Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Political Economy

by Susan J. Spronk (Editor), Jeffery R. Webber (Editor)

Overview

Since the late 1990s, Latin America has experienced a turn to the Left, in the electoral arena, and with a rejuvenation of Marxist critiques of political economy. Drawing on the expertise of scholars from around the world this volume offers cutting-edge theoretical explorations of trends in the region, as well as in-depth case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608465521
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	12/22/2015
Series:	Historical Materialism
Pages:	385
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Susan Spronk is associate professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies. Her research focuses on the experience of development in Latin America, more specifically the impact of neoliberalism on the transformation of the state and the rise of anti-privatization movements in the Andean region.

Jeffery R. Webber is a Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London. He splits his time between Canada, Europe, and various countries in Latin America, where he conducts field research. He is the author of Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia (2011), and a member of the editorial collective of Latin American Perspectives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

List of Figures and Tables viii

List of Abbreviations ix

Note on Contributors xii

1 Introduction - Systemic Logics and Historical Specificity: Renewing Historical Materialism in Latin American Political Economy Susan J. Spronk Jeffery R. Webber 1

Part 1 The 'New' Working Class: Decomposition and Recomposition under Neoliberalism

2 Roots of Resistance to Urban Water Privatisation in Bolivia: The 'New Working Class', the Crisis of Neoliberalism, and Public Services Susan Spronk 29

3 The Neo-Developmentalist Alternative: Capitalist Crisis, Popular Movements, and Economic Development in Argentina since the 1990s Mariano Féliz 52

4 The Reproduction of Democratic Neoliberalism in Argentina: Kirehner's 'Solution' to the Crisis of 2001 Emilia Castorina 73

5 Doubly Marginalised? Women Workers in Northeast Brazilian Export Horticulture Ben Selwyn 98

6 Emergent Socialist Hegemony in Bolivarian Venezuela: The Role of the Party Gabriel Hetland 120

7 Venezuela's Social Transformation and Growing Class Straggle Dario Azzellini 138

8 Socialist Management and Natural Resource Based Industrial Production: A Critique of Cogestion in Venezuela Thomas F. Purcell 163

Part 2 State and Market in Late Capitalist Development

9 Conspicuous Silences: State and Class in Structuralist and Neostructuralist Thought Juan Grigera 193

10 Sugarcane Ethanol: The Hen of the Golden Eggs? Agribusiness and the State in Lula's Brazil Leandro Vergara-Camus 211

11 From Global Capital Accumulation to Varieties of Centre-Leftism in South America: The Cases of Brazil and Argentina Nicolas Grinberg Guido Starosta 236

12 The Three Dimensions of the Crisis Claudia Katz 273

13 Revolution against 'Progress': Neo-Extractivism, the Compensatory State, and the TIPNIS Conflict in Bolivia Jeffery R. Webber 302

References 335

Index 380

Editorial Reviews

"This book will define new debates on Latin American political economy. It superbly delivers fine-grained empirical commentary on the composition of working class politics across the region (in Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil), as well as theoretical exposure of the specificities of states and markets within the uneven and combined development of capitalism shaping Latin America. With leading political economists at the helm, this whopper of a book truly brings fresh radical perspectives to bear on the struggles against capitalist power within Latin America. Ignore it at your peril."
Adam David Morton, University of Sydney and author of Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development

"Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Economy is the indispensable source for students, academics and activists interested in the transition to neoliberalism in Latin America. If Latin America is the region in which, perhaps more than any other, the left needs urgently to take an interest, the contributors to this volume have taken up the challenge. They offer a vast, detailed and richly informative survey of recent political and economic developments in Bolivia, Venezuala, Argentina, and elsewhere, and have produced a volume which will serve both as a testament to the vitality of the left in Latin America, and a proof of the excellence of Marxist scholarship on the region. Susan Spronk's and Jeffery R. Webber's book is the finest example of its kind to date."
Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS, University of London and author of The Value of Marx


"This book will define new debates on Latin American political economy. It superbly delivers fine-grained empirical commentary on the composition of working class politics across the region (in Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil), as well as theoretical exposure of the specificities of states and markets within the uneven and combined development of capitalism shaping Latin America. With leading political economists at the helm, this whopper of a book truly brings fresh radical perspectives to bear on the struggles against capitalist power within Latin America. Ignore it at your peril."
—Adam David Morton, University of Sydney and author of Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development

"Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Economy is the indispensable source for students, academics and activists interested in the transition to neoliberalism in Latin America. If Latin America is the region in which, perhaps more than any other, the left needs urgently to take an interest, the contributors to this volume have taken up the challenge. They offer a vast, detailed and richly informative survey of recent political and economic developments in Bolivia, Venezuala, Argentina, and elsewhere, and have produced a volume which will serve both as a testament to the vitality of the left in Latin America, and a proof of the excellence of Marxist scholarship on the region. Susan Spronk's and Jeffery R. Webber's book is the finest example of its kind to date."
—Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS, University of London and author of The Value of Marx

From the Publisher