Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon
An exploration of radical megaprojects in the Ecuadorian Amazon, considering the fate of utopian fantasies under conditions of global capitalism

From 2007 to 2017, the “Citizens’ Revolution” launched an ambitious series of post-neoliberal megaprojects in the remote Amazonian region of Ecuador, including an interoceanic transport corridor, a world-leading biotechnology university, and a planned network of two hundred “Millennium Cities.” The aim was to liberate the nation from its ecologically catastrophic dependence on Amazonian oil reserves, while transforming its jungle region from a wild neoliberal frontier into a brave new world of “twenty-first-century socialism.” This book documents the heroic scale of this endeavor, the surreal extent of its failure, and the paradoxical process through which it ended up reinforcing the economic model that it had been designed to overcome. It explores the phantasmatic and absurd dimensions of the transformation of social reality under conditions of global capitalism, deconstructing the utopian fantasies of the state, and drawing attention to the eruption of insurgent utopias staged by those with nothing left to lose.
 
1138906937
Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon
An exploration of radical megaprojects in the Ecuadorian Amazon, considering the fate of utopian fantasies under conditions of global capitalism

From 2007 to 2017, the “Citizens’ Revolution” launched an ambitious series of post-neoliberal megaprojects in the remote Amazonian region of Ecuador, including an interoceanic transport corridor, a world-leading biotechnology university, and a planned network of two hundred “Millennium Cities.” The aim was to liberate the nation from its ecologically catastrophic dependence on Amazonian oil reserves, while transforming its jungle region from a wild neoliberal frontier into a brave new world of “twenty-first-century socialism.” This book documents the heroic scale of this endeavor, the surreal extent of its failure, and the paradoxical process through which it ended up reinforcing the economic model that it had been designed to overcome. It explores the phantasmatic and absurd dimensions of the transformation of social reality under conditions of global capitalism, deconstructing the utopian fantasies of the state, and drawing attention to the eruption of insurgent utopias staged by those with nothing left to lose.
 
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Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon

by Japhy Wilson
Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon

by Japhy Wilson

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Overview

An exploration of radical megaprojects in the Ecuadorian Amazon, considering the fate of utopian fantasies under conditions of global capitalism

From 2007 to 2017, the “Citizens’ Revolution” launched an ambitious series of post-neoliberal megaprojects in the remote Amazonian region of Ecuador, including an interoceanic transport corridor, a world-leading biotechnology university, and a planned network of two hundred “Millennium Cities.” The aim was to liberate the nation from its ecologically catastrophic dependence on Amazonian oil reserves, while transforming its jungle region from a wild neoliberal frontier into a brave new world of “twenty-first-century socialism.” This book documents the heroic scale of this endeavor, the surreal extent of its failure, and the paradoxical process through which it ended up reinforcing the economic model that it had been designed to overcome. It explores the phantasmatic and absurd dimensions of the transformation of social reality under conditions of global capitalism, deconstructing the utopian fantasies of the state, and drawing attention to the eruption of insurgent utopias staged by those with nothing left to lose.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300262933
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 09/28/2021
Series: Yale Agrarian Studies Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Japhy Wilson is an Honorary Research Fellow in Politics at the University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Map xiv

Introduction: Fantastical Materializations 1

1 Enchanted Forest 18

2 The Politics of Awakening 48

3 Amazon Unbound 77

4 Cities of Black Gold 116

5 The Mirage Laboratory 150

Conclusion: Avalanche of Infamies 197

Notes 217

References 251

Index 277

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