Paths of Development in the Southern Cone: Deindustrialization and Reprimarization and their Social and Environmental Consequences

by Paul Cooney

Overview

This book analyzes the recent development paths pursued by progressive

governments in Argentina and Brazil, namely deindustrialization and

reprimarization, and the social and environmental consequences thereof. A key

part of understanding the trajectories in both Argentina and Brazil has been the

role played by international institutions, especially the IMF and WTO, and also,

the ever-growing hegemony of transnational corporations in the global economy

and as a result, significantly limiting the possibilities of genuine development for

local populations.

 

Two major issues which extend beyond Latin America are: the expansion of

genetically modified crops and agrotoxics and the concern for global food security

and sovereignty; second, how reprimarization, associated with mining, cattle, soy

and petroleum, has been key in leading to the risk of desertification in the

Argentine pampas and also causing deforestation in the Amazon Rain forest,

described as the lungs of the planet, and thus has major implications for climate

change for the planet as a whole.

 

In addition, this book engages with a number of theoretical issues: development

and dependency in the periphery: neoliberal globalization, accumulation by

dispossession, ecological and environmental debates and the role of extractivism

and rent. This book is aimed for both academics, activists and those politically

motivated to analyze, understand and push for social change from a critical

perspective, and also, those interested in a radical analysis of paths of

development, dependency and socioenvironmental issues in Latin America

today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030676735
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/08/2021
Series:	Palgrave Insights into Apocalypse Economics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Paul Cooney is a political economist, who received his Ph.D. from the New School

for Social Research in 1990. He has recently taught at the UFPA in the Brazilian

Amazon, at the UNGS in Argentina, and is currently a professor at the Catholic

University of Quito, Ecuador. In addition to this book, his current research topics

are neoliberal globalization in Latin America, and their socio-environmental

impacts, and ecological economics. He is currently a member of the URPE Steering

Committee and serves on the editorial boards of the following journals: Research

in Political Economy, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, and Revista Ensayos de

Economía.

Table of Contents

1. Theoretical Issues.- 2.  Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) in Argentina and Brazil.-  3: Transition from ISI to Neoliberalism.- 4. Argentina- from Dictatorship to Depression.- 5. Brazil- Late Neoliberalism.- 6.  Deindustrialization and Reprimarization.- 7. Social and Environmental Impacts of “New Development Paths.- 8. Chapter 8. Future Paths, Development and Dependency.- 9. Conclusions.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book offers an illuminating, comprehensive and original account of the accumulation strategies and economic trajectories of Argentina and Brazil. The troubles and tribulations of industrialisation and deindustrialisation in these countries are examined in great detail, across a historical arch spanning several decades, and in the context of the changes in the world economy. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the political economy of Argentina and Brazil.” (— Alfredo Saad-Filho, King’s College London)

This book is a summation of Paul Cooney’s last decade or so of work, explaining why the two most industrialised economies of South America are losing their core internally-oriented manufacturing potential, in favour of the export-oriented and extractivist circuits of capital (albeit with the latter suffering crises at the end of the global commodity super-cycle). The work is the most sophisticated about these two countries that I know of, and in the book, Cooney seeks to more formally introduce the ‘reprimarization’ concept. To do so, Cooney provides an excellent historical trajectory of these countries, focusing on both world economic dynamics and local class-forming processes. As well as anyone, he understands the dynamics within the main sectors: soy, cattle, mining, fossil fuels, and biofuels. He is particularly committed to a critique of the ‘New Developmentalism’ thesis of former Finance Minister Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, a critique with which I fully agree. He also utilizes Marxist political economy very fruitfully, particularly by employing David Harvey’s concepts of rent and dispossession. (— Patrick Bond, University of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Distinguished Professor of Political Economy, Wits School of Governance)