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The Ruins of the Enclave: Simultaneity and Agrarian Change in Palmar Sur, Costa Rica

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article proposes the use of ruins and rubble as entry points to the study of agrarian change. Drawing from peasants’ collective memories of the so-called “abandonment of the banana company” in Palmar Sur, Costa Rica and the observation of ruined spaces and objects, this article argues that ruins and rubble allow us to see the spatial simultaneity of different temporalities in processes of agrarian change, aspects often obscured in linear transition narratives. This approach uses ruins and ruination as a lens for asking a different type of agrarian question: What does agrarian change look like after capitalist destruction has already taken place? In ruined spaces and objects we find both the materiality of crisis and oblivion as well as places of reappropriation and autonomy that guide the political possibilities for making ruined spaces livable.

Publication Title

Capitalism, Nature, Socialism

Publication Date

2024

Volume

35

Issue

1

First Page

59

Last Page

74

ISSN

1045-5752

DOI

10.1080/10455752.2023.2238812

Keywords

agrarian change, banana enclave, Costa Rica, Ruins

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