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LCD in LA - Mark 2 REVISIONS APRIL 2016.pdf (421.98 kB)

Labour-centred development in Latin America: two cases of alternative development

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 01:19 authored by Adam Fishwick, Benjamin SelwynBenjamin Selwyn
The ‘pink tide’ in Latin America, or what remains of it, is drawing increasing criticisms from the political left for its inability to confront existing socio-structural inequalities. This article contributes to these debates in two ways. First, as a means of understanding better the development strategies that have been followed by left-leaning governments, it highlights and critiques what it labels Elite Development Theory (EDT) encompassing Washington Consensus and Statist Political Economy. It shows how despite its self-stated objectives - the amelioration of the conditions of the poor and their uplifting - EDT is grounded in elite assumptions about social change: States and corporations are posited as prime-movers in the development process while collective efforts of labouring classes to pursue their own developmental strategies are ignored and/or de-legitimated. Exploitation, oppression and the ideological delegitimation of labouring class collective actions form the core of EDT. The second contribution of this article is to argue for an alternative form of what it terms labour-centred development (LCD). This argument is supported through an examination of the Chilean cordones industriales and Argentinian empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores (ERT) movements. The article concludes that whilst LCD may be a rarity, its existence offers the basis for alternative development theory and strategy.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Geoforum

ISSN

0016-7185

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

74

Page range

233-243

Department affiliated with

  • International Relations Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-08-25

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-07-05

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-08-25

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