- ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Estudos Internacionais, Department MemberUniversity of Nottingham, UK, Centre for International Education Research, Department Memberadd
- Globalization, Development, South-south cooperation, Education, Political Sociology, Human Geography, and 24 moreSpace and Place, Regional Integration, Development Studies, Regional integration and human development, Regionalism, Latin American Studies, Political Economy, Doreen Massey, Michael Burawoy, Robert Cox, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Higher Education, Education Policy, Social Movements, Integración Regional, Mercosur/Mercosul, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, International Relations, International Development, Global Governance, Sustainable Development, BRICS, and Dependency Theoryedit
- I am Principal Investigator (PI) on my 6-year research project "#WillPortugalFallBehind? Portuguese Public Universiti... moreI am Principal Investigator (PI) on my 6-year research project "#WillPortugalFallBehind? Portuguese Public Universities' Responses to the Global Challenge of Decolonising the Curriculum" (FCT, https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.04609.CEECIND/CP1750/CT0003). Prior to joining ISCTE-IUL I held research, teaching and visiting positions at universities in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the UK and Portugal. I approach the transdisciplinary field of Global Development & Education through theories and methodologies of Sociology/Political Sociology, Human Geography and International Relations, and such topical areas as global governance, national policy-making, global justice, South-South cooperation and decolonisation.edit
- Prof. Susan L. Robertson, University of Cambridge (PhD Supervisor, 2004-2008), Prof. Bronwen Morgan, University of New South Wales (Post-Doctoral Supervisor, 2009-2010)edit
This chapter establishes dialogue between Gramsci and decolonial thought, identifying Gramsci as an anti-colonial and decolonial Global Southerner. By reference to Gramsci’s (1971, p. 240) adage that ‘the line of development is towards... more
This chapter establishes dialogue between Gramsci and decolonial thought, identifying Gramsci as an anti-colonial and decolonial Global Southerner. By reference to Gramsci’s (1971, p. 240) adage that ‘the line of development is towards internationalism, but the point of departure is “national”’, the chapter discusses the ALBA-TCP/ALBA Movements ‘pluri-scalar war of position’, which operates across subnational, national, international, transnational and supranational geographical scales in global counter-hegemonic struggle. Following the pluri-scalar war of position’s empirical grounding, the chapter explores Gramscian thought in Our American political praxis, particularly 'el pueblo' (the people) as the collective historical revolutionary subject. The conclusion argues for imagining a counter-hegemonic historical bloc as a Global South bloc, while eliciting structural constraints to its construction. The chapter is of relevance to both political and social forces seeking decolonial, anti-capitalist transformation, including governments, political parties, and local/national as well as global movements such as the Progressive International.
Research Interests: Political Sociology, Social Movements, Human Geography, International Relations, Education, and 15 moreSocial Sciences, Global Governance, Political Science, Politics, International Political Economy, International Politics, Gramsci, Social movements and revolution, Socialism, South-south cooperation, Decolonization, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Decolonial Studies, Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA), and Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA)
This entry reviews South-South cooperation (SSC) as a contested concept and social practice. A periodisation of SSC post-1945, derived from historical turning points, provides an analytical framework specifically for identifying... more
This entry reviews South-South cooperation (SSC) as a contested concept and social practice. A periodisation of SSC post-1945, derived from historical turning points, provides an analytical framework specifically for identifying conceptual shifts in the global context: Concertation (1945–1981); Containment (1981–1995); and Cooptation vs Confrontation (1995–present). On this basis, major controversies are explored.
Research Interests: International Relations, International Political Economy, International Politics, Soft Power, Third World, and 15 moreImperialism, Anti-imperialism, South-south cooperation, Decolonization, BRICS, Triangular cooperation, Global Development, Decoloniality, South South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation, Counter-Hegemony, Counter-Globalization, Global South Development, Cooperación Sur Sur Y Triangular, Hybrid Warfare, and Counter-Hegemonic Globalisation
Framed by the North–South conflict, this article conducts a historico-conceptual analysis of the politics of South-South cooperation (SSC) from a decolonial Global South perspective. Based on documentary analysis and a review of academic... more
Framed by the North–South conflict, this article conducts a historico-conceptual analysis of the politics of South-South cooperation (SSC) from a decolonial Global South perspective. Based on documentary analysis and a review of academic SSC literature, three distinct periods of SSC post-1945 are identified: Concertation (1945–1981); Containment (1981–1995); and Cooptation vs Confrontation (1995–present). This periodization complements previous endeavours of its kind, whereby the rationale here is that a historical understanding of SSC politics and neo-colonial/imperialist counter-politics is indispensable for emancipatory social praxis. With co-optation of SSC backed by coercion as the Global North’s contemporary tactic within the strategy of re-Westernisation, I argue for the Global South to reclaim SSC as a strategy to move from delinking as de-Westernisation towards delinking as decoloniality in the context of crisis of the capitalist world order. Free download:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UAQFWD2T55IZMU45XVW7/full?target=10.1080/14747731.2022.2082132
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UAQFWD2T55IZMU45XVW7/full?target=10.1080/14747731.2022.2082132
Research Interests: Political Sociology, International Relations, Development Studies, International Studies, International Security, and 15 morePolitical Science, North-South relations, Global Justice, Decolonialization, Decolonial Turn, Decolonial Thought, Imperialism, South-south cooperation, Decolonization, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Decolonialidad, Pensamiento decolonial, North and South Relation, Delinking, and Decoloniality Thought
Framed by critical globalisation theory and David Harvey’s ‘co-revolutionary moments’ as a theory of social change, this book brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to empirically analyse how socialism is being... more
Framed by critical globalisation theory and David Harvey’s ‘co-revolutionary moments’ as a theory of social change, this book brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to empirically analyse how socialism is being constructed in contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean, and beyond.
This book uses the case of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) to invite to a re-thinking of resistance to global capitalism and the construction of socialism in the 21st century. Including detailed theory-based ethnographic case studies from Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the USA, the contributors identify social and structural forces at different levels and scales to illuminate politics and practices at work. Centred around the themes of democracy and justice, and the more general reconfiguration of the state-society relations and power geometries at the local, national, regional and global scales, ALBA and Counter-Globalization is at the forefront in the trend of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of social phenomena of global relevance.
Read WILLIAM K. CARROLL's review in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08263663.2014.985128
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274780631_Counter-globalization_and_socialism_in_the_21st_century_a_review
Read LAURENCE GOODCHILD's review in the International Journal of Cuban Studies, at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/intejcubastud.6.2.0228
This book uses the case of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) to invite to a re-thinking of resistance to global capitalism and the construction of socialism in the 21st century. Including detailed theory-based ethnographic case studies from Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the USA, the contributors identify social and structural forces at different levels and scales to illuminate politics and practices at work. Centred around the themes of democracy and justice, and the more general reconfiguration of the state-society relations and power geometries at the local, national, regional and global scales, ALBA and Counter-Globalization is at the forefront in the trend of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of social phenomena of global relevance.
Read WILLIAM K. CARROLL's review in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08263663.2014.985128
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274780631_Counter-globalization_and_socialism_in_the_21st_century_a_review
Read LAURENCE GOODCHILD's review in the International Journal of Cuban Studies, at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/intejcubastud.6.2.0228
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, International Relations, Ethics, Feminist Theory, Globalization, and 27 moreMarxism, Ethnography, Interdisciplinarity, Space and Place, Global Governance, Social Justice, Transdisciplinarity, Socialisms, Gender, Regionalism, Michel Foucault, David Harvey, Democracy, Social and Political Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Constitutionalism, Gramsci and Cultural Hegemony, Power, Latin America, Alba, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Robert Cox, Theories of Socialism, Great Power Politics, Re Rising States, Antiglobalization Social Movements, and Latin American feminisms
This book theorises Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution as a counter- hegemonic globalisation project in which the construction of "21st century socialism" occurs simultaneously at the local, national, regional and global levels and scales... more
This book theorises Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution as a counter- hegemonic globalisation project in which the construction of "21st century socialism" occurs simultaneously at the local, national, regional and global levels and scales through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA- TCP). In these processes, the Venezuelan government's higher education for all strategy assumes a central role in the direct democratic and participatory democratic processes upon which the pluri-scalar construction of counter-hegemony depends. Within a critical theory approach, this fully revised and updated PhD thesis is grounded in a total of 16 months of ethnographic research conducted between 2005 and 2010 in Venezuela, Nicaragua and El Salvador, eight months of which in a municipalised Bolivarian University in Venezuela. The significance and originality of this interdisciplinary study of the construction of "21st century socialism" is revealed through the elaboration of structural features, political alignments and empirical findings, to explain the dynamics and geographies of the multi-dimensional development project.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Ethics, Development Studies, Globalization, Marxism, and 16 moreEthnography, Higher Education, Venezuela, Social Production of Space, New Models Of Participatory And Direct Democracy, Post-Neoliberalism, Social and Political Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Gramsci and Cultural Hegemony, Alba, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Theories of Socialism, Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez, Antiglobalization Social Movements, and Petro populism
This article contributes to the resurgent interest in the historical question of strategy in/for progressive transformation, by elaborating “pluri-scalar war of position” as a methodological approach to counter-hegemonic socio-spatial... more
This article contributes to the resurgent interest in the historical question of strategy in/for progressive transformation, by elaborating “pluri-scalar war of position” as a methodological approach to counter-hegemonic socio-spatial restructuring. The concept evolved from my research in Latin America-Caribbean in the 2000s and early 2010s and integrates neo-Gramscian with human geography theory and method, arguing for the strategic imperative of capturing state power on the one hand, and for a politics of place-space-scale on the other. The article reasserts the importance of socio-spatial theory for transformative politics, within a vision of overcoming counter-productive divisions among the global lefts.
