Brazilian Steel Town: Machines, Land, Money and Commoning in the Making of the Working Class (Dislocations Book 27)

Volta Redonda is a Brazilian steel town founded in the 1940s by dictator Getúlio Vargas on an ex-coffee valley as a powerful symbol of Brazilian modernization. The city’s economy, and consequently its citizen’s lives, revolves around the Companha Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), the biggest industrial complex in Latin America. Although the glory days of the CSN have long passed, the company still controls life in Volta Redonda today, creating as much dispossession as wealth for the community. __Brazilian Steel Town__ tells the story of the people tied to this ailing giant – of their fears, hopes, and everyday struggles. "Volta Redonda is a Brazilian steel town founded in the 1940s by dictator Getúlio Vargas on an ex-coffee valley as a powerful symbol of Brazilian modernization. The city's economy, and consequently its citizen's lives, revolves around the Companha Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), the biggest industrial complex in Latin America. Although the glory days of the CSN have long passed, the company still controls life in Volta Redonda today, creating as much dispossession as wealth for the community. Brazilian Steel-Town tells the story of the people tied to this ailing giant - of their fears, hopes, and everyday struggles"-- Provided by publisher "Volta Redonda is a Brazilian steel town founded in the 1940s by dictator Getúlio Vargas on an ex-coffee valley as a powerful symbol of Brazilian modernization. The city's economy, and consequently its citizen's lives, revolves around the Companha Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), the biggest industrial complex in Latin America. Although the glory days of the CSN have long passed, the company still controls life in Volta Redonda today, creating as much dispossession as wealth for the community. Brazilian Steel-Town tells the story of the people tied to this ailing giant - of their fears, hopes, and everyday struggles."--Back cover "Volta Redonda is a Brazilian steel town founded in the 1940s by dictator Getulio Vargas on an ex-coffee valley as a powerful symbol of Brazilian modernization. The city's economy, and consequently its citizen's lives, revolves around the Companha Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), the biggest industrial complex in Latin America. Although the glory days of the CSN have long passed, the company still controls life in Volta Redonda today, creating as much dispossession as wealth for the community. Brazilian Steel-Town tells the story of the people tied to this ailing giant - of their fears, hopes, and everyday struggles"-- Contents Figures Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Brazilian Steel Town and Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional Chapter 1 – Capital Enclosures, Labour Abstraction and the Struggle over Value Forms Chapter 2 – Cyclopes at Work Capital as Technology Chapter 3 – Old and New Land Questions: Capital as Land Chapter 4 – Of Ants and Steelworkers: Capital as Labour Chapter 5 – Capital as Money and the Invention of People’s Capitalism Chapter 6 – Labour as Commons Conclusion: Towards an Anthropology of Uneven and Combined Development References Index