Category Archives: capital accumulation

The Cargo Cults of USA – Part II

Posted on 16 July 2014 by Laleh Khalili

In an extraordinary essay titled “The Smell of Infrastructure,” Bruce Robbins argues that the scaffolding of our lives, the infrastructure that carries shit and coal and lobsters and water and electricity is often made invisible. He has a rousing call … Continue reading →

Posted in bureacuracy, capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, readings, transport | Leave a comment

The Cargo Cults of USA – Part I

Posted on 13 July 2014 by Laleh Khalili

John McPhee has taught David Remnick and Richard Stengel and a few other famous journalists to write, and apparently he is a fixture of The New Yorker, but his work is so much more interesting that those of his proteges, and … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, readings, shipping conditions, ships, transport | Leave a comment

The Port of Beirut

Posted on 20 June 2014 by Laleh Khalili

This gallery contains 23 photos.

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Transport capital

Posted on 30 May 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a lot to chew on here, but this sentence really struck me: “As for finance, there’s been no tendency for its executives’ pay to outpace that of nonfinancial executives. On the contrary: even during the bubble years of the 2000s, … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, finance and insurance, logistics, political economy, transport | Leave a comment

Robot ships

Posted on 4 April 2014 by Laleh Khalili

This Wired piece (which reads a bit like a PR statement from Rolls Royce) tells us that autonomous systems [i.e. personless] are going to make their way into large vessels in the near future, and VTT and Rolls-Royce are already working … Continue reading →

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London comes closer to the sea

Posted on 26 March 2014 by Laleh Khalili

Dubai Ports World runs London Gateway which will be competing against Felixstowe and Southampton to be the top container port in the UK.  Like many other DPW concerns, there seems to be an iron (or ham-) fisted determination to not let workers unionise – although … Continue reading →

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Interconnections

Posted on 26 March 2014 by Laleh Khalili

Dead Water by Simon Ings is the most fabulously dystopian novel about shipping, containers, ships, airships, tsunami, shipping, and dastardly deed that can happen when vast numbers of ships are circumnavigating the globes with vast numbers of containers on board.  One … Continue reading →

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Regimes of land tenure

Posted on 24 March 2014 by Laleh Khalili

Regimes of land tenure and ownership must form significant elements in the development of ports.   How quickly do these regimes change? What are the processes by which title deeds are issued, exchanged, bought, and sold?  Are there demonstrable differences … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, Middle East, political economy, ports | Leave a comment

Value in motion

Posted on 22 March 2014 by Laleh Khalili

“The more developed the capital, therefore, the more extensive the market over which it circulates, which forms the spatial orbit of its circulation, the more does it strive simultaneously for an even greater extension of the market and for greater … Continue reading →

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The prose and poetry of toiling in/on the seas

Posted on 20 March 2014 by Laleh Khalili

I am ashamed to admit that I was a latecomer to the magic of Allan Sekula. Far too much of a latecomer.  I discovered his stunning work on shipping and transport, last year; he died in August last year. His amazing … Continue reading →

Posted in Allan Sekula, capital accumulation, labour, ports, readings, ships, the arts, the sea, the sublime, transport | Tagged , | Leave a comment