Free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EWRZW8NAS7JSJHFWA8DM/full?target=10.1080/08854300.2021.1994295
Free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EWRZW8NAS7JSJHFWA8DM/full?target=10.1080/08854300.2021.1994295
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Human Geography, International Relations, and 15 moreSocial Sciences, Space and Place, Political Science, Globalization And Postcolonial Studies, Gramsci, Social movements and revolution, Socialism, Global South, Strategy, Social transformation, Neo-Gramscianism, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Democratic Transitions, Bolivarian Revolution, and Counter-Hegemonic Globalisation
Este artigo revisita a cooperação oficial Brasil-Venezuela no período 2003-2016, durante o qual as políticas intervencionistas estaduais aprimoraram a justiça social e educacional. Partindo de uma abordagem de governança... more
Este artigo revisita a cooperação oficial Brasil-Venezuela no período 2003-2016, durante o qual as políticas intervencionistas estaduais aprimoraram a justiça social e educacional. Partindo de uma abordagem de governança educacional, é realizada uma análise pluriescalar da equidade de acesso ao ensino universitário, que integra um relato de justiça distributiva no acesso ao ensino universitário no Brasil e na Venezuela com uma abordagem estrutural relacionada à cooperação Sul-Sul (CSS) entre as duas nações e também dentro do Mercado Comum do Sul (MERCOSUL). Dois argumentos inter-relacionados são
desenvolvidos: primeiro, apesar das persistentes desigualdades no acesso à educação universitária em ambos os territórios, as políticas estatais intervencionistas aumentaram a igualdade de acesso diretamente em relação à disponibilidade e acessibilidade. Em segundo lugar, o caso do Régimen Especial Fronterizo Brasil / Venezuela ilustra que a CSS pode transformar as condições de fundo para a justiça educacional, produzindo uma estrutura alternativa à governança global neoliberal da educação. Empiricamente, a discussão recorre à análise de conteúdo e discurso de 81 documentos de cooperação assinados entre atores estatais e não-estatais brasileiros e venezuelanos, complementados por planos de desenvolvimento e relatórios de comissões municipais, nacionais e regionais, e 1 mês de pesquisa de campo no Régimen Especial Fronterizo em 2012. A observação participante e 13 entrevistas semi-estruturadas e abertas foram conduzidas com funcionários em diferentes níveis dos processos de formulação de políticas, acadêmicos, bem como atores de escala local em diferentes iniciativas de cooperação e integração em ambos os lados da fronteira Brasil/Venezuela.
desenvolvidos: primeiro, apesar das persistentes desigualdades no acesso à educação universitária em ambos os territórios, as políticas estatais intervencionistas aumentaram a igualdade de acesso diretamente em relação à disponibilidade e acessibilidade. Em segundo lugar, o caso do Régimen Especial Fronterizo Brasil / Venezuela ilustra que a CSS pode transformar as condições de fundo para a justiça educacional, produzindo uma estrutura alternativa à governança global neoliberal da educação. Empiricamente, a discussão recorre à análise de conteúdo e discurso de 81 documentos de cooperação assinados entre atores estatais e não-estatais brasileiros e venezuelanos, complementados por planos de desenvolvimento e relatórios de comissões municipais, nacionais e regionais, e 1 mês de pesquisa de campo no Régimen Especial Fronterizo em 2012. A observação participante e 13 entrevistas semi-estruturadas e abertas foram conduzidas com funcionários em diferentes níveis dos processos de formulação de políticas, acadêmicos, bem como atores de escala local em diferentes iniciativas de cooperação e integração em ambos os lados da fronteira Brasil/Venezuela.
RESUMO: Este artigo adota uma abordagem histórica e global a respeito da cooperação Sul-Sul em educação e desenvolvimento, um tema ainda pouco investigado pela academia. A primeira seção discute os conceitos de "Sul", "Sul Global" e... more
RESUMO: Este artigo adota uma abordagem histórica e global a respeito da cooperação Sul-Sul em educação e desenvolvimento, um tema ainda pouco investigado pela academia. A primeira seção discute os conceitos de "Sul", "Sul Global" e "Cooperação Sul-Sul", contraposta às práticas de "colaboração triangular" e "transferência de melhores práticas". Com base nisso, uma revisão da literatura sobre cooperação em educação Sul-Sul distingue uma abordagem dominante incorporada nas teorias liberais e (neo)realistas de relações internacionais de uma abordagem de teoria crítica associada ao pensamento de contra-dependência. Enquadrado por essas discussões, este artigo apresenta dois estudos de caso das relações contemporâneas globais de educação Sul-Sul: o ¡Yo, Sí Puedo!-uma campanha de alfabetização global promovida pelos governos de Cuba e Venezuela-e a agenda comum de cooperação da educação do BRICS. Embora não se possa concluir inequivocamente que a cooperação educacional Sul-Sul produza uma contra-estrutura para a governança global neoliberal da educação, o artigo mostra igualmente que os princípios Sul-Sul de solidariedade, benefícios mútuos e autoconfiança são muito praticados entre os países parceiros do Sul. Por fim, são apresentadas propostas de pesquisas futuras nesse campo. ///
RESUMEN: El artículo adopta un abordaje histórico y global respecto a la cooperación Sur-Sur en educación y desarrollo, un tema todavía poco investigado por la academia. La primera sección discute los conceptos del “Sur”, “Sur Global” y “Cooperación Sur-Sur”, contrapuesta a las prácticas de “colaboración triangular” y “trasferencia de mejores prácticas”. Con base en eso, una revisión de literatura sobre la cooperación en educación Sur-Sur distingue un abordaje dominante incorporado en las teorías liberales y (neo)liberales de relaciones internacionales de un abordaje de teoría crítica asociado al pensamiento en contra-dependencia. Encuadrado por estas discusiones globales de educación Sur-Sur: el ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! – campaña de alfabetización global promocionada por los gobiernos de Cuba y Venezuela – y la agenda común de cooperación de la educación de BRICS. Aunque no se pueda concluir que inequívocamente que la cooperación educacional Sur-Sur produzca una contra-estructura para la gobernanza global y neoliberal de la educación, el artículo muestra igualmente que los principios Sur-Sur de solidaridad, beneficios mutuos y autoconfianza son muy practicados entre los países asociados del Sur. Finalmente, se presentan propuestas de investigación futuras para en este campo.
RESUMEN: El artículo adopta un abordaje histórico y global respecto a la cooperación Sur-Sur en educación y desarrollo, un tema todavía poco investigado por la academia. La primera sección discute los conceptos del “Sur”, “Sur Global” y “Cooperación Sur-Sur”, contrapuesta a las prácticas de “colaboración triangular” y “trasferencia de mejores prácticas”. Con base en eso, una revisión de literatura sobre la cooperación en educación Sur-Sur distingue un abordaje dominante incorporado en las teorías liberales y (neo)liberales de relaciones internacionales de un abordaje de teoría crítica asociado al pensamiento en contra-dependencia. Encuadrado por estas discusiones globales de educación Sur-Sur: el ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! – campaña de alfabetización global promocionada por los gobiernos de Cuba y Venezuela – y la agenda común de cooperación de la educación de BRICS. Aunque no se pueda concluir que inequívocamente que la cooperación educacional Sur-Sur produzca una contra-estructura para la gobernanza global y neoliberal de la educación, el artículo muestra igualmente que los principios Sur-Sur de solidaridad, beneficios mutuos y autoconfianza son muy practicados entre los países asociados del Sur. Finalmente, se presentan propuestas de investigación futuras para en este campo.
Research Interests: Educación, Cooperación Internacional Para El Desarrollo, Relaciones Internacionales, Educação, BRICS, and 15 moreGlobalización, Teoria da dependência, Relações Internacionais, Globalização, Desenvolvimento, Políticas Educativas, Cooperação internacional, Cooperação Sul-Sul, Cooperação Internacional Para O Desenvolvimento, Desarrollo Sociopolìtico cultural y econòmico, Cooperación Sur Sur Y Triangular, Governança Global, Sul Global, Gobernanza global del desarrollo, and Yo, Si Puedo
Framed by contested interpretations of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, this article aims to conduct a first evaluation of the BRICS development and education cooperation agenda as a case study of South—South cooperation (SSC).... more
Framed by contested interpretations of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, this article aims to conduct a first evaluation of the BRICS development and education cooperation agenda as a case study of South—South cooperation (SSC). Methodologically, as a theory-based case study that integrates exploration with illustration and explanation, an analytical review of Anglophone academic BRICS education literature combines with contents and discourse analysis of BRICS cooperation documents from 2009—2017. While the mainstream international and comparative education literature, embedded in (neo)realist international relations theory, limits itself to individual BRICS member country case studies, a critical approach associated with counter-dependency theory in conjunction with SSC as an analytical category transcends methodological nationalism by exploring common agendas, projects, relations and potential synergies generated within BRICS as an analytical unit. While a more pronounced and assertive BRICS SSC agenda has emerged over time, the findings do not permit to unambiguously conclude that BRICS education cooperation produces a counter-structure to the neoliberal global governance of education. However, we nonetheless perceive BRICS education cooperation as contributing to building a counter-dependency structure. Future empirical research will have to inquire about the de facto implementation of this agenda.
