Download LAS-EPCC Project - Fernando Leiva

Latin Americ an Stud ie s/ Criti cal Cultur al Pol itica l Econ o my Proj ect
Latin American Studies after the 2008-2009 Crisis:
The promise and contribution of Critical Cultural Political Economy
Dr. Fernando Leiva
Department of Latin American, Caribbean and US Latino Studies, University at
Albany, USA
fleiva@albany.edu
(518) 442-4891
Dra. Carmen Caamaño
Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales
Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica
carmen.caamano@ucr.ac.cr
(506) 2511-8691
September 15, 2009
A. Background
B. Project Objectives
C. Work Program
D. How to Support the LAS/EPCC Project
A. BACKGROUND
Calls for more closely linking the “cultural turn” of past decades with the political economy of
contemporary capitalism are increasingly being heard in a wide gamut of academic and scholarly
settings. In the process, a number of questions have begun to coalesce: (1) Is a synthesis possible
between those approaches which during the 50s and 60s focused on structural analysis and on
elucidating the historically specific forms of production, appropriation and distribution of the
surplus (to the detriment of gender, agency, and the construction of meanings), and the poststructuralist turn of more recent decades with its focus on discourse, sexuality, the body, identity
and subjectivity? What paths are being followed to bring about such a synthesis and where are
these efforts unfolding? How may the research agenda of Latin American studies be impacted by
such efforts? How will the 2008-2009 global financial crisis influence theoretical approaches of
the social sciences and humanities and Latin American/Estudios Latinoamericanos in particular?
The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 represents a historical and intellectual turning point.
Along with the demise of dogmatic neoliberalism, the global financial crisis of 2008-2009
underscores that contemporary phenomena cannot be explained on the basis of discourse, identity
or subjectivity alone. The downfall of Wall Street, the bankruptcy of General Motors, the intense
transnationalization and financialization of social life, and persistence of inequality in Latin
America also have to be examined as rooted in the structural and systemic dynamics of
contemporary capitalism. Thus, it is not farfetched to assert that in its wake, the current crisis will
encourage a further review and recasting of debates concerning the relationship between
discursive practices and the materiality of power relations in the co-constitution of contemporary
capitalism.
As different authors have indicated (Beverly 2001; Castro-Gomez 2005), four main currents
emerged within Latin American studies over the past decade: (1) studies of political and cultural
practices along the lines suggested by Néstor García Canclini, George Yúdice, Jesús Martín
Barbero and Daniel Mato; (2) deconstructionist cultural critique as in the work of Alberto
Moreiras, Nelly Richard, Beatriz Sarlo, Roberto Schwarz and Luis Britto García; (3) subaltern
studies represented by John Beverly, Ileana Rodriguez and the Latin American Subaltern Studies
Group; and, finally, (4) postcolonial studies along the line of Walter Mignolo and the
Modernity/Coloniality group represented among others by Edgardo Lander, Aníbal Quijano,
Enrique Dussel, Catherine Walsh, Javier Sanjinés, Fernando Coronil, Ramón Grosfoguel, Freya
Schiwy, Nelson Maldonado and Castro-Gómez. The impact of each of these currents on Latin
American Studies has been tracked in the section “On the Profession” of various issues of the
LASA Forum. Though influencing the research agenda and revisioning of Latin American studies
(Escobar 2006), none of these four currents has convincingly theorized the relationship between
discourse and materiality along the lines suggested above or produced a forward looking
synthesis between political economy and cultural studies (Grosfoguel 2007).
In a way, the present moment could be characterized as the exhaustion of the poststructuralist
turn, particularly in its more extreme versions hyperbolizing the role of discourse. Thus, the
growing interest in paying greater attention to systemic variables and materiality of social
relations, beyond just the mere subjective or discursive dimension but without reducing the latter
to a superstructural “reflection” of the former.
