Key Issues and Texts: Development and Policy
Seminar 1: Industrialisation, commodities-led growth, and catching-up (Pedro Mendes Loureiro)
This session examines recent development strategies in Latin America, interrogating their views regarding what economic policies should be adopted to reach fast and sustained growth. The session discusses how different strategies see the role of manufacturing versus resource-based development; advocate for export-orientated versus domestic-focused growth; analyse global value chains and how climb to their higher links; and integrate growth into a larger policy and development framework.
Key issues
- New/neo-developmentalism
- Neostructuralism
- Export-orientated growth
- Resource-based development
- Global value chains
Key texts
- Bresser-Pereira, L. C. 2019. New Developmentalism: development macroeconomics for middle-income countries. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 44(3), 629-646. (Focus on the big message of this article, try not to get bogged down by the economic jargon – and bring questions.)
- Leiva, F. I. 2008. Toward a Critique of Latin American Neostructuralism. Latin American Politics and Society, 50(4), 1-25.
- Perez, C. 2015. The new context for industrializing around natural resources: an opportunity for Latin America (and other resource rich countries)? Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics, 62, 1-41.
Seminar 2: Popular Economies: Life, Labour and Collective Politics in Latin American Cities (Dolores Señorans)
This session will address urban popular economies in Latin America in the context of contemporary academic and political debates on the precarisation of life and labour. Through the analysis of ethnographic studies, the session explores two main issues. Firstly, we will examine how popular ways of making a living take shape in everyday life, exploring the intersections between work, social relationships and obligations, public policies, market dynamics and politics. When looked at with an anthropological lens, wage-less lives are neither lacking nor detached from capital accumulation. Secondly, we will discuss what kinds of collective labour politics are emerging from these experiences. While it is often asserted that the precarisation of labour is part of capitalist strategies to fragment, disorganise and limit the possibilities for collective action, current political experimentations show that such a goal is never complete and that workers have developed innovative organisations to claim their rights. More broadly, the anthropological exploration of popular economies in Latin America will lead to the interrogation of assumed distinctions such as formal/informal, market/non-market, urban poor/working class.
Key issues
- Urban popular economies
- Marginality, informal economy, surplus populations
- Precarity in everyday life
- Emerging forms of collective politics
Key texts
- Munck, Ronaldo. 2013. ‘The Precariat: A View from the South’. Third World Quarterly, 34(5): 747–62.
- Millar, Kathleen M. 2014. ‘The Precarious Present: Wageless Labor and Disrupted Life in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’. Cultural Anthropology, 29(1): 32–53.
- Señorans, Dolores. 2020. ‘Economías populares, economías plurales: Sobre la organización gremial de los trabajadores costureros en Buenos Aires, Argentina’. Cuadernos de Antropología Social, 51: 189–206.
- Fernández Álvarez, María Inés. 2020. ‘Building from Heterogeneity: The Decomposition and Recomposition of the Working Class Viewed from the “Popular Economy” in Argentina’. Dialectical Anthropology, 44(1): 57–68.
Seminar 3: Social policy under the (Post-) Washington Consensus (Pedro Mendes Loureiro)
This session examines the main changes to social policy frameworks in Latin America since the 1990s. It explores how income-supporting policies and the provision of key goods and services have been envisioned, following the main policy frameworks since the transition to neoliberalism and from the 2000s onwards. Policies are investigated not only in terms of their expected and actual results, but also placed in the theoretical and normative underpinnings that are used to justify them. Some of the key processes this session discusses are the rise of conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes, the expansion of education, the much more muted rise of universal social protection networks, the ‘financialisation’ of social policy, and how visions form Latin America – such as ‘living well’ – have been challenging these forms of social policy.
Key issues
- Conditional cash transfers
- Universal social protection networks
- ‘Financialisation’ of social policy
- Living well / sumak kawsay / buen vivir
- (Post-) Washington Consensus
Key texts
- Franzoni, J. M. and Sánchez-Ancochea, D. 2014. Should Policy Aim at Having All People on the Same Boat? The Definition, Relevance and Challenges of Universalism in Latin America. desiguALdades.net Working Papers, 70, 1-27.
- Lavinas, L. 2013. 21st Century Welfare. New Left Review, 84(Nov-Dec), 5-32.
- Molyneux, M. 2008. The ‘Neoliberal Turn’ and the New Social Policy in Latin America: How Neoliberal, How New? Development and Change, 39(5), 775-797.
- Radcliffe, S. A. 2018. Tackling Complex Inequalities and Ecuador's Buen Vivir: Leaving No-one Behind and Equality in Diversity. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 37(4), 417-433.