Research Interests: International Relations, Education, Development Studies, Globalization, International Development, and 15 moreHigher Education, Comparative & International Education, Globalisation and Development, Education Policy, International Cooperation, Political Economy of Development, Foreign Aid, Globalization and education, Higher education cooperation, BRICS, International Development Cooperation, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Best practices in education, Methodological Nationalism, and International cooperation for development
Descarga la edición especial completa “G-77 y China en el Actual Sistema-Mundo: Nuevos Horizontes desde el Sur Global” a través de: https://www.cancilleria.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2018/03/lineasur_13_edicion.pdf. Este... more
Descarga la edición especial completa “G-77 y China en el Actual Sistema-Mundo: Nuevos Horizontes desde el Sur Global” a través de: https://www.cancilleria.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2018/03/lineasur_13_edicion.pdf.
Este artículo persigue dos objetivos interelacionados que se basan en una revisión de la literatura académica del pasado y presente de la Cooperación Sur-Sur (CSS): primero, contrarresta el sesgo eurocéntrico en la producción de conocimiento sobre la Cooperación Sur-Sur (en especial, pero no exclusivamente) en la academia anglófona, que se manifiesta en una desproporcionada concentración en los BRICS (Brasil, Rusia, India, China, Sudáfrica) mientras se marginan otros proyectos globales relevantes. Segundo, como una contribución de la teoría crítica, este artículo busca reclamar el histórico potencial emancipatorio asociado con la CSS, la cual implica relaciones y proyectos regidos por los principios de complementariedad, cooperación y solidaridad, como está establecido en la Carta de Argel del G-77 de 1967, para relaciones más horizontales (igualitarias y justas, a veces –pero no necesariamente– altruistas), diplomáticas, de comercio, ayuda e inversión, e intercambios de mutuos beneficios (relaciones de “ganar-ganar”), también asociadas, históricamente, con el Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional de las Naciones Unidas del año 1974. Las diez tesis presentadas a continuación problematizan empírica, teórica, conceptual y metodológicamente, temas esenciales para el debate de la CSS en el siglo XXI. Subsecuentemente, la conclusión presenta algunas ideas orientadas políticamente a exponer la relevancia del G-77 y China para América Latina y el Caribe, y viceversa.
Este artículo persigue dos objetivos interelacionados que se basan en una revisión de la literatura académica del pasado y presente de la Cooperación Sur-Sur (CSS): primero, contrarresta el sesgo eurocéntrico en la producción de conocimiento sobre la Cooperación Sur-Sur (en especial, pero no exclusivamente) en la academia anglófona, que se manifiesta en una desproporcionada concentración en los BRICS (Brasil, Rusia, India, China, Sudáfrica) mientras se marginan otros proyectos globales relevantes. Segundo, como una contribución de la teoría crítica, este artículo busca reclamar el histórico potencial emancipatorio asociado con la CSS, la cual implica relaciones y proyectos regidos por los principios de complementariedad, cooperación y solidaridad, como está establecido en la Carta de Argel del G-77 de 1967, para relaciones más horizontales (igualitarias y justas, a veces –pero no necesariamente– altruistas), diplomáticas, de comercio, ayuda e inversión, e intercambios de mutuos beneficios (relaciones de “ganar-ganar”), también asociadas, históricamente, con el Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional de las Naciones Unidas del año 1974. Las diez tesis presentadas a continuación problematizan empírica, teórica, conceptual y metodológicamente, temas esenciales para el debate de la CSS en el siglo XXI. Subsecuentemente, la conclusión presenta algunas ideas orientadas políticamente a exponer la relevancia del G-77 y China para América Latina y el Caribe, y viceversa.
Research Interests: International Cooperation, South-south cooperation, Cooperación Internacional Para El Desarrollo, BRICS, Relaciones Internacionales, Cooperación al Desarrollo UE-ALC, Desarrollo Sustentable, Inversiones y Comercio Internacional., and 6 moreCooperación Internacional, Planificación Regional Y Políticas De Desarrollo, Cooperacion Internacional, Economía Política Internacional Y Del Desarrollo, Cooperación Sur Sur Y Triangular, and Cooperación Internacional Latinoamérica
Structured around the case of South-South cooperation in the construction of “complementary economic zones” among the member states of the ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe, CARICOM and MERCOSUR, this article argues for a socio-spatial approach to... more
Structured around the case of South-South cooperation in the construction of “complementary economic zones” among the member states of the ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe, CARICOM and MERCOSUR, this article argues for a socio-spatial approach to the study of the changing Latin America-Caribbean integration and development geographies. Two interrelated, main arguments are developed: first, in contrast to methodologically nationalist approaches, which typically view the regionalisms that are to form the complementary economic zones as ideologically separate, incompatible or conflicting projects, a socio-spatial approach in conjunction with a South-South cooperation analytical lens explains their commonality and, subsequently, their interrelatedness and convergence. Second, while this South-South cooperation space is not per se non-capitalist, a socio-spatial analysis also facilitates “seeing” the production of a socialist “counter-space” within this South-South cooperation structure.
ABSTRACT FOR ANTIPODEFOUNDATION.ORG
Situated within human geography’s concerns with uneven development and the politics of place, space and scale, this explanatory-diagnostic article analyzes the contemporary efforts of constructing socialism in Latin America-Caribbean. Although the empirical scope of the article has become challenged by the recent government changes in Argentina and Brazil, and the impact these are having on MERCOSUR, historically, as a South-South “politics of possibilities”, the article is far from obsolete. Its political relevance is two-fold: first, methodologically, this relational analysis overcomes the inherent conservativism of methodologically nationalist and territorially nationalist approaches (mainstream international relations, international politics, international political economy), by integrating state-society dialectics with a pluri-scalar approach that “visibilizes” the transformative potential and impact of this strategy. Second, while such a strategy was mobilized during Hugo Chávez’s regional leadership, it appears to be falling into oblivion. However, socialist revolutionary praxis, the article implicitly claims, depends on precisely such a politics.
ABSTRACT EN CASTELLANO
Estructurado sobre el caso de cooperación Sur-Sur en la construcción de “zonas económicas complementarias” entre los estados miembros del ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe, CARICOM y MERCOSUR, este artículo argumenta una aproximación socio-espacial al estudio de las geografías cambiantes de integración y desarrollo en Latino América-Caribe. Dos argumentos principales interrelacionados se desarrollan: en primer lugar, en contraste con aproximaciones nacionalismo metodológicas, las cuales consideran los regionalismos que forman las zonas económicas complementarias como ideológicamente separados, proyectos incompatibles o en conflicto, una aproximación socio-espacial en conjunto con una lente analítica de cooperación Sur-Sur explica sus características compartidas y, posteriormente, sus interrelaciones y convergencias. En segundo lugar, mientras este espacio de cooperación Sur-Sur no es per se no-capitalista, un análisis socio-espacial también facilita “ver” la producción de un “contra-espacio” socialista en esta estructura de cooperación Sur-Sur.
ABSTRACT FOR ANTIPODEFOUNDATION.ORG
Situated within human geography’s concerns with uneven development and the politics of place, space and scale, this explanatory-diagnostic article analyzes the contemporary efforts of constructing socialism in Latin America-Caribbean. Although the empirical scope of the article has become challenged by the recent government changes in Argentina and Brazil, and the impact these are having on MERCOSUR, historically, as a South-South “politics of possibilities”, the article is far from obsolete. Its political relevance is two-fold: first, methodologically, this relational analysis overcomes the inherent conservativism of methodologically nationalist and territorially nationalist approaches (mainstream international relations, international politics, international political economy), by integrating state-society dialectics with a pluri-scalar approach that “visibilizes” the transformative potential and impact of this strategy. Second, while such a strategy was mobilized during Hugo Chávez’s regional leadership, it appears to be falling into oblivion. However, socialist revolutionary praxis, the article implicitly claims, depends on precisely such a politics.
ABSTRACT EN CASTELLANO
Estructurado sobre el caso de cooperación Sur-Sur en la construcción de “zonas económicas complementarias” entre los estados miembros del ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe, CARICOM y MERCOSUR, este artículo argumenta una aproximación socio-espacial al estudio de las geografías cambiantes de integración y desarrollo en Latino América-Caribe. Dos argumentos principales interrelacionados se desarrollan: en primer lugar, en contraste con aproximaciones nacionalismo metodológicas, las cuales consideran los regionalismos que forman las zonas económicas complementarias como ideológicamente separados, proyectos incompatibles o en conflicto, una aproximación socio-espacial en conjunto con una lente analítica de cooperación Sur-Sur explica sus características compartidas y, posteriormente, sus interrelaciones y convergencias. En segundo lugar, mientras este espacio de cooperación Sur-Sur no es per se no-capitalista, un análisis socio-espacial también facilita “ver” la producción de un “contra-espacio” socialista en esta estructura de cooperación Sur-Sur.
Research Interests: Political Sociology, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, International Relations, Political Economy, and 12 moreDevelopment Studies, Space and Place, Socialisms, Regionalism, Regional development, Socialism, Regional Integration, Mercosur/Mercosul, Mercosur, Alba, Theories of Socialism, and Caricom
This article draws from an education governance approach to conduct a pluriscalar analysis of equity of access to tertiary education in the context of South–South cooperation. An account of distributional justice in access to tertiary... more
This article draws from an education governance approach to conduct a pluriscalar analysis of equity of access to tertiary education in the context of South–South cooperation. An account of distributional justice in access to tertiary education in the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is integrated with a structural approach related to South–South cooperation among the two nations as well as within the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), upon which two interrelated arguments are developed: first, despite persistent inequities in access to university education in both territories, state-interventionist policies enhance equity of access directly with respect to availability and accessibility. Second, South–South cooperation transforms the background conditions for educational justice by producing an alternative structure to the neoliberal global governance of education and its agenda of privatisation and commercialisation.
