Alternautas: Announcements

Call for Papers Special Issue: Interrogating the Resurgence of Latin American Dependency Theory

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:17:44 +0100

SI Editor: Dr Philip Roberts

Alternautas journal is devoted to a critical engagement with currents of thought which emerge from Latin America, and particularly their contrast with mainstream understandings of the region which come from the Global North. In that vein, Dependency Theory is clearly one of the most foundational schools of thought to have emerged from the global periphery to provide a counterpoint to stagist, Eurocentric models of development framed as ‘modernization’ (Kay, [1989] 2010, Love, 1996). Drawing on the history of the region, this tradition explores how the ‘underdevelopment’ of Latin America is an outcome of the plunder which began with colonialism and has continued into the present day, albeit in new forms (Galeano, [1971] 2009).

During the last few years, Dependency Theory has undergone a timely renaissance on multiple fronts. A new generation of scholars is engaging with lessons drawn from the experience of the original Dependency School which spanned both Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. Giraudo, 2020; Kvangraven 2021; Alami et. al. 2022; Antunes de Oliveira & Kvangraven, 2023). Simultaneously, translations of classic works of Dependency Theory are becoming available in English for the first time, including Rui Mauro Marini’s foundational work Dialectics of Dependency (2022). This rising accessibility of classic works and adaptation of their insights to a new global context provide an ideal moment for a discussion of the merits, limitations, and divisions within Dependency Theory.

Though a diverse school of thought from the outset, the central idea of classical Dependency Theory was that linkages to the West which constituted the ‘core’ of global capitalism were antagonistic to the development of the global ‘periphery.’ Within this framework, Dependency approaches can be subdivided into two broad camps.The ‘reformist’ tendency within Dependency Theory sought to reform the global economy by changing the rules which governed global trade and investment, and was institutionalised in the UN Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Conversely, the ‘revolutionary’ tendency asserted that reform was impossible, and rejected the idea of an alliance between working class and bourgeois forces for development, a strategy that was common to both mainstream development thinking and stagist formulations of Marxism. This tendency drew particular inspiration from the 1953 Cuban Revolution, as a popular struggle against capitalist imperialism and in pursuit of socialism.

In contemporary context, Latin America clearly remains within the global ‘periphery’ as described by Prebisch, Marini, and others. However, both the structure of dependency and the strategies for challenging underdevelopment have seen considerable transformation and variation. The rise of China has seen a proliferation of studies which apply Dependency Theory to Sino-African relations (see, inter alia, Taylor, 2016; Carmody, 2020 ), but a parallel literature also explores how the asymmetric structure of ‘South-South’ cooperation with China keeps Latin America in the global periphery (Jenkins 2012; Stallings, 2020).

To grapple with this shifting historical context, the current wave of engagement with Dependency Theory is elaborating on old typographies, and identifying new mechanisms of unequal exchange. For example, Reis and Antunes de Oliveira (2023) observe that Brazil and Mexico’s subordination to the global ‘core’ passed through several distinct phases, from direct colonial control, to trade dependence on the import of manufactures, subordination to foreign MNCs as a means of industrialization, and finally subordination to interest-bearing capital as financial actors linked to the Global North dominate both economy and politics. Equally, in the current era of environmental degradation and ‘global boiling’, ecologically focused adaptations of Dependency Theory have shifted attention from the appropriation of value and profit towards the plunder of energy, natural resources, and biomass from the still-open veins of Latin America (Dorninger and Eisenmenger, 2016; Infante-Amate et. al. 2022; Saes, 2023)

However, the proliferation of analyses of the mechanisms of exploitation also serves to underline the lacunae of the renewed Dependency Theory. As even its main advocates acknowledge, almost all of the original studies of Latin American underdevelopment failed to take account of gender and race when analysing the subordination of the periphery to the core (Antunes de Oliveira, 2021). Whether these omissions can be addressed by a renovated analysis of Latin American dependency is open to debate (Villegas Plá, 2023).

