1 | A LTERNAUTAS 7 (2) – D ECEMBER 2020 Alternautas La tri (Re)Searching Development: The Abya Yala Chapter Alternautas – Vol.7 – Issue 2 – December 2020 Preface “Culture War” against Brazilian universities: how budget cuts and changes in tertiary education policies are affecting the academic community – Valesca Lima & Sue A. S. Iamamoto No savings, just pain: School closures and “reform” in Puerto Rico – Rima Brusi The multiple forms of racism and the challenges it poses to higher education systems – Daniel Mato Speak out or stay silent? A study of oil company- community relations through the political ecology of voice – Adrian Gonzalez Globalisation: Its Exclusions of Poor and Black Populations – Milton Santos Norma Giarracca: Working Toward “A World Where Many Worlds Fit” – Pablo Lapegna Three food production logics: Are there alternatives to agribusiness? – Norma Giarracca & Tomás Palmisano Social Sciences and Rural Studies in Argentina during the 20th century – Norma Giarracca Latin America, new ruralities, old and new collective action – Norma Giarracca ISSN - 2057-4924 -- Alternautas is a peer EDITORIAL BOARD reviewed academic blog that publishes content Ana Estefanía Carballo (University of Melbourne, Australia) related to Latin American Michela Coletta (University of Warwick, United Kingdom) Critical Development Gibrán Cruz-Martínez (Institute of Public Goods and Policies, CSIC, thinking. Spain) Emilie Dupuits (Universidad Central del Ecuador) It intends to serve as a María Eugenia Giraudo (University of Warwick, United Kingdom) platform for testing, Rebecca Hollender (The New School, United States) circulating, and debating Valesca Lima (Maynooth University, Ireland) new ideas and reflections Angus McNelly (Queen Mary, University of London, United on these topics, expanding Kingdom) beyond the geographical, Paulina Méndez Rheinische (Friedriech-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, cultural and linguistic Germany) boundaries of Latin Nicholas Pope (SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom) America - Abya Yala. We María del Pilar Ramírez Gröbli (University of Bern, Switzerland) hope to contribute to Philip Roberts (University of York, United Kingdom) connecting ideas, and to Läetitia Saint-Loubert (Université de la Reunión, France) provide a space for Diego Silva (The Graduate Institute of International and Development intellectual exchange and Studies, Switzerland) discussion for a nascent Johannes M. Waldmüller (Universidad de las Américas, Ecuador) academic community of scholars, devoted to counter-balancing COLLABORATORS - COMMISSIONING EDITORS & COPY EDITORS mainstream Alexander D'Aloia (Australian National University, Australia) understandings of Adrian E. Beling (Humboldt Universität, Germany – Universidad development. Alberto Hurtado, Chile) Juan Jaime Loera González (Escuela de Antropología e Historia del -- Norte de México, México) www.alternautas.net Julien Vanhulst (Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile) María Mancilla García (University of Stockholm, Sweden) f: /Alternautas Sue A. S. Iamamoto (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil) t: @alternautas [email protected] London, UK. ISSN - 2057-4924 -- 3 | A LTERNAUTAS 7 (2) – D ECEMBER 2020 Contents Preface .................................................................................... 4 “Culture War” against Brazilian universities: how budget cuts and changes in tertiary education policies are affecting the academic community .............................................................. 8 No savings, just pain: School closures and “reform” in Puerto Rico ...................................................................................... 19 The multiple forms of racism and the challenges it poses to higher education systems .................................................................. 32 Speak out or stay silent? A study of oil company-community relations through the political ecology of voice ...................................................... …………………………45 Globalisation: Its Exclusions of Poor and Black Populations .. 72 Norma Giarracca: Working Toward “A World Where Many Worlds Fit” ........................................................................... 83 Three food production logics: Are there alternatives to agribusiness? .......................................................................... 91 Social Sciences and Rural Studies in Argentina during the 20th century ................................................................................ 