Research Interests: Human Geography, Education, Sociology of Education, Social Sciences, Higher Education, and 24 moreInternational Education, Comparative & International Education, Social Justice, Brazil, Regionalism, Venezuela, Social Justice in Education, Educational Equity and Justice, Social Justice Education, Socialism, Mercosur/Mercosul, Mercosur, Educación, South-south cooperation, Critical Regionalism, University, Regionalismo, Education in Mercosur, Higher Education Governance & Leadership, Decommodification, Tertiary Education, Mercosur Educativo, Social Inequity, and Integracion regional-Mercosur
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South-South cooperation literatures, this article advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South-South... more
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South-South cooperation literatures, this article advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South-South cooperation in the 21st century. This endeavour is motivated by a perceived undermining especially in the Anglophone academic South-South cooperation literature of the emancipatory potential that South-South cooperation has historically been associated with. By drawing from the interventionist South-South cooperation agendas of ‘left’-leaning Latin America-Caribbean governments, the article seeks to establish a dialogue between social science theories and less ‘visible’ analyses from academic (semi)peripheries. The ten theses culminate in an exploration of the potential of South-South cooperation to promote ‘alternative’ development.
Research Interests: Political Sociology, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, and 10 moreGlobalization, International Development, Global Governance, Sustainable Development, South-south cooperation, BRICS, International Development Cooperation, Dependency Theory, Emerging powers of Global South: Rising BRICS Countries, and International cooperation for development
Book review of 'South-South Educational Migration, Humanitarianism and Development', by Thomas Muhr, in Journal of Education Policy, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1100816
Research Interests: Development Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Middle East Studies, North Africa Studies, International Development, and 27 moreHumanitarianism, Refugee Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Cuban Studies, Conflict, Palestine, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education, Decolonialization, Socialism, Derrida, Refugee Camps, Refugees, Middle East, Palestinian Studies, Decolonization, Western Sahara, Politics of Solidarity, Solidaridad, Refugees and Forced Migration Studies, Conflict in Libya, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Self Determination, Pan Arabism, Sahrawi, and Postcolonialism
This article addresses two tendencies within the international education and South-South cooperation literatures: the omission of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) from... more
This article addresses two tendencies within the international education and South-South cooperation literatures: the omission of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) from discussions of South-South cooperation generally, and of the ALBA-TCP promoted ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! literacy method in particular. Central features of ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! are discussed, while the case of ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! in Nicaragua illustrates the main argument developed: ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! should not be regarded as 'best practice transfer' but as integral to South-South cooperation as Third World emancipation and transformation towards a socially just and democratic world order.
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This article explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance... more
This article explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum.
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This article shows that counter to the common representation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA–TCP) as simply a bloc of nation-states, the initiative in fact constitutes a... more
This article shows that counter to the common representation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA–TCP) as simply a bloc of nation-states, the initiative in fact constitutes a counter-hegemonic globalization project that operates through inter- and transnational processes across a range of (spatial) scales, from the local to the global. I draw on John Agnew's notion of the ‘territorial trap’ and theories of regionalism and globalization to analyse the transnational and pluri-scalar construction of the ALBA–TCP in Nicaragua (2004–2007) and El Salvador (2004–2010), to argue that the mobilization and empowerment gains associated with these processes are an important element in the construction of what is referred to as the ‘organized society’. As a politics of place, space and scale, the ALBA–TCP governance regime is sketched out, in which an emergent transnationally organized society integrates via the ALBA–TCP Council of Social Movements in the quest for progressive regional and global transformation.
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Este artigo investiga aspectos do processo Revolução Participativa da Educação na Nicarágua, centrando-se na sua relação com o modelo de desenvolvimento nacional de Poder Cidadão e com a construção do socialismo do século XXI na América... more
Este artigo investiga aspectos do processo Revolução Participativa da Educação na Nicarágua, centrando-se na sua relação com o modelo de desenvolvimento nacional de Poder Cidadão e com a construção do socialismo do século XXI na América Latina e Caribe através da Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos da Nossa América – Acordo de Comércio dos Povos (ALBA-TCP). Com base na noção de “democracia revolucionária”, a qual define os fundamentos da visão de socialismo do século XXI, desenvolve-se o argumento de que o Poder Cidadão, tal como promovido pela Frente Sandinista de Libertação Nacional (FSLN) desde o seu regresso ao governo em Janeiro de 2007, significa uma transformação estrutural do neoliberalismo para o socialismo do século XXI. Em lugar de uma análise exaustiva das políticas educativas da FSLN, dá-se particular atenção à desprivatização da educação e à sua restauração como um direito humano e uma responsabilidade do Estado. Examinam-se dois elementos da Revolução Participativa da Educação que têm uma relevância direta para a construção da democracia socialista/revolucionária: a Campanha Nacional de Alfabetização De Martí a Fidel e a Grande Consulta Nacional sobre a Reforma Curricular do Ensino Básico e Médio de 2007/2008.
Research Interests: Movimientos sociales, DESENVOLVIMENTO LOCAL E TERRITORIAL, Democracia Participativa, Alba, Socialismo, and 13 moreNicaragua, Relaciones Internacionales, Desarrollo Sustentable, Geopolítica, Integración Regional, Desenvolvimento, Estado, democracia, cidadania, Política Internacional, Desenvolvimento E Cooperação Internacional, Politica Exterior, Organizaciones Sociales, Desprivatização, and Regionalismos
With Nicaragua's Sandinista People's Revolution (1979–90) as an ideological reference point, this paper adopts an historical approach to a theorisation of the contemporary (re)construction of popular power in Latin America and the... more
With Nicaragua's Sandinista People's Revolution (1979–90) as an ideological reference point, this paper adopts an historical approach to a theorisation of the contemporary (re)construction of popular power in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP). At the core of the analysis is the Venezuelan government's concept of ‘protagonistic revolutionary democracy’ which, by drawing on Marxist direct democracy and CB Macpherson's participatory democracy, can be understood as the definitional foundation of the envisioned ‘21st century socialism’. Mechanisms for the exercise of direct democracy and of participatory democracy promotion are identified at the national and regional scales, through which the ALBA-TCP emerges as a counter-hegemonic governance regime composed of two dialectically interrelated forces: the ‘state-in-revolution’ and the ‘organised society’. They drive the regionalisation of ‘revolutionary democracy’, thus (re)constructing popular power in the production of the ALBA-TCP space.
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Within a critical globalization theory framework, this article analyses the military dimension of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) and its agenda of ‘peacekeeping’ and... more
Within a critical globalization theory framework, this article analyses the military dimension of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) and its agenda of ‘peacekeeping’ and ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Haiti. Since its launch in 2004, the ALBA-TCP has established itself as an increasingly institutionalized, multidimensional, and pluriscalar counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regionalism and globalization project. Integral to the pursued transformation of world order is the launching of a counter-hegemonic military agenda. Grounded in the Bolivarian philosophy of regional union, the article explores the ALBA-TCP collective defence policies, institutionalized in the Permanent Committee of Sovereignty and Defence, and the ALBA-TCP-Haiti cooperation before and after the earthquake of January 2010. By interrogating the nature of the military alliance and its humanitarian agenda, I propose that the ALBA-TCP’s revolutionary approach to internationalism, peacekeeping, and intervention may be understood as employing an ‘enlarged conception’ of humanitarianism that means neither militarized humanitarianism nor humanitarian assistance as isolated, short-term technical disaster relief, but as long-term emancipatory structural transformation. Military alliance, however, is necessary to defend the project against imperialist aggression.
Research Interests: International Relations, Multiculturalism, Development Studies, Globalization, International Law, and 24 moreHuman Rights, International organizations, Conflict, Security, Nationalism, Diplomacy, Humanitarian Intervention, Venezuela, Peacekeeping, Social Change, revolution, and evolution, Ethnicity, Internationalism, Minority Rights, Peace, Peacebuilding, Alba, Freedom, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Stabilization and Reconstruction, Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez, Post Conflict Issues, and Petro populism
Contribution to the Forum on Latin American Trading Blocs: Between Reality and Utopia, edited by Gian Luca Gardini.
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The article employs an historical approach to cooperation and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in order to argue that, to date, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement... more
The article employs an historical approach to cooperation and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in order to argue that, to date, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) is the only integration project under construction in Our America that not only actively integrates the entire LAC, but also is the most comprehensive, sophisticated and dynamic regionalism in the area. I draw on Frederik Söderbaum and Luk van Langenhove’s notion of ‘generations’ of regionalisms, identifying the import substitution influenced initiatives, the neoliberal ‘open regionalisms’, and the post-neoliberal and counter-imperialist projects launched over the past decade, especially the ALBA-TCP. By explicitly associating generations of regionalisms with particular political economic models, I emphasise politics and ideologies in the analysis, which are absent in Söderbaum and van Langenhove’s classification. The politics, institutionalisation and organisational structure of the ALBA-TCP as a third generation regionalism and counter-globalisation project are discussed.
