Volume 29, number 3–4 (2010)
Brazil after Neo-liberalism
Neo-liberal Brazil and Beyond: Challenges and Alternatives for Development in the Twenty-first Century
Introduction
“Rather than elaborating upon the general political economic features of the neo-liberal reform in Brazil, which has been well documented, the articles in this theme section focus on critical issues that posit major challenges for development in the twenty-first century. Three of the articles address persistent structural inequalities in education, race, and land reform, much more so than can be addressed by political regime change, or even by significant changes in the economic model, such as a change from import substitution to neo-liberalism. The fourth article deals with the planning and implementation of urban development in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná and one of Brazil’s major southern cities … ”
Education in the Purview of Public Policy: An Assessment of Educational Reform in Brazil, 1990–2004
This paper looks at educational reform in Brazil in the context of public policy. A review of reform during the early 1990s highlights the first public statements in relation to the state of education. The role of international agents and multilateral organizations in the formulation of public policy is discussed, as is the role of local interlocutors in promoting the implementation of public policy outcomes. The authors show how one principal goal of reform, curricular change, was used as a strategy to adapt education to the demands imposed by a changing economy, in general, and labour market in particular. The consolidation of a project for new qualifications in teacher training is studied. Finally, the results of educational reform and the performance of students subjected to standardized testing are analyzed.
Racial Inequalities in the Symbolic Realm: The Brazilian Context
Brazilian research on the press, television, cinema, children’s literature, and textbooks shows that in the 1980s and 1990s there was a change in discourses about blacks, however slight and limited. Increased representation of blacks in newspapers, advertizing, literature, and the cinema involved stereotypical portrayals in which blacks are associated with criminality and the most menial tasks. These stereotypes include “mulatto girl,” “samba dancer,” “scoundrel,” and soccer player. White people, on the other hand, continue to be presented as the norm. Media discourse denies this differential treatment.
Agrarian Reform and the Environment: Fostering Ecological Citizenship in Mato Grosso, Brazil
The role of ecological land reform in fostering ecological citizenship and community environmental-resource-management in Brazil is examined through a case study of settlement practices of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement between 2000 and 2005. The case study explores the opportunities that ecologically oriented land reform may provide for the exercise of ecological citizenship and the production of more sustainable socio-environmental outcomes. Settlers engaged in individual and collective action on the use and protection of their ecological resources in making a transition to agro-ecological production, and in the protection of community forest and river reserves within the settlement.
The Urban Space of Curitiba through Six Decades of Modernity: Roots and Prospects
What could Curitiba’s history suggest to us about urban-landscape designs through the first half of the twenty-first century? The vision for Curitiba, contained in the Agache Plan (1943), re-emerged in the decades following the 1960s, notably in the Preliminary Urbanism Plan of 1965, and has since then been developed, updated, and maintained. The authors draw some prospective lines for examining Curitiba’s historical trajectory and future prospects on the basis of two conceptions of the city—on one hand, its colonial, imperial, and republican roots and, on the other, its inclination toward modernity and the contemporary globalized world. They propose several directions for such a future, so that we may reflect on, and contribute to, the design of cities that express their metropolitan, regional, and global/cosmopolitan dimensions.
2008 Kari Polanyi-Levitt Prize
The Tools of Empire? Micro-finance, Neo-liberalism, and the Vietnamese State
Marxist studies of imperialism have long focused on the role global finance plays in the reproduction of capital in the West through exploitation of the global South. While recent cultural studies of imperialism have pointed toward the nuanced micro-technologies used to cement international systems of power, there has been relatively little thought given to the role local financial systems play in American imperialism. Thus, in this paper I explore how micro-finance programs have been employed as a technology of government, and how the various practices that constitute recent shifts in rural banking create new forms of economic subjection within increasingly neo-liberal rule.
Articles
Ideas, Development, and Globalization
Ideas are both a powerful influence on development and a key dimension of globalization. This paper considers three areas of inquiry related to ideas, development, and globalization. The first is the idea of development itself, along with the related issue of the idea of growth. The second is the role of ideas in globalization processes. The third is the question of ideas for development, along with the related issues of development knowledge management, intellectual property, and learning. The paper suggests that a better appreciation of the role of ideas in development and globalization processes is essential for a full appreciation of development in its human dimensions and for the proper formation of development policies.
Travail versus oisiveté : Contribution à une étude des fondements de la modernité économique
For the most part, early economists—be they mercantilist or classical—interested in the causes of economic development, privileged social, institutional, political, environmental, and moral factors rather than purely economic factors. Thus when labour is analyzed, the attitude toward labour, as well as the conditions that favour it, are observed rather than the volume of employment alone. A difficult physical environment or strong demographic pressures play an important role in the development of some countries. With these issues in mind, early economists foresaw the debates undertaken by contemporary pioneers of development economics.
