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In Neoliberalism from Below-first published in Argentina in 2014-Verónica Gago examines how Latin American neoliberalism is propelled not just from above by international finance, corporations, and government, but also by the activities of migrant workers, vendors, sweatshop workers, and other marginalized groups. Using the massive illegal market La Salada in Buenos Aires as a point of departure, Gago shows how alternative economic practices, such as the sale of counterfeit goods produced in illegal textile factories, resist neoliberalism while simultaneously succumbing to its models of exploitative labor and production. Gago demonstrates how La Salada's economic dynamics mirror those found throughout urban Latin America. In so doing, she provides a new theory of neoliberalism and a nuanced view of the tense mix of calculation and freedom, obedience and resistance, individualism and community, and legality and illegality that fuels the increasingly powerful popular economies of the global South's large cities.
List of contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Neoliberalism from Below: A Perspective from Latin America 1
1. Between the Proletarian Microeconomy and the Transnational Network: La Salada 29
2. Between La Salada and the Workshop: Communitarian Wealth in Dispute 78
3. Between Servitude and the New Popular Entrepreneurship: The Clandestine Textile Workshop 108
4. Between the Workshop and the Villa: A Discussion about Neoliberalism 153
5. Between Postnational Citizenship and the Ghetto: The Motley City 178
6. Between Populism and the Politics of the Governed: Governmentality and Autonomy 218
Conclusion. Neoliberal Reason 234
Notes 237
References 257
Index 271
About the author
Verónica Gago is Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Professor at the Instituto de Altos Estudios, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, and Assistant Researcher at the National Council of Research (CONICET). Her work is deeply influenced by active participation in the experience of Colectivo Situaciones.
Summary
Veronica Gago provides a new theory of neoliberalism by examining how Latin American neoliberalism is propelled not just from above by international finance, corporations, and government, but by the activities of migrant workers, vendors, sweatshop workers, and other marginalized groups in and around the La Salada market in Buenos Aires.
