Neoliberal Development Research Articles

A decolonial approach to ecological distribution conflicts and the Maya Train in Mexico

A neoliberal development model, frequently at odds with the values of the local Mayan biocultural heritage, has historically prompted the conversion of forests and small-scale agricultural land, mainly in the Yucatan Peninsula. This study analyzes ethnographic data collected in two localities in the peninsula that will be impacted by the Maya Train. Preliminary results based mainly on conducted interviews revealed perceptions regarding daily interactions with the local habitat, the effects of public policy initiatives in the communities, and resistance strategies in response to perceived threats surrounding the project. Through a decolonial lens, the study contributes to understanding how social movements impact policies in the face of the environmental and social pacts of neoliberal development projects, while advancing towards a more ontologically diverse political representation.

Counterinsurgency, forest governance, and the dynamics of change in the forests of South Asia: Transition in Bangladesh's forests

Since the end of the Cold War, attention has increasingly focused globally on the nexus of conflict, natural resources, and governance, particularly in forested regions. This paper presents a comprehensive historical and comparative analysis of forest and biodiversity loss in Bangladesh over the last 50 years, attending to the impacts of counterinsurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and governance changes in the plains. Drawing on Peter Vandergeest and Nancy Peluso's seminal concept of “political forests,” the study critically analyzes how counterinsurgency, state-led development, and green militarization in the CHT, alongside neoliberal development, commercialization, and land grabbing in the plains, have reshaped forest governance and territorial control in the country. The analysis reveals that counterinsurgencies in the CHT, driven by domestic priorities and strategic interests, expanded colonial-style territorial control over forests, thereby exacerbating biodiversity loss. In the plains, neoliberal governance has promoted forest degradation through commercial exploitation and state-sanctioned land grabbing, with economic growth being pursued at the cost of environmental sustainability. This paper presents a critique of both militarized and neoliberal approaches to conservation, demonstrating how these models prioritize political and economic agendas over ecological integrity and local community needs. In conclusion, the study advocates a paradigmatic shift toward inclusive, community-centered forest governance that empowers local populations and emphasizes environmental stewardship, challenging dominant state-centric and market-driven approaches to forest management.

Land sovereignty in depressed and contested agro-territories: The cases of Portugal and Brazil

This article offers an exploratory operationalisation of the concept of land sovereignty applied to land politics in 2 agro-territories from different countries and continents sharing a common language and deeply linked histories: Portugal and Brazil. These display a similar model of agricultural development, representing a contradiction between the promise of profit based on aggressive exploitation of the territory and the marginalised condition of its population. How this agricultural model took hold in each country and manifested the agrarian question differs according to key socio-historical factors, such as the role of each in the colonial history that links them. Today, however, these agro-territories face similar challenges: human rights abuses, environmental destruction, lack of sound territorial management and fair policies, coupled with the dilapidation of socio-economic infrastructures. This makes them especially vulnerable to climate change, unemployment and poverty, while also caught in a clash between development models: a hegemonic hyper-intensive production model and the peasant-based model that has been resisting the advances of the former. This double jeopardy has prompted us to speak of ‘depressed and contested agro-territories’. Our study shows how, in the case of Brazil, despite physical violence and threats to life, social movements are propelling land reform, linking it to the concept of the social function of land. In Portugal, in contrast, the country’s alignment with neoliberal development has civil society divided about how to contest land use. Our analysis indicates that in both cases: (i) today’s land politics are heavily biased towards a neoliberal, export-based, hyper-intensive agriculture controlled by large corporations, with weak legislation in place to defend both social and environmental rights; (ii) land reform based on land sovereignty and the social function of land is deemed crucial to assist agro-territories in regaining socio-ecological balance and to attain democratisation of land politics by regaining control over land, natural resources and local markets.

