Polarizing Development Alternatives to Neoliberalism and the Crisis

The global economic crisis has exposed the limits of neoliberalism and intensified social polarization. Amid increasing social resistance and opposition, however, neoliberalism prevails globally.

Within political economic debates, however, radical alternatives are rarely debated or are reduced to new Keynesian and new developmental agendas, which fail to address existing class divisions and imperialist relations of domination.

This unique collection of essays polarizes the debate between radical and reformist alternatives by exploring head-on the antagonistic structure of capitalist development in Latin America, Southern Asia, Europe, the US and the Middle East. The contributors ground the question of alternatives in an international, non-Eurocentric and avowedly Marxian analysis of the capitalist system and its crises. The collection's approach is also distinctive in arguing that social and labour movements are core determinants of development outcomes and progressive change.

This new generation of scholars has written accessible yet theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters elaborating radically different worldwide strategies for moving beyond neoliberalism, and beyond capitalism. The intent is to provoke critical reflection and positive action towards substantive change.

Lucia Pradella works at the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari, and is a Research Associate in the SOAS Department of Development Studies. She is conducting research on the working poor in Western Europe, globalisation, and the history of political economy. She is the author of Globalisation and the Critique of Political Economy (2014).

Thomas Marois is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London. He works in the field of comparative political economy researching problems of finance, development, privatisation, and alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. He is the author of States, Banks and Crisis: Emerging Finance Capitalism in Mexico and Turkey (2012).

Introduction: Beyond Neoliberalism? The World Market, Crisis, and Alternatives; Lucia Pradella and Thomas Marois

Part I: Alternative Themes
1. The Myth of Marx as a Developmental Economist; Lucia Pradella
2. Thinking about the State, Development, and Alternatives to Emerging Finance Capitalism; Thomas Marois
3. Marxism and the Problems of Developmental Statism; Ben Selwyn
4. Globalisation and the Crisis: Challenges Facing Workers North and South; John Smith
5. South-South 'Cooperation'?; Dae-oup Chang
7. Imperialism, 'Permanent War', and Resistance; Adam Hanieh
6. Crisis and Global migration; Pietro Basso
8. Social Reproduction Feminism in a Post-Colonial World: Decommodification and the 'Commons' Agenda; Susan Spronk, Sarah Miraglia, Chandra Talpade Mohanty
9. Defend, Militate and Alternate: Public Options in a Privatized World; David McDonald
10. Exploding in the Air: Beyond the Carbon Trail of Neoliberal Development; Andreas Malm

Part II: Alternatives Cases
11. Latin America within the World Economy; Abelardo Marina Flores
12. Crisis and Class, Advance and Retreat: The Political Economy of the New Latin American Left; Jeff Webber
13. Taking Control: Subsistence, Decommodification and Autonomy. The Development Alternative of the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas and the Landless Movement in Brazil: Leandro Vergara-Camus
14. A Critique of the 'Women in Development' Approach in Turkey from the Perspective of Materialist Feminism; Demet Ozmen Yilmaz
15. The Rise of East Asia: a Slippery Floor for the Left; Dae-oup Chang
16. Labour as an Agent of Change: Problematising the Emerging Labour Movement in China; Tim Pringle
17. Re-thinking Social Protection and the 'Decent Work' Agenda: State, Political Accommodation and the Labouring Class in India; Satoshi Miyamura and Jonathan Pattenden
18. Sub Saharan Africa
19. Region, State and Class: The Middle East and the Global Crisis; Adam Hanieh
20. Europe in the Crisis and Social Movements; Christian Frings
21. The US and the Mutating Crisis of Global capitalism; David McNally