The Dark Side of the Boom: Land Grabbing in Dependent Countries in the Twenty-First Century

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that dependent countries are affected by the phenomenon of land grabbing, and that the major investors acquiring land come from countries of the “center.” The phenomenon thus has two effects in terms of worldwide production specialization: (1) a “vertical” effect of bringing about greater differentiation between the traditional countries of the “center” and dependent countries, where the latter focus their development policies on deepening their foreignized and primarized productive structures; and (2) a “horizontal” effect, through which states such as China and the Arab countries, which are developing countries in terms of their productive structure, are differentiated from the rest of the dependent countries in terms of their capacity to export capital.

KEYWORDS:

• Land grabbing
• dependency theory
• capital accumulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Agostina Costantino is an economist (Southern National University, Argentina), has an MSc in social sciences (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales [FLACSO], Mexico) and a PhD in social sciences (FLACSO, Mexico). She specializes in research on natural resources and on the political economy of Latin America and the developing world. Her recent published papers include “Chinese Land Grabbing in Argentina and Colombia” (Latin American Perspectives, 2015) and “Land Grabbing in Latin America: Another Natural Resource Curse?” (Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, 2014). She is a member of the Critical Economy Society of Argentina and Uruguay (SEC).

ORCID

Agostina Costantino http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7325-4026