Open Veins Revisited: Mapping the Social, Economic, and Political Contours of Neo-Extractivism in Latin America

Open Veins Revisited: Mapping the Social, Economic, and Political Contours of Neo-Extractivism in Latin America
Issue editor: Nicole Fabricant and Linda Farthing

The history of Latin America is a history of resource extractivism where key resources (such as silver in the nineteenth century and tin in the twentieth) created much foreign investment in the region but left local populations deeply impoverished. During the past decade, the desire for rapid economic growth, along with foreign investor interest in key industries, have increased pressure on Latin American governments to search for new forms of resource extractivism and large-scale development projects in order to expand growth and fund government projects. Uruguayan social scientist, Eduardo Gudynas has described this as the “new extractivism,” a turn from old forms of extractivism to a 21st century model in which the state has a larger participation in the rent generated by mining, oil, and natural gas for social policy. Despite the hopes for exercising national sovereignty over transnational corporations, this form of development and resource extractivism has only placed greater pressure on natural resources and rural environments.  Further, the insatiable quest for minerals, natural gas, and oil across Latin America has disrupted ways of life for local communities and exacerbated processes of accumulation by dispossession.

In the 1970s and 1980s, social scientists sought analytic frames for understanding how resource extraction created geographic and historic unevenness between nation-states and peoples. In 1982 anthropologist Eric Wolf published his preeminent book, “Europe and the People without History,” where he traced the movement of goods, capital, and people in concert with expanding capitalism in the old and new worlds. A decade earlier, well-known Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano wrote the landmark book describing the consequences of the European quest for resources, such as gold, silver, and sugar in Latin America. The penetration of foreign capital and early industrialization marked highly unequal laboring relations and differential access to means of production. Forty years later, in an era of advanced capitalism (in the aftermath of 30 years of neoliberal restructuring), it is time to revisit these themes, and to create new analytic frames for understanding the current structures of transnational capital and global interconnectedness and their relevance for Latin American resource-based development.

This special issue of Latin American Perspectives hones in on the political and economic interconnections of global resource-based economies: How can we map “resource” needs/demands of new and emergent empires? What shifts have taken place in the Northern and/or Western economies to create new demands for energy, minerals and other natural resources? Which nation-states are placing pressure upon which regions of Latin America for natural gas, biofuels, and/or oil? What is the role of international financial institutions and trade agreements in shaping development policy?  How and in what ways are demands for particular resources (and new forms of extractivism, such as hydraulic fracking or oil drilling) creating ever-greater inequalities (environmentally, socially, and politically) in zones of production? What might be some of the creative new ways of resisting or disentangling these “complicated webs of power”? How and in what ways might local populations, specifically indigenous peoples, be caught in these complicated webs of power? How do extractive policies differ among neoliberal, moderate left and radical left governments?

It is a particularly important moment in which to analyze the global interconnectedness of our resource-based economy, given the widespread geographic dispersal of economic and ecological crises. Our quest for non-renewable fossil fuels has created much destruction at national, global, and even atmospheric levels. And even the turn toward renewable and green “solutions” has the potential to create ever-greater inequalities around the world. This issue doesn’t seek neat and tidy conclusions, but rather argues that complicated political economic analyses better enable us not only to see but to understand the money, people, technology, and institutions behind the contemporary global crisis.

Manuscripts may address specific industries for a single country or region or comparatively over time or between countries.  They may also look at overall development in a country or region considering more than one form of extractivism and their interrelationships – political, economic, environmental, etc.  They may also consider alternative development strategies and the related social conflicts and movements.

Submissions are invited on any relevant topic, which could include but are not limited to:

*  Mining in Chile, Peru and/or Colombia

*  Natural gas “hydraulic fracking” in Argentina

*  Natural gas in Bolivia

*  Mega-dams in Chile and or Brazil

*  Large-scale soy and biofuels in Paraguay, Argentina, and/or Brazil

*  Indigenous peoples and development projects in Ecuador, Bolivia and/or Chile

*  Infrastructure projects such as the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional

Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) or the TIPNIS highway in Bolivia

*  Oil industry in Venezuela

* Transformation in Cuban extractive development strategy

* Foreign investment in non-renewable fossil fuels (beyond the US) including focus on

and/or comparison of specific investors and investment strategies

*  Relationship between extractive industries and climate crisis (focus on Andes and/or

Amazon) including how extractive interests might be profiting from the crisis

*Role of NAFTA, World Bank, or other international agreements or organizations

* Influence of Chinese, Canadian and/or Spanish investors

 SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

To avoid duplication of content, please contact the issue editor to let her know of your interest in submitting and your proposed topic.  We encourage submission as soon as possible but this call will remain open as long as it is posted on the LAP web site.

Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,000 words of double-spaced 12 point text, including notes and references, and should be paginated. The manuscript should include an abstract of no more than 100 words and 5 key words. Include a separate cover sheet with author identification, basic biographical and contact information, including e-mail and postal addresses.  Please follow the LAP style guide which is available at www.latinamericanperspectives.com under the “Submissions” tab.   Please use the “About” tab for the LAP Mission Statement and details about the manuscript review process.

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.  If submitting in Spanish or Portuguese, please indicate if you will have difficulty reading correspondence from the LAP office in English.  LAP will translate accepted manuscripts submitted in Spanish and Portuguese.  If you do not write in English with near native fluency, please submit in your first language.

All manuscripts should be original work that has not been published in English and that is not being submitted to or considered for publication in English elsewhere in identical or similar form.

 Please feel free to contact the Issue Editor with questions pertaining to the issue but be sure that manuscripts are sent to the LAP office by e-mail to:

lap@ucr.edu with the subject line – “Your name – MS for Neoextractivism issue”
In addition to electronic submission (e-mail, or CD-R or floppy disk if unable to send by e-mail) if possible submit two print copies including a cover sheet and basic biographical and contact information to:
Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703

Editor contact information:
Nicole Fabricant – nfabricant@towson.edu

Linda Farthing – lindafarthing@gmail.com