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Centred around Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, this paper employs a critical globalization theory framework to argue that the 1990s notion of ‘changing the world from below’, understood as resistance to capitalist globalization... more
Centred around Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, this paper employs a critical globalization theory framework to argue that the 1990s notion of ‘changing the world from below’, understood as resistance to capitalist globalization through a ‘transnational civil society’, requires re-theorization in the light of the contemporary developments in Our America. I make a methodological case for a neo-Gramscian approach to argue that ‘counter-hegemony’, together with an adequate theorization of the state and power, should be the preferred concept over the inherently apolitical and under-theorized ‘alter-globalization’. Whilst the alter-globalization movement’s ideational and normative challenges to hegemony (captured in ex-British prime minister Thatcher’s There-Is-No-Alternative-Doctrine, TINA) are undisputed, the transformation of the global geographies of power through local actors alone has remained illusory. Rather, the experience of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America—Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-PTA) strongly suggests that counter-hegemonic globalization theory will have to consider the roles of both the ‘state-in-revolution’ and the ‘transnational organized society’. This will be shown through the analysis and theorization of the ALBA-PTA as a multi dimensional inter and transnational counter-hegemonic regionalization and globalization project that operates across a range of sectors and scales.
Research Interests: Ethics, Feminist Theory, Globalization, Marxism, Feminist Philosophy, and 29 moreSexuality, Gender, Resistance (Social), Sigmund Freud, Regionalism, Michel Foucault, Neoliberalism, Social Exclusion, Social and Political Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Alter-globalization, Power, Alba, Poverty Reduction, Relaciones Internacionales, Washington consensus, Globalization, Anti-Globalization, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Geopolítica, Integración Regional, Financial and Economic Crisis, Política Internacional, G20, Theories of Socialism, Politica Exterior, Us Social Forum, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Regionalismos, and Latin American feminisms
Partindo de um quadro teórico neo-gramsciano crítico à globalização, este artigo aplica a nova teoria do regionalismo (NTR) e a teoria do regionalismo regulatório (TRR) à sua análise e teorização dos tratados de comércio da Aliança... more
Partindo de um quadro teórico neo-gramsciano crítico à globalização, este artigo aplica a nova teoria do regionalismo (NTR) e a teoria do regionalismo regulatório (TRR) à sua análise e teorização dos tratados de comércio da Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos da Nossa América (ALBA-TCP) como regionalismo contra-hegemônico na América Latina e Caribe (ALC). A ALBA está centrada na ideia de um Socialismo do Século XXI, que, como (inicialmente) também a Revolução Bolivariana da Venezuela, substitui a ‘vantagem competitiva’ pela ‘vantagem cooperativa’. Em seu caráter de conjunto de processos multidimensionais e transnacionais a ALBA-TCP opera dentro de/transversalmente a um número de setores e escalas, ao mesmo passo que as transformações estruturais são movidas pela interação de agentes do Estado e agentes não estatais. A política de Educação Superior para Todos (ESPT) do governo venezuelano rejeita a agenda neoliberal globalizada de mercadorização, privatização e elitismo e reinvindica educação pública gratuita em todos os níveis como um direito humano fundamental. A ESPT está sendo regionalizado em um espaço educacional emergente da ALBA e assume um papel-chave nos processos de democracia direta e participatória, dos quais a construção popular (bottom-up) da contra-hegemonia e a redefinição política e econômica da ALC dependem. Antes de produzir sujeitos empreendedores conformes ao capitalismo global, a ESPT procura formar subjetividades ao longo de valores morais de solidariedade e cooperação. Isso será ilustrado com referência a um estudo etnográfico de caso da Universidade Bolivariana da Venezuela (UBV).
Research Interests: Venezuela, Democracia Participativa, Alba, Socialismo, Relaciones Internacionales, and 11 moreNovas Tecnologias, Ambientes de Aprendizagem, ensino superior, Hegemonia, Geopolítica, Globalização, Integración Regional, Política Internacional, Politica Exterior, Contra-hegemonia, Educação Pública, Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela, and Regionalismos
This paper employs new regionalism theory and regulatory regionalism theory in its analysis and theorisation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC)... more
This paper employs new regionalism theory and regulatory regionalism theory in its analysis and theorisation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regionalism. As (initially) the regionalisation of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, ALBA is centred around the idea of a twenty-first century socialism that replaces the ‘competitive advantage’ with the ‘cooperative advantage’. ALBA, as a set of multi-dimensional inter- and trans-national processes, operates within and across a range of sectors and scales whilst the structural transformations are driven by the interplay of state and non-state actors. The Venezuelan government’s Higher Education For All (HEFA) policy, which is being regionalised within an emergent ALBA education space, assumes a key role in the direct democratic and participatory democratic processes upon which a bottom-up construction of counter-hegemony depends. HEFA challenges the globalised neoliberal higher education agenda of commoditisation, privatisation and elitism. Rather than producing enterprising subjects fashioned for global capitalism, HEFA seeks to form subjectivities along the moral values of solidarity and cooperation.
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In this paper I conduct a historical analysis of the emergence of ALBA in Nicaragua prior to Daniel Ortega’s return to the presidency and the country’s official membership in the initiative from January 2007 on. I argue that ALBA is a... more
In this paper I conduct a historical analysis of the emergence of ALBA in Nicaragua prior to Daniel Ortega’s return to the presidency and the country’s official membership in the initiative from January 2007 on. I argue that ALBA is a rival structure that evolved from the contradictions inherent in hegemonic globalisation. Within the framework of a material analysis of poverty and exclusion under globalised neo-liberalism, I draw particular attention to the World Bank-led education “decentralisation” in Nicaragua. The failure of the finance-driven strategy, especially with respect to access to education and literacy, provided the grounds for the first ALBA project in Nicaragua to evolve within an “environment of ungovernability” from 2004 on. The response and challenge provided by ALBA builds on the regionalisation of Venezuela’s endogenous development paradigm guided by the principles of solidarity, cooperation and complementarity. In contrast to other contemporary regionalisms, in ALBA the social dimension assumes a leading role from the outset, together with energy integration. The Nicaraguan case exemplifies ALBA’s counter-hegemonic transnational operational mode, as well as its construction from the bottom up. This is illustrated in the fields of education, health care and energy supply.
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OPEN SOURCE - PLEASE ACCESS VIA LINK BELOW. This paper is a first approximation to the higher education (HE) reforms currently under way in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Under Hugo Chávez' presidency, free HE has become a... more
OPEN SOURCE - PLEASE ACCESS VIA LINK BELOW. This paper is a first approximation to the higher education (HE) reforms currently under way in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Under Hugo Chávez' presidency, free HE has become a constitutional right, implemented via the two recently created national HE programmes Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela and Misión Sucre. Based on policy documents, government reports, interviews and observation, we explore the strategic role ascribed to HE in the government's pursuance of economic, political, social and cultural transformation towards a 'Socialism of the 21st Century'. What we term 'higher education for all' (HEFA) is occurring exactly at a time when the commodification and privatisation of HE is pushed ahead on a global scale. Throughout the paper we argue that Venezuelan HE policy and practice constitute a counter-hegemonic effort to the prevalent global HE agenda.
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Research Interests: Critical Theory, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Political Sociology, Social Movements, and 15 moreHuman Geography, International Relations, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Globalization, Space and Place, Political Science, Post-Colonialism, Gramsci, Social movements and revolution, Political Geography, Strategy, Scale, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, and Neogramscian Theory
This chapter adopts an historical and global approach to the under-researched field of South-South cooperation in education and development. The first section discusses the concepts of “the South”, “the global South” and “South-South... more
This chapter adopts an historical and global approach to the under-researched field of South-South cooperation in education and development. The first section discusses the concepts of “the South”, “the global South” and “South-South cooperation”, counter-posed with practices of “triangular collaboration” and “best practice transfer”. On this basis, a review of existing South-South education cooperation literatures distinguishes a mainstream approach embedded in liberal and (neo)realist international relations theories from a critical theory approach associated with counter-dependency thinking. Framed by these discussions, two case studies of contemporary global South-South education relations are presented: the ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! (Sure, I Can!) global literacy campaign promoted by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela; and the BRICS common education cooperation agenda. While it cannot unambiguously be concluded that South-South education cooperation produces a counter-structure to the neoliberal global governance of education, the chapter equally shows that the South-South principles of solidarity, mutual benefits and self-reliance are very much practiced among South partners. Finally, proposals for future research in this field are presented.
Research Interests: International Relations, Literacy, Education, Development Studies, Research Methodology, and 15 moreInternational Development, Higher Education, Global Governance, Comparative & International Education, Globalisation and Development, Comparative Education, Comparative and International Development Education, South-south cooperation, BRICS, Development cooperation, International Development Cooperation, Research in South-South Cooperation, Globalisation and Education, Globalisation and Internationlisation of Higher Eduation, and Yo, Si Puedo
This chapter disaggregates some of the complexities of the geographies of regionalisation and South–South cooperation (SSC) in Latin America-Caribbean, with a particular focus on the production of an SSC space in the Greater Caribbean.... more
This chapter disaggregates some of the complexities of the geographies of regionalisation and South–South cooperation (SSC) in Latin America-Caribbean, with a particular focus on the production of an SSC space in the Greater Caribbean. The first section integrates a discussion of SSC and generations of regionalisms in the Greater Caribbean with an analytical literature review that distinguishes ‘mainstream’ from ‘critical’ approaches. The mainstream literature is critiqued for its underlying methodological territorialism and methodological nationalism, through which co-existing generations of regionalisms become deterministically construed as ideologically separate, incompatible and/or conflicting projects. By introducing human geography to the study of regionalisation processes in the subsequent section, I argue that a socio-spatial methodology in conjunction with an SSC analytical lens reveals far greater commonality, interrelatedness and convergence among different regionalisms in the geographical area than is commonly assumed. The third section illustrates this by presenting the case of the Petrocaribe Economic Zone (Zona Económica Petrocaribe, ZEP) as an SSC space that traverses national and regionalist territorial boundaries. The conclusion sketches out some case studies for the deployment of a socio-spatial methodology in research of Latin America-Caribbean South–South relations.
