In the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberal forms of governance largely dominated Latin American political and social life. Neoliberalism, Interrupted examines the recent and diverse proliferation of responses to neoliberalism’s hegemony. In so doing, this vanguard collection of case studies undermines the conventional dichotomies used to understand transformation in this region, such as neoliberalism vs. socialism, right vs. left, indigenous vs. mestizo, and national vs. transnational.
Deploying both ethnographic research and more synthetic reflections on meaning, consequence, and possibility, the essays focus on the ways in which a range of unresolved contradictions interconnect various projects for change and resistance to change in Latin America. Useful to students and scholars across disciplines, this groundbreaking volume reorients how sociopolitical change has been understood and practiced in Latin America. It also carries important lessons for other parts of the world with similar histories and structural conditions.
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“Mark Goodale and Nancy Postero’s collection offers us a vivid panorama of neoliberalism and its interruption, keeping in mind broader patterns of political economic transformation and civil society struggle. The chapters forcefully demonstrate neoliberalism’s investment in violence and regulation, while opening our eyes to civil society’s spaces to challenge them. From Buenos Aires to Venezuela, from race to gender, this collection represents an important theoretical and critical engagement with Latin America’s current realities.”
Sarah A. Radcliffe, author of Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and Transnationalism
“Neoliberalism, Interrupted is an aptly titled volume that examines the current status of neoliberal economic policy and governmentality in Latin America . . . Fine-grained political analysis and rich empirical detail reveal that while Washington Consensus policies are no longer hegemonic in Latin America, neoliberal governance is entrenched and evolving . . . Each of the eight country case studies offers rich historical and political analysis that is alive to contradiction and complexity . . . [T]he case studies are valuable and clearly grounded in deep engagements with research sites.”
Jennifer Goett, Journal of Anthropological Research
Mark Goodale 