Henry Veltmeyer is a research professor in development studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas and professor emeritus in development studies and sociology at Saint Mary's University. He is Canadian, but with long experience in Latin America. He received a degree in philosophy and education from the Universidad Católica de Guayaquil and a certificate from the Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador, for his outstanding contributions to alternative social thought in Latin America. He is the author and editor of more than 60 books in the area of Latin American studies, the political economy of development and globalization, and social movements in Latin American. His most recent publications include “Neo-extractivismo: ¿un modelo de desarrollo post-neoliberal o imperialismo del siglo XXI? (Mexico, 2015) and Latin America in the Vortex of Social Change (London, 2019).

Publications (last 5 years):

Books:

2021. América Latina en la vorágine de la crisis. Extractivismo y alternativas. Guadalajara / Bielefeld / San José / Quito / Bueno Aires: CALAS.

2019. Latin America in the Vortex of Social Change. London: Routledge, [coautor J. Petras]

2018. Critical Development Studies: An Introduction. Halifax: Fernwood publications, 2018. [coautor R. Delgado Wise]

2017. Class Struggle in Latin America: Making History Today. Londres: Routledge, 2017. [coautor J. Petras].

2017. Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies. Abingdon, Oxon y New York: Routledge, [coeditor]

2015. El neoextractivismo: ¿Un modelo posneoliberal de desarrollo o el imperialismo del siglo XXI? México DF: Editorial Crítica / Ediciones Culturales Paidós, 2015. [coautor]

 

Journal articles:

2019. "Capital and Labour in the Global Financial Crisis,” International Critical Thought, 9 (1), Academia de Ciencia de China. [coautor].

2018. “Resistance, Class Struggle and Social Movements in Latin America: Contemporary Dynamics,” Journal of Peasant Studies.

2018. “Rethinking Development from a Latin American Perspective,” Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 39 (5).

2018. “Capitalist Development and Agrarian Change on the Latin American Periphery,” World Review of Political Economy, 8 (2), pp. 211-234.

2018. “Class Struggle Back on the Agenda in Latin America,” Journal of Developing Societies, 34 (1).

2017. “Deconstructing Latin American Development: Postdevelopment, Critical Theory or Marxist Political Economy?” Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs
and Applied Contemporary Thought,18 (2).

2017. “Resistance, Class Struggle and Social Movements in Latin America: Contemporary Dynamics,” Revista Theomai, No. 35, First semester, pp.52-71.

2017. “The Social Economy in Latin America as Alternative Development,” Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 38 (4), pp.38-54.

2017. Resistance and Social movement Dynamics in Latin America,” Inter-Ação, Goiânia Brasil, 42 (2), pp.269-296.

2017. “Aportes del pensamiento crítico Latinoamericano a la teoría y la práctica del desarrollo,” Mundo Siglo XXI (revista del IPN), XII (42), pp. 5-20.

2017. “Economía social en América Latina: ¿alter o posdesarrollo?” Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo, VII (12), pp.19-54.

2017. “Extractivismo: una discusión interamericana,” Observatorio del Desarrollo, 6 (17), pp. 6-17.

2017. “Capital y desarrollo: exposición de una relación íntima,” Observatorio del Desarrollo, 6 (18), pp.32-41.

2016. “Extractive Capital, the State and the Resistance in Latin America,” Sociology and Anthropology, 4 (8), pp.774-784.

 

Research project as CALAS fellow

Title: A system in crisis: The political economy of extractive capital in Latin America

Abstract: A fundamental premise for supporters of Critical Development Studies is that development is based on the accumulation and productive investment of capital. There is no debate on this. But what remains unresolved and subject to continuous debate are the dynamics and modalities of this accumulation process. In general theory, capital is understood in its money-form as financial capital, resources that are invested in the labor exploitation, which is considered the driving force of capitalist development. In these terms, the centrality of capital in the development process and capitalism as a framework for this development of the forces of production is established and not discussed. In this context, Capital is of an industrial type, accumulated on the basis of Labor exploitation through a prolonged process of productive and social transformation. However, from the beginning capitalism, or the capitalist development process, has been based not only on Labor exploitation but also on the exploitation of Nature, that is, the extraction of its wealth of natural resources: extractive capital.

In fact, the two types of capital (industrial, extractive) never exist in isolation; it can always be found in one combination or another. Therefore, since each form of capitalism has different dynamics, they must be differentiated and analyzed in terms of how they combine and intersect in a particular development process. The objective of the CALAS essay is to analyze the contemporary dynamics of capitalist development in the Latin American context, with special reference to the propensity of capitalism towards the crisis and the advance of 'extractive' capital: that is, the new geoeconomy of capital in the region.