This cutting-edge book presents a broad picture of global capitalism and extractivism in contemporary Latin America. Leading scholars examine the cultural patterns involving gender, ethnicity, and class that lie behind protests in opposition to extractivist projects and the contrast in responses from state actors to those movements.
Steve Ellner was professor at the Universidad de Oriente, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, and is now associate managing editor of Latin American Perspectives. His books include Latin America's Pink Tide, Latin America's Radical Left and Venezuela: Hugo Chavez and the Decline of an "Exceptional Democracy."
A much-needed contribution to the debate over extractivist development models and the ability of leftist governments in Latin America to transform them Steve Ellner and his contributors demonstrate how state-directed policies of resource nationalism differ from those of neoliberal extractivism, and they examine the implications of these policies for the environment, social welfare, and indigenous rights.The book is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how states have experimented with alternative models of economic development in Latin America, even within the constraints of global capitalism.--Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University Steve Ellner and his colleagues have produced a timely and invaluable study on the political and economic balance sheet of the extractivist strategy of development in Latin America. The varied contributions show that there was no one model of extractivism. Rather, the process has been highly contested and differentiated among Latin American countries, in particular, among left-oriented governments who pursued resources nationalism and the more conservative regimes who allied with global capital and followed a more openly neoliberal path. The collection of essays, beyond the specific focus on extractivism, provides an essential guide to making sense of Latin America's recent past and possible futures. As global capitalism now sinks into its worse crisis in a century, all bets are off. This volume provides great insight at a critical moment into the nature of the dynamics of global capitalism, as well as the choices before us as we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century.--William I. Robinson, University of California at Santa Barbara; author of The Global Police State This well-crafted volume offers fresh perspectives on increasingly dogmatic, closed debates over extractive development. It convincingly argues against tarring all models of extractive development with the same brush. If we focus on the broad distributive consequences of contending approaches to extractive development, then progressive/left approaches versus international capital-centered variants are, simply put, not the same.--Eduardo Silva, Tulane University
