Extractivism or specificity of capital accumulation? A critique on the extractivist approach regarding the case of Argentina

Abstract

The recent economic and political transformations in many Latin American countries have been increasingly analysed under the (neo-)extractivism approach. Specifically, the debate surrounding the contradictions and limitations of this development model, as well as its consequences, gained traction among scholars. In this article, we intend to put forth a critical analysis of this approach with the goal of giving an account of its explanatory power, focusing on Argentina. In order to do this, we summarize some of the more noteworthy conceptual features of (neo-)extractivism, as well as the main arguments to include Argentina as a case. Then, after presenting some immediate conceptual limitations linked to this theoretical perspective, we introduce an alternative approach in regard to the specific way in which capital accumulation takes place in Argentina, based on the Critique of Political Economy put forward by Marx in Capital, and taking the global unity of capital accumulation as a starting point. This allows us to critically engage, in the last section, with the main claims of extractivism.