Papers by Umberto Cao
Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, 2023
The article examines the ethnographic case of the Civil Resistance Organisation Luz y Fuerza del ... more The article examines the ethnographic case of the Civil Resistance Organisation Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo, located in Chiapas, in south-eastern Mexico. It is a social movement whose members are mostly indigenous and peasants, and whose struggle is for universal and non-discriminatory access to electricity. But, at the same time, it makes electricity the means of a broader struggle for autonomy and to assert an alternative worldview to that of capitalist modernity. In the first part, the text describes the characteristics of the condition of marginalisation in which Mexican indigenous peoples live and proposes an account of the indigenist policies that the Mexican state has implemented with the purpose of assimilating its indigenous population. In the second part, it reconstructs the progressive emergence of autonomy claims among Mexican grassroots movements, underlining how the indigenist paradigm has "unintentionally" propitiated them. Finally, after tracing the genesis and explaining the functioning of Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo, it analyses the original forms of autonomy this latter produces, highlighting the ontological contribution provided by the Mayan worldviews.
EU funding agency for research and innovation networks (www.cost.eu). COST Actions help connect r... more EU funding agency for research and innovation networks (www.cost.eu). COST Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. ENGAGER brings together a diverse and extensive body of stakeholders to help understand and address the energy poverty challenge. ENGAGER consists of four Working Groups (WGs). This Toolkit is prepared by WG 3 on 'Dialogues-Co-producing emancipatory research and practice. For more information visit: http://www.engager-energy.net/
The thesis is about the Civil Resistance Movement "Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo", from Chiapas, Mexico... more The thesis is about the Civil Resistance Movement "Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo", from Chiapas, Mexico. It was born in the first years of the 2000s and the majority of its activists are peasant and indigenous. Though, it can't be defined as a "peasant movement", nor as an "indigenous movement. At the core of its mission there is electricity, indeed, which the Movement considers as a basic right, whose access – it claims - should be universal and nondiscriminatory. Accordingly, in the territories controlled by its activists, the Movement performs a direct access to the power grid and an autonomous management of it. Yet, at the same time, it makes use of electricity as a means of wider political struggle aimed to autonomy and social justice. In this sense, Luz y Fuerza case may be revealing of a more general trend potentially informing social mobilizations in the Age of Anthropocene. The work is organized in three parts. The first part introduces contemporary Mexico, by means of the main categories local actors mobilized to describe their living conditions: poverty, liberal policies, structural violence, and socioeconomic and political exclusion. The second part defines the state of the art in the anthropology of social movements and the main theoretical references inspiring the study. Specifically, the historical and epistemological process leading to the emergence of autonomy as a theoretical and political paradigm is retraced. And it is shown how this latter has progressively informed Latin-American peasant struggles since the last decades of the 1900s. The third part is completely devoted to the ethnography of Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo. This provides an in-depth representation of the Movement and of its history. Which is followed by an analysis of the motivations for the activists to militate in such a movement. Its political agenda is therefore investigated. The experiences, the forms and the imaginaries of the civil resistance performed by the Movement are eventually observed. In the conclusions, the work proposes some critical insights about the policies on indigenous people and Chiapas, implemented by the "socialist" president Andrés Manuel López Obrador during the first hundred days of his term.
Energy Research and Social Science, 2021
The following is the version pre-proofs. A few minor changes are present in the final and officia... more The following is the version pre-proofs. A few minor changes are present in the final and official version. You can download that here for 50 days from 01. Abstract Alongside Sustainable Development Goal 7 and related policies, another potential strategy for enhancing access to energy services that are reliable, high quality, affordable, sufficient, sustainable and modern consists in theorizing and establishing "energy rights". In critical dialogue with other attempts to theorize and implement a right to energy, we propose that it is possible to theorize a human right to electricity access from the perspective of social groups, experiences, and worldviews from the Global South. To support this claim, we present the case study of Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo (LyFdP), a social movement operating in the state of Chiapas, southeastern Mexico. We show that this organization's understanding of and approach to electricity depends on the convergence of Mayan cosmovisiones (worldviews) and Christian views mediated by Liberation Theology. Members conceive electricity as both a part of the whole and a fundamental entitlement that should not become marketable or be linked to capital accumulation. Moreover, the movement presents a non-hierarchical structure, has a strong commitment to territory control, an anti-capitalist attitude, a keen focus on cooperation, and implements "politics of place". We argue that both the worldview and the type of socio-political arrangement of LyFdP as well as the lived experience of its members suggest the possibility of theorizing a specific right to electricity access. Overall, our findings and proposal can benefit energy scholars and practitioners who are interested in exploring, defining, implementing and enforcing a specific right to electricity in more pluralistic and inclusive ways.
