The Department of Geography, Environment and Society's first Coffee Hour talk of the spring semester will be held on Friday, February 1st. Professor Don Mitchell will give a talk titled "Prospect: Organized Resistance, Persistent Landscapes, and Sculpted Futures at the End of the Bracero Program in California." The location of the talk is TBA, but will begin at 3:30 PM.
For the first Coffee Hour, Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, will give a talk titled "Prospect: Organized Resistance, Persistent Landscapes, and Sculpted Futures at the End of the Bracero Program in California."
Abstract: As the bracero program came to an end in 1965, agribusiness in California was faced with what seemed to be a crisis: an impending labor shortage that portended massive revolution in the way it grew profit in the fields. And yet (the rise of the United Farm Workers notwithstanding) California agribusiness survived not only intact, but more profitable than ever. I examine how and why this was the case, showing that during the bracero era (which began in 1942) growers were able to cement their power -- their control over labor relations and well as other conditions of production -- right into the landscape itself. This has implications for how we understand what the landscape is and how it functions and why understanding landscape -- as the historical-materialist as well as ideational instantiation of power -- is indispensable for understanding political economy.
For the complete pdf of coffee house speakers, please Coffee Hour Speakers.pdf