Outside the field of Latin American studies/Estudios latinoamericanos, the Cultural Political
Economy Research Cluster (CEPERC) at Lancaster University, and the work of Andrew Sayer,
Bob Jessop, Ngai-Ling Sum y Norman Fairclough, among others, have created the “European”
variant of critical cultural political economy, an intersdisciplinary current that explicity seeks a
non-reductionist synthesis between the systemic and structural analysis of society (“materiality”)
with discursive practices (“semiosis”). In contrast to cultural political economy a secas, these
CPERC scholars insist on going beyond just how economic practices are socially and culturally
embedded. The explicit addition of “critical” to “cultural political economy” emphasizes their
interest in examining how material and discursive practices interact to ensure the inherently
incomplete and contradictory reproduction and regulation of concrete capitalist social formations
(Sayer 2001, Jessop and Sum 2001 ). These researchers have so far focused on Europe, on the
transition there between Fordism and post-Fordism, discourses on the knowledge economy and
corporate social responsibility.
In Latin America, and also outside the field of Latin American/Estudios latinoamericanos,
scholars like Cesar Bolaño (2000, 2006) and Ruy Sardinha Lopes (2007) in Brazil, Martin
Becerra and Guillermo Mastrini (2006) in Argentina, and Carlos del Valle in Chile (2004),
working within the field of Communication studies (many of them associated with the Unión
Latina de Economía Política de la Información, la Comunicación y la Cultura (ULEPICC)), have
also developed a radical cultural political economy. Their work on cognitive capitalism, the
current role of cultural industries and the changing role of the mass media in the reproduction of
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capitalism, without explicitly it to broader debates within the Social Sciences or Latin American
studies, despite the contribution that such linkages could make.
Thus, valuable scholarly efforts currently unfold separately, and disconnected to the field of Latin
American studies; if brought together, they could mutually benefit each other. This is the reason
why a group of researchers from different parts of the hemisphere, including the project
coordinators, are adopting critical cultural political economy for our inter and transdisciplinary,
empirical and/or theoretical work focused on specific Latin American localities. We have
embarked in a cooperative fashion in an attempt to bring about a synthesis of both strands of
critical cultural political economy, communication and other interdisciplinary studies that have
remained unconnected to LASA, and Latin American studies. Consequently, we have taken the
initial steps to set up a Critical Cultural Political Economy Working Group.
In August 2009, researchers in the Latin American, Caribbean and US Latino Studies at the
University at Albany, the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales at the Universidad de Costa Rica,
the Instituto de Comunicación e Imágen (ICEI) at the Universidad de Chile and the Centro de
Investigación sobre la Comunicación y Saberes Críticos (CYSAC) at the Universidad de la
Frontera, started to take the first steps to stablish the Working Group on Critical Cultural Political
Economy and to begin a process of study, exchange and collaboration about this subject.
B. PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The Latin American Studies/Critical Cultural Political Economy Project (LAS/CCPC) seeks to:
(1) Explore theoretically, methodologically and operationally, how the interdisciplinary
current known as critical cultural political economy, both in its “European” as well as
“Latin American” versions, conceptualize the relationship between discourse and
materiality today, and its implications on methodology, field research, and Latin
American Studies.
(2) Strengthen Latin American Studies/Estudios latinoamericanos in the new post-crisis
context.
(3) Generate north-south and south-south, multi and transdisciplinary research agendas
(4) Investigate possible collaboration between LASA and CLACSO academic networks.
To achieve these objectives, the LAS/CCPC project will create conditions for the fruitful
encounter among efforts that up until now have unfolded along separate tracks: (1) Critical
cultural political economy and Latin American studies; and (2) European and Latin American
critical cultural political economy. Likewise, on the basis of a concrete work program (see
below), the project seeks to bring closer together (3) Communication Studies and Latin American
Studies; and (4) Latin American Studies and Estudios Latinoamericanos further augmenting
cooperation and dialogue between members of LASA and CLACSO on the basis of shared
research projects.
This project seeks funding to organize an one-day conference on October 5, 2010 in Toronto
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before LASA to present, evaluate and debate the challenges, progress and difficulties in bringing
about a synthesis between different variants of critical cultural political economy and Latin
American studies .
To prepare such a conference, funding is being requested for two preparatory meetings, one in
January 2010 in San José, Costa Rica and another in September 2010 in Albany, NY. The
proceedings of the preparatory meetings and conference will be published in English and Spanish.
