Financialization of Nature in Latin America: From Neo-Extractivism to Financial Alternatives

Highlighting how the financialization-driven economy has played a significant role in exacerbating the climate crisis, particularly in the Global South, this book examines the relationship between the prevailing economic model and its environmental impact.

The chapters in this edited volume focus on two key themes within the Latin American context: the various manifestations of nature’s financialization, particularly through the operations of transnational mining companies, and the consequences of an increasingly financialized neo-extractivism, and the new forms of financial mechanisms for supporting the energy transition. Overall, the book studies the connections between the financial sphere, the constraints on economic-social development, and the preservation of the environment from the perspective of post-Keynesian and Marxist discussions on financialization, the debates of Latin American structuralism around underdevelopment and dependency, and radical political ecology.

This book will be of interest to readers of heterodox perspectives on the economy, environment, and development.

Monika Meireles is a full-time Senior Researcher at the Fiscal and Financial Economics Unit of the Institute for Economic Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIEc-UNAM); she is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI), level 2. Her lines of research focus on heterodox financial economics; post-Keynesian monetary theories; the history of economic thought; theories of Latin American economic development; and development financing.

Vania López is a full-time research professor in the Faculty of Economics, teaching in the Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Doctorate in Political Economy of Development, and Doctorate in Solidarity Economics programs at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). She is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI), level 1. Her areas of research are finance, the international financial system, and public policy.

Elizabeth Concha is a professor in the Bachelor’s Degree Programs in Economics, Administration, and Mathematics at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa Campus (UAM-I). She has also supported various research projects on the economic and financial prospects of large companies in Mexico, as well as on the national and international economy.

Antonio Mendoza is a full-time professor and researcher in the Department of Economics at UAM-I and a professor in the Faculty of Economics (UNAM), as well as a professor in the Graduate Program in Latin American Studies (UNAM) and Social Economics at UAM-I. His lines of research are development economics; alternatives to development; and plural economies.