Reassessing Development

Issue Editors: Ronald H. Chilcote, University of California Riverside
Joana Salém Vasconcelos, Universidade de São Paolo

*This Call for Manuscripts is now closed. We are currently no longer accepting submissions for this special thematic issue. Nevertheless, after publication of this issue in late 2021 / early 2022, we will encourage our readers to submit short 500 word commentaries as response to the content published. If you have any questions, please contact the LAP office lap@ucr.edu

In the politically charged wake of the Cuban Revolution, in the early 1960s Latin American intellectuals and political activists grappled with fundamental questions: the specific characteristics of Latin American capitalism and its mode of insertion into the broader international division of labor, class relations within Latin American countries, and the political strategies that could achieve radical social transformation. Critical theorists grounded in Marxist thought made structural analysis of class and social relations central to their work. Seeking both economic development and social justice, they sought new theory that overcame the inadequacies of dominant North American and Eurocentric thinking on modernization as well as the limitations of Soviet understanding of semi-feudalism and stage theory of how to achieve socialism.
This was a time of military intervention and repression in Latin America, prompting intellectuals not only to resist dictatorship but also imperialism in seeking ways out backwardness in their countries. Today these questions remain as pressing as ever as does the need for theory that can address contemporary forms of capitalism and imperialism and advance twenty-first century struggles.

Latin American Perspectives was founded in 1974 around debates about theories of dependency and underdevelopment in Latin America, and controversy about major trends and ideas appeared in several journal issues and books by LAP editors (see Ronald H. Chilcote (ed). 2003. Development in Theory and Practice: Latin American Perspectives). Events within and outside of Latin America affected subsequent theoretical directions. Among major developments were the defeats of revolutionary alternatives in Chile and Central America, the era of authoritarianism, the collapse of “actually existing socialism” in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the often violent imposition of neoliberalism in Latin America, and the emergence of broad-based social movements for democracy and social justice, adding claims based on gender and ethnicity to those based on class that restored formal democracy and brought the so-called Pink Tide governments to power. During these decades, theoretical work became more diffuse. Debates around dependency and underdevelopment dissipated. Much political economic analysis was displaced into the controversies surrounding “globalization” and efforts by critical theorists to counter the dominant maintream narratives of global benefits or at least, inevitability. Efforts to understand the nature of neoliberal capitalism in Latin America often involved an inductive process of building toward broader theory from narrow case studies. Theorization also took up the issues raised by women, indigenous, and other excluded groups, with major currents veering away from class analysis while others worked to enrich class analysis with new insights from these important real-world struggles.

In addition, 21st century theorizing should not be undertaken without considering the political economy of climate change, the ways in which contemporary capitalism exacerbates the climate crisis and unequally allocates its environmental and social costs at the expense of the global South and the dilemmas that environmental consequences pose for development strategies.  A key component of Marx’s thinking was the recognition of the limitations imposed and the possibilities created by material conditions.  He viewed the material advances in the productive forces under capitalism as essential to the achievement of socialism.  In our present conjuncture, the consequences of this material progress constitute a challenge to life itself, and recognition of this needs to be included in any meaningful broad social analysis.

Now, facing the rise of an aggressive right that has reversed or undermined leftist advances throughout the Americas, younger Latin American scholars are returning to the fundamental questions that animated understanding of dependency and underdevelopment and to this seminal theoretical work as well as to Marx and other classical thinkers. This issue of LAP will examine these trends in an effort to assess their relevance today. The major work is evident in Argentina and Brazil, countries recently impacted by conservative, authoritarian-leaning governments, but we also invite studies elsewhere where “pink tide” influence is in retreat. We ask how any of the earlier theories and debates relate to contemporary Latin America? Is the new thinking about old and revisionist thought about dependency and underdevelopment leading us to new perspectives and understandings? Which of the traditional thinkers and their ideas influence the current generation of scholars? Is the contemporary research and writing leading us to deeper understanding of problems today? What are the prospects for emergence of new theory and ideas? Who are the thinkers likely to captivate our attention and interest? Finally, we encourage manuscripts that relate these questions not only to classical (especially Marxist) thought, to Latin American theorists of dependency and underdevelopment who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the recent generation of serious thinkers whose work promises to carry us in new directions.

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

To avoid duplication of content, please contact the issue editors to let them 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 paginated, double-spaced 12 point text with 1 inch margins, including notes and references, using the LAP Style Guidelines available at www.latinamericanperspectives.com under the “Submit” tab where the review process is also described. Manuscripts should be consistent with the LAP Mission Statement available on the web site under the “About” tab.

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

Please feel free to contact the issue editors with questions pertaining to the issue but
all manuscripts should be submitted directly to the LAP office, not to the issue editors. A manuscript is not considered submitted until it has been received by the LAP office. You should receive acknowledgment of receipt of your manuscript within a few days. If you do not receive an acknowledgment from LAP after one week, please send a follow-up inquiry to be sure your submission arrived.

E-mail Submissions: send to lap@ucr.edu
Subject Line: Author name – Manuscript for Dependency issue

Please attach your manuscript as a Word Document (doc or docx)
Include: Abstract (100 words), 5 Keywords, and a separate cover page with short author affiliations (less than 130 words) and complete contact information (e-mail, postal address, telephone).

Postal correspondence may be sent to: Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703.

For an article with more than one author, provide contact information for all authors but designate one person as the Corresponding Author who will receive correspondence from the LAP office. If any contact information changes while your manuscript is under consideration, please send the updated information to LAP promptly.

Submission of a manuscript implies commitment to publish in the journal. Authors should not submit a manuscript that has been previously published in English in identical or substantially similar form nor should they simultaneously submit it or a substantially similar manuscript to another journal in English. LAP will consider manuscripts that have been published in another language, usually with updating. Prior publication should be noted, along with the publication information.

Issue editor contact information:
Ronald Chilcote: ronaldhchilcote@gmail.com
Joana Salém Vasconcelos: joana.salem@gmail.com