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of CEPAL, the 70th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, and the first publication of Dialectics of Dependency in English, Alternautas calls for papers which discuss the historical roots, conceptual controversies, and contemporary relevance of Dependency Theory. The editors would especially encourage contributions on:

Financial subordination, unequal ecological exchange, and social reproduction as mechanisms of dependency
Heritages of the Cuban Revolution and new forms of resistance in Latin America
Contrasting ‘situations of Dependence’ in Latin America
The political dimensions of ‘underdevelopment’ during and after the Pink Tide
The shift towards a Sino-Latin American dependency
The ‘reformist’ and ‘revolutionary’ paths from Dependency
Rui Mauro Marini’s specific contributions to Dependency Theory, especially on sub-imperialism and super-exploitation
Vital Dependency Theory works which remain untranslated, such as that of Maria da Conceição Tavares and Vania Bambirra.
Historical debates and controversies within Dependency Theory, such as between Structuralist and Marxist interpretations, or the Cardoso-Marini debate
Book reviews of classic works in contemporary context
Alternatives to and divergences from Dependency Theory, such as the decolonial turn by Anibal Quijano
The contemporary role of Dependency Theory in imagining an alternate ‘World Order’

Timeline:

Publication of Call for Papers: April 2024

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 14th of June 2024

Papers accepted communicated by: End of June 2024

Deadline for submission of full papers: End of August 2024

Deadline for 1st round of reviews: November 2024

Deadline for revised papers: January 2025

Deadline for submission of final revised version: Mid-March 2025

Publication: April-May 2025

Abstracts must be submitted by email to philip.roberts@york.ac.uk no later than midnight on Friday 14th of June 2024.

References:

Alami, I., Alves, C., Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A., Koddenbrock, K., Kvangraven, I., & Powell, J. (2022). International financial subordination: a critical research agenda. Review of International Political Economy, 1-27.

Antunes de Oliveira, F. (2021). Who are the super-exploited? Gender, race, and the intersectional potentialities of dependency theory. Dependent capitalisms in contemporary Latin America and Europe, 101-128.

Antunes de Oliveira, F., & Kvangraven, I. H. (2023). Back to Dakar: Decolonizing international political economy through dependency theory. Review of International Political Economy, 1-25.

Cardoso, F. H. (1977). The consumption of dependency theory in the United States. Latin American Research Review, 12(3), 7-24.

Carmody, P. (2020). Dependence not debt-trap diplomacy. Area development and policy, 5(1), 23-31.

Dorninger, C., & Eisenmenger, N. (2016). South America's biophysical involvement in international trade: the physical trade balances of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil in the light of ecologically unequal exchange. Journal of Political Ecology, 23(1), 394-409.

Galeano, E. (2009 [1971]). Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. London: Profile Books.

Giraudo, M. E. (2020). Dependent development in South America: China and the soybean nexus. Journal of Agrarian Change, 20(1), 60-78.

Infante-Amate, J., Urrego-Mesa, A., Pinero, P., & Tello, E. (2022). The open veins of Latin America: Long-term physical trade flows (1900–2016). Global Environmental Change, 76, 102579.

Jenkins, R. (2012). Latin America and China—a new dependency?. Third World Quarterly, 33(7), 1337-1358.

Kay, C. (2010). Latin American theories of development and underdevelopment (Vol. 102). Routledge.

Kvangraven, I. H. (2021). Beyond the stereotype: Restating the relevance of the dependency research programme. Development and Change, 52(1), 76-112.

Love, J. L. (1996). Crafting the third world: theorizing underdevelopment in Rumania and Brazil. Stanford University Press.

Marini, R. M. (2022). The Dialectics of Dependency. NYU Press.

Reis, N., & de Oliveira, F. A. (2023). Peripheral financialization and the transformation of dependency: a view from Latin America. Review of International Political Economy, 30(2), 511-534.

Saes, B. M. (2023). Ecologically Unequal Exchange: The Renewed Interpretation of Latin American Debates by the Barcelona School. In The Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology: A Companion in Honour of Joan Martinez-Alier (pp. 147-155). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Stallings, B. (2020). Dependency in the twenty-first century?: The political economy of China-Latin America relations. Cambridge University Press.

Taylor, I. (2016). Dependency redux: Why Africa is not rising. Review of African Political Economy, 43(147), 8-25.

Villegas Plá, B. (2023). Dependency theory meets feminist economics: a research agenda. Third World Quarterly, 1-18.

Call for Papers Special Issue: Contemporary frontiers in feminist and queer studies in Latin America: decolonial feminisms and queer ecologies

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 19:24:01 +0000

Feminist and queer studies have been widely connected to theoretical and practical debates occurring in the Global Souths, considering key approaches of ecofeminism, queer ecologies, black feminism, feminist political ecology or decolonial feminism and queer studies (Sandiland et al. 2020; Espinosa Miñoso, 2022; Zaragocin et al. 2023).These approaches differ from feminist and queer studies from the Global Norths in that they call attention to the privileges, visibility and resources that characterize the Global Norths debate and that inevitably modify the debates that are held in the Global Souths. For example, Zaragocin et al. (2023) study how Afro-Ecuadorian women are challenging dominant ideas and practices of development from the emerging ideas of Black feminism in Ecuador and moving towards a Black feminist political ecology in the Americas.

