Latin American Extractivism

Dependency, Resource Nationalism, and Resistance in Broad Perspective

Edited by Steve Ellner

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.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 304 • Trim: 6⅛ x 9

978-1-5381-4155-7 • Hardback • March 2021 • $94.00 • (£72.00)

978-1-5381-4156-4 • Paperback • December 2020 • $41.00 • (£32.00)

978-1-5381-4157-1 • eBook • December 2020 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

Series: Latin American Perspectives in the Classroom

Subjects: Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American, Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development

Courses: Political Science; Comparative Politics; Government & Politics; Latin America, International & Area Studies; Latin American Studies; General, Environmental Studies; Politics

Latin American Extractivism

Dependency, Resource Nationalism, and Resistance in Broad Perspective

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 304 • Trim: 6⅛ x 9

978-1-5381-4155-7 • Hardback • March 2021 • $94.00 • (£72.00)

978-1-5381-4156-4 • Paperback • December 2020 • $41.00 • (£32.00)

978-1-5381-4157-1 • eBook • December 2020 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

Series: Latin American Perspectives in the Classroom

Subjects: Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American, Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development

Courses: Political Science; Comparative Politics; Government & Politics; Latin America, International & Area Studies; Latin American Studies; General, Environmental Studies; Politics

Author

Steve Ellner is a retired professor at the Universidad de Oriente, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, and is currently associate managing editor of Latin American Perspectives. His books include Rethinking Venezuelan Politics and his edited Latin America’s Pink Tide, Latin America’s Radical Left, and (coedited) Venezuela: Hugo Chavez and the Decline of an “Exceptional Democracy.”

Table of Contents

Foreword
Juan Carlos Monedero
Introduction: Rethinking Latin American Extractivism
Steve Ellner
Part I: The Global Focus
1 The Political Economy of Mining in Colombia: The New Face of Globalization?
Kyla Sankey
2 Financialization, Institutional Reform, and Structural Change in the Bolivian Boom (2006–2019)
Alfredo Macías Vásquez and Jorge García-Arias
3 South-South Cooperation or Dependency with “Chinese Characteristics” in Venezuela?
Emma Miriam Yin-Hang To
Part II: The Pink Tide Countries
4 Reframing Resource Nationalism: Social Forces and the Politics of Extractivism in Latin America’s Pink Tide
Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández
5 Extractivism and Resource Nationalism in Bolivia: Foreign Direct Investment Policy and Development under Evo Morales
María J. Paz and Juan M. Ramírez-Cendrero
6 Extractive Policies in Mexico at the Outset of López Obrador’s Presidency
Darcy Tetreault
7 Tracing the Political Life of Kimsacocha: Conflicts over Water and Mining in Ecuador’s Southern Andes
Teresa A. Velásquez
8 The Gendered Dimensions of Soybean Extractivism in Argentina
Amalia Leguizamón
Part III: Conservative and Right-Wing Governments
9 Mining Governance in El Salvador and Honduras: Lessons from Contrasting Approaches to Extractivism
Anthony Bebbington, Benjamin Fash, and John Rogan
10 The Other Extractivism: The Andean State and Small-Scale and Artisanal Gold Mining
Zaraí Toledo Orozco
11 Black Women’s Struggles against Extractivism, Land Dispossession, and Marginalization in Colombia
Castriela Esther Hernández Reyes
Index
About the Contributors

Reviews

This volume stands out for bringing to the forefront less wellknown facets and struggles related to extractivism in Latin America. Latin American Extractivism thus provides a rich and detailed panorama of the role of extractivist development policies during a time of retreat for the Pink Tide governments in Latin America.

— Socialism and Democracy

Insightful. . . . [An] important contribution to our understanding of the political, economic and cultural dynamics of extractivism in Latin America.

— E-International Relations

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

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

Latin American Extractivism is organized in a way that is easy to read and ideal for classroom use. . . Ellner’s book is another successful publication of the Latin American Perspective in the Classroom series. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of the relationship between the extractive sector and development in Latin America in the age of globalization.

— North American Congress in Latin America

Latin American Extractivism creates somewhat of a perfect balance between the achievements of the Pink Tide governments in the use of nationalisation of natural resources and the policies of resource nationalism, the contradictions, and shortcomings of these processes, on the one hand, and the conservative extractivist policies and state coercion exercised by the neoliberal governments of the region, on the other hand. The book serves as a strong answer to both the pessimistic approach of the ‘neo-extractivism’ crowd and its unbalanced criticism of the new left-wing governments around Latin America, as well as those who completely embrace the Pink Tide with no acknowledgment for the contradictions and the mistakes it has committed.

— Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

Features

3/9/2021 - The Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) published editor Steve Ellner’s statement on the Biden administration’s new Venezuela policy. The page includes a link to the book and the book’s cover image. Link: https://accuracy.org/release/bidens-venezuela-policy-continuity-disguised-as-change/