Lost in the Long Transition Struggles for Social Justice in Neoliberal Chile

In Lost in the Long Transition, a group of scholars who conducted fieldwork research in postdictatorship Chile during the transition to democracy critically examine the effects of the country's adherence to neoliberal economic development and social policies. Shifting government responsibility for social services and public resources to the private sector, reducing restrictions on foreign investment, and promoting free trade and export production, neoliberalism began during the Pinochet dictatorship and was adopted across Latin America in the 1980s. With the return of civilian government, the pursuit of justice and equity worked alongside a pact of compromise and an economic model that brought prosperity for some, entrenched poverty for others, and had social consequences for all.

William L. Alexander is assistant professor of cultural anthropology at the University of North Caroline Wilmington and author of Resiliency in Hostile Environments: A Comunidad Agrcola in Chile's Norte Chico.