Making Aluminum in the Rainforest: The Socioeconomic Impact of Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon |
Author: |
Ciccantell,Paul S.
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Date |
Winter 1999
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Type |
Journal
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Journal Title: |
Journal-of-Developing-Areas
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Volume/Pages |
33(2) 175-198
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Subject Matter |
Community Development; International; Globalization; Amazon; Rainforest
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Pedagogies |
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Abstract |
The theoretical perspective of new historical materialism is taken to explore how joining the world economy on the basis of raw materials impacts socioeconomically the extractive region, drawing on multiple-method (eg, interviews, observation) case study data on 4 materials-based communities in the Brazilian Amazon serving the aluminum & hydroelectric industries. The planning & political debate phase saw a marginalization of local population in the process & a centralization of national government political & economic control that accelerated during the construction phase. Construction typically results in major local socioeconomic impacts: employment; wages; local linkage to other economic activities (eg, provision of inputs); shifting local production systems & skills, particularly in terms of raw materials & transportation; infrastructural investments with no use beyond the life of the project; fiscal effects, eg, state & local taxes & a lack of government funding to pay incurring costs; massive relocation of local populations; & issues of assimilation & cultural maintenance of indigenous peoples. During operation of raw-materials-based projects, capital intensity creates few high-wage jobs & out-of-region spending, which contributes little to reducing under- & unemployment; further, capital-intensive operations impact local & regional social stratification, production value, & local-input purchasing linkages. In general, a globalizing effect has occurred in the four communities based on increased linkages to the outside world, yielding some positive, but more negative, consequences. J. Lindroth
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