Beyond Development: Alternative Visions from Latin America, 198 pp

to read the 198-page "Beyond Development: Alternatives from Latin America" from the Rosa Luxemburg foundation, click on

http://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/sonst_publikationen/BeyondDevelopment.pdf

Ulrich Brand is a professor of International Relations at the University of Vienna. Ulrich Brand's The role of the state and public policies in processes of transformation can be downloaded at 106-115

Quote Ulrich Brand:

In Latin America and elsewhere debates and actions addressing possible alternatives to neoliberal and neocolonial policies often assume that a state led by a progressive government can change cultural and socio-economic practices with adequate public policies. These practices are understood to originate in the proposals and struggles that arise in society, but often only the state is seen to be capable of providing continuity to the changing relationships of forces; in Gramsci’s words, creating “hegemony, with armed force”.

Yep, the U.N.'s about to have one of these very "debates and actions" soon, with the notion that some sort of macro world vision translated magically into various national policies might come about. Meanwhile, the atmosphere can't take any more CO2 as the latest publication from the same institution's scientific arm (IPCC) tells the world, and we must stop extracting and burning the sources now, not tomorrow.