106 Latin America, new ruralities, old and new collective action 140 Preface | 4 Preface Welcome to the seventh volume of Alternautas! We are proud to present to readers this new issue of Alternautas, including two mini dossiers, one on Neoliberal education in Latin America and the other one including translations of Norma Giarracca's main work on Argentinian rural studies, as well other thought-provoking articles. In this issue, we continue to publish critical research and alternative intellectual perspectives about Latin American development processes. This is particularly important as Latin America is still facing substantial impacts and challenges in the context of the Covid19 global pandemic. The post-pandemic reality appears even more diffuse and distant, aggravated by the incapacity of current governments, their economic and institutional instability to provide assistance during the emergency, the exacerbation of extractivist policies and their related socio-environmental conflicts during the pandemic in various countries of the region, but also by the political and scientific struggles around vaccination access and health policies. Something that in effect confronts humanity with a “catastrophic moral failure”, when the vaccines as a tool that could help end the pandemic may also “become just another brick in the wall of inequality between the world's haves and have-nots”1. At this time of historical uncertainties, a critical look at the past is more than necessary. The authors of this new volume contribute to this common objective through their works, research, and thoughts on the realities of the countries of Abya Yala. 1 Tedros Adhanom, «WHO Director-General’s Opening Remarks at 148th Session of the Executive Board (Speech)», 2021, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director- general-s-opening-remarks-at-148th-session-of-the-executive-board. 5 | A LTERNAUTAS 7 (2) – D ECEMBER 2020 The mini dossier on Neoliberal education in Latin America presents three articles discussing the challenges and controversies regarding new policies adopted in primary and university education in the region. In "Culture War" against Brazilian universities: how budget cuts and changes in tertiary education policies are affecting the academic community, Valesca Lima and Sue Iamamoto critically analyse the financial and political measures taken under the Bolsonaro government in Brazil affecting academic freedom and autonomy, exacerbating violence against students and strengthening a process of privatization. From a not very different perspective, in No savings, just pain: School closures and "reform" in Puerto Rico, Rima Brusi, invites us to an encounter with Carmen, a teacher currently retired from the municipality of Cayey in Puerto Rico. Through her story, she discusses the austerity measures implemented after Hurricane Maria occurred in 2017 and their impact on public schools closures, most of them located in the rural sector, exacerbating the economic hardship of the affected population and increasing inequality rates on the island. Finally, the last piece of the dossier is a translation of Daniel Mato's work on The multiple forms of racism and the challenges it poses to higher education systems, where the author analyses the historical and structural roots of racism that still affect universities in the region, and the possible responses and solutions to revert this situation. In Speak out or stay silent? A study of oil company-community relations through the political ecology of voice, Adrian Gonzalez develops a conceptual framework based on the political ecology of voice to explore the reality of meaningful participation, specifically the ability of local citizens to report environmental pollution incidents, in the Peruvian Amazon. The next article is a translation of Milton Santos' lecture on Globalisation: Its Exclusions of Poor and Black Populations, during the Black Awareness Day and the Zumbi dos Palmares celebrations, at the José Bonifácio Cultural Centre in the city of Rio de Janeiro, held on November 17 and 18, 1997. Professor Milton Santos gave at this occasion a lecture in which he addressed contemporary issues of organisation and progress for the Afro-Brazilian community. Finally, the issue ends with a mini dossier gathering several translations of Norma Giarracca's work on the sociology of rural studies in Argentina. In the first piece, Norma Giarracca: Working Toward "A World Where Many Worlds Fit", Pablo Lapegna introduces Norma as profoundly committed to social justice and respect for the "subjects" of her research. According to the author, she fitted many worlds in the relatively small world of rural sociology and made its branches extend beyond disciplines, countries, and perspectives. She has been sorely missed since 2015, but Preface | 6 the seeds she planted keep sprouting and growing. The next three articles are translations of Norma Giarracca's main contributions: 1) Three food production logics: Are there alternatives to agribusiness?, by Norma Giarracca