Changing the Status Quo: A Critique of Extractive Economies

In competitive neoliberal economies operating within a worldview of modernism/coloniality, an elite made up of corporations, professionals, non-profits, and educational institutions, often concerned primarily with their own survival and advancement, mine the communities of majorities for land, resources, profits, data, and development projects. We call this “the swamp of coloniality” because masked as progress, these efforts may undermine rooted leadership and cultures and support unwanted intrusions without local input or transparency. Neoliberal economies are failing so many people and environments that the system is hanging on through authoritarian force, corruption, voter suppression, militarization, and counter-insurgency tactics.

Resource: Interrogating Development: Insights from the Margins by Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Sanjay Kumar, and Arvind Mishra