Anti-racist beauty micro-enterprises: Black women’s subversive entrepreneurship in Cali, Colombia

ABSTRACT This paper explores how Black women entrepreneurs in Cali, Colombia confront racism and sexism, as they engage in the expanding neoliberal beauty market. We argue that anti-racist entrepreneurial experiences in Cali are shaped by four interconnected processes: First, changes in gender and development policies, aligned with inclusive neoliberal development projects. Second, the limitations of state neoliberal multicultural policies, which has made activists aware of the need to address racism and sexism. Third, activist’s appropriation of the intersectional turn, allowing them to recognize articulations between racism, classism and sexism. Fourth, the adoption of anti-neoliberal discourses supporting distributive and solidarity practices. Our analysis suggests that while entrepreneurial anti-racist actions do not generate radical or permanent changes in the beauty industry, they do have material and symbolic effects in Black women’s experiences of racial justice.

Neoliberal feeling rules and political subjectivities in post-Soviet Latvia: narratives of emigrants and those who remain

This study integrates the literature on neoliberal subjectivities with the sociology of emotions, and particularly the notion of feeling rules, to understand the political subjectivity expressions in Latvia where the post-Soviet neoliberal development brought high income and wealth inequality. We specifically ask what the relationship between collective emotions and neoliberal political subjectivity in post-Soviet space is. Based on our empirical data, we construct three ideal types of political subjectivities wherein each holds a different narrative about the neoliberal state. We show the first two dominated among our respondents in Latvia while the third was prevalent among emigrant Latvians. We find that respondents’ narratives dominant at home were framed by neoliberal feeling rules which fostered optimistic thinking (narrative of resilience) and feelings of individual responsibility (narrative of legitimating) silencing the emotion of anger necessary to form a critical democratic dialogue with the state. Meanwhile, emigrant Latvians voiced a more socially and politically aware critique towards the Latvian state, austerity politics and social injustice (narrative of anger). We provide implications for this theory of post-Soviet political subjectivities at the end.

De kallar oss för partners: Betydelsen av maskulinitet för konstruktionen av gig-arbetare som nyliberala subjekt

In today’s neoliberal era, the gig economy is rapidly expanding. Gig jobs span various sectors of the labor market and have been both lauded as an opportunity to enter the workforce and criticized for their insecure and precarious nature. While previous research has emphasized the importance of gender in understanding contempo-rary neoliberal development, such as how ideals of femininity are used to interpellate female subjects as malleable workers in developing countries, less attention has been paid to masculinity. This article offers an empirically based analysis of how masculinity is employed to construct subjects within a specific context of gig work situated in the urban space, and the resulting implications for the gig workers’ understanding of themselves and their situation. Drawing on interviews with six gig-working food delivery drivers – all young men – the study sheds light on the precarious positions these workers inhabit while being framed as neoliberal masculine subjects through ideological associations to entrepreneurship. The overarching argument of the article is that the neoliberal structure of the gig-platforms propels exploitative relations in the labor market, masked behind gender associations.

The Impact of Neoliberalism on Crisis Management in Bali’s Tourism Sector

ABSTRACT With the demise of sustainable tourism as a panacea for the community-level impacts of mass tourism, some scholars have) called for destination management and planning to re-focus on the politics behind tourism. In response, we examine tourism destination management from a political economy perspective to provide a contemporary understanding of tourism crises and inform what changes are required to achieve sustainable tourism. We do this by investigating of a well-known global tourism destination, Bali, using interviews and a survey. These indicate the extent to which neoliberal development policies in Indonesia’s tourism sector have intensified Bali’s susceptibility to crises and kept crisis management policies minimal, temporary and unable to respond effectively. While the obvious argument is that tourism planning at all levels needs to be more cognisant of the sector’s vulnerability to crisis, neoliberal development doctrine inhibits engagement with crisis and its impacts on society, which was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Contemporary Marxist Critique of Neoliberal Capitalism: Beyond Revolution and Neo-Keynesianism

ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to assess current trends, regularities and contradictions in the Marxist critique of neoliberal capitalism. The methodology of the study is built on a comparative analysis of the latest scientific works, an approach based on quantitative analysis of the global neoliberal development in the period 1980–2020. For the analysis this authors used the data of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) on the group of ‘Big Seven’ countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, the United States and China. A comparative analysis shows a significant lag in the countries with a neoliberal model of global economic growth. It can be argued that the neoliberal model of economic development proved effective at the initial stage of its practical application in overcoming the inflationary shock caused by the oil crisis of the 1970s, as well as in the conditions of highly competitive industrial production. At the same time, in the context of the post-industrial formation of the digital economy, neoliberal ideology no longer meets the challenges of the times and is no longer able to support sustainable economic growth as well as prosperity.

Castle & Crook: Necroliberalism and Cartographies of Abandonment in Maquilapolis (City of Factories) and Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman)

Abstract “Castle & Crook” argues that the documentary films Maquilapolis (City of Factories) (dir. Vicky Funari, Sergio De La Torre, Mexico/US, 2006) and Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman) (dir. Lourdes Portillo, Mexico/US, 2001) offer critical insights into the necropolitical dimensions of neoliberal modernization along the US-Mexico border during the post-NAFTA era through the turn of the millennium. Both films represent the intersection of neoliberalism and necropolitics, particularly in terms of the spatial aspects or modalities of necropower that inhere in neoliberal development. Moreover, I refer to this complex and violent assemblage of neoliberalism and necropolitics as “necroliberalism” in order to capture the specific ways in which neoliberal discourses of responsibilization and prudentialism serve to reproduce and maintain necropolitical governing in the Mexico-US border region in the context of transnational political activism.

Self-responsibilization, the municipality, and the state: Peripheralization shaping local initiatives in shrinking small towns

The literature on shrinking cities often portrays local initiatives in two contrasting ways: either as marginal, powerless, and somewhat backwards-oriented actors, or as human capital, a resource for development, and even as the hope for a more democratic development. However, there is a risk that scholarship unintentionally contributes to local initiatives being included in neoliberal development agendas. During our field research in two small, shrinking, and peripheralized towns in Finland and Germany, we discovered that both perspectives are misleading. They distract from the actual conditions of the initiatives' work, the causes of their financial or demographic precarity, and the self-responsibilization that is common among such initiatives. Scarcity motivates a DI(F)Y approach, organizing services and amenities on limited resources to enhance the quality of life in the area. This limited availability may seem like a natural result of population decline. By comparing the German and Finnish cases, we can see how state policies towards peripheral areas affect the work of local initiatives. This demonstrates that precarity in shrinking places is a result of policies rather than demographic development trajectory.

Latin American Countries Stuck in the Field of Development Theory: A Case Study of Chile

This manuscript conducts a nuanced exploration of the ramifications associated with the adoption of neoliberal development theories in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on the Chilean experience. It delves into the comprehensive implementation of neoliberal reforms under the auspices of the Washington Consensus during the 1970s, charting the trajectory of Chile's economic hardships, its subsequent period of growth, and the enduring challenges of socio-economic inequality and insufficient social welfare systems. Despite Chile's transformation into one of the region's most affluent countries, the analysis exposes the intricate relationship between economic advancements and the overarching well-being of society. The widespread protests in 2019 against entrenched neoliberal policies serve as a poignant critique of the tangible disconnect between macroeconomic success and the populace's quality of life. Through this case study, the paper advocates for a recalibration of development theories to equally value human rights and social progress as indispensable counterparts to economic prosperity, proposing a more integrated framework for sustainable development.