Funding from our home institutions and other funding is also being sought to support the
LAS/CCPE Project.
In addition to the pre-LASA conference and San José and Albany preparatory meetings, project
coordinators have submited panel proposal for LASA 2010.
C. WORK PROGRAM
The LAS/CCPE Project will carry three lines of action:
Action Line 1. Strengthen the Critical Cultural Political Economy Working Group (see
www.econpolc2.wordpress.com)
First Preparatory Meeting – 18-19 January 2010- Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales,
Universidad de Costa Rica.
1. La economía política cultural crítica y la Escuela de Lancaster: Aportes y vacios.
(Fernando Leiva, LACS)
2. Discursos sobre migración, etnicidad, y la producción de nuevas subjetividades:
Usando la economía política cultural crítica (Carmen Caamaño, IIS-UCR)
3. Conversatorio sobre investigaciones en curso sobre discurso, migración, etnicidad
y subjetividad (Investigador@s del Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Veracruzana, ICEI-Universidad de
Chile, CYSEC-Universidad de la Frontera, LACS-University at Albany)
4. El aporte de la comunicación a la economía política cultural crítica (ICEIUniversidad de Chile and CYSEC-Universidad de la Frontera)
5. Discusión constitución mesas Seminario-Pre-LASA
6. Futuros pasos del GTEPCC
Second Preparatory Meeting- September10, (September 2010 – LACS - University at Albany
1. Critical Cultural Political Economy: Contribution to Area Studies and Critical
Thinking (Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum, CPERC Lancaster University
2. La economía política y los estudios latinoamericanos (Salvador Castro-Gomez,
Universidad Javeriana)
3. La economía política cultural y los estudios de la comunicación (Cesar Bolaño y
Carlos del Valle)
4. Imaginarios y políticas públicas posneoliberales: Nuevas formas de entender la
relación entre discurso y materialidad en la producción de hegemonía hoy
(Fernando Leiva,LACS-Albany, y Veronica Schild,University of Western
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Ontario,)
5. Conversatorio sobre investigaciones la relación entre discurso y materialidad en la
producción de hegemonía hoy (Investigador@s del IIS-UCR, LACS-University
at Albany, CYSEC-UFRO, ICEI-UCH, Universidad Veracruzana) y participantes
del segundo encuentro
6. Configuración mesas Conferencia Pre-LASA
7. Futuros pasos del GTEPCC
Action Line 2: Pre-LASA Conference (Tentative Program)
Contributions of Critical Cultural Political Economy to Latin American Studies /Estudios
latinoamericanos
October 5, 2010 , Toronto
Panel 1: Critical Cultural Political Economy and Latin American Studies: Is a synthesis
possible?
Paper 1: Critical Cultural Political Economy, Pensamiento Crítico and Latin American
Studies: Blindspots, Challenges and Issues (Caamaño y Leiva)
Paper 2: The Development of Critical Cultural Political Economy at the CPERCLancaster (Ngai-Ling Sum and Bob Jessop, Lancaster University)
Paper 3: Latin American Roots of Radical Cultural Political Economy of Information,
Communication and Culture (Cesar Bolaño, Universidad de Sergipe)
Paper 4: Political economy in Latin America: Why so little attention to the discursive
dimension? (TBA)
Discussion among panelists
Panel 2: Postneoliberal Imaginaries and Public Policies: New Thinking about the
Discourse/Materiality Relationship in the Production of Hegemony
Paper 5: Citizenship, Gender, Power and Transnationalism in Latin America today
(TBA)
Paper 6: Progressive discourses and Chilean capitalism (Fernando Leiva- University
at Albany)
Paper 7: Rhetoric and Reality about Central American Integration (Andrés León
and Köen Voorend, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales Universidad de
Costa Rica)
Paper 8: Discurso y realidad sobre los bienes comunes y el ambiente (Alonso
Ramírez, IIS-UCR)
Discussion among panelists
Panel 3: Migración, etnicidad, vida cotidiana y la producción de nuevas identidadessubjetividades
Ponencia 9: Transnacionalización, etnicidad, clase y poder (Patricia Pinho y Susan
Gauss, LACS)
Ponencia 10: Migración, subjetividad, y nuevas formas de exclusión en Costa Rica
(Carmen Caamaño-Equipo Migración Nicaragüense – IIS-UCR)
Ponencia 11: Migración, subjetividad, y nuevas formas de exclusión en México
(María José García Oramas, Equipo de Psicología Comunitaria-UVE )
Ponencia 12: Migracion, Etnicidad y Exclusión en Santiago (Lorena Antezana and
Ximena Poo, ICEI, Universidad de Chile)
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Ponencia 13: Migración, etnicidad mapuche, y discursos jurídico-judiciales en la
Región de Araucanía (Panelista Universidad de la Frontera)
Panel 4: Clausura: Fortaleciendo el pensamiento crítico y los estudios latinoamericanos y
del caribe en el siglo XXI: ¿Hacia una reelaboración de la economía política cultural
crítica?
