environmentalists are involved in a previously considered national issue. This article shows how globalization brought private corporates into the local lives of indigenous people and brought international NGOs and activists simultaneously.

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The Logic of Equivalence is a neat analysis of the processes of thought that go into forming CSR 'checklists' but as a tool in itself, makes an assumption that these equivalences can be measured and, more importantly, controlled. Consider the moving of glaciers as a movement of a natural resource, as if the proportionality of this is equivalent to the to any prescribed responsibilities.

The article highlights the key forces in the 'CSR industry' but says more about the lengths to which mitigation strategies are limited in relation to those responsibilities.

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The paper illustrates the struggle between traditions and modernity, survival  and development. It highlights the use of CSR as a means to manage conflict or potential of dissent especially through communal enterprise to change the structure and relationships in societies. I wonder if there is a better and realistic alternative for a better standard of living and social mobilisation for the Quechua or the marginalised communities in general? In spite of the corporates’ ulterior motives, it is providing the community a chance to make a living, how are they going to survive without the tools to do so in a capitalistic world?

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Whilst it is not trying to downplay the relative successes of entrepreneurship, this article manages to capture the 'myth' of inclusion at the BoP. Unsurprisingly, the focus points of Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa are 'self-mastery' and 'discipline'. Evidently, neither self-mastery nor discipline are methods which are sufficiently capable at altering the flow of capital at a macroeconomic level. On the contrary, these discourses, whilst having relative successes in particular cases, perpetuate inequality at a global scale. At a macro scale, these micro-financialised dreams seem to widen the divide between the 'BoP' and the 'ToP'.

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I have alo been wondering about the logic of net zero. I agree that it feels like its merely a term to manage nations and corporates who have immense carbon emission, shifting the focus on ‘developing’ countries who emit less emissions anyway. Its still catering to capitalistic logics by doing the bare minimum to mitigate dissent. (696247)

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Although I agree with your statement of the omni-presence of capitalism, I'd like to nuance some points. In my understanding, this article is pointing out how CSR functions as a normalising power in the Peruvian Amazon. This means that it is precisely the idea of 'surviving in a capitalist world' that is empowering the claims of CSR. There are no alternatives of survival, precisely because the State wants it to be like that. This is where the article points out the 'soft techniques beyond coercion' through which the State maintains its sovereign power.

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The idea of entrepeneurship that is often sold to less these parts of the world is linear and projects the ideals of corporate enterprise unto the individual. I agree with the authors that BoP endeavours reinforce inequalities and I would like to add to the ideas highlighted on consumption.

Capitalism in this context, in the provocation of an entrepeneurial youth, is motivated through the purposeful creation of wants and needs as consumers. A structure of consumption is created so that more needs are required to participate and the desire of new 'wants' entraps an individual further into this. This is done through the commodification of the global 'poor', looking only into their use-value in terms of prodcutivity. It is in the best interests of corporate shareholders to expand this and therefore, commodify further these individuals. These organisations use CSR to further this, using CSR not as a code of ethics but as yet another tool in the accumulation of capital.

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I felt that the message of the article highlighting the agency of Indigenous people was important. I also saw some similarities with colonial divide and conquer techniques that empower some of the colonised people over others in order to consolidate control. 696529

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I felt that the message of the article highlighting the agency of Indigenous people was important. I also saw some similarities with colonial divide and conquer techniques that empower some of the colonised people over others in order to consolidate control. 696529

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I liked this article because it resonated with how the term 'sustainable capitalism' and everything I know about CSR tend to put a bad taste in my mouth. The blurred manner in which for profit operations pose as helpful to local communities. Like my classmates have noted, the example here really illustrates the fact that it is entirely about appearances, while maintaining underhanded exploitative practices. I think it also really underlines that considering the centrality of the profit motive, capitalism is inherently not set up to be sustainable. (676013)

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I was curious to read a bit more about how communal enterprise impacts gender relationships within the community. Buu-Sao notes that "Economic monetarization and family dependency on the wage earned by men depreciate the importance of traditional activities, particularly horticulture, which...is traditionally a female task" (pg 76). I would love to learn a bit more about the effects that these systems have in transforming the public and private spaces and the evolution of how these are occupied within the community.

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I felt similarly, like it was a system that promised more than is even possible to achieve. What struck me more is how many of the youths' stories are then repurposed and sold to entice investors. It makes me think of every other multi-level marketing systems that we've been warned about and that rely on members to bring in 'fresh meat' in order to make an income.

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I have mixed feelings about the usefulness of schemes like these - is it the best we can do given the current reality that governments are not assuming the roles they should, leaving this space to be filled? While some good may come from this, I am wary that encouraging reliance on these schemes rather than pressuring governments to ensure the welfare of citizens just entrenches society deeper into this dilemma. (676013)

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I found that the changes that communal enterprises entail are far more than establishing the hierarchical network and modernisation of the community but the fundamental change on the nature of indigenous community like the social bonding, way of sustaining lives, relationship between human and nature etc. When it comes to improving lives, I think we gotta bear in mind that there are different ways of living, and which way of living is CSR actually improving.

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I definitely agree that the states are actually more responsible to make our livings more sustainable but by the time of saying CSR isn’t working I think it really takes time to examine the idea. Some of the economists are raising some new theories like externalities taking the side effects that brought up by the process of profit making into account. And consumer behaviours are actually having impacts on large companies too.

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This article is really insightful and allow us to make in depth analysis before coming up with conclusions on the superficial level .The reason I am saying this ,is because I was impressed by the work of Catalyst at the beginning of the article and the fact that they were opening opportunities to youth to empower themselves and transform their status from idle to entrepreneur,but after reading in more details I understood that it is another form of exploitation to vulnerable and hopeless youth who have no options except to be part of this opportunity (inclusive capitalism ) or be part of Capitalism by being unemployed and involved in crimes or being idle as the capitalism system decided their role .

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I agree with Elena, I always thing the same way looking around the world, there are no such a market without a demand.