The Political Economy of Space in the Americas: The New Pax Americana

ISBN-13: 9780415671545 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 212 str.

Alejandra Roncallo

Opis

This book presents a novel and cutting-edge interpretation of the evolving political economy of the Americas. Through a combination of qualitative research and theory, it considers the reconstruction of American-led hegemony in the Americas since the 1982 debt crisis and presents an examination of the new Pax Americana.

Drawing on the Gramscian concept of hegemony as understood by Robert Cox and Henri Lefebvre, this book argues that since the 1982 debt crisis there has been a reconstruction of American-led hegemony under the signature of neo-liberalism and that it has taken place in the last four ten-year developmental planning stages, market reforms in the 1980s, good governance in the 1990s, poverty reduction in the new millennium and, currently, the disembedding of security . Each "evolutionary stage" was constructed to secure the continuing motion of capitalist accumulation on a world scale. Moving from the global to the local scale, the book includes two detailed case studies on mining extraction in Bolivia to show how subaltern groups actually experienced and negotiated the transition from the old to the new Pax Americanas at the level of everyday life and what conflicts arose. The book ends with a chapter on President Evo Morales and the re-foundation of Bolivia as an indigenous nation."

The Political Economy of Space in the Americas" will be of interest to students and scholars of political economy and Latin American politics.

Spis treści

Introduction PART I: WEAVING THE AMERICAS TOGETHER: THE FOUR ‘STAGES’ OF A NEW DARWINIAN TALE 1. The 1980s: Development as ‘Free Markets’, The Demolition of the Old and the Rise of the New 2. The 1990s: Development as ‘Good Governance’ and the Consolidation of Hegemony 3. The New Millennium: Development as ‘Poverty Reduction’ and the Commodification of Livelihood 4. Obama, "Change" and the Disembedding of Security in Latin America. The Tension between Polyarchy and Democracy PART II: TRANSNATIONAL MINING CORPORATIONS: SEARCHING FOR 'EL DORADO' AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM. THE BOLIVIAN CASE 5. The Amayapampa and Capasirca Gold Mines: Double Movement and State Repression 6. Multilateralism, Population Displacement and Resettlement in San Cristóbal Silver Mines 7. President Evo Morales’ Pachakutik. Re-founding Bolivia as an Indigenous Nation 8. Conclusion

O autorze

Alejandra Roncallo is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Bucknell University, USA.