Intimate Extractions: Demand Dowry and Neoliberal Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh

ABSTRACTBased on qualitative research on marital problems in Dhaka, this article uses the term ‘intimate extractions’ as a lens to explain the relationship between escalating levels of demand dowry and neoliberal development in Bangladesh. Evidence from across Bangladesh shows that demands for cash made by husbands, accompanied by threats of violence or divorce, are on the rise. Building on gendered theories of contemporary capitalist development and feminist analysis of microcredit, the article argues that demand dowry should be understood within the current context of rapid economic development in Bangladesh. High levels of precarity, lack of state welfare and the need for cash for businesses, labour migration, education and healthcare mean that people from all social classes are in perpetual need of money. Marriage problems and the practice of demand dowry present opportunities for husbands to extract money from wives and their families. Embedded in the intimate relationship of marriage, demand dowry can therefore be understood as a ‘conversion’, a process in which intimate relationships are converted into projects of capital accumulation, thus becoming an ‘intimate extraction’.

Regional inequalities among state universities in Chile: Perspectives on centralization and neoliberal development

Drawing on perspectives from top state-regional universities’ authorities (known as rectors) and public statistics on higher education, we discuss the sources of regional inequality in the Chilean university system. While there is scarce research on regional inequality for Chilean higher education, it is a well-recognized concern within global debates. In this study, the testimonies of rectors link perceptions of regional inequality to the historic, political, and managerial dimensions that have determined their institutions’ development. As the problem of regional inequality stems from a tradition of political centralization, the neoliberal transformations, imposed since 1981, were singled out by the rectors for institutionalizing patterns of marketization that reinforced “inequalities of origin” for state-regional universities. Since the 2000s, trends of massification, regulation, and student protests reshaped higher education, leading to sectorial reform in 2018. However, competitive disadvantages are seen to continue to hinder the public role of state-regional universities. Institutional development strategies emerged, under the direction of rectors, to compensate for such inequalities, differentiating between winners and losers of neoliberal higher education. This article characterizes the modes of reproduction and overcoming of regional inequalities among state universities under neoliberal policy.

‘Growing a World Wonder’: The Great Green Wall and the History of Environmental Decline in the Sahel, 1450–2022

This article offers a historical critique of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahel and the Sahara (GGW) – an audacious project to stop the southern encroachment of the Sahara Desert by constructing a wall of trees across the continent. By situating the GGW within the longue durée of the Sahel’s environmental history, it examines how the narratives of environmental decline that underpin the initiative are not only misguided but born out of the transatlantic slave trade, imperialism and colonialism, and the neoliberal development projects of the postcolonial period. In doing so, it argues that narratives of environmental decline have not only served as a dynamic framework to rationalise Western exploitation of the Sahel’s environments over time, but have obscured, or even silenced, the effective practices of dryland regeneration of Sahelian communities.

Development Hegemonic Constructions and the Resistance with Alternative Voices

This paper examines a burgeoning anthropological literature on development and debates surrounding development discourse. Some of these raise question regarding the concept of development, arguing that it is a contentious domain. Reviewing major literature on the issue, I suggest, dominant paradigms of development oversimplify the notion as if it were homogeneous. I take post modern critiques of development as an example in order to examine the nature of deconstructing development discourse. I argue some writers oversimplify the notion of development by using dichotomies- developed/ underdeveloped. By critically examining knowledge in the developmental domain in anthropology, this paper presents some ethnographic examples which raises conceptual, and practical questions regarding the nature of neoliberal development. The main thrust of this paper, therefore, is to question whether neoliberal development can be forever marked or fixed, a question central to this paper.

CORRIGENDUM to The social life of mangroves: Neoliberal development and mangrove conservation in the changing landscape of Kutch

CORRIGENDUM to The social life of mangroves: Neoliberal development and mangrove conservation in the changing landscape of Kutch

‘Growing a World Wonder’: The Great Green Wall and the History of Environmental Decline in the Sahel, 1450–2022

This article offers a historical critique of the Great Green Wall Initiative of the Sahel and the Sahara (GGW) – an audacious project to stop the southern encroachment of the Sahara Desert by constructing a wall of trees across the continent. By situating the GGW within the longue durée of the Sahel’s environmental history, it examines how the narratives of environmental decline that underpin the initiative are not only misguided but born out of the transatlantic slave trade, imperialism and colonialism, and the neoliberal development projects of the postcolonial period. In doing so, it argues that narratives of environmental decline have not only served as a dynamic framework to rationalise Western exploitation of the Sahel’s environments over time, but have obscured, or even silenced, the effective practices of dryland regeneration of Sahelian communities.

