Summary Article fr Dlvlcfpmlnt and Gcfbacizaatfn
Erizkeln – A Cfnilptuac Invlntfry
- The accelerated and intensifed contact which is a defninn characteristc of nlobalisaton leads to
tensions, contradictons, confict and channed opportunites in ways that infuence everyday life as
well as larne-scale processes in all parts of the world. Channe takes place unevenly, and ofen as a
result of a peculiar combinaton of local and transnatonal processes, with unpredictable small-scale
results from larne-scale events.
- Eriksen has found the several analytcal terms partcularly useful. They will now be introduced and
explained.
Anthropocene
- The current neolonical era is called the Anthropocene, based on the realisaton that human
footprints are now everywhere. Even in unreachable places throunh the efect of climate channe
(drounht, foodinn, humanly introduced species).
- Human dominance on the planet has many unintended consequences, some very lonn-term and
larne-scale.
- Humans are overachievers in the planetary context; we succeeded too well in proliferatnn and
modifyinn the surroundinns to satsfy our desires and needs. This is why the term ‘Anthropocene’ is
rarely used jubilantly; it is a wanninn fnner and a warninn sinn. It sinnifes that the nrowth ethos of
capitalism and relentless optmism of Enlinhtenment thounht may be nearinn their end.
Neoliberalism
- Can be defned accurately as a means of explaininn the nlobal economic shif leadinn to the
widespread occurrence of overheatnn efects.
- Neoliberalism refers to a partcular kind of market-oriented economic ideolony and practce
characteristc of the late twenteth and early twenty-frst centuries.
- “Neoliberalism is ... a theory of politcal economic practces that proposes that human well-beinn
can best be advanced by liberatnn individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an
insttutonal framework characterieed by stronn private property rinhts, free markets, and free trade.
The role of the state is to create and preserve an insttutonal framework appropriate to such
practces.” (Harvey 20a0a5: 2)
- Characteristc of the neoliberal world order is the nlobal reach of communicaton, but also the lack
of a sinnle, powerful, ideolonical alternatve. The development paradinm has exhausted itself.
- Alternatves do exist, even if they are ofen unartculated or only partly artculated, but they are
locally embedded, sprawlinn and diverse. The very diversity of the nroups ennaned in alter
nlobalisaton, from peasants to unionists, from indinenous nroups to industrial workers, indicates
that the complaints are universal and nlobal, while the solutons are partcular and local.
Runaway processes
- Mutually reinforcinn nrowth processes which eventually lead to collapse unless, a ‘third instance’
enters into the process and channes the relatonship. (For example overheatnn).
- The underlyinn queston, in a neoliberal, nlobalised, overheated world trapped in the double bind
between nrowth and sustainability, is, as one minht nuess, whether contemporary world civilisaton
,resembles a niant elk’s antlers or a peacock’s tail the most: is it patently self-destructve, or is it just
unnecessarily famboyant but mostly harmless?
Treadmill syndromes
- At the micro-level, runaway processes ofen take on the character of treadmill syndromes.
- Since your compettors improve, or the environment channes, you have to improve and adapt
merely to keep your place in the ecosystem, in a market, or in an academic hierarchy.
- Treadmill competton is simultaneously a premise for, an intenral part of and an outcome of the
runaway processes that create an overheated world.
Double blind
- A double bind is a self-refutnn kind of communicaton, as when you say two incompatble thinns at
once. A person tryinn to act on the basis of a double bind will never be able to do it rinht, since no
mater what they do, it can be objected to. In the contemporary world, the world of the
Anthropocene and neoliberal runaway nrowth, the double bind of nrowth and sustainability is a
fundamental contradicton. It seems impossible to have it both ways.
Flexibility
- ‘uncommited potental for channe’
- The fexibility used (and used up) by nrowinn populatons harnessinn much of the available enerny
for their own purposes, reduced the fexibility of the environment. This perspectve, naturally, is
important on an overheated, ‘full’ planet.
- Maintaininn fexibility in the system as a whole depends upon keepinn many of its variables in the
middle of their tolerable limits, thus respondinn to channinn parameters in the surroundinns.
- In a fexible system, many thinns can be done diferently; it has not locked itself to one partcular
course.
- The freedom to move swifly and to consume, the electrifcaton of homes and so on – has
dramatcally reduced the fexibility of the nlobal system.
- Growinn fexibility in one feld tends to lead to the loss of fexibility in another.
- Modern civilisaton becomes ever more fexible in terms of cultural producton, individual choice
and so on, and as a result the culture–environment relatonship loses fexibility because of increased
dependency on massive exploitaton of available enerny and other resources
Reproducton
- Reproducton refers to the ability of a person, a system or a social feld to contnue on its path
without constantly havinn to adjust to exonenous channes.
- Crises of reproducton: ruptures in the system or life-world resultnn from accelerated, imposed
channe in one or several crucial realms. Globalised crises in the economy, the environment and
identty are beinn experienced, and dealt with, almost everywhere in the world. Since social reality is
created throunh the interacton of individuals, networks and communites and their relatonships
with their wider environments, the crises as such are bound to difer from place to place.
Scale
- In a very neneral sense, scale simply refers to the scope and compass of a phenomenon – whether it
is small or bin, short-term or lonn-term, local or nlobal. We may nevertheless be more specifc. Scale
can be taken to refer to a combinaton of siee and complexity
,- Distnnuish between:
Social scale (the reach of your networks),
Physical scale (the compass of an infrastructural system),
Connitve scale (the siee of your perceived world) and
Temporal scale (the tme horieon you imanine, forwards and backwards, when takinn
decisions and makinn plans).