Research Interests: Human Geography, Latin American Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, Research Methodology, and 15 moreRegionalism, International Cooperation, Space, International political sociology, Critical International Relations Theory, South-south cooperation, International Development Cooperation, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Dependency Theory, Research in South-South Cooperation, Caricom, Bolivarian Revolution, Petrocaribe, Latin American Regional Integration, and Latin American regionalism
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South–South cooperation literatures, this chapter advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South–South... more
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South–South cooperation literatures, this chapter advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South–South cooperation in the 21st century. This endeavour is motivated by the perceived undermining, especially in the contemporary Anglophone academic South–South cooperation literature, of the emancipatory potential historically associated with South–South cooperation. By drawing on the interventionist South–South cooperation agendas of ‘left’-leaning Latin America-Caribbean governments, the article seeks to establish a dialogue between social science theories and less ‘visible’ analyses from academic (semi)peripheries. The ten theses culminate in an exploration of the potential of South–South cooperation to promote ‘alternative’ development.
Research Interests: Political Sociology, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, and 10 moreGlobalization, International Development, Global Governance, Sustainable Development, South-south cooperation, BRICS, International Development Cooperation, Dependency Theory, Emerging powers of Global South: Rising BRICS Countries, and International cooperation for development
South-South development cooperation and the socio-spatial reconfiguration of Latin America-Caribbean regionalisms: university education in the Brazil-Venezuela ‘Special Border Regime’. In S.L. Robertson, K. Olds, R. Dale, Q.A. Dang (eds) Global Regionalisms & Higher Education. Edward Elgar (2016)more
This chapter approaches the changing geometries of Latin America–Caribbean regionalisms through the lens of South-South cooperation and the role of university education in the construction of a Brazil–Venezuela cross-border sub-region... more
This chapter approaches the changing geometries of Latin America–Caribbean regionalisms through the lens of South-South cooperation and the role of university education in the construction of a Brazil–Venezuela cross-border sub-region termed ‘Special Border Regime’. Within the general reintensification of South–South cooperation in the geographical area, I concentrate on the Brazil–Venezuela official development cooperation between 2003 and 2015 and the transformation of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) in relation to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), to argue that a South–South cooperation counter-space is being produced in which university education is sought to be re-established as a fundamental right and state responsibility.
Research Interests: Latin American Studies, International Relations, Higher Education, Space and Place, Latin American politics, and 25 moreComparative & International Education, Brazil, Regionalism, Venezuela, International Cooperation, Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, Regional Integration, Decentralisation processes and development issues, Space, Comparative and International Development Education, Decentralization, Mercosur/Mercosul, Latin America, South-south cooperation, University, Edacation and International Cooperation, International Development Cooperation, Regionalismo, Education in Mercosur, Regionalismo Latinoamericano, Research in South-South Cooperation, Decommodification, Decentralized education governance, and Integracion regional-Mercosur
This chapter explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance... more
This chapter explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum.
Dieses Kapitel thematisiert zwei Tendenzen innerhalb der Literaturfelder internationale Bildung und Süd-Süd Kooperation: das Aussparen der Bolivarischen Allianz für die Völker Unseres Amerika – Völkerhandelsabkommen (ALBA-TCP) von den... more
Dieses Kapitel thematisiert zwei Tendenzen innerhalb der Literaturfelder internationale Bildung und Süd-Süd Kooperation: das Aussparen der Bolivarischen Allianz für die Völker Unseres Amerika – Völkerhandelsabkommen (ALBA-TCP) von den Diskussionen zur Süd-Süd Kooperation allgemein und der ALBA-TCP geförderten ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! („Ich kann’s doch!") Alphabetisierungsmethode im Besonderen. Dieses Kapitel greift diese Absenzen auf, wobei die Erörterung der zentralen Charakteristika von ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! als globale Alphabetisierungskampagne in einem historischen Ansatz zur kubanischen und venezolanischen Bildungs- und Entwicklungskooperation eingebettet ist. Eine Fallstudie von ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! in Nicaragua dient dabei der Veranschaulichung des Hauptarguments des vorliegenden Kapitels: dass die Globalisierung von ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! nicht einfach nur „best practice transfer“ unter Entwicklungsländern darstellt, sondern Süd-Süd Kooperation als kollektiven, gegenhegemonialen Prozess zur Emanzipierung und Dekolonisierung der Dritten Welt repräsentiert, mit dem Ziel struktureller Transformation hin zu einer sozial gerechten, demokratischen Weltordnung.
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Este capítulo muestra que contrario a la representación común del ALBA-TCP como simplemente un bloque de estados-nación, de hecho la iniciativa constituye un proyecto de globalización contra-hegemónica operando mediante procesos de... more
Este capítulo muestra que contrario a la representación común del ALBA-TCP como simplemente un bloque de estados-nación, de hecho la iniciativa constituye un proyecto de globalización contra-hegemónica operando mediante procesos de carácter transnacional así como de carácter internacional a través de diferentes escalas espaciales, desde lo local hasta lo global. La discusión radica en la noción de la “trampa territorial” de John Agnew y teorías de regionalismo y globalización para analizar la construcción transnacional del ALBA-TCP en Nicaragua (2004-2007), El Salvador (2004-2010) y Estados Unidos de América (desde 2005), argumentando que la movilización y empoderamiento relacionado con dichos procesos son elementos importantes en la construcción de la llamada “sociedad organizada”. Como una política revolucionaria de lugar, espacio y escala, el régimen de gobernanza del ALBA-TCP está esbozado, donde una sociedad organizada transnacional se está formando e integrando a través del Consejo de Movimientos Sociales del ALBA-TCP, en la lucha para una transformación regional y global progresista-emancipadora.
Research Interests: Gramsci, El Salvador, Movimientos sociales, Socialismo, Nicaragua, and 15 moreCooperación Internacional Para El Desarrollo, Sociología, Relaciones Internacionales, Globalización, Ecología política, antropología política, antropología urbana, espacio y poder, territorio, relaciones internacionales, política exterior, política internacional, geopolítica, Hegemonia, Cooperación transfronteriza, Regionalismo, Estados Unidos, Relaciones de poder y ciudadanía, Transnacionalismo, Movimientos Sociales Y Sindicalismo, Espacio, Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA), and Cooperación Sur Sur Y Triangular
This chapter shows that counter to the common representation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA–TCP) as simply a bloc of nation-states, the initiative in fact constitutes a... more
This chapter shows that counter to the common representation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA–TCP) as simply a bloc of nation-states, the initiative in fact constitutes a counter-hegemonic globalization project that operates through inter- and transnational processes across a range of (spatial) scales, from the local to the global. I draw on John Agnew’s notion of the ‘territorial trap’ and theories of regionalism and globalization to analyse the transnational and pluri-scalar construction of the ALBA–TCP in Nicaragua (2004–2007) and El Salvador (2004–2010), to argue that the mobilization and empowerment gains associated with these processes are an important element in the construction of what is referred to as the ‘organized society’. As a politics of place, space and scale, the ALBA–TCP governance regime is sketched out, in which an emergent transnationally organized society integrates via the ALBA–TCP Council of Social Movements in the quest for progressive regional and global transformation.
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This paper explores Nicaragua’s Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance... more
This paper explores Nicaragua’s Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our AmericaPeoples’ Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum.
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Research Interests: Critical Theory, Latin American Studies, Ethics, Development Studies, Feminist Theory, and 26 moreGlobalization, Marxism, Ethnography, Space and Place, Feminist Philosophy, Socialisms, Gender, Resistance (Social), Regionalism, Michel Foucault, Regional development, Social movements and revolution, David Harvey, Democracy, Social and Political Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Regional Integration, Gramsci and Cultural Hegemony, Anti-Capitalism, Alba, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Robert Cox, Theories of Socialism, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Latin American feminisms, and Robert W. Cox
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Research Interests: Social Change, Space and Place, Collective Action, Marxist theory, Venezuela, and 11 moreSocial Exclusion, Social movements and revolution, Democracy, New Models Of Participatory And Direct Democracy, Community Participation, Community Empowerment, Social Inequality, Alba, Nicaragua, C B Macpherson, and Power and Empowerment
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Research Interests: Political Sociology, Social Movements, Social Theory, Latin American Studies, International Relations, and 16 moreGlobalization, Ethnography, Space and Place, Revolutions, Globalisation and Development, State Theory, Venezuela, Social movements and revolution, Globalization And Higher Education, Democracy, Socialism, Regional Integration, Michael Burawoy, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Robert Cox, and Antiglobalization Social Movements
Based on the argument that ALBA is a rival structure that has evolved, above all, from the social contradictions in globalization, this chapter analyses the historical emergence of ALBA in Nicaragua. After the electoral defeat of the... more
Based on the argument that ALBA is a rival structure that has evolved, above all, from the social contradictions in globalization, this chapter analyses the historical emergence of ALBA in Nicaragua. After the electoral defeat of the revolutionary FSLN government in 1990, sixteen years of neo-liberalism culminated in an 'environment of ungovernability'. This provided the context for the construction of ALBA in Nicaragua from 2005 on, with subnational state and non-state actors strategically bypassing the neoliberal government of the day. The challenge ALBA poses to global capitalism builds on the regionalization of Venezuela's endogenous development, guided by the principles of solidarity, cooperation, and complementarity. In contrast to other contemporary regionalisms, the social dimension assumes a leading role in ALBA. The Nicaraguan case exemplifies ALBA's counter-hegemonic transnational operational mode, as well as its construction from the bottom up in the fields of education, health care, and energy supply. I conclude with an overview of ALBA during the first 18 months of the re-elected FSLN government led by President Ortega.