Journal of Anthropological Films, 2020
Dating back to 3000 years ago, Launeddas are a wind instrument from the Nuragic civilisation (Sar... more Dating back to 3000 years ago, Launeddas are a wind instrument from the Nuragic civilisation (Sardinia, 18th century BC/2nd century AD) bearing the marks of contaminations from all over the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Nearly vanished between the 1960s and 1970s, Launeddas are extraordinarily alive and ever more widespread today. In today’s "time of crisis", they found levels of artistic excellence that just some decades ago looked no longer attainable. This documentary portrays five talents from the new generation of Launeddas players, exploring through their eyes the interstitial spaces between folklore and ethnicity, traditions and experimentation, identity and globalization. At the same time, the film exposes a harsh (but not resigned) aperture on the conditions of an entire generation, in an island such as Sardinia – among the poorest regions in Europe - which struggles with structural socioeconomic problems, whose solutions are still far away.
Techniques et Cultures, 2020
« Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo », organisation de résistance civile au Chiapas, dans le sud-est du Mex... more « Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo », organisation de résistance civile au Chiapas, dans le sud-est du Mexique, démontre de façon exemplaire qu’une infrastructure est un lieu fructueux pour examiner la constitution, le maintien et la reproduction de la vie politique, économique et sociale (Anand, Gupta & Appel 2018). Or, selon une perspective axée sur les relations entre acteur et réseau, les études « repair and maintenance » ont mis en évidence que les rapports des individus avec des infrastructures telles que les installations électriques, passant par l’entretien ou la maintenance, ne s’inscrivent pas nécessairement dans une logique de préservation de « l’ordre ». (Denis & Pontille 2019). Si un ordre est réparé ou maintenu, il faut d’abord préciser quel est l’ordre et de quel ...
Research on the situation of students with disability within higher education in Europe is not as... more Research on the situation of students with disability within higher education in Europe is not as comprehensive as it should be. Since the ratification of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) a legal foundation for an inclusive (higher) education system exists, however the theory-practice gap is large. Despite their ratification of the UN CRPD, concrete implementations towards a more inclusive education system by the EC and its member countries are missing. The EU project “European Action on Disability within Higher Education (EADHE)” aims to close this gap. Seven universities from all over Europe assessed the needs of students with disability on a local level and establish a platform with “good practices” of how to deal with needs ofstudents with disability This platform is available all over Europe and various institutions and people can use, transform, and modify it. Finally, based on the most widely spread needs and corresponding “good prac...
Conference Presentations by Umberto Cao
DGFE Annual Meeting, 2014
Poster presented at DGFE Annual Meeting 2014, Berlin.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Das Verbundprojekt „Europea... more Poster presented at DGFE Annual Meeting 2014, Berlin.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Das Verbundprojekt „European Action on Disability within Higher Education“ verfolgt das Ziel, die strukturellen und persönlichen Bedürfnisse von studierenden mit beeinträchtigung zu erfassen. An den Partneruniversitäten Bologna (Italien), Aarhus (Dänemark), Coimbra (Portugal), gent (Belgien), göteborg (Schweden), Krakau (Polen) und Leipzig (Deutschland) wird dazu eine Pilotstudie durchgeführt. Als Zielformulierungen stehen neben dem erfAssen von bedürfnissen der Studierenden auch die sichtbArmAchung von „best-prActice“-beispieLen, Prozessen oder Strukturen im Umgang mit diesen Bedürfnissen an den Projektuniversitäten. Die Laufzeit des Projektes reicht von oktober 2012 bis September 2014, gefördert wird es im Rahmen des Programms „Lifelong Learning“ der Euro- päischen Union.
Book Reviews by Umberto Cao
Books by Umberto Cao
Chiapas, 1 gennaio 1994: donne e uomini indigeni imbracciarono le armi per ribellarsi contro quel... more Chiapas, 1 gennaio 1994: donne e uomini indigeni imbracciarono le armi per ribellarsi contro quello che consideravano l’ultimo atto della storia di sterminio e oppressione iniziata cinque secoli prima. La memoria di quegli eventi resiste anche in Europa ed è associata all’immagine di schiere umane con il volto coperto da un passamontagna e una stella rossa che sormonta una sigla di quattro lettere: EZLN, Esercito Zapatista di Liberazione Nazionale.