In the Latin American scholarship as well as in Latin American social movements, the hegemonic concept of development has been thoroughly questioned and alternative visions to development abound in studies of extractivism, climate justice or the criminalization of environmental defenders (Svampa, 2015; Moreano et al. 2021). In this context, queer ecologies aim at exploring different relationships to nature than those inherited or imposed by the hegemonic discourses of modernity. Although there are many takes on what queer ecology entails, and proponents prefer to speak of queer ecologies in plural to convey such diversity, the pillars of queer ecologies revolve around the refusal to naturalize the hegemonic imperatives of heterosexuality and cisgenderism. On the contrary, queer ecologies establish a two-way dialogue on the complexity of sexual forms and gender expressions in social-ecological relations and as such embrace the complexity and diversity of natural and social-ecological relations (Sandilands et al. 2020). Adopting a queer perspective on nature and on social-ecological relationships helps crafting new laws and policies that protect diverse species and their queer practices. Doing research about such practices allows us to understand their role and importance in the maintenance of ecosystem dynamics or species protection, which is hindered or even prevented when imposing a heteronormative view on such dynamics.

Queer theory has been criticized for its lack of engagement with decolonial perspectives, or rather, early queer theory excluded decolonial feminist writings (Cox, 2018). More recently, a few scholars have attempted a redefinition of queer theory in decolonial terms, calling attention to the intertwined nature of race, gender, sexuality, class and perspectives on nature or the environment. Yet, an increasing recognition of the work of scholars such as Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, rightfully credits these decolonial feminist scholars as first users and contributors of queer theory before the white feminists did. In this context, and now that the term “queer ecology” is gaining increasing attention in the Global Souths, it is interesting to look at the heritage of this perspective in the Latin American tradition, how it is understood today, and which alliances it performs.

Movements framed as feminisms, ecofeminisms and queers of the South, shedd light on the particular threats and challenges faced by those groups of actors (Viteri, 2011). Most of the analyses from the Global Souths highlight the intersectionality between gender, race, sexuality and the environment in the inequalities and discriminations faced by feminist and queer movements (Rao, 2014; Ulloa and Zaragocin, 2022). Various studies have shown how being a woman, indigenous or mestiza and environmental defender exacerbates the risks of violence and criminalization.This partly explains why some women groups voluntarily refuse to define themselves as ‘feminists’ in a context of negative view upon what feminism means in the Global South (Zaragocin et al. 2023). In the same way, transgender persons from ethnic minorities are experiencing high rates of violence and murders in the Global Souths, showing the persistence of a colonial legacy. On the other hand, feminist and queer movements have obtained greater recognition in the region through the adoption of new progressive laws, such as in Mexico with abortion rights and Ecuador with homosexual marriage recognition.

Finally, most recent debates in this field of study pay attention to the possible tension between feminist and queer movements in defending particular identities and rights. One recent answer to this debate is the emergence of the transfeminist movement aiming at overcoming the separation between feminist and queer claims and identities. Another important debate relates to the risk of reproducing essentialist visions of women by associating them with nature and environmental defense movements. Yet another debate delves into how queer conceptualizations of nature can be translated into governance approaches or public policies.

This special issue aims to gather contributions reflecting on new frontiers in feminist and queer studies in Latin America. We encourage authors to consider one or more of these research lines:

The potential of decolonial feminist methodologies to work with marginalized groups in Latin-american societies, especially black and indigenous women, and queer people.
Cases of ecofeminist strategies and movements in the region and their proposals of alternatives to development in contexts of extractivism and violence.
Reflections on the particular challenges and politics of being queer and/or women in Latin America, and the dialogues or possible tensions with ‘white’ feminist and queer studies.
Use of decolonial queer ecologies as a perspective to understand patterns of hegemony and resistance.
Historical approaches to understanding what traditions Latin American queer ecologies build on and which alliances they consolidate.
The connections but also possible tensions between feminist, ecofeminist and queer movements in the region.
The concrete implications of new progressive laws and reforms in the region for feminist and queer groups.

Abstracts must be submitted by the 12 of January 2024, to Emilie Dupuits edupuits@usfq.edu.ec, Maria Mancilla Garcia maria.mancilla.garcia@ulb.be, and Maria Eugenia Giraudo, maria.e.giraudo@durham.ac.uk

Timeline:

Publication of Call for Papers: December 2023

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 March 2024

Papers accepted communicated by: 15 March 2024

Publication: Late November / Early December 2024

References

Cox, Lara. 2018. ‘Decolonial Queer Feminism in Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” (1985)’. Paragraph 41 (3): 317–32. https://doi.org/10.3366/para.2018.0274.

