2. Development and social change in Latin America (original) (raw)
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Development and social change in Latin America
In book: HANDBOOK ON DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGEEdition: firstChapter: 12Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing LimitedEditors: Ronaldo Munck & Honor Fagan, 2018
Latin American contributions to development theory have left an indelible mark on the field of development studies, giving it a more critical edge. These contributions relate not just to the vibrant debates on the development question, but to the activism of social movements and a history of experimentation with diverse forms and models of development. The Cuban Revolution had a momentous impact on the development project which was launched in 1948 by Harry Truman in the form of a programme of development assistance and international cooperation. This programme was designed – and the associated idea of development was ‘invented’ – as a means of ensuring that the economically ‘backward’ countries of the Third World would not fall prey to the siren of communism, and would continue to follow the capitalist path towards national development. In many ways, Latin American thinkers and practitioners have been rebels to the Northern, occidental, mainstream development route boosted by the US and its imperialist institutional arms: The World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since the post-war period, development and social change in the region have followed a distinctive and critical path in search of avenues to overcome – and transcend – Latin America’s asymmetrical and subordinated integration into the world capitalist system. The aim of this chapter is to assess that process from a critical perspective, in an attempt to envision what could be regarded as the Latin American legacy in the field.
Latin America: blockages to development (doctoral thesis ) (1984)
1984
""""""""It is argued that Latin American development, as based on a restricted, limited, and upper-class oriented type of market, and a fragmented society, is possible because it corresponds to a particular organization of the labour process, which, in turn, is the product of a particular mode of production. This particular mode of production is the outcome of the fusion of different modes of production in the region. In this context, the international capitalist system -at its imperialist stage- is not a cause, but a profiteer and supporter of the contemporary social structure in Latin America. This particular organization of the labour process sets the boundaries ( limits ) within which Latin America's social structure, political organization and organization of labour can vary. At an abstract level, it is argued, unlike some modern Marxian scholars, that even when the relations of production are the genesis of the social structure, the latter can, in some historical situations, persist after the former subside, and adapt themselves to new forms of relations of production. It is concluded that the main barrier to development in the region lies not in its economic structure but in its social structure. Therefore, revolutionary change there must start at the social level, political level that is, and not at the economic level. The thesis is a starting point for further field research, aiming to construct a general theory of the social and economic reality of Latin America. Robinson Rojas Sandford, London, 1984 """"""""
Latin American Development in Historical Perspective
Historical Materialism
The paper challenges mainstream theories of Latin American development, showing their theoretical weaknesses and pointing to their role in ideologically mediating the region’s ‘truncated’ capitalism. To that end, the paper presents an alternative view of Latin American development that starts by considering capitalist social reproduction as a worldwide process and regional/national politico-economic development as mediations in the structuring of global capital accumulation. Latin America’s specific variety of capitalism is understood to have emerged from its original transformation by expanding European capital into a place to produce raw materials under favourable natural conditions. On the one hand, this has reduced their price and that of the labour-power directly or indirectly consuming them; on the other, it has resulted in a flow of surplus-value towards the owners of those natural conditions of production. The historical development of Latin American societies has expressed ...
A Southern Perspective on Development Studies , 2020
The account attempts to unveil the existence of a post Second World War economic approach developed in Latin America. The perspective questioned the dominant economic science disseminated within and outside the Anglo-Saxon or Eurocentric countries (western -centric academia) The rebirth of Latin American Structuralism within the developing countries, and the widely publicized names of Raúl Prebisch, Celso Furtado among others, within the western-centric audiences requires an up to date of the vocabulary and concepts. Retrospectively these authors discussed can be examined as the original sources in Latin America among those who developed the basis of decolonial thought. The book problematizes the domestication of Latin American Structuralism in the Northern or Southern hemisphere alike and discusses its potential similarities to Post-Keynesian perspectives related to power asymmetries among countries, firms, and heterogenous agents.
Rethinking development from a Latin American perspective
Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'études du développement, 2018
Latin American contributions to development theory have given the field of development studies a more critical edge. These contributions relate not only to the vibrant debates on the development question but also to the activism of the social movements and a history of experimentation with diverse forms and models of development. This article traces out that history, with a focus on scholarship in the neoliberal era. The key ideas and theories range from a recovery of indigenous values of social solidarity and harmony with nature to envisioning new communal systems of production and consumption and ways to protect the global commons. RÉSUMÉ Les contributions latino-américaines à la théorie du développement ont donné une perspective critique au champ des études du développement. Ces contributions concernent non seulement les débats dynamiques sur la question du développement, mais aussi l'activisme des mouvements sociaux et une histoire d'expérimentations avec des formes et modèles de développement divers. Cet article retrace cette histoire, en portant une attention particulière aux écrits de l'ère néolibérale. Les idées et théories clés vont de la réappropriation des valeurs autochtones de solidarité sociale et d'harmonie avec la nature à la conception de nouveaux systèmes communautaires de production et de consommation, ainsi qu'à de nouvelles manières de protéger des biens communs de l'humanité.
Reframing Latinamerican Development
Routledge, 2019
Around 2000, after some 20 years of the neoliberal counterrevolution, a new wave of critical thought arose in the region, revisiting and updating the legacy of the dependency school. It did not only entail a Southern and critical perspective on the development process but a rethinking of its dynamics ‘from below’ as it were, based on ideas advanced by and from within the social movements. The main features of the development project envisioned in this new wave of critical thought is not simply an abstract model of socialism or post- capitalism. The sources of inspiration for the social transformation project pursued were diverse and based on a wide range of experiences derived from the practice – and theory – of social movements in the region. Included here is a recovery of indigenous values such as social solidarity and harmony with nature, the envisioning of new modes of communal systems of production and consumption, the recovery and preservation of the commons, and the construction of a non- homogeneous and non- hegemonizing new world.
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2002
ist" and unilateral approaches. The role of domestic constituencies may be changing in unexpected ways in the post-Cold War context. The U.S. government, therefore, may increasingly either seek to control and impose its will when it perceives that its vital interests are directly threatened, or abstain or withdraw from messy situations, such as those posed by Haiti or Bosnia during the Clinton years. The reaction to experiences in the post-Cold War period has left a growing aversion to actions that could possibly bear some resemblance to "nation building." Such formulas may not, however, be politically sustainable over the long term. The absence of cooperative, institutional arrangements, through which the United States can work with other countries and attempt to shape global dynamics, could pose a significant challenge. The result could well be policies carried out not as many imagined they would be in the post-Cold War context, but rather, to use the apt phrase Peceny borrows from Warren Harding, "at the point of bayonets."