Learning from postneoliberalisms

Abstract

This forum examines a range of grounded struggles over efforts to materialize elements of a ‘postneoliberal’ agenda by social and political movements of the 2000s. Drawing from their research in Latin America and South Africa, the contributors ask when, where and why these experiments in realizing postneoliberalisms have prompted durable transformations in neoliberal political economic structures and social rationalities (or not). Theorizing from diverse postneoliberalisms, they interrogate what these material and ideological projects reveal about space, power, contestation, and possibilities of reconstituting deeply unequal worlds.

Indigenous peoples, the city and inclusive urban development policies in Latin America: Lessons from Bolivia and Ecuador

“…Such tendencies have also been reported in previous studies by Becker () and Elwood et al. () who showed how the government tightened control of indigenous civil society and intra‐state pro‐indigenous organizations with the intention to increase centralized state control over indigenous territories, resource management and provisioning of services such as intercultural education. This trend of state interference was also clearly visible during fieldwork in Quito.…”

“…A growing literature explores the implementation of new constitutional contents around indigeneity. Yet, until this point, most of these studies investigated advances and ongoing problems in implementing this new development agenda in rural areas, as opposed to cities (Elwood et al., ; Escobar, ; McNeish, ; Tockman & Cameron, ; Walsh, ).…”

“…First, for each city, within‐case comparisons help demonstrate how different actors involved in urban governance address urban indigenous interests and needs differently through policy interventions. In the context of La Paz and Quito—where governments promoted a “return of the state” (Elwood, Bond, Martínez Novo, & Radcliffe, )—urban governance is mainly influenced by national and local governments and less by non‐state institutions. Therefore, emphasis is put predominantly on the practices of actors in national and local governments.…”

Potemkin Revolution: Utopian Jungle Cities of 21st Century Socialism

“…How, then, should we make sense of the Millennium Cities, and what do they really have to tell us about 21 st century socialism? Our approach to these questions responds to recent calls for more grounded critiques of “actually‐existing post‐neoliberalism” (Yates and Bakker :63), that approach neo‐extractivism “not only as a national development project but also as a process of internal spatial transformation” (Burchardt and Dietz :479), and that provide “deeper readings of how space, power … and contestation are being made and remade through efforts to materialize post‐neoliberal ideologies” (Ellwood et al ). In our case, a “deeper reading” of this kind has been made possible by our positionality as members of the National Centre of Strategies for the Right to Territory (CENEDET), a research institute financed by the Ecuadorian government, and directed by the Marxist human geographer David Harvey.…”

Introduction

“…The meanings and practices of citizenship and policymaking vary across social fields. Buen Vivir brings together heterogeneous agendas and ideologies, which are often profoundly in tension (Grugel and Riggirozzi, ; Radcliffe, ; Bretón, ; Bernal, ; Hidalgo‐Capitán and Cubillo‐Guevara, ; Martinez Novo, ; Lu and Silva, ; Resina, ; Caria and Dominguez, ; Elwood et al, ), raising questions about its ontological status (Gonzalez and Macías Vázquez, ; Gerlach, ). Ecuador's reliance on mineral and petroleum exports and energy mega‐projects occurs in relation to contests over environmental protections and Indigenous rights (Sánchez Parga, ; Fitz‐Henry, ; Latorre, Farrell and Martínez‐Alier, ).…”