ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author, who is the director and a senior researcher at the Latin American Centre for Social Ecology (CLAES), provides his perspective on the dynamic forces of social transformation that are at work in Latin America, and the alternative futures that they envision. The chapter summarises the diverse proposals associated with the notion of ‘post-extractivist transitions’ as it has been constructed in Latin America over the years of active resistance to the advance of extractive capital and the neoliberal policy agenda. Extractivisms in this context are briefly defined to distinguish them from other types of appropriation of natural resources. He also elaborates on the concept of ‘post-extractivist transitions’ and reviews several ideas regarding alternative available pathways and possible outcomes, including the socialism of the 21st century and the post-development notion of an alternative future that includes resource extraction, but excludes extractivism as a modality of accumulation.
