Diego Silva | Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva (original) (raw)

Papers by Diego Silva

Journal of Peasant Studies, 2023

This article seeks to stimulate analysis of how accounting knowledge, techniques, and practices w... more This article seeks to stimulate analysis of how accounting knowledge, techniques, and practices work to incorporate agriculture and land use into climate mitigation. Accounting plays a significant role in the ways that capitalism inserts itself into, reworks, or reorganises agrarian webs of life. To study these processes, we train our critical gaze on accounting itself – its epistemic foundations, instruments, and narratives, and their implications for agrarian livelihoods and relations. Through the notion of “agrarian counter-accounts,” we conclude by considering the potential of alternative methodologies and understandings of account-giving, taking, and holding in struggles for agrarian climate justice.

Alternautas, 2022

In this article we engage with four experimental ethnographies (Blaser,2010; Lyons, 2020; Miller,... more In this article we engage with four experimental ethnographies (Blaser,2010; Lyons, 2020; Miller, 2019; and Gordillo 2014) that build on multispecies approaches for the analysis of what we call ‘wounded relational worlds’ in Latin America. These are worlds in which human and more-than-human relations have been significantly reshaped, broken, or disrupted by colonization and capitalist extractivism(s). Despite this, wounded relational worlds have the capacity to emerge from the ashes, rebuild on rubble, create new knowledge from destruction and uset he remnants of capitalist violence as compost for the cultivation of life. Thus, we establish a dialogue with these ethnographies to analyze the diverse forms of relationality through which these wounded worlds are created, the types of knowledge that they produce, and the politics and tactics of action that they generate vis-à-vis climate and socio-environmental disturbances.

Tsantsa: Journal of the Swiss Anthropological Association, 2021

Industrial agriculture has promoted the expansion of monocrops around the world, aided by the cir... more Industrial agriculture has promoted the expansion of monocrops around the world, aided by the circulation of highly standardized plant varieties. However, given the adverse environmental effects of this agricultural approach (such as genetic erosion) and the challenges posed by climate change, some biotech companies are trying to complexify industrial agriculture's relationship to "place". They are beginning to consider local particularities in the design of seed products. Focusing on the experience of an Argentinian biotech company, this article explores the creation of microbial seed treatments that claim to be "region-specific" and whose production is mediated by novel meta-genomic techniques. Through the notions of association and mediation, the article reflects on the diverse meanings of region-specificity (geographical, environmental, relational) that are mobilized in the creation of these products. In this way, the article highlights the role of computational technologies, plants, and microorganisms in the shaping of scientific and corporate meanings of place.

Science, Technology, & Human Values, 2020

The diverse ways that extreme climate events are expressed at the local level have represented a ... more The diverse ways that extreme climate events are expressed at the local level have represented a challenge for the development of transgenic "climate-ready" (resilient to environmental stress) seeds. Based on the Argentinean "HB4" technology, this paper analyzes how ignorance and a sunflower gene are mobilized to overcome this difficulty in soy and wheat. HB4 seeds can be understood as myopic: the technology does not obstruct the capacity of soy and wheat plants to sense droughts, but it prevents their natural reaction, which would be to put a halt on crop production and redirect their energy toward survival. Plants thus become "short-sighted" to droughts. Informed by ignorance studies and by the immunological concept of tolerance, this paper analyzes HB4 myopia as a type of non-human ignorance: an asset that allows plant breeders to achieve varied plant responses to droughts and to encode their capitalist values (that prioritize production over survival) into plants' DNA. Moreover, ignorance becomes a molecular commodity that can be selected, transferred between organisms, and traded in markets. HB4's prioritization of production resonates with other technologies of climate adaptation and mitigation that do not promote structural changes to the capitalist system.

Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2020

This review brings together four essential contributions to the study of Argentinean agribusiness... more This review brings together four essential contributions to the study of Argentinean agribusiness to reflect on the porosity that characterizes the organization of the country’s large agricultural companies. The review dissects popular representations of agribusiness as a highly mechanized and collaborative production network dispersed across rented plots of land and upheld by service providers. These representations ignore the lived experiences of rural workers, whose increasingly nomadic work throughout spatially scattered agricultural plots pushes them away from their local communities, highlighting the porous and hierarchical nature of current agricultural configurations. While ignoring labor exploitation, these representations shed light on the will of agribusiness actors to expand their influence beyond the classical sites of production (the farm, the factory, the laboratory). By portraying their companies as porous, powerful agribusiness actors justify interventions beyond the productive sphere as this helps them to create specific social environments that are friendly and useful to agribusiness. Agribusiness capital is deployed to promote particular values, behaviors, and knowledges in local populations, which in turn render them amenable to agribusiness. Moreover, the porosity of the agricultural company, as revealed by its local interventions, sparks conflict with actors who compete for local power and influence, such as the State.

Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019

Drawing on ethnographic research, we analyze the motivations, conditions of possibility, and stra... more Drawing on ethnographic research, we analyze the motivations, conditions of possibility, and strategies of seed saving among different farmers in Colombia. For indigenous agroecological farmers, seed saving represents a form of resistance mobilized through narratives of tradition, sovereignty, freedom, and environmental protection. In contrast, industrial farmers, who grow genetically-modified cotton, carry out seed saving surreptitiously to minimize production costs and to resist the enclosure of seeds by corporations. Despite these two groups of farmers' different political motivations and strategies, both types of seed saving practices challenge corporate seed control. Can these seed-saving practices be considered forms of seed sovereignty activism?

Revista Colombiana de Antropología, 2019

Además del avance de las leyes de propiedad intelectual y de la criminalización de las semillas n... more Además del avance de las leyes de propiedad intelectual y de la criminalización de las semillas no certificadas, la monopolización de los mercados de semillas incluye el des-pliegue de estrategias narrativas. Mediante el análisis de tres conflictos alrededor de las semillas transgénicas de algodón en Colom-bia, se analizan tres narrativas que les sirven al Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) y a las multinacionales semilleras para atribuir éxito a las semillas transgénicas y evadir responsabilidades cuando estas tienen un pobre desempeño. Me refiero a narrativas de elección, cuidado y descalificación que son construidas ignorando la intervención del Estado en la construcción de mercados, el trabajo de los agricultores en el cuidado de las semillas y las características singulares de las semillas convencionales "acriolladas" en los ecosistemas locales. Palabras clave: semillas transgénicas, conflictos agrícolas, algodón, Colombia.

ABSTRACT In addition to the expansion of intellectual property rights legislation and to the criminalization of uncertified seeds, the monopolization of seed markets is accompanied by narrative strategies. Through the analysis of three conflicts around genetically modified cotton seeds in Colombia, the paper analyses three narratives that help the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) and seed multinationals to attribute success to GM seeds and to avoid their responsibility when these seeds failed to perform as expected. These are narratives of choice, care, and disqualification that are built by ignoring the role of state intervention in the construction of markets, farmers' care labor, and the unique qualities of 'criollo' conventional seeds in local ecosystems.

Focal

In Bolivia, although primary education enrolment rates are high, major gaps persist for those who... more In Bolivia, although primary education enrolment rates are high, major gaps persist for those who face higher opportunity costs to study, such as girls and indigenous and rural students. To address this situation, a conditional cash transfer program known as the Bono Juancito Pinto was designed for primary school students in 2006. This type of program has the potential to improve access to education, foster social mobility and help fight intergenerational poverty. Five years on, has Bolivia's scheme generated positive results? The ex ante impact analysis presented in this policy brief suggests that the program has led to an increase in enrolment levels and reduced income inequality, yet its impact on poverty remains low. With a view to maximizing the results of the transfer, this document presents policy options that target population groups with high education opportunity costs, each designed and evaluated through micro-simulations.