Finding space in the modes of production debate: The value of Latin America

This article is inspired by several recent scholarly developments. First, there has been renewed interest in debates surrounding the concept ‘mode of production’. Second, there has been a passionate debate about how we understand core–periphery relations in relation to the broader question of capitalist development. Finally, it has been argued that, beyond opposition to neoliberal development, there has also been a revival of Marxist theoretical perspectives and praxis in Latin America. However, despite some diverse work engaging with debates that use the concept ‘mode of production’ in the Latin American context, there has been no systematic attempt to look at major Latin America Marxist thinkers and their contribution to this debate. This article seeks to correct for this by looking at the key work of René Zavaleta and José Carlos Mariátegui as two of the continent’s most original Marxist thinkers. By doing so, I offer three distinct contributions. First I remove the mode of production debate from its relatively narrow, Eurocentric preoccupations, and second, I displace the largely temporal concerns of the debate (when was capitalism?) to give it a more spatial rendering (where is capitalism?). This opens the possibilities of thinking about co-existing differential spaces within a social formation. Finally, this method of analysis is therefore able to give a realistic assessment of the social forces involved in contemporary struggles by specifying what social antagonisms exist and where alliances can be constructed. I conclude that an analysis grounded in modes of production is thus attentive to specificity, and this provides a basis for thinking about transformative possibilities in and beyond Latin America.

Policy on trial: Participatory vs neo-liberal development

ABSTRACT This paper examines the conflict in South African government development policy and law between a people-centred participatory approach and a neoliberal growth-centred approach. In particular, we discuss how this conflict has played out in a series of related court cases from 2021 to 2022. Methodologically, the case study is based on three court judgments with individual fishers, community representatives, civil society organisations and legal entities connected to the Eastern Cape Wild Coast as plaintiffs. The defendants were the multinational company Shell and subsidiaries with two South African government ministers. Our analytical framework was informed by Jürgen Habermas’ ‘instrumental reasoning’ which was operationalised through Sherry Arnstein’s heuristic model of participation. Different interpretations and expectations of public participation found in government policy documents and law in South Africa are explored. The findings underscore the central importance of appropriate levels of inclusion in public participation, as protected by the South African Constitution, in the process of Exploration Right Applications by mining companies.

Urban Environmental Imaginaries and Aesthetic Sensibilities in Mumbai, India

Urban environmental aesthetics form a cornerstone in neoliberal development discourse in Mumbai, India. Formulated primarily on visual metrics, such as those of green lawns and modern architecture, these aesthetic sensibilities set up the horizon of what is seeable and sayable, serving to legitimize planning schemes while obscuring their social and environmental harms. This is evident in the city’s elite Hiranandani Gardens township, a project heavily contested on legal, humanistic, and environmental grounds. Beginning from “waste,” or spaces and perspectives that lack value in dominant discourses, I analyze how the production of developmentalist “value” relies on environmental aesthetics as well as the limits of such formulations. By way of three frames—empty buildings, an abandoned quarry, and remembered wilderness—I illustrate power structures that facilitate the conversion of waste into value, the contradictions and limits in dominant sustainability discourses, and the messy terrain of contestations that they face. The article contributes to critical development scholarship by emphasizing the significance of aesthetics in unveiling power relations entrained in the making of urban landscapes. I also extend creative engagements in geography by incorporating sensory engagements beyond the visual to interrupt dominant aesthetic sensibilities and open critical and creative ways of knowing urban nature.