Celso Furtado and Brazilian Development

Celso Furtado has a unique place among Brazilian economists. His work and his political and intellectual activity mobilized two dimensions that he considered central to the work of economists: imagination and courage. Celso Furtado lived the great issues of the 20th century intensely. He took part in World War II and made the search for economic and social development as an emancipatory process the privileged object of his reflection and practice. This book seeks to present Furtado’s work, emphasizing its interdisciplinary vocation, in which economics dialogues with the other social sciences. The final chapter of the book is an exercise in applying Celso Furtado’s lessons to a particularly important problem, which is the discussion about the construction of theoretical references, methodological and political references for the development of the Amazon, from the point of view of sustainability, that is, valuing both the natural heritage and the extraordinary heritage represented by the multiplicity of communities, forms of ownership, organization of production, productive arrangements, technologies, sociabilities and cultures present in the Amazon.