2008 Annual Conference: Latin American Opposition to Neo-Liberalism

Friday, April 11, 2008 9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

The Latin American region has witnessed mounting opposition to neoliberalism over the course of the last decade. Recent developments in Bolivia and Venezuela in particular raise questions with critical implications for various fields of study, from political economy to political theory. Are these 21st-century revolutions turning the tide against the neoliberal consensus, or do they represent a regression to statist models of growth discredited long ago? Is Latin America finally finding its own way to participatory democracy, or are these recent political trends part of a worrisome global movement away from freedom and liberal rights? Do these developments suggest the possibility of forms of social reproduction that escape the logic of liberal capitalism by opening a space to the people? Must we then completely rethink the meaning of populism,, or will it always be equivalent to demagogy?

List of Participants [in alphabetical order]

Estela Carlotto, President of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and recipient of the 2006 New School University in Exile Award

Michael Cohen, Director, graduate program in International Affairs

Sujatha Fernandes, Queens College, City University of New York

Mario Gustavo Guzmán Saldaña, Ambassador of the Republic of Bolivia to the United States

Greg Grandin, New York University

Courtney Jung, Director, Janey Program in Latin American Studies

Bernardo Kliksberg, United Nations Development Program

Philip Oxhorn, McGill University

Fred Rosen, North American Congress on Latin America

David Schneiderman, University of Toronto

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