Research Interests: Social Change, Development Studies, Globalization, Community Engagement & Participation, Community Development, and 19 moreSocial Justice, Neoliberalism, Social Exclusion, Social Inclusion, Power, Modernización del Estado, Alba, Nicaragua, Politicas Publicas, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Administracion Publica, Petrocaribe, Ciencias Policas, Proyectos Y Politicas De Inclusion Social, Proyectos De Responsabilidad Social, Practice Based Approaches to the Study of Knowing, Learning and Change In Organisations, Higher Education Feminist Studies of Science and Technology, and Collaborative Action Research Methodologies
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Research Interests: Educación, Derechos Humanos, Socialismo, Desigualdades Sociales, Política y Sociología de Educación Superior. Sociología de la ciencia. Sociología de la acción pública., and 8 moreAntropología, economía, filosofía, derecho, educación, ciencias políticas, transformación social, marxismo, pensamiento latinoamericano, africano y asiático, Políticas Educativas, Internacionalizacion De La Educacion Y Globalizacion, Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela, Sociologia Educación, Historia Y Teoría De La Educación, Políticas Públicas Y Sociales, and Estados De Bienestar
Research Interests: Latin American and Caribbean History, Slavery, History of Slavery, Colonialism, Abolition of Slavery, and 20 moreJamaica, Guyana, Empire, Imperialism, Agency, Plantations, Abolitionism, Freedom, Resistance, Oppression, Rebellions, Berbice, Demerara Revolution, 1823, Essequibo, Plantation Le Resouvenir, Enslaved, Captive Africans, Plantation Slavery, and Substantive Freedoms
This book adds to discussions of the neoliberal restructuring of Latin America-Caribbean and beyond by analysing the Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) programme in El Salvador as ‘one of the most influential’ (p. 20) and... more
This book adds to discussions of the neoliberal restructuring of Latin America-Caribbean and beyond by analysing the Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) programme in El Salvador as ‘one of the most influential’ (p. 20) and ‘extreme’ (p. 16) forms of education decentralisation and privatisation. Based on doctoral research, a critical global governance/political economy approach delineates the pluriscalar processes of policy formation and implementation of the World Bank’s ‘flagship program’ (p. 134/135) – mechanisms, pathways, ideas, interests, and institutional and individual actors –from its inception as a ‘fledgling program’ in six El Salvadoran communities in 1991 (p. 16) to becoming a global education policy promoted by the ‘political-financial-intellectual complex’ (p. 282).
Research Interests: Education, Popular Education, Globalization, Research Methodology, Transnationalism, and 15 moreCommunity Engagement & Participation, Global Governance, Education Policy, World Bank, El Salvador, Education Policy Studies, Public Policy Analysis, Critical sociology and politics of education, Decentralization, Privatization, Critical Policy Studies, Community Governance, FMLN, Neoliberalism and Education, and Education decentralization
Review of William K. Carroll's "Expose, Oppose, Propose: Alternative Policy Groups and the Struggle for Global Justice." The organic crisis of hegemonic neoliberal globalization, manifested in aggravated uneven development condensed with... more
Review of William K. Carroll's "Expose, Oppose, Propose: Alternative Policy Groups and the Struggle for Global Justice." The organic crisis of hegemonic neoliberal globalization, manifested in aggravated uneven development condensed with ecological unsustainability, requires systemic transformation towards justice globalism. William Carroll’s distinguished 4-year research project integrates network analysis with qualitative interviewing to depict a rich picture of the contribution of counter-hegemonic knowledge production and mobilisation by transnational alternative policy groups (TAPGs) to such an emancipatory alternative future. Grounded in thorough data analysis, dialogue between neo-Gramscian methodology and the empirical, makes this book an indispensable resource for proponents of global justice as it overcomes the disempowering voluntaristic localism and anti-statism that underlies much of both mainstream and critical approaches to “progressive” social transformation.
Research Interests: Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Political Economy, Globalization, and 15 moreTransnationalism, Sociology of Knowledge, Political Science, Knowledge sharing, Global Justice, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Resistance (Social), Transnational Social Movements, Social transformation, Neo-Marxism, Knowledge Communities, Neo-Gramscianism, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Ecosocialism, and Anti Capitalist Social Movements
Research Interests: International Relations, Geopolitics, Latin American politics, Regionalism, Hegemony, and 7 moreLatin America, Counter Hegemony, América Latina, Alternativa Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra América, Latin american integration, Anti-imperialism and Globalization Studies, and Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA)
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s extraordinarily thoughtful book joins the small but increasingly relevant body of critical international education and education policy literature that visibilises projects by ‘the South’ that pursue educational... more
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s extraordinarily thoughtful book joins the small but increasingly relevant body of critical international education and education policy literature that visibilises projects by ‘the South’ that pursue educational justice outside (and against) the dominant ideology of privatisation, marketisation and elitism.
Research Interests: Sociology, Political Sociology, Human Geography, Education, Sociology of Education, and 22 moreDevelopment Studies, Globalization, Middle East Studies, North Africa Studies, Humanitarianism, Refugee Studies, Cuban Studies, Comparative & International Education, Palestine, Caribbean Studies, Education Policy, Politics Of Education, Peace Education, Critical sociology and politics of education, Refugee Education, South-south cooperation, MENA region, Multi-Sited Ethnography, International Development Cooperation, Refugee Studies, Education, Social Policy, Sahrawi, and Educational Migration
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Research Interests: Latin American Studies, International Relations, Latin America (Comparative Politics), Globalization, Latin American politics, and 16 moreRevolutions, Socialisms, Globalization And Postcolonial Studies, Venezuela, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Social movements and revolution, Socialism, Latin America, Socialismo, Revolution, Ernesto Laclau, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Venezuelan Politics, Chávez y la política exterior de Venezuela, Bolivarian Revolution, and Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA)
This outstanding volume is a crucial contribution to the ongoing paradigmatic struggle over how to make sense of the revolutionary transformations of Latin America-Caribbean. Follow the link to read online at E-International Relations... more
This outstanding volume is a crucial contribution to the ongoing paradigmatic struggle over how to make sense of the revolutionary transformations of Latin America-Caribbean.
Follow the link to read online at E-International Relations http://www.e-ir.info/2015/03/18/review-democracy-revolution-and-geopolitics-in-latin-america/
Follow the link to read online at E-International Relations http://www.e-ir.info/2015/03/18/review-democracy-revolution-and-geopolitics-in-latin-america/
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, and 22 moreAnthropology, International Relations, Education, Indigenous Studies, Media Studies, Globalization, Human Rights, Political Science, Revolutions, Race and Ethnicity, Global Justice, Regionalism, Venezuela, Structuralism/Post-Structuralism, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Social movements and revolution, Democracy, Decolonial Thought, South-south cooperation, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Theories of Socialism, and Antiglobalization Social Movements
In 2013, at two consecutive ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe summits, the creation of a ‘Petrocaribe Economic Zone’ and an ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe/MERCOSUR ‘Complementary Economic Zone’ was declared, followed in July 2014, towards the end the Venezuelan... more
In 2013, at two consecutive ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe summits, the creation of a ‘Petrocaribe Economic Zone’ and an ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe/MERCOSUR ‘Complementary Economic Zone’ was declared, followed in July 2014, towards the end the Venezuelan presidency of MERCOSUR, by the announcement of the ‘promotion of the establishment of a Complementary Economic Zone’ between the member states of MERCOSUR, the ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe and of CARICOM. While much of the literature on Latin American and Caribbean regionalisms has viewed the ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe, MERCOSUR and CARICOM as incompatible, competing or conflicting projects, this paper adopts a South-South cooperation lens to explain the convergence of these regionalisms. I argue that South-South cooperation was resuscitated in Latin America and the Caribbean in the early 2000s through the Cuban and Venezuelan governments’ creation of the ALBA-TCP/Petrocaribe, whose principles (discourse, practice, institutionalisation) of solidarity, complementarity, cooperation and reciprocity subsequently became ‘regionalised’ not unilinearly, but in relation with like-minded social and political forces. Whilst identifying actors and processes in this co- and re-constitution of regionalisms, methodologically, I propose a socio-spatial approach to understand the changing geography of regionalisms in Latin America and the Caribbean. Empirically, the arguments presented draw from content and discourse analysis of over 500 documents from the period 2000–2014, municipal, national and regional development plans, and 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the emerging South-South cooperation space since 2005.
The downloadable paper is the final published version of the conference paper.
The downloadable paper is the final published version of the conference paper.
The uploaded publications are based on the original conference paper.
This is the published version of the original conference paper. Grounded in a review of past and present academic South-South cooperation literatures, this article advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical,... more
This is the published version of the original conference paper.