Ponencia 14: La teoría decolonial, la economía política cultural crítica y los estudios
latinomericanos (TBA)
Ponencia 15: ¿Hacia donde vamos en CLACSO? (TBA)
Ponencia 16: ¿Hacia donde vamos en LASA? (TBA)
Ponencia 17: ¿Hacia donde vamos en el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Economía Política
Cultural Crítica? (Fernando Leiva y Carmen Caamaño)
Comments: Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum (CPERC-Lancaster U.)
Cesar Bolaño (Universidad de Brasilia)
Action Line 3: Publication and Dissemination of Preparatory Meeting and Conference
Proceedings.
D. HOW TO SUPPORT THE LAS/CCPE PROJECT?
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You can write to Fernando Leiva (fleiva@albany.edu) or Carmen Caamaño
(carmen.caamano@ucr.ac.cr) for more information
You can follow and join the Grupo de Trabajo sobre Economía Política Cultural
Crítica (www.econpolc2@wordpress.com)
You can attend the panels we have proposed for LASA 2010 and pre-conferences and
preparatory meetings.
References
Becerra, M. and G. Mastrini (2006). "Senderos de la economía de la comunicación: un enfoque latinoamericano."
CIC. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación 11: 111-128.
Bolaño, C. (2000). Indústria cultural, informacao e capitalismo. Sao Paulo, Editora HUCITEC
Editora Pólis.
Bolaño, C. (2006). "Tapando el agujero negro. Para una crítica de la Economía Política de la Comunicación." CIC.
Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación 11: 47-56.
Castro-Gómez, S. (2005). La poscolonialidad explicada a los niños, Editorial Universidad del Cauca
Instituto Pensar, Universidad Javeriana.
Castro-Gómez, S. (2005). "Althusser, los estudios culturales y el concepto de ideología."
del Valle, C. (2004). Metainvestigación de la comunicación en Chile: Tendencia y crítica. Temuco, Ediciones
Universidad de la Frontera.
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Escobar, A. (2006). "Revisioning Latin American and Caribbean Studies: A Geopolitics of Knowledge Approach."
LASA Forum 37(2 (Spring)).
Grosfoguel, R. (2007). "La descolonización de la economía política y los estudios postcoloniales: Transmodernidad,
pensamiento fronterizo y colonialidad global." Tareas, no. 125. CELA, Centro de Estudios
Latinoamericanos Justo Arosemena: Panama. 2007 0494-7061.
Jessop, B. and N.-L. Sum (2001). "Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives." New Political Economy
6(1): 89-101.
Leiva, F. I. (2008). Latin American Neostructuralism: The Contradictions of Post-Neoliberal Development.
Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press.
Sardinha-Lopes, R. (2007). Informacao, Conhecimento e Valor. Sao Paulo, Radical Livros.
Sayer, A. (2001). "For a Critical Cultural Political Economy." Antipode 33(4): 687-708.
Sum, N.-L. (2002). From 'Integral State' to 'Integral World Economic Order': Towards a Neo-Gramscian Cultural
International Political Economy. Cultural Political Economy Working Paper Series No. 7. Lancaster,
Lancaster University.
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