Development as Vocation: Latin America in the Neoliberal Era

FAIN: FT-291499-23

Maria Margarita Fajardo
Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY 10708-5999)

Research leading to an intellectual history of economic development in Latin America between the 1960s and 1990s. 

The book project "Development as Vocation: Latin America in the Neoliberal Era" investigates the resilience of the developmental state in Latin America in a context of a sweeping 'neoliberal turn' that declared it defunct. To do so, it will explore the intellectual, institutional, and personal connections that underpin seemingly isolated policy initiatives in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia uncovering the formation of a regional network of experts with a vocation for development that has so far been dismissed or overlooked. By showing the persistence of developmentalist ideas and institutions, this research project aims at challenging the apparent omnipresence and omnipotence of 'neoliberalism' as ideology and praxis that has been perpetuated even by its critics.