The New Latin America. Manuel Castells

The New Latin America

      Fernando Calderón and Manuel Castells

      Translated by Ramsey McGlazer

      polity

      Copyright © Fernando Calderón and Manuel Castells 2020

      First published in Spanish as La nueva América Latina by Fondo de Cultura Económica 2019

      This English edition © Polity Press 2020

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      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4003-7

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Calderón G., Fernando, author.

      Title: The new Latin America / Fernando Calderón and Manuel Castells ; translated by Ramsey McGlazer.

      Other titles: Nueva America Latina.

      Description: Cambridge ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Translated from Spanish. | Summary: “A comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Latin America today”-- Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019057548 (print) | LCCN 2019057549 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509540013 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509540020 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509540037 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Latin America--Economic conditions--21st century. | Latin America--Social conditions--21st century.

      Classification: LCC HC125 .C243313 2020 (print) | LCC HC125 (ebook) | DDC 330.98--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057548 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057549

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      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      This book has had a peculiar trajectory. It began as a shared intellectual project, one that developed during a seven-year period, drawing on the empirical research of a group of scholars from 11 Latin American countries who studied the region’s transformation during the first decades of the twenty-first century. But each of us also traveled along separate paths through various countries, gathering information and reflecting on our findings, together with a broad range of colleagues and friends who helped us to understand the complex context that is Latin America. For this reason, we wish to thank everyone who worked on the book Navegar contra el viento: América Latina en la era de la información [Sailing against the Wind: Latin America in the Information Age], edited by Fernando Calderón. For joining us on this thrilling adventure, thanks to: Martin Puchet, Isadora Chacón, Diego Escobar, Isabel Licha, Haydee Ochoa, Miguel Ángel Contreras, Rodrigo Márquez, Fernando Mayorga, Solange Novelle, Juan Pablo Deluca, Ignacio Cretini, Ana Rivoir, Santiago Escuder, Gonzalo Vásquez, Deborah Pragier, and Juan Wahren. Special thanks to the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) in Argentina for supporting this project.

      We have made numerous friends and met many colleagues during the last few years. Many thanks to them as well. For their intellectual contributions to the analyses offered in this book, we thank Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Francisco Delich, Ernesto Ottone, Isidora Chacón, Alejandra Moreno Toscano, Alicia Ziccardi, Manuel Perló, Carmen Rodríguez Armesta, Helena Useche, Tarso Genro, and Marcelo Branco.

We also had the privilege to discuss our progress and our research in several academic contexts. Fernando Calderón benefited from a year of reflection spent at the University of Cambridge, where he held the Simón Bolívar Chair. He would especially like to thank the Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, as well as Clare Hall College and his colleagues and friends in Cambridge: John Thompson, Jeff Milley, Johanna Page, and especially Julie Coimbra.

      In addition, we would like to highlight the contributions made by all of our friends and collaborators in the Programa de Innovación Desarrollo y Multiculturalismo at the UNSAM in Buenos Aires.

      Several other academic institutions provided organizational and/or financial support for the research on which this book is based, among them: the UNSAM in Argentina, the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to these institutions. The book’s final composition benefitted from opportunities to discuss and present our analyses in several academic contexts, in particular at the UNSAM, the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge, and the Center for Latin American