Beyond Neoliberalism in Latin America?: Societies and Politics at the Crossroads (Studies of the Americas) [Hardcover]

John Burdick (Editor), Philip Oxhorn (Editor), Kenneth M. Roberts (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0230611796 | ISBN-13: 978-0230611795

While the neoliberal model continues to dominate economic and political life in Latin America, people throughout the region have begun to strategize about how to move beyond this model. What are the alternatives they imagine? Do these alternatives represent a genuine break? Twelve cutting-edge papers investigate how Latin Americans are struggling to articulate a future in which neoliberalism is reconfigured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This edited volume is a welcome addition to a growing body of scholarship on the ‘postneoliberal era, as the authors draw from a broad range of cases and theoretical approaches to account for the heterogeneity of political, social, and cultural processes currently under way. . . . This book’s key contribution is to show how the economic and political upheavals of the 1980s and 1990s reconfigured Latin American societies and politics. . . . In sum, this book meets its goal of giving scholars and students of politics in Latin America crucial insights regarding the transformation of social, political, and cultural processes initiated by the neoliberal restructuring.”--Latin American Politics and Society

 

"In Beyond Neoliberalism, Burdick, Oxhorn and Roberts bring together a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars to examine  issues central to contemporary Latin American politics. Rather than examine the now familiar debates regarding the origins,  dynamics, and consequences of the Washington Consensus, their volume endeavors to link deep analysis of the transformations wrought by market-oriented reforms to the question of how individuals and collective actors are in  the process of generating alternatives that "lie beyond" neoliberalism. This collection's success stems from  the contributors' careful attention in their research to the  gradual, uneven and always contradictory construction of resistances and alternatives by actors and processes frequently located far from the commanding heights of the state and control over the political economy."--William C. Smith, Professor and Editor, Latin American Politics and Society, Department of International Studies, University of Miami.

 

“This interdisciplinary collection addresses many of the most volatile, vibrant political and social arenas of the region today. The contributors explore head-on a range of left and not-so-left political economy projects, and leading anthropologists provide valuable analyses of indigenous movements and ethnoracial identity struggles.  Most useful are the explorations of the vicissitudes of today’s dynamic mining sector, a locus of some of the greatest, most enduring environmental devastation and labor abuse – phenomena largely neglected by conservative and progressive national governments alike.”--Katherine Hite, Department of Political Science and Director, Program in Latin American and Latino/a Studies, Vassar College

About the Author

John Burdick is Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. He is author of Legacies of Liberation: The Progressive Catholic Church in Brazil at the Start of a New Millennium (2004), Blessed Anastacia: Women, Race and Popular Christianity in Brazil (1998), and Looking for God in Brazil (1993). He is co-editor, with Ted Hewitt, of The Church at the Grassroots: Perspectives on Thirty Years of Activism (2000).

Philip Oxhorn is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Developing Area Studies at McGill University. He is author of Organizing Civil Society: The Popular Sectors and the Struggle for Democracy in Chile (1995), and co-editor of What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? Latin America in the Age of Neoliberlism (with Graciela Ducatenzeiler,1998), The Market and Democracy In Latin America: Convergence or Divergence? (with Pamela Starr and Lynne Rienner, 1999) and Decentralization, Civil Society, and Democratic Governance: Comparative Perspectives from Latin America, Africa, and Asia (with Joseph Tulchin and Andrew Selee (2004), and Sustaining Civil Society: Economic Change, Democracy and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America (forthcoming).

Kenneth M. Roberts is Professor of Government at Cornell University.  He is the author of Deepening Democracy?  The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru (1998) along with a forthcoming book on party system change in Latin America's neoliberal era. His research is focused on social inequalities and political representation in contemporary Latin America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230611796
• ISBN-13: 978-0230611795
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,357,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)