Parallel Lives: Dependency and Backwardness

Project Information

PARALLEL LIVES

Grant agreement ID: 893523

DOI

10.3030/893523

Project terminated on 31 August 2022

EC signature date 24 March 2020

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 251 002,56

EU contribution

€ 251 002,56

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PARALLEL LIVES (Parallel Lives: Dependency and Backwardness)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project has looked at the interactions between economists in Latin America and in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s. The issue addressed is the scope, extent, and significance of intellectual exchanges linking two important intellectual traditions that examined the world economy from a point of view alternative to Western liberalism. Both Soviet and Latin American economists attempted to theorize and overcome in practice key problems such as global economic inequality and trade imbalances. Their goal was the creation of a theory of economic development based on more inclusive and fair principles than mainstream approaches at the time. They hoped that this new theory would inspire the action of leading international organizations in the United Nations system that operated in the field of trade and development.

The project is primarily an academic study, whose main audience are historians and socialist scientists interested in liberal and illiberal approaches to the global economy. In this field, this project pushes the boundaries of transnational intellectual history, including non-traditional actors and societies in key discussions on the politics and economics of the twentieth century. Moreover, the project stresses the importance of approaches to economic governance and regulation elaborated in the Global South and in the former socialist world. Some of these ideas, including inclusivity and economic justice, have added relevance in the contemporary world, in which governments and international organizations need to find new solutions to economic crisis and unequal resource distribution on a global scale.

The overall objectives of the project are to provide the first academic study in the field of Soviet-Latin American intellectual cooperation. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the influence that both alternative economic projects had on each other, highlighting the importance of non-Western approaches to global economic management.

The grant was terminated after 12 months because I (the principal investigator) received an offer of employment at a leading academic institution. During the first 12 months of the project, I was able to carry out significant research for the project, and I have started drafting an article related to the themes discussed above. In the future, I hope to be able to return to this research project to advance my preliminary research.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project had three objectives: 1) To provide an analysis of the transnational intellectual search for an alternative to mainstream theories of trade and development; 2) to create a new body of knowledge on the historical trajectory of the regulation of global trade; 3) to promote scholarly awareness of the connections between Soviet economic thinking and alternative discourses about trade and globalization.

To work toward objective 1, over the past 12 months I conducted significant research on primary sources in English, Russian, and Spanish at Harvard’s Widener library and Lamont library. Both libraries contain hundreds of books, articles, and journals published in the USSR, in various Latin American countries, and in the English-speaking world. Over the 12 months of the grant, I was able to process and analyze 72 relevant issues of Latinskaia Amerika (“Latin America”), the Zhurnal Ekonomiki (the “Journal of Economics”), and Mirovaia Ekonomika i Mezhdunarodniie Otnoshenia (“World Economy and International Relations”), the three leading Soviet journals that dedicated articles and entire issues to the discussion of approaches to the international economy that came from Latin America. Likewise, I was able to process and analyze 34 relevant issues of the Revista de Economia (the “Review of Economics”), the main economics journal in Argentina, and of the Revista de Economia Polìtica (the “Review of Political Economy”), the main economics journal in Brazil. Moreover, I was able to access the personal memoirs of two leading Latin American economists that worked with Soviet colleagues in the context of the UN system: Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado. Finally, I also analyzed 13 issues of the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Political Economy, the two leading English-language publications that dedicated articles and overviews focused on alternative approaches to trade and development, including perspectives that came from Latin America and the socialist world.

Thanks to these materials, I have started drafting an article that investigates the relationship between Soviet and Latin American institutions in creating a new approach to global trade and development during the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, I have gathered sources that I hope will help me start drafting a second article, which will focus on intellectual exchanges between Soviet and Latin American economists. These were parts of objective 1.

The large amount of sources and materials that I have gathered while at Harvard will constitute the base on which to plan a scholarly monograph, entitled “Backward and Dependency: Parallel Lives.” This was the main aim of objective 2.

To work toward objective 3, over the past 12 months I presented papers related to aspects of the research project and disseminated my preliminary research findings at multiple international conferences and smaller-scale workshops. The research and dissemination work I carried out over the past year has greatly improved my career advancement prospect. I received two offers of employment from leading research institutions, and I have now accepted one.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project aimed to push the boundaries of the history of economic ideas by exploring the connection between Soviet and Latin American economics. Both groups did not adhere to a mainstream liberal approach, and neither has received significant scholarly attention. Including their views and perspectives in the history of economic ideas in the twentieth century would open the way to a more inclusive approach to the disciplines of International and economic history.

The grant was terminated after 12 months, meaning that only the initial phase of the project could be completed. I hope this will form the basis of future research projects.

Global connections