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South-South cooperation literatures, this article advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South-South cooperation in the 21st century. This endeavour is motivated by a perceived undermining especially in the Anglophone academic South-South cooperation literature of the emancipatory potential that South-South cooperation has historically been associated with. By drawing from the interventionist South-South cooperation agendas of ‘left’-leaning Latin America-Caribbean governments, the article seeks to establish a dialogue between social science theories and less ‘visible’ analyses from academic (semi)peripheries. The ten theses culminate in an exploration of the potential of South-South cooperation to promote ‘alternative’ development.
Grounded in a review of past and present academic South-South cooperation literatures, this article advances ten theses that problematise empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues essential to discussions of South-South cooperation in the 21st century. This endeavour is motivated by a perceived undermining especially in the Anglophone academic South-South cooperation literature of the emancipatory potential that South-South cooperation has historically been associated with. By drawing from the interventionist South-South cooperation agendas of ‘left’-leaning Latin America-Caribbean governments, the article seeks to establish a dialogue between social science theories and less ‘visible’ analyses from academic (semi)peripheries. The ten theses culminate in an exploration of the potential of South-South cooperation to promote ‘alternative’ development.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, and 18 moreInternational Relations, Political Economy, Ontology, Development Studies, Globalization, International Development, Methodology, Political Ecology, Global Governance, Political Science, Politics, Regionalism, International Cooperation, South-south cooperation, World Economy, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, Dependency Theory, and Theories of Socialism
This paper traces the Cuba-Nicaragua official cooperation relations from the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 to the contemporary construction of socialism in Latin America and the Caribbean via the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our... more
This paper traces the Cuba-Nicaragua official cooperation relations from the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 to the contemporary construction of socialism in Latin America and the Caribbean via the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples Trade Agreements (ALBA-TCP). Attention will be paid to the nature of this cooperation - its principles, terms and modalities over time - as well as the bilateral cooperation within the ALBA-TCP with respect to food security and food sovereignty and the related agricultural policies. This seeks to further understanding and theorisation of both the functioning of the ALBA-TCP political economy (production and terms of trade) and of emerging paradigms of contemporary South-South development cooperation.
The consolidation of ‘third generation’ regionalisms in Latin America and the Caribbean has been accompanied by the claim within the international relations (IR), international political economy (IPE) and comparative political economy... more
The consolidation of ‘third generation’ regionalisms in Latin America and the Caribbean has been accompanied by the claim within the international relations (IR), international political economy (IPE) and comparative political economy (CPE) literature of a Brazil-Venezuela rivalry which at the regional scale manifests itself in competing integration projects: the ‘Venezuela-driven’ Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) vs the ‘Brazilian-led’ Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). This paper counter-argues these assertions along three distinct though interrelated dimensions: first, a historical analysis reveals the intricate processes and relationships through which the neoliberal Community of South American Nations became reconstituted as the counter-hegemonic UNASUR between 2005 and 2008; second, increased cooperation between Brazilian and Venezuelan actors manifests itself, inter alia, in the joint construction of a cross-border (sub)regionalism under the ALBA-TCP socialist principles; third, I conclude that the underlying claim to competing national political economies is the result of the ontological reduction of social processes in IR, IPE and CPE to international ones. While critique of methodological nationalism and methodological statism is not distinctly original, it needs reiteration to prevent the sedimentation of myths about the transforming geographies of Latin American and Caribbean regionalisms.
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Eradicating the high rate of illiteracy has been a key issue in consecutive education policy plans since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947. In 2009, the Government of Pakistan set the target to increase the... more
Eradicating the high rate of illiteracy has been a key issue in consecutive education policy plans since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947. In 2009, the Government of Pakistan set the target to increase the national literacy rate to 86 per cent by 2015. However, according to the 2016 Human Development Index, only 58.5 per cent of the Pakistan population aged 15 and older can, with understanding, read and write a simple statement on everyday life. This paper addresses the question of why the objective to raise the level of literacy has not been met despite the reiterated urgency of the problem and the adoption of different problem-solving approaches over time. We look into a set of themes which emerged in our case study research on the global governance of education provision in Pakistan as being of significance for explaining the persistence of a low literacy rate in that country: i) decentralization of the public administration of the education system to the provincial level (in our case, the Sindh Province, as one of the four provinces of Pakistan), and its detrimental effect on the capacity of the national government to act towards increasing the literate population; ii) the role of international donors since the 2000s in establishing public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a provincial and short-term policy solution for raising participation in basic education; iii) the role of local NGOs, non-dependent on public funding, in identifying and acting upon the existing wide gap between the younger and the older literate population in Pakistan.
This talk today neither represents a literature-based, academic endeavour, nor does it aim to present “recipes”. It is merely a reflection on my 30-year experience as an educationist and educator, followed by 3 examples of student-centred... more
This talk today neither represents a literature-based, academic endeavour, nor does it aim to present “recipes”. It is merely a reflection on my 30-year experience as an educationist and educator, followed by 3 examples of student-centred education from recent years.
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Sponsored via a highly competitive ESRC ‘1+3’ PhD Studentship (2003-2007, PTA-030-2003-00417), this transdisciplinary PhD thesis is the first socio-spatial theorisation of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and the Bolivarian Alliance for... more
Sponsored via a highly competitive ESRC ‘1+3’ PhD Studentship (2003-2007, PTA-030-2003-00417), this transdisciplinary PhD thesis is the first socio-spatial theorisation of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a South-South counter-hegemonic globalisation project. Grounded in 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork, it analyses the role of the Venezuelan government’s 'higher education for all' strategy in the construction of ‘direct democracy’ and ‘participatory democracy’, identified as definitional of the envisioned ‘new’ socialism. The significance and originality of this pluri-scalar study is revealed through an analysis of processes, structural forces and political alliances among state and non-state actors involved in this multi-dimensional transformation of development geographies in Latin America-Caribbean. Key theoretically grounded concepts developed in the discussion include the ‘state-in-revolution’, the ‘transnational organised society’, and ‘pluri-scalar war of position’. This constructivist approach overcomes the state/society dichotomy that ontologically underlies much of the post-structuralist, especially the post-development literature.
Download of the original thesis (University of Bristol Library scan) at:
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.499925
Download of the original thesis (University of Bristol Library scan) at:
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.499925
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Social Movements, Latin American Studies, Globalization, Latin American politics, Revolutions, and 10 moreRegionalism, Latin American Politics (Political Science), Socialism, Counterculture, Latin America, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony, América Latina, Alternativa Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra América, Bolivarian Revolution, and Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA)
UNISON Manchester (UK) evening of solidarity with Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution
Thomas Muhr interviewed by Meesha Nehru at the first ALBA Conference, London Metropolitan University, 29 January 2011.
Research Interests: Latin American Studies, Latinoamerica, Integración bolivariana, Alternativa Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra América, Bolivarian Revolution, and 7 moreRevolucion bolivariana, Sosialisme Bolivarian, Alternativa Bolivariana Para América Latina Y El Caribe (ALBA), Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos De Nuestra América (ALBA), Bolivarianism, Revolución Bolivariana, and Revolução Bolivariana
Eradicating the high rate of illiteracy has been a key issue in consecutive education policy plans since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947. In 2009, the Government of Pakistan set the target to increase the... more
Eradicating the high rate of illiteracy has been a key issue in consecutive education policy plans since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947. In 2009, the Government of Pakistan set the target to increase the national literacy rate to 86 per cent by 2015. However, according to the 2016 Human Development Index, only 58.5 per cent of the Pakistan population aged 15 and older can, with understanding, read and write a simple statement on everyday life. This paper addresses the question of why the objective to raise the level of literacy has not been met despite the reiterated urgency of the problem and the adoption of different problem-solving approaches over time. We look into a set of themes which emerged in our case study research on the global governance of education provision in Pakistan as being of significance for explaining the persistence of a low literacy rate in that country: i) decentralization of the public administration of the education system to the provincial level (in our case, the Sindh Province, as one of the four provinces of Pakistan), and its detrimental effect on the capacity of the national government to act towards increasing the literate population; ii) the role of international donors since the 2000s in establishing public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a provincial and short-term policy solution for raising participation in basic education; iii) the role of local NGOs, non-dependent on public funding, in identifying and acting upon the existing wide gap between the younger and the older literate population in Pakistan.
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Das lateinamerikanische Kooperationsbündnis ALBA versteht sich als Alternative zu bisherigen Freihandelsverträgen und als Gegenmodell zur kapitalistischen Ökonomie. Die Bildungsagenda der ALBA-Länder war Thema der Veranstaltung "¡Yo sí... more
Das lateinamerikanische Kooperationsbündnis ALBA versteht sich als Alternative zu bisherigen Freihandelsverträgen und als Gegenmodell zur kapitalistischen Ökonomie. Die Bildungsagenda der ALBA-Länder war Thema der Veranstaltung "¡Yo sí puedo!" im C3-Centrum für Internationale Entwicklung mit Thomas Muhr und Daniel Görgl.
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Ten Dimensions of Counter-hegemonic Integration: ALBA and Third Generation Regionalism, presented at the Constructing a Post-Imperial World: Third Worldism and ALBA as Anti-Colonial Projects in International Law, The New Zealand Centre for Latin American Studies (NZCLAS) Seminar Series (29/03/2011)more
Key aspects and arguments of this forum can be found in Muhr, T. (ed.) (2013) Counter-Globalization and Socialism in the 21st Century: The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. London: Routledge.
A speech by Daniel Ortega, which I have analysed and referenced in my academic publications, but which does not appear to be publicly available any longer.