Strategies of Social Movements in Ghana: Questioning the Dividends of Democracy and/or Being Embedded in New Topographies of Power?
Despite claims that Ghana is now receiving the “dividends of democracy,” the country’s current form of democracy has favoured outside investors and sidelined the average Ghanaian. Using Ferguson’s notion of topographies of power, the dominance of neo-liberal forms of transnational governmentality in Ghana is explored, as is an emerging form of struggle that combines Ghanaian social movements with transnational solidarity networks. Two contemporary examples of social movements in Ghana reveal how this emerging form of struggle also constructs a parallel topography of power where transnational solidarity networks turn local struggle into episodes deracinated from the location of struggle.
Interculturaliser la responsabilité sociétale
Social responsibility, originally an Anglo-Saxon concept, increasingly is viewed as a way for businesses to show a human face by linking profit to environmental and social ethics. It has become the foothold of corporate sustainable development. However, the current implementation of social responsibility is in no way informed by cultural or intercultural considerations. This paper proposes a new paradigm for social responsibility based on two underpinning principles: environmental management, and a cultural and intercultural component identified as diversity management.
Étude sociohistorique du développement des communautés locales en Afrique subsaharienne
The contemporary model of community development as social action in communities was introduced to Black Africa through European colonization. This paper provides a socio-historical approach to this method of intervention in African countries, both during the colonial and post-colonial periods and in the age of the globalization of the neo-liberal economy.
Analyse d’impacts de la construction de l’autoroute Dakar-Thiès : Un modèle d’équilibre général calculable multiménages intégré
The article describes the application of an integrated multi-household computable general equilibrium model to the analysis of the impacts on poverty and inequality of the construction of a toll road between Dakar and Thiès in Senegal. Potential effects of the projected highway, such as productivity gains, decreases in transportation costs, and increases in labour supply are simulated. Foster-Greer-Thorbecke and Gini indices were applied to measure changes in poverty and inequality. Some results are counter-intuitive; gains are at times greater in rural areas than in the Dakar region.
Decentralization in Africa: Too Many Policies, Not Enough Politics
Proposals to re-energize African decentralization usually include providing local authorities with more financial resources and administrative capacities or giving civil society direct access to decision making in order to bring government closer to the people. But if Africa is to achieve effective democratic decentralization, the policy community must recognize that decentralization is more than a set of ever more refined policies and programs. Politics and politicians must be put in command of a process that can be brought to a successful conclusion only through constant bargaining and negotiation. In Africa, as in Latin America before, only the existence of viable sub-national units and the emergence of a local partisan system can hopefully accelerate the pace of reforms by providing local actors with sufficient space to manoeuvre.
Impact des arrangements institutionnels locaux sur la viabilité des grands périmètres irrigués au Niger : Analyse de la gouvernance hybride
During the 1980s, the diminishing role of the state in numerous sub-Saharan African countries led to the reorganization of relationships among the different actors in the management of irrigation systems. In the new context, many of the tasks were transferred to peasant organizations and user associations. New institutional forms of management and governance of water at the local level have consequently emerged. To analyze the sustainability and efficiency of such local arrangements, the analysis focuses on the articulation between local and global, and in particular, on the joint construction of “hybrid rules” through “hybrid governance.”
Research Notes
Le « laboratoire » afghan : Le Canada et l’aide à la reconstruction de l’Afghanistan
“[L]’Afghanistan … est devenu un champ d’action prioritaire pour les États-Unis et 42 autres pays, dont les 26 États-membres de l’Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique nord (OTAN), qui y déploient plus de 60 000 militaires, dont 33 000 soldats américains. … Parallèlement à cet immense effort militaire, un ambitieux programme de reconstruction a été mis en place pour aider ce pays d’Asie centrale qui, de fait, est devenu un gigantesque laboratoire où se développent de nouvelles approches d’aide dans le contexte des États fragiles. Des enjeux d’une grande complexité s’y croisent : guerre contre le terrorisme, pacification, élimination de menaces telles les armes de destruction massive, démocratisation ou refonte des institutions, recentrage et réhabilitation économique, etc. Le Canada, en tant que membre de l’OTAN, se retrouve au premier plan de cette intervention internationale. En pratique, l’Afghanistan est devenu la priorité du gouvernement canadien, aussi bien en matière militaire que sur le plan de l’aide au développement … ”
Reviews
Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation and the Agrarian Question, edited by A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi and Cristobal Kay
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Paul Collier
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, Dambisa Moyo; foreword by Niall Ferguson
Making the Difference! The BIG in Namibia; Basic Income Grant Pilot Project Assessment Report, April 2009, Claudia Haarmann, Dirk Haarmann, Herbert Jauch, Hilma Shindondola-Mote, Nicoli Nattrass, Ingrid van Niekerk, and Michael Samson
Everywhere/Nowhere: Gender Mainstreaming in Development Agencies, Rebecca Tiessen