Neoliberal expulsions,crisis, and graphic reportage in Spanish comics

ABSTRACT

In this article, after analyzing the comics industry in Spain in the context of the 2008 crisis, which reveals how small and medium publishers have adapted to new trends in consumption, I focus on the graphic novel Barcelona. Los vagabundos de la chatarra (2015) by Jorge Carrión and Sagar. This comic depicts the underworld of scrap metal collection in Barcelona, where mainly immigrant workers wander the streets, barely eking a living out of the detritus of consumerist society. It is an example of graphic journalism in comics, one of the most interesting developments in the genre in the past few years. It is also a novelty in Spanish comics because certain topics were far from common in the existing repertoire, which had been dominated by adventures, fantasy, and science fiction. Drawing on Verónica Gago's La razón neoliberal (2014) and Saskia Sassen's Expulsions (2015), I challenge conventional approaches to neoliberalism by focusing on neoliberalism from below, which is seen by Gago to point toward the emergence of a new historical consciousness of living in perpetual crisis.     

Reflections on the Relationship between Education and Archaeology: An Analysis of IPHAN’s Role as Collective Educator

This article analyses the role of the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional—IPHAN (the Brazilian Government’s Bureau for Cultural Patrimony Preservation) as an educational institution, considering the relationship between archaeology and education. Consideration of education both as a social practice and as a profession provides a basis for discussing the educational approaches of archaeologists. The authors stress the fact that IPHAN barely takes advantage of the important teaching tool that the archaeological knowledge produced in Brazil can provide for education about Brazilian cultural patrimony.     

A perfect storm? Welfare, care, gender and generations in Uruguay

This article claims that welfare states modelled on a contributory basis and with a system of entitlements that assumes stable two-parent families, a traditional breadwinner model, full formal employment and a relatively young age structure are profoundly flawed in the context of present-day challenges. While this is true for affluent countries modelled on the Bismarckian type of welfare system, the costs of the status quo are even more devastating in middle-income economies with high levels of inequality. A gendered approach to welfare reform that introduces the political economy and the economy of care and unpaid work is becoming critical to confront what may very well become a perfect storm for the welfare of these nations and their peoples. Through an in-depth study of the Uruguayan case, the authors show how the decoupling of risk and protection has torn asunder the efficacy of welfare devices in the country. An ageing society that has seen a radical transformation of its family and labour market landscapes, Uruguay maintained during the 1980s and 1990s a welfare state that was essentially contributory, elderly and male-oriented, and centred on cash entitlements. This contributed to the infantilization of poverty, increased the vulnerability of women and exacerbated fiscal stress for the system as a whole. Furthermore, because of high levels of income and asset inequality, the redistribution of risk between upper- and lower-income groups presented a deeply regressive pattern. The political economy of care and welfare has begun to change in the last decade or so, bringing about mild reforms in the right direction; but these might prove to be too little and too late.     

Pitted stone cobbles in the Mesolithic site of Font del Ros (Southeastern Pre-Pyrenees,Spain): some experimental remarks around a controversial tool type

The presence of cobbles with activity-related marks in the Mesolithic site of Font del Ros (Berga, Spain), and in particular one group of artefacts – pitted stones – raises problematic issues associated with the characterization of percussion activities. Although these artefacts have generated an extensive bibliography on ethological, ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological levels, various questions persist in relation to their possible contextual function. In this paper we present the results of an experimental programme in which three types of activities that could create pitted stones are reproduced: bipolar knapping of vein quartz, hazelnut cracking, and hazelnut grinding. The aim of this experimental programme is to describe marks and use-wear traces related to such activities.     

Archaeological microgravimetric prospection inside don church (Valencia, Spain)

The microgravimetric surveying technique is applicable to the detection of shallow subsurface structures if a lateral density contrast is presented, and thus, it is a valid technique for archaeological prospection. In this paper, this technique has been revealed to be an efficient tool for archaeological studies, such as those performed inside Don Church (18th century), located in the urban area of Alfafar town, Valencia (Spain), where a buried crypt, suggested by different boreholes drilled during the second restoration process in 1993, is expected. Details of the site’s characteristics, topographic survey procedures, microgravimetric field operations, data collection and gravity reduction operations (where the inner building effect of walls, pillars and the altar is confirmed as one of the most important) are also presented. Finally, the results confirm the buried crypt.