Development and underdevelopment in Latin America: a study on developmentalism and its recent socioenvironmental consequences

Abstract

This research intends to promote a critical reflection on developmentalist states' attempts to achieve economic development in Latin American countries between the 1950s and the 1970s and the recent experiences in the so-called progressive governments at the turn of the 21st century. Our general hypothesis is that developmentalist states promote notorious socioenvironmental consequences for rural areas and populations, especially considering contemporary Latin American thought about the concept of extractivism and its economic, social and ecological consequences. Placing socioenvironmental conflicts at the center of recent Brazilian development issues, our overall goal is to investigate and analyze Celso Furtado's works and his critical view of the concept of developmentalism, i.e, to study Furtado as a critical expression of and a prelude in Brazil to contemporary Latin American concepts, such as post-extractivism and buen-vivir. For this, we will revisit Latin American economic thought on developmentalism and then include Furtado's contribution in two different moments: (I) his developmentalist thought and initial concerns about socioeconomic development in the Brazilian Northeast, with works from 1958-64; and (II) his critical thoughts regarding developmentalism and the reformulation of development strategy considering socioenvironmental concerns, with works from 1974-84.