Fuelling Social Inclusion? Neo‐extractivism, State–Society Relations and Biofuel Policies in Latin America's Southern Cone

Abstract

Scholarship on neo-extractivism agrees that this 'post-neoliberal' model of development is founded on an inherent contradiction between the commitment to continue natural resource extraction and the need to legitimize these activities by using their revenues for poverty reduction. Using the cases of the national biofuel policies of the 'post-neoliberal' governments of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, this article enquires why and how these policies emerged, how they were implemented, and how the resulting national experiences exemplify the inherent contradictions embedded in neo-extractivist policies. Adopting a strategic-relational approach to analyse state-society interaction, it is argued that the scope of progressive policies is conditioned to a large extent by pre-existing social structures, institutions and state-society interactions. The article shows how progressive reforms intersect with the prevailing interests of agribusiness and state actors and are recast and used for different ends as these interact with powerful actors such as the multinational soybean complex and agrarian movements. It is suggested that the prevailing over-emphasis in the neo-extractivist literature on the politics of domination and contestation overlooks the multiple and complex rural responses of the different progressive governments. It also obscures the possibilities to explore the ruptures and continuities of these countries' governments with previous models, and therefore fails to recognize state advances.

Strategic Alliances in Firm-Centric and Collective Contexts: Implications for Indigenous Entrepreneurship

“…This shift supports the move toward an alliance-based economy and greater importance of SAs between corporations and communities (Corbridge 1989). These new forms of SAs that engage partners other than for-profit firms, including governments and civil sector organizations, often do so for more than just economic reasons (Cordoba et al 2017;Kopka et al 2014). This observation has shifted study to new contextual and disciplinary vistas previously untapped, such as networks, communities, not-for-profit organizations, hybrid organizations, and Indigenous entrepreneurship (Quélin et al 2017;Liu et al 2016).…”

Geographies of production II: Thinking through the state

“…Studies of 'Pink Tide' social democratic governments in Latin America that aimed to transform the extractivist tendencies of soy and sugar production towards more distributive ends offer an example, extending beyond smallholders to plantations and related struggles over land tenure. In a comparative study of the Southern cone, Córdoba et al (2018) find that competing producer interests and broader state-society relations lead to distinct outcomes of national biofuel policies articulated with global production networks: wildly unequal land and capital concentration in Argentina, and more equitable control over land, along with a balance of uses for food and fuel, in Uruguay. In Argentina the state combined its facilitative role with a strongly regulatory one during this political period.…”

El extractivismo y sus despliegues conceptuales

“…En la extracción directa se produce la apropiación de los recursos en ambientes naturales o poco modificados para su utilización directa por los humanos, como es el caso de la minería, los hidrocarburos, la silvicultura y el sector pesquero. En la extracción indirecta/mediada es necesaria una transformación previa del ambiente natural a partir de la cual se obtienen los recursos, como es el caso del extractivismo agrario de monocultivos de exportación o cultivos flexibles (soja y biocombustibles), la piscicultura, las camaroneras y el turismo de masas (Gudynas, 2009;2018a;Baletti, 2014;McKay, 2017;Córdoba et al, 2018).…”

“…El socialdesarrollismo tendría dos variantes asociadas a diferentes bases de exportación de recursos naturales (Córdoba et al, 2018). La de los países que intentaron una transformación social por medios constitucionales a partir de la creación un nuevo régimen (socialismo ecológico en Venezuela, Vivir Bien en Bolivia y Buen Vivir en el Ecuador), cuya base de exportación fueron los hidrocarburos.…”