Paper 09 2008

Abstract

During the last decade Latin America has witnessed an intense -and sometimes disordered- search for new development 'models'. First, the crisis of the development paradigm and the neoliberal model after have opened a wider process of experimentation and reflection on the way Latin American countries must continue to make a quality leap towards sustainable development with equity. In this way, there is a greater attention to public policy, in particular the role played by local administrations; a design not only economic but multidimensional in terms of development; greater participation of economic and social agents in the formulation and implementation policies, an enlargement of the pursued objectives, among which emphasizes environmental sustainability and the fight to social exclusion. Three fundamental processes as basis of this route for building new paradigms of Latin American development are recorded. On the one hand, especially at economic level, there is evidence of the importance acquired by the territorial contexts in the development processes. It has consolidated the idea that not only companies compete but also territories. The processes of Latin American development in recent years show an evolution called "leopard spots" that has led to a new economic geography of Latin America. Territories that in the previous cycle occupied marginal spaces have become areas of great potential importance, both because of the strength of resources (energy, minerals and agricultural products), as well as the strategic position they have acquired in context of globalization (linking points of the new economic corridors) or by its innovative position capable of proposing such territories as new poles of development. Likewise, territories that previously played an important role have suffered the impact of the global market because has put in difficulty their budgets (suffice to think the decline of many industrial parks constituted in the years 60s-70s), and have undergone profound processes of production redirection with the aim of setting these territories as strong components of the international value chain.