Rents, knowledge and neo-structuralism: transforming the productive matrix in Ecuador

This paper explores the relationship between ground rent, production and knowledge in Ecuador’s neo-structuralist, state-led project to transform the productive matrix. Based upon insights from the Marxian approach to the critique of political economy, we interrogate how neo-structuralism has conceptualised the relationship between ‘natural resource income’ and ‘knowledge-based’ economic development. The paper argues that a rent-theoretical perspective, which takes seriously the regional unfolding of uneven geographical development in Latin America, can highlight the limits of a national development plan conceived according to the logic of Schumpeterian efficiency. In doing so, the paper identifies the contradictory relationship between natural resource exports, state-led ‘knowledge’-based development and capital accumulation. On this basis the paper offers a historically and empirically informed critical analysis of selective import substitution industrialisation and vanguard science and technology strategies designed to transition Ecuador away from primary resource dependence

Creativity in the United Nations: A history of ideas

Louis Emmerij gives an overview of the United Nations Intellectual History Project, which aims to produce a comprehensive intellectual history of the international organization. He analyses three separate periods: the early years (1940s and 1950s), the middle years (1970s), and the last 25 years (1980s onwards). Finally, he discusses some of the organization's failures and challenges ahead. Development (2007) 50, 39–46. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100387