ÉCONOMIE POLITIQUE CRITIQUE

This chapter analyses the dynamics of diverse urbanisation processes in the South in the context of the global economy based on a new international division of labour and new forms of governance. It takes into account the diverse but relevant development and critical theories, the macroeconomic and social policies implemented by successive governments, the political regimes and changing forms of the state in terms of how open they are to urban popular movements and their claims. It explores the networks of a growing civil society of non-governmental organisations, an uncivil society, and the role played by multilateral agencies and their policies aimed at the urban poor. Finally, following the insights of critical theories, it highlights how the urban poor struggle over, contest, and claim urban citizenship through ordinary and everyday acts of belonging in cities. Special attention is given to three key issues: (i) urban production in terms of capital and labour; (ii) urban development in terms of the dynamics involved in reproducing the workforce and the social conditions of these dynamics—coloniality, social exclusion, inequality, and poverty; and (iii) forms of urban governance, politics, and agency.

This article offers a comparative analysis of Argentina and Brazil’s labour movement during and immediately after the “Pink Tide”, a period during which most South American countries elected progressive governments. We adopt an analytical framework combining critical political economy and historical neo-institutionalism that points to the resilience of corporatist dynamics but also to their domestic specificities, due to divergent political and legal legacies. The contrasting implementations of Argentinean and Brazilian unions in workplaces, as well as their relations to political parties and to organizational unity explain most of the differences observed after the fall of the progressive governments in their respective countries.