Seminar 4: Philanthropy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Developemnt in Latin America (Jessica Sklair)
This session explores philanthropy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Latin America. We will look at ethnographic case studies of CSR and philanthropy in different corporate sectors (forestry, mining and agriculture), to examine the regional history of these global practices and how they have become entwined with development narratives and aspirations in the Latin American context. Different voices in the debates on CSR and philanthropy provide contrasting perspectives on the purposes that these practices serve, and the role they play in upholding (or challenging) broader economic structures and interests in the region. These debates also provide a framework for examining the tensions between legal requirement and voluntary practice in corporate activity in Latin America, and the evolving relationships between state, private sector and civil society in the region.
Key issues
- Corporate social and environmental responsibility
- The role of business in development
- State, private sector and civil society relations
- Wealth elites in Latin America
Key texts
- Balch, O. (2018) ‘Chapter 4: Jobs in the Frame: Employment and Employability in a Pulp-Producing Enclave’ in Pulp Fictions: The Role of Detachable Corporate Social Responsibility in Building Legitimacy for Uruguay’s Largest Ever Foreign Investment. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 160-193.
- Agüero, F. (2005) ‘The promotion of corporate social responsibility in Latin America,’ in Sanborn, C. and Portocarrero, F. (eds.) Philanthropy and social change in Latin America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Harvard University Press, 103-134. (Moodle)
- Li, F. (2016) ‘Engineering Responsibility: Environmental mitigation and the limits of commensuration in a Chilean mining project’ in Dolan, C. & Rajak, D. (eds) The Anthropology of Corporate Social Responsibility. New York: Berghahn, 199-216.
- Sklair, J. (2018) ‘Closeness and critique among Brazilian philanthropists: Challenges for a critical ethnography of wealth elites.’ Focaal - Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 81, 29-42.
Seminar 5: Populisms, old and new (Pedro Mends Loureiro)
This session explores how the idea of populism has been seen in Latin America, contrasting the ‘old’ versions of the mid-20th century to the ‘new’ versions of the early 21st century. This involves, first, a discussion of how the concept of populism, a polysemic and politically charged idea, has been mobilised across the political spectrum. Emphasis is put on how different theories define populism, particularly with regards to its alleged relationship to redistribution, popular participation, and social conflict. Second, this session explores the relationship between populism and the demands and dynamics of social movements and trade unions, focusing on recent attempts in Latin America to create deeper forms of participation (‘radical democracy’). Third, the session explores these topics through a study of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ populisms in Brazil and Argentina.
Key issues
- Populism
- Radical democracy
- Neoliberalism
- Redistributive policies
- Popular participation in politics
Key texts
- Grigera, J. 2017. Populism in Latin America: Old and new populisms in Argentina and Brazil. International Political Science Review, 38(4), 441-455.
- Lara, F. B., 2018. Populist waves in Latin America. In: de la Torre, C. ed. Routledge Handbook of Global Populism. Routledge, 435-450.
- Postero, N. 2010. The struggle to create a radical democracy in Bolivia. Latin American Research Review, 45, 59-78.
- Weyland, K. 2001. Clarifying a Contested Concept: Populism in the Study of Latin American Politics. Comparative Politics, 34(1), 1-22.
Seminar 6: Political Corruption in Latin America (Dana Brablec Sklenar)
This session analyses the complex relationship between politics and corruption in Latin America. During the 1980s, most of the countries in the region established formal democracies based on competitive electoral processes. However, numerous corruption scandals have raised questions about the quality of democracy, the transparency of politics, and the legitimacy of the new market economies in the region. In this seminar, we will discuss areas, levels, and forms of corruption in both its structural and socio-cultural components. In turn, we will examine the role played by international conventions against corruption (e.g. Inter-American Convention), as well as the involvement of the state-reform process, government transparency, public opinion, media, and public and business ethics for the control of corruption.
Key issues
- Corruption and democracy
- Money and politics
- Transparency and accountability
- The role of media and civil society
Key texts
- Goldstein, D. and Drybread, K. (2018). The Social Life of Corruption in Latin America. Culture, Theory and Critique, 59(4), 299-311.
- Kaufmann, D: (2015). Corruption Matters. Finance & Development, 52(3), 20-23.
- Ruhl, J. (2011). Political Corruption in Central America: Assessment and Explanation. Latin American Politics and Society, 53(1), 33-58.
- Tulchin, J. and Espach, R. (Eds). (2000). Combating Corruption in Latin America. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, for the Woodrow Wilson International Centre. Chapters 2 (53-70) and 8 (193-201). (Moodle)