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Abstract
Recent analyses of development and extractivism in Latin America discuss how neoliberal and post-neoliberal strategies under the political economy of resource extraction define the developmental trajectory of national regimes. As most accounts privilege the analysis of structural and historical conditions over everyday practices of state actors, this paper contributes to the discussion by explaining how extractivism and neoliberalism are shaped, reproduced and defended in governmental spaces, defining in this way the development path. On the basis of ethnography of the Peruvian state, in-depth interviews and an analysis of economic, environmental and pro-indigenous policies during 2000–2017, this paper analyses how under the development model of extractivism, governing elites deploy neoliberal or post-neoliberal development strategies and development tools while advancing contradictory development discourses. In this context, states are cynical because, despite progressive regulations and political discourses, everyday actions of governing elites reinforce institutional and ideological constraints on the effectiveness of rights. The promises of pro-indigenous and environmental social reforms are limited from their very formulation because the practices and imaginaries of governing elites are embedded in extractive structures.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Didier Fassin and the fellows of the Summer School of Social Science 2018 – 2019 of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Notes
Notes
1 Hunt, “Rethinking the Politics”; Gudynas, “Beyond Varieties of Development.”
2 Ruckert, Macdonald, and Proulx, “Postneoliberalism in Latin America”; Gudynas, “Beyond Varieties of Development.”
3 De Freitas, Marston, and Bakker, “Not-Quite-Neoliberal Natures”; Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation.
4 Gago, Neoliberalism from below.
5 Grugel and Riggirozzi, “Post-Neoliberalism in Latin America”; Yates and Bakker, “Debating the ‘Post-Neoliberal Turn.’”
6 Hunt, “Rethinking the Politics.”
7 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation; Gudynas, “Beyond Varieties of Development.”
8 Arsel, Hogenboom, and Pellegrini, “Extractive Imperative and the Boom.”
9 Harvey, New Imperialism.
10 Gordon and Webber, “Imperialism and Resistance”; Bebbington and Humphreys, “Andean Avatar.”
11 Quijano, “Coloniality of Power.”
12 Gudynas, “Extractivisms.”
13 De Echave, “La minería peruana.”
14 Burchardt and Dietz, “(Neo-)Extractivism – A New Challenge”; Svampa, “Commodities Consensus”; Gudynas, “Extractivisms.”
15 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation; Holst, “Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams”; Merino, “Alternative to ‘Alternative Development’”; Goodale and Postero, “Revolution and Retrenchment”; Bebbington and Humphreys, “Andean Avatar.”
16 Arsel, Hogenboom, and Pellegrini, “Extractive Imperative and the Boom.”
17 Brand, Dietz, and Lang, “Neo-Extractivism in Latin America.”
18 Painter, “Regulation Theory, Post-Fordism”; Bridge, “Social Regulation of Resource Access.”
19 Sharma and Gupta, “Introduction: Rethinking Theories”; Ferguson and Gupta, “Spatializing States”; Scott, Seeing Like a State.
20 Sharma and Gupta, “Introduction: Rethinking Theories.”
21 References in Huber, “Fueling Capitalism.”
22 Bridge and McManus, “Sticks and Stones.”
23 Painter, “Regulation Theory, Post-Fordism.”
24 References in Huber, “Fueling Capitalism.”
25 Bridge, “Social Regulation of Resource Access”; Bridge and McManus, “Sticks and Stones.”
26 Huber, “Fueling Capitalism.”
27 Brand, Dietz, and Lang, “Neo-Extractivism in Latin America.”
28 Bridge, “Social Regulation of Resource Access.”
29 Brand, Dietz, and Lang, “Neo-Extractivism in Latin America.”
30 Ibid.
31 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation; Elwood et al., “Learning from Postneoliberalisms.”
32 Holst, “Colonial Histories and Decolonial Dreams”; Ruckert, Macdonald, and Proulx, “Postneoliberalism in Latin America.”
33 Radcliffe, “Development Alternatives.”
34 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation.
35 Gudynas, “Beyond Varieties of Development.”
36 Andrade, “Government of Nature.”
37 Ibid.
38 Discussions on Buen Vivir Implementation in Bolivia and Ecuador: Merino, “Alternative to ‘Alternative Development.’”
39 Gudynas, “Beyond Varieties of Development.”
40 Ibid.
41 Andrade, “Government of Nature.”
42 Bridge, “Social Regulation of Resource Access.”
43 Bridge and McManus, “Sticks and Stones.”
44 Bridge, “Contested Terrain: Mining and the Environment.”
45 MacDonald, “Grabbing Green.”
46 Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason.
47 Corson, MacDonald, and Neimark, “Grabbing Green”; MacDonald, “Grabbing Green.”
48 MacDonald, “Grabbing Green.”
49 Ibid.
50 Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason.
51 Interview, December 27, 2013.
52 Vergara and Encinas, “Continuity by Surprise.”
53 Interview, May 22, 2013.
54 Interview, May 2, 2013.
55 Interview, May 22, 2013.
56 Interview, May 10, 2013.
57 Garcia, Alan “El síndrome del perro del hortelano.”
58 Andreucci and Kallis, “Governmentality, Development and the Violence.”
59 Fontaine, Narvaez, and Velasco, “Explaining a Policy Paradigm Shift.”
60 Interview, April 2, 2013.
61 Interview, October 24, 2012.
62 Martínez, “State in Waiting.”
63 Saldaña and Portocarrero, “La violencia de las leyes.”
64 Vergara and Encinas, “Continuity by Surprise”; Dargent, Technocracy and Democracy in Latin America.
65 Such as Kurt Burneo, Minister of Production; Eduardo Ballon, Vice-Minister of Social Development; and Jose de Echave, Vice-Minister of the Environment.
66 For example, Lust, “Social Struggle and the Political Economy.”
67 Orihuela, “Making of Conflict-Prone Development.”
68 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation.
69 See Merino, “Re-Politicizing Participation.”
70 Interview, September 10, 2013.
71 Siegel, Regional Environmental Cooperation.
72 Ibid.
73 Interview, May 24, 2013.
74 Interview, March 26, 2013.
75 Interview, October 17, 2012.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Roger Merino
Roger Merino is a lecturer and researcher at the Universidad del Pacífico (Lima, Peru). He received a PhD in social and policy sciences and a master’s degree in globalization and international policy at the University of Bath (UK). He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy (2016) and is a Fellow of the Summer School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2018–2019). He has published articles in international journals specialised in development, extractive industries and human rights. His latest publications include ‘Re-Politicizing Participation or Reframing Environmental Governance? Beyond Indigenous’ Prior Consultation and Citizen Participation’ (World Development, 2018) and ‘Reimagining the Nation-State. Indigenous Peoples and the Making of Plurinationality in Latin America’ (Leiden Journal of International Law, 2018). His article ‘An Alternative to ‘Alternative Development’? Buen Vivir and Human Development in Andean Countries’ won the Sanjaya Lall Prize for the best article published in Oxford Development Studies in 2016.