Paterson Review, 2010

While in North America there are many academic programs in International Development Studies (IDS... more While in North America there are many academic programs in International Development Studies (IDS), this paper finds that in Latin America, these types of programs are scarce. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that development programs in the North and in the South follow a strategy that I have called “teaching you how to develop them.” According to this strategy, people from the North see themselves as agents of development of those in the South, who lack the benefits of their life in the North. In a similar way, policy makers from the South see themselves as agents of development for rural populations who lack the benefits of living in an urban environment. Consequently, the subject of analysis of academic programs in development ends up being an externalized group of actors lumped together into one category: “the other.” This category of analysis differs for scholars from the North and the South. While “the other” in IDS would be considered the Third World, “the other” in the development programs from the South (DPS) would constitute the rural inhabitant. A second possibility is that DPS follow the shifts within the development discourse that take place in the North. According to this perspective, IDS engages with the whole picture of development. Over the years, IDS gathers and helps construct and deconstruct different ideas and strategies for development. As opposed to IDS, DPS only engage with fragments of the whole picture. DPS concentrates on different topic areas (i.e. agriculture, environment, and regional economics) according to the relative importance of each topic within the northern discourse in a specific period of time. Data was collected to identify the main programs of development that are taught in Latin America and their year of emergence. The results are then analyzed in order to evaluate the two hypothesis presented above.

Econografos/Cuadernos de Economía, 2008

El artículo resalta la vigencia de la crítica a la función de producción agregada en el marco de ... more El artículo resalta la vigencia de la crítica a la función de producción
agregada en el marco de la teoría neoclásica de la distribución y el
crecimiento, mientras busca los motivos por los cuales ésta sigue siendo
utilizada y enseñada ampliamente. Se expone la teoría neoclásica de la
distribución marginalista, para posteriormente reconocer que su principal
problema radica en su teoría del capital. Se presenta la crítica a esta teoría,
se mencionan las defensas que se esgrimieron en su defensa y los hechos
históricos que permitieron el éxito práctico más no científico de la última.

International Affairs Review, 2011

Book Chapters by Diego Silva

in Jairo Baquero - Territorios, conflictos agrarios y construcción de paz: comunidades, asociatividad y encadenamientos en el Huila y sur del Tolima, 2020

El capítulo analiza la crisis del sector algodonero y la relación que se ha tejido entre dicha cr... more El capítulo analiza la crisis del sector algodonero y la relación que se ha tejido entre dicha crisis y el debilitamiento de las condiciones laborales en este sector económico. Se abordan varias de las posibles causas de la crisis, mirando los factores de baja demanda y oferta laboral, la migración económica y el desplazamiento forzado de la población. El capítulo destaca que mientras la violencia de los años 50 tuvo relativos impactos positivos sobre la formación de un mercado laboral rural, la violencia de las últimas décadas causó el declive de la oferta de trabajo. Además del conflicto armado, otros procesos han afectado la oferta de trabajo en el sector. Entre ellas, se analiza el papel que las prohibiciones sobre el trabajo infantil, y el aumento de transferencias condicionadas para las poblaciones vulnerables, han tenido sobre la oferta laboral del sector. En respuesta a la crisis del sector, los empresarios han aumentado el uso de semillas transgénicas. Y frente a dicha tendencia existen procesos de resistencia social de los actores locales.

Journal Issues Edited by Diego Silva

Journal of Political Ecology, 2024

In this introduction to the special section on the Colonialities of climate change and action we ... more In this introduction to the special section on the Colonialities of climate change and action we provide a conceptual mapping that can help us engage critically with existing approaches to thinking and acting in the context of climate change. We carry out this exercise inspired by Latin American decolonial and political ecology scholarship, as well as by Farhana Sultana's notion of climate coloniality. In an effort to pluralize our understanding of climate coloniality, the articles we present in the special section reflect the diversity and interconnectedness of theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and activists' traditions on several continents. Beyond these contributions, we make a call to further pluralize our understanding of the colonialities of climate change and action, taking into consideration different intellectual strands of postcolonial thought, subaltern studies, and decolonization, including those that engage critically with them.

Book Reviews by Diego Silva

The AAG Review of Books, 2023