Agostina Costantino

Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), Mexico City, Mexico

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that dependent countries are affected by the phenomenon of land grabbing, and that the major investors acquiring land come from countries of the “center.” The phenomenon thus has two effects in terms of worldwide production specialization: (1) a “vertical” effect of bringing about greater differentiation between the traditional countries of the “center” and dependent countries, where the latter focus their development policies on deepening their foreignized and primarized productive structures; and (2) a “horizontal” effect, through which states such as China and the Arab countries, which are developing countries in terms of their productive structure, are differentiated from the rest of the dependent countries in terms of their capacity to export capital.

KEYWORDS

Land grabbing; dependency theory; capital accumulation

From: International Critical Thought 2016 6 (1)

Editor: Wang Yi