Polarizing Development (Paperback)

The global economic crisis has exposed the limits of neoliberalism and dramatically deepened social polarization. Yet, despite increasing social resistance and opposition, neoliberalism prevails globally.

Radical alternatives, moreover, are only rarely debated. And if they are, such alternatives are reduced to new Keynesian and new developmental agendas, which fail to address existing class divisions and imperialist relations of domination.

This collection of essays polarizes the debate between radical and reformist alternatives by exploring head-on the antagonistic structure of capitalist development. The contributors ground their proposals in an international, non-Eurocentric and Marxian inspired analysis of capitalism and its crises. From Latin America to Asia, Africa to the Middle East and Europe to the US, social and labour movements have emerged as the protagonists behind creating alternatives.

This book’s new generation of scholars has written accessible yet theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters elaborating radical 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 L’Attualità del ‘Capitale’ (2010) and 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).