Latin American development: Editors’ introduction (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.
Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures, 2022
The construction of the concept of Latin America has been through different processes regarding its structure and acceptance, from the colonial period to the automatic realignment to the United States, with rare exceptions, and a reorganization with the emergence of multilateralism and the multipolar world. The abstraction, hitherto almost an axiom in the subcontinent, that it is a western region, leads us to the elaboration of this article, which seeks to present Latin America's post-western and de-westernized character in an environment of restructuration of its political economy, its actors, scenarios and, finally, theories. Thus, we present here a review of the state of the art political economy of Latin America and its perspectives in this shifting world, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Latin America in the Global Time
Ciencia Nueva, 2019
There are no magic formulas to write a more balanced history that does not silence the voice of the losers, nor make the apology of the winners. Finding the right medium is part of a challenge to write a more human history, as much as it is to advocate a historical discipline of broader horizons in which the validity of sources and interpretations that do not take Europe or the United States as the unique centers of modernity and global phenomena, are acknowledged. Building a global perspective of Latin American history has a double purpose: on the one hand, it is an invitation to think about the historical experience of the subcontinent through connections, exchanges and circulations between this space and the rest of the world. On the other, it is a methodological challenge for Global history, a new disciplinary field that, despite its global vocation, has created epistemological peripheries and reproduced geopolitics of knowledge that only partially includes large areas of the world such as Latin America and Africa.
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 """"""""
MA Seminar Summer 2023 "Globalizing Latin America"
2023
Since its “discovery,” Latin America has played an ambiguous role in the geopolitical imaginary. Unlike the East, Africa, or Oceania, the West has regarded the macro-region as backwards rather than radically different. The course aims to identify the structural conditions and tackle the strategies that have encouraged and challenged Latin America's (own) divergent integration under the global condition. After an introductory discussion on the relationship between Global and Area Studies, we will look into the time-spaces of globalisation: regional and transregional orders established through colonisation, nineteenth-century independence movements, and twentieth-century global conflicts. The second block will focus on actors of globalisation. The selected readings on the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, nation-states, environmental and feminist movements, and alternative globalisers will allow us to address orders and disorders of globalisation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The third block will introduce central debates driven by Latin American scholars and critical global studies, bringing the exchange to a conceptual level. We will revisit the key concept such as dependency, modernity/coloniality, other knowledge, and the global south.
The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Development
2018
The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Development seeks to engage with comprehensive, contemporary and critical theoretical debates on Latin American development. The volume draws on contributions from across the humanities and social sciences and, unlike earlier volumes of this kind, explicitly highlights the disruptions to the field being brought by a range of anti-capitalist, decolonial, feminist, and ontological intellectual contributions. The chapters consider in depth the harms and suffering caused by various oppressive forces, as well as the creative and often revolutionary ways in which ordinary Latin Americans resist, fight back, and work to construct development defined broadly as the struggle for a better and more dignified life. The book covers many key themes including development policy and practice, neoliberalism and its aftermath, the role played by social movements in cities and rural areas, the politics of water, oil and other environmental resources, indigenous and Afro-descendant rights and the struggles for gender equality. With contributions from authors working in Latin America, the US and Canada, Europe, and New Zealand at a range of universities and other organizations, the handbook is an invaluable resource for students and lecturers in development studies, Latin American studies, cultural studies, human geography, anthropology, sociology, political science and economics, as well as activists and development practitioners.