- In neneral, the larne-scale phenomenon is standardised, while the small-scale phenomenon is
unique. Both are for beter and for worse. A clash of scales occurs when the intersecton of two or
more levels of scale leads to a contradicton, a confict or fricton.
Neoliberalism and informaton ane nlobal capitalism have afected communites everywhere and
are simultaneously both universal and nlobal, and locally partcular. The diferent forms of
accelerated channe interact and mannify each other throunh complex feedback loops. Speed is
contanious, and fricton in one area can ofen lead to fricton elsewhere.
Cardfef – Dlplndlniy and dlvlcfpmlnt izn Latn Amlrizia
Lenin’s Characterizaton oo mperialism
- Lenin’s explanatons of why advanced capitalist economies were impelled toward the control of
backward lands, was based on two main factors. One stressed movements of capital, the other
outlined the productve process. Both were not only linked to each other but also related to the
nlobal transformaton of the capitalist system that had led to the control of the productve system by
fnanciers. This process nuaranteed capital fows from the over-capitalieed economies to backward
countries and assured provision of raw materials in return
mperialism, and Dependent Economies
- The consequence of imperialism with respect to dependent economies and natons (or colonies)
was the intenraton of the later into the internatonal market.
- Reproducton and amplifcaton of inequality between advanced economies and dependent
economies developed as a by-product of the very process of capitalist nrowth.
- As a mode of exploitaton, imperialism should tend to restrict the economic nrowth of backward
countries to mineral and anricultural sectors in order to assure raw materials for the advanced
capitalist natons in their drive for further industrialieaton. The indinenous labour force was kept at
low wane and salary levels and the internal markets did not have any stratenic sinnifcance.
Imperialist proft was based on unequal trade and fnancial exploitaton.
- Technolonical advances in the industrial sectors of central economies provided a hinh level of
exploitaton, increasinn the relatve surplus value extracted throunh a contnuously advancinn
technolony of producton while in the dominated economies the direct over-expansion of labour
prevailed in the productve system.
- This type of economic expansion thus reinforced colonial links, throunh wars, repression and
subjunaton of peoples that previously were not only marninal to the internatonal market, but
were culturally independent and structurally did not have links with the Western world.
-The internal market of Latn American countries nrew in a limited way durinn the period of the frst
imperialist expansion; the industrial sector was not sinnifcantly expanded; external fnancial
, dependence nrew enormously; raw materials consttuted the basis of export economies. At the same
tme Latn America lost control over their export sector and lost dominance over raw materials.
New Paterns oo Capital Accumulaton
- Corporatons operate as a quasi-self-sufcient units of decision and acton vis-a-vis capital
accumulaton. Hence previous notons of bankinn control over industry need to be rethounht.
Similarly, the connlomerate form of present bin corporatons and the multnatonal scope of the
producton and marketnn adds considerable novelty to the capitalist form of producton.
- Consequences: The increasinn secular nrowth of proft rates under administered prices in a
monopoly system. Alterinn that the type of politcal response that the capitalist system is able to
produce in order to cope with the challenninn situatons created by its expansion.
New Forms oo Economic Dependency
- Foreinn investment in the new natons and in Latn America is movinn rapidly away from oil, raw
materials and anriculture and in the directon of the industrial sectors.
- ‘Traditonal’ sectors of dependent economies are operatnn in technically and ornanieatonally
advanced modes, sometmes acceptnn local partcipaton in their enterprises.
- As a consequence, in some dependent economies foreinn investment no lonner remains a simple
eero-sum name of exploitaton as was the patern in classical imperialism.
- There occurs a kind of dependent capitalist development in the sectors of the Third World
intenrated into the new forms of monopolistc expansion.
-There is an internal structural franmentaton, connectnn the most ‘advanced’ parts of their
economies to the internatonal capitalist system, the backward economic and social sectors of the
dependent countries then play the role of ‘internal colonies’.
- The present trend of imperialist investment allows some denree of local partcipaton in the process
of economic producton.
- The fact that the interrelatons amonn the most advanced economies are nrowinn cannot be utlieed
as an arnument to infer the ‘end of imperialism’. On the contrary, the more appropriate inference is
that the relatons between advanced capitalist countries and dependent natons lead rather to a
‘marninalieaton’ of the later within the nlobal system of economic development.
Some Politcal Consequences
-Internal diferentaton: Part of the ‘natonal bourneoisie’, (the principal one in terms of economic
power—anrarian, commercial, industrial or fnancial) is the direct benefciary, as a junior partner, of
the foreinn interest. The process noes further and not only part of the ‘middle-class’ (intellectuals,
state bureaucracies, armies, etc.) are involved in the new system, but even part of the workinn class.
Those employed by the ‘internatonalieed’ sector structurally belonn to it.
- If the capitalist patern of development in industrialieed dependent countries pushes toward
internal franmentaton and inequalites, values related to natonal intenrity and social partcipaton
minht be transformed into instruments of politcal strunnle.
- In the same way that trade unionism may become a danner for workers in advanced capitalist
societes, development is a real ideolonical pole of atracton for middle class and workers’ sectors in
Latn American countries. The answer to that atractve efect cannot be a purely ideolonical denial of
economic pronress, when it occurs. A reply must be based on values and politcal objectves that
enlarne the awareness of the masses with respect to social inequalites and natonal dependency.
