Selling Maize in Mexico: The Persistence of Peasant Farming in an Era of Global Markets

The last decade of the twentieth century was heralded as the ‘end of agrarian reform’ in Mexico and the initiation of a new era of market‐led agricultural policy and practice. The impact of neoliberalism and the North American Free Trade Agreement on smallholder maize production has been widely conceived as negative, associated with ecological degradation, rural emigration and cultural erosion. Yet, some twenty years later, all evidence suggests that smallholder maize production is continuing in Mexico, albeit in evolving structures and forms. This article uses a farm‐level survey implemented in three Mexican states to assess the current condition of maize farming in Mexico. The authors revisit past categorizations of Mexican farmers and apply similar approaches to explore what maize‐producing households are doing with their maize, and what current patterns of production imply for future Mexican maize policy. They find evidence of greater persistence and adaptability in Mexican maize farming than is often presented. On the basis of their analysis, they advocate for a reconsideration of the underlying assumptions of public policy, highlighting the heterogeneity of the maize landscape and the unrealized and generally unrecognized potential this heterogeneity represents.     

Plant Size and Clustering of Manufacturing Activity

Although a growing number of studies emphasize the advantages small firms gain by co-locating in space, there is little empirical work that directly examines clustering trends by firm size. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the isolated effects of size on clustering patterns of producers in a major manufacturing state in the southeast United States. Recent developments in point process modeling allow us to control for the critical fact that economic activity is, in general, concentrated in space. Our findings suggest that the relationship between establishment size and clustering in North Carolina is roughly characterized by an inverted u-shape, that is, clustering increases up to some size threshold and then decreases again.     

ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL KADIR MUNSYI: A MAN OF BANANAS AND THORNS

Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi is best known for his memoirs, labelled by some his autobiography, the Hikayat Abdullah. The missionary, Alfred North, encouraged him to write his life story, a first in Malay, and it has been assumed that Abdullah, working in a new genre, was relatively faithful to the conventions of the genre; that at the very least, he was attempting to produce a tolerably straightforward account of his life and times. Both his admirers and detractors, though seemingly at odds, saw Abdullah's work as a mouthpiece for British values. It did not occur to scholars that Abdullah might possess his own agenda, and that his working in a foreign genre did not necessarily produce what those scholars assumed it did. This has produced a blinkered understanding of what Abdullah was about. His supreme aim was to enhance his own image and stature. Production of ‘historical’ facts was sometimes a secondary concern. ‘Fiction’ and ‘nonfiction’ were not yet established conventions in his literary milieu. He worked under major constraints, for his livelihood depended on not alienating patrons and future patrons, yet he devised ways to air views critical of the powerful. Here he was much more concerned with Islamic issues than ethnic ones.     

Fin de millénaire French Fiction: The Aesthetics of Crisis

Foucault, M., Dits et écrits I 1954–1969 (Gallimard, 1994), 855pp., 215F., ISBN 2 07 073844 2

Foucault, M., Dits et écrits II 1970–1975 (Gallimard, 1994), 838pp., 215F., ISBN 2 07 073987 2

Foucault, M., Dits et écrits III 1976–1979 (Gallimard, 1994), 836pp., 215F., ISBN 2 07 073988 0

Foucault, M., Dits et écrits IV 1980–1988 (Gallimard, 1994), 896pp., 215F., ISBN 2 07 073989 9

Halperin, D.M., Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography (Oxford University Press, 1995), 246pp., £14.99 hbk, ISBN 0 19 509371 2

Jones, C. and Porter, R., eds., Reassessing Foucault: Power, Medicine and the Body (Routledge, 1994), 225pp., £45.00 hbk, ISBN 0 41 507542 4

McNay, L., Foucault: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell, 1994), 196pp., £39.50 hbk, ISBN 0 74 560990 2, £11.95 pbk, ISBN 0 74 560991 0

Sennett R., Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization (Faber and Faber, 1994), 431pp., £25.00 hbk, ISBN 0 57 117390 X     

To sexually perform or protect: masculine identity construction and perceptions of women's sexuality on a university campus in the Midwestern USA

Modern universities in the USA are places of recreation and leisure in addition to institutional spaces of education. Often characterized by alcohol-fueled socializing and sexualized interaction, university social life rivals the formal curriculum, and hooking up – or recreational sexual interaction outside of committed relationships – has become a defining feature. This article examines the spatiality of sexual and gender identities among heterosexual men at a 4-year residential university located in the Midwestern USA. Drawing on in-depth and focus group data, the article examines how men from contrasting peer cultures construct masculine identities in relation to casual sex and perceptions of women's sexuality. Particular attention is paid to how men negotiate senses of self in relation to the sexual practices, processes, and identities played out in the dominant party scene on campus.