Department/College/UnitSocial Sciences Division

TitleProfessor

AffiliationFaculty

Other UCSC Campus AffiliationDolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Merrill College

Web SiteWebsite
Extractivism

Primary Office LocationMerrill College Academic Building
30

Additional Location(s)Merrill Academic, room 30

Office HoursThursdays 5:20 PM - 7:20 PM (Fal 2025)

Mail StopMerrill/Crown Faculty Services

Biography, Education and Training

Born in Santiago, Chile, I am a transnational Chilean. 
PhD in Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
MA in Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
BA in Economics, American University (Washington D.C).

Summary of Expertise

Socio-environmental conflicts; Economic elites, the state, and political domination; Political economy; Latin American Development; Social Movements; Labor flexibility; Post-neoliberalism. 

Research Interests

I am currently working on two projects: The first is a book manuscript - Mythmaking Eco-Extractivism: Material-Semiotic Foundations of its Imaginaries and Political Technologies -- that applies a a systemic, strategic relational, critical cultural political economy approach to study how new capitalist hegemonic project centered on "green extractivism" arises and territorializes its operations. The second is a much delayed analysis of the forms of Latin American rentier capitalism and its state and non-state political forms. 

Teaching Interests

Latin American political economy, Critical cultural political economy, Contemporary socio-environmental conflicts.

Selected Publications

Books

• The Left Hand of Capital. Neoliberalism and the Left in Chile (SUNY Press, 2021)
• Latin American Neostructuralism: The Contradictions of Post-Neoliberal Development (University of Minnesota Press, 2008)

Peer Reviewed Articles

• "Economic Elites and New Strategies for Extractivism in Chile" European Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, No. 108 (July-December 2019), pp. 131-152 

Book Chapters

• "Chile and the Contemporary Power of Capital: Business Elites and Political Practices in a Neoliberal System in Crisis" In The Political Economy of Elites in Latin America. Edited by Jan Icker and Rebeca Ramos (Rougledge, 2024). 
• "Neo-ordoliberalism and the Left Prospects for Strengthening Democracy and Overcoming the Contemporary Crises of Latin American Capitalism." In New Democratic Initiatives in Authoritarian Twenty-Frist Century Latin America. Edited by C. Levy, M. Larraburre, and D. Furukawa. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024).
• "Beyond corporate social responsibility: New territorial management strategies to defeat community resistance to extractivism," From Extractivism to Sustainability. Scenarios and Lessons from Latin America. Edited by H. Veltmeyer and A. Esquerra-Cañete. (Routledge, 2023).

Work in Progress

• Mapping the Finance-Extractivism-Climate Change-Energy Transition Nexus in Chile
• "Mythmaking Eco-Extractivism: Materio-Semiotic Foundations of its Imaginaries and Political Technologies" (a monograph)
• Decarbonization by Dispossession: A Critical Introduction (a textbook)
• The Myth of Green Hydrogen in Boric's Chile (a journal article)

Selected Recordings

Documentary: "The Mapuche and the Myth of Chile" Al Jazeera, The Big Picture Series, Directed by Sanjiev Sohal