Espinosa Miñoso, Y. (2022a) De por qué es Necesario un Feminismo Descolonial, Icaria Editorial: Barcelona.

Moreano Venegas Melissa, Miriam Lang, Gabriela Ruales Jurado, 2021. “Perspectivas de justicia climática desde los feminismos latinoamericanos y otros sures”, Fundación Rosa Luxemburg Oficina Región Andina, Quito.

Rao, Rahul. 2014. “Queer Questions.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16, no. 2: 199-217.

Sandilands Cate, MacGregor Sherilyn & Andrée Peter (2020) “Episode 9: Ecofeminism and Queer Ecology”, The Ecopolitics Podcast. https://www.ecopoliticspodcast.ca/episode-9-ecofeminism-and-queer-ecology-2/

Svampa Maristella, 2015. “Feminismos del Sur y ecofeminismo”, Nueva Sociedad: https://nuso.org/articulo/feminismos-del-sur-y-ecofeminismo/

Viteri, M. A. (2011). ¿Cómo se piensa lo “queer” en América Latina? (Presentación Dossier). Íconos-Revista de Ciencias Sociales, (39), 47-60.

Ulloa, A. and Zaragocin, S. (2022) Diálogos sobre feminismos, ambientalismos y racismos desde las geografías feministas latinoamericanas, Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica, 68(3): 481–91.

Zaragocin, S., Bone, J. F., Boudewijn, I., & Jenkins, K. (2023). Questioning development from Black feminisms in Ecuador and moving towards a Black feminist political ecology in the Americas. Global Discourse, 1-20.

Call for Papers Solidarity Politics: the reactivation of European-Latin American solidarities (Special Issue Volume 11 Issue 1, 2024)

Tue, 09 May 2023 08:15:23 +0100

In the context of Latin America’s Cold War, the 1970s saw the expansion of a vast and dispersed transnational solidarity with and for the peoples of Latin America. This movement was not homogenous: solidarity for Latin America emerged from the structures of earlier Third World or Tricontinentalist solidarity movements but was also distinct in that it engaged with a newly empowered lexicon of ‘human rights’ (very broadly defined) and international responsibility, and was influenced by the activities and direct contributions of Latin American exiles. Solidarity was also increasingly transnational in nature and was not confined to political rights relating to state violence, but also inspired by a range of other struggles taking place during this period, including more grassroots and/or anti-imperalist struggles ‘from below’. Dedicated groups gathered data on human rights abuses, petitioned local political actors, rallied support from unions and other social justice organisations, and raised awareness through publications, press conferences, public protests, arts and culture, and many more.

The coup d’état that took place in Chile in 1973 accelerated these processes and networks. With the 50th anniversary of the coup in September 2023, the memory and legacy of solidarity movements with Chile in Western and Northern Europe as well as the US and Canada, return to the spotlight, as do related solidarity movements with countries like Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, among others. On the one hand, solidarity is remembered and memorialised when moments of the past are revisited through texts, images, videos, material cultural production, and debates, as well as other symbolic gestures and representations. On the other hand, solidarity is called upon anew as structures, strategies, and symbols of the past are redeployed to meet new challenges and resist new forms of oppression. Understanding solidarity as a political relation, a form of memory, and a continuous and active process, this special issue explores the challenges of igniting, sustaining, and reactivating solidarity with Latin America across time. In particular, we seek to contemplate and problematise how solidarity struggles of the past are reactivated in the present and how the meaning of those struggles is reformulated with each new iteration.

Some suggested - but not exclusive - axes of reflection that we hope to include in the issue would engage with the following questions:

How has access to particular resources, cultural artifacts, archives, and other primary materials shaped understandings and perspectives of Latin American (trans-continental or transnational) solidarities of the past? How have these challenged, contested, altered, or reinforced mainstream collective memory?
How have solidarity movements of the past evolved through time? How do they inform and influence social and political movements today, and how is this reflected in place, space, discourse, and/or activism?
What are the different mediums through which solidarity movements of the past are accessed? What has been mobilized, and to what end? (eg. murals, town twinning movements, political posters, memory archives, etc.) What role does the digital play in this context?
What lessons can we learn from the methods, strategies, successes and shortcomings of past solidarity efforts with Latin America?
How do we understand and conceptualise solidarity from these contexts?

We are keen to explore this topic from a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches. Thus, this call is open to contributions from different disciplines, including social anthropology, sociology, political geography, history, cultural studies, Latin American studies, or any other related discipline. We also welcome texts from activists that are not in a research paper or standard journal article format.