A distanza di trent’anni, nella maggior parte delle regioni in cui divampò l’insurrezione armata, le mobilitazioni non sono cessate. Lo Stato del sud-est messicano ospita una galassia di movimenti sociali, al cui interno emergono forme di attivismo organizzato di assoluta originalità. Tra queste, l’organizzazione di resistenza civile Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo. I suoi attivisti si mobilitano per fornire l’accesso all’elettricità agli strati più poveri della società locale. Al contempo, fanno dell’elettricità lo strumento di una più ampia lotta per la giustizia sociale e per l’affermazione di una visione del mondo alternativa alla modernità capitalista. In un’epoca nella quale l’energia elettrica occupa un ruolo sempre più centrale, Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo costituisce un caso di studio esemplare: l’energia emerge come un terreno di battaglie ontologiche, culturali e politiche, e rivela il potenziale d’azione delle cittadinanze organizzate.
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Papers by Umberto Cao
Conference Presentations by Umberto Cao
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Das Verbundprojekt „European Action on Disability within Higher Education“ verfolgt das Ziel, die strukturellen und persönlichen Bedürfnisse von studierenden mit beeinträchtigung zu erfassen. An den Partneruniversitäten Bologna (Italien), Aarhus (Dänemark), Coimbra (Portugal), gent (Belgien), göteborg (Schweden), Krakau (Polen) und Leipzig (Deutschland) wird dazu eine Pilotstudie durchgeführt. Als Zielformulierungen stehen neben dem erfAssen von bedürfnissen der Studierenden auch die sichtbArmAchung von „best-prActice“-beispieLen, Prozessen oder Strukturen im Umgang mit diesen Bedürfnissen an den Projektuniversitäten. Die Laufzeit des Projektes reicht von oktober 2012 bis September 2014, gefördert wird es im Rahmen des Programms „Lifelong Learning“ der Euro- päischen Union.
Book Reviews by Umberto Cao
Books by Umberto Cao
A distanza di trent’anni, nella maggior parte delle regioni in cui divampò l’insurrezione armata, le mobilitazioni non sono cessate. Lo Stato del sud-est messicano ospita una galassia di movimenti sociali, al cui interno emergono forme di attivismo organizzato di assoluta originalità. Tra queste, l’organizzazione di resistenza civile Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo. I suoi attivisti si mobilitano per fornire l’accesso all’elettricità agli strati più poveri della società locale. Al contempo, fanno dell’elettricità lo strumento di una più ampia lotta per la giustizia sociale e per l’affermazione di una visione del mondo alternativa alla modernità capitalista. In un’epoca nella quale l’energia elettrica occupa un ruolo sempre più centrale, Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo costituisce un caso di studio esemplare: l’energia emerge come un terreno di battaglie ontologiche, culturali e politiche, e rivela il potenziale d’azione delle cittadinanze organizzate.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Das Verbundprojekt „European Action on Disability within Higher Education“ verfolgt das Ziel, die strukturellen und persönlichen Bedürfnisse von studierenden mit beeinträchtigung zu erfassen. An den Partneruniversitäten Bologna (Italien), Aarhus (Dänemark), Coimbra (Portugal), gent (Belgien), göteborg (Schweden), Krakau (Polen) und Leipzig (Deutschland) wird dazu eine Pilotstudie durchgeführt. Als Zielformulierungen stehen neben dem erfAssen von bedürfnissen der Studierenden auch die sichtbArmAchung von „best-prActice“-beispieLen, Prozessen oder Strukturen im Umgang mit diesen Bedürfnissen an den Projektuniversitäten. Die Laufzeit des Projektes reicht von oktober 2012 bis September 2014, gefördert wird es im Rahmen des Programms „Lifelong Learning“ der Euro- päischen Union.
A distanza di trent’anni, nella maggior parte delle regioni in cui divampò l’insurrezione armata, le mobilitazioni non sono cessate. Lo Stato del sud-est messicano ospita una galassia di movimenti sociali, al cui interno emergono forme di attivismo organizzato di assoluta originalità. Tra queste, l’organizzazione di resistenza civile Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo. I suoi attivisti si mobilitano per fornire l’accesso all’elettricità agli strati più poveri della società locale. Al contempo, fanno dell’elettricità lo strumento di una più ampia lotta per la giustizia sociale e per l’affermazione di una visione del mondo alternativa alla modernità capitalista. In un’epoca nella quale l’energia elettrica occupa un ruolo sempre più centrale, Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo costituisce un caso di studio esemplare: l’energia emerge come un terreno di battaglie ontologiche, culturali e politiche, e rivela il potenziale d’azione delle cittadinanze organizzate.