Neodesenvolvimentismo or neoliberalism: the meaning of the South American regional integration led by Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to contribute to the debate focusing the meaning of the ongoing regional integration process of South America led by Brazil. We intend to tackle the issue through two field researches that address opposite but complementary dimensions of the problem, prioritizing sources in other South American countries. In one front we will study the regional integration strategy of two countries which are associated with opposite polarities in the debate between neoliberalism and neodevelopmentism in South America, Colombia and Venezuela, both participants at UNASUL. In a second front we will investigate the perception among social movements of the social and ecological impacts of the projects connected both to IIRSA and Brazilian construction enterprises in two Andean countries, Bolivia and Peru. Furthermore, we demand technical training scholarships to study the perception of the United States about the meaning of the ongoing South American regional integration and to compare IIRSA and Proyecto Mesoamerica. The hyphotesis that articulates the different dimensions of this research is that the South American regional integration process supported by PT governments in Brazil reveals strong continuities in relation to its antecessors. (AU)