If you would like to contribute to this special issue, please send a 150-word abstract before June 30, 2023, to the editors of the special issue:

Anna Grimaldi a.grimaldi@leeds.ac.uk

Samira Marty samira.marty@sai.uio.no

The deadline for final papers for accepted abstracts is November 31, 2023.

Alternautas is a multi-disciplinary journal devoted to counter-balancing mainstream understandings of development in/from Latin America – Abya Yala. Alternautas emerges from a desire to bridge language barriers by bringing Latin-American critical development thinking to larger, English-speaking audiences. The journal covers a broad range of development issues in a mix of regular and special issues. The journal was launched in 2014 and is fully open-access without fees for readers or authors. See more at: https://journals.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/alternautas/index

Alternautas Statement on State Violence in Peru, January 2023

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 09:42:05 +0000

Alternautas condemns the state violence directed against anti-government protesters in Peru. Almost 50 people have been killed since the fall of Pedro Castillo’s government in early December. Many of those who have borne the brunt of this violence are mainly Indigenous Aymara and Quechua people situated in the southern Highlands, the areas most affected by the country’s civil war and violence from both the Peruvian state and the Sendero Luminoso.

The current political crisis is a product of a wider degradation of the country’s democratic institutions and an intensification of violence leveed against marginalised groups will not offer a route out of this situation. Popular protest is a vital part of any functioning democracy and the response by the Peruvian state under the government of Dina Boluarte is reprehensible. Further proposed emergency measures that will extend the military’s powers yet further still will only escalate violence and increase impunity for state actors responsible for the vast majority of the violence. These state actors, including the police and military must be held account for the abuses of power witnessed in recent weeks.

Alternautas calls for dialogue between the Peruvian government and the diverse sectors about the routes from the crisis. A democratic exit is the only palatable option for resolving the political crisis Peru currently faces. However, Alternautas also notes the extreme degradation of the country’s political institutions over recent years and also calls for a political process to re-establish democratic and governance structures through mechanisms that will include those who have been protesting on the streets over the past couple of months.

Alternautas statement on the Brazilian coup attempt of January 8th 2023

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 09:39:26 +0000

On Sunday the 8th of January 2023, Brazil faced another serious threat to the democratic institutions that have been in place for almost 40 years. The mob of over 4,000 pro-Bolsonaro supporters who stormed the Brazilian capital invaded the Presidential Palace, the National Congress, and the Supreme Federal Court. The ensuing riot was not simply venting emotion in the face of electoral defeat, but a direct attack on the institutions of Brazilian democracy to signal public desire for military intervention.

Following Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat at the polls last October, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was installed once more as President of Brazil. At his inauguration, Lula promised to govern in the interests of a broad coalition where his predecessor had despoiled the country for the benefit of a narrow elite. But the right-wing reaction to this renewal of democracy was both predictable and severe.

Though comparisons to the pro-Trump protestors that invaded the USA capitol in January of 2022 are inevitable, important distinctions must be made. USA protestors believed that by they could commandeer democratic institutions and steer the congressional electoral votes towards a more desirable path. If Bolsonaro’s supporters had been successful, the result would have been the complete destruction of Brazilian democracy and its institutions by a military coup. Worse still, while the January protests in the USA were organised largely in secret, Bolsonaro’s supporters planned and advertised their intentions in public and with visible support of wealthy backers.

Just as with the coup of 2016 that saw President Dilma Rousseff impeached, and the imprisonment of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva using unproven charges in 2018, the supposedly neutral institutions of the Brazilian state were obviously partisan. When facing the riot, the military police of the Federal District, responsible for the security of Brasília, vacillated between passivity, repression, and even encouragement. More worrying still, the Armed Forces obstructed the dismantling of pro-Bolsonaro camps organised in front of their headquarters since the elections, even after the criminal activities of the rioters became evident. It is for this reason that, thankfully in error, the right-wing protestors of the 8th of January believed that all that was necessary for a military coup was one final push.

In light of the continuing risks to Brazil’s democracy, there can be no piecemeal approach to pursuing the architects of this coup attempt, nor half-measures in the reform of the country’s institutions. This is an opportunity for Brazil to overcome the legacy of authoritarianism inherited from military rule, particularly regarding the institutionalisation of the Military Police and Armed Forces.

As an academic journal focused on understanding and exploring Latin American politics and development, the Alternautas Editorial Board denounces these dangerous acts of organised opposition to democracy, particularly for the danger they pose to Brazil’s return to the path of environmental responsibility, racial equality, and the alleviation of poverty and hunger. We call upon our community of researchers and readers to continue the critical pursuit of democratic freedom, economic transformation, and environmental sustainability in the region.