TY - JOUR

T1 - Potemkin Revolution: Utopian Jungle Cities of 21st Century Socialism

AU - Wilson, Japhy

AU - Bayón Jiménez, Manuel

PY - 2017/6/13

Y1 - 2017/6/13

N2 - This paper explores the entanglement of ideology and materiality in the production of the spaces of 21st century socialism. “Millennium Cities” are currently being constructed for indigenous communities throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon, with revenues derived from petroleum extracted within their territories. As iconic spatial symbols of the “Citizens’ Revolution”, the Millennium Cities would appear to embody “the original accumulation of 21st century socialism”—a utopian state ideology promising the collective appropriation of natural resources without the dispossession of the peasantry. Drawing on extensive field research, we argue that they are better understood as a simulation of urban modernity that is symptomatic of the predominance of ground rent in South American capitalism, and which conceals the violent repression of an autonomous indigenous project of petroleum-based modernization. The original accumulation of 21st century socialism can therefore be interpreted as a “fantasy of origins”, which functions to reproduce the primitive accumulation of capital.

AB - This paper explores the entanglement of ideology and materiality in the production of the spaces of 21st century socialism. “Millennium Cities” are currently being constructed for indigenous communities throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon, with revenues derived from petroleum extracted within their territories. As iconic spatial symbols of the “Citizens’ Revolution”, the Millennium Cities would appear to embody “the original accumulation of 21st century socialism”—a utopian state ideology promising the collective appropriation of natural resources without the dispossession of the peasantry. Drawing on extensive field research, we argue that they are better understood as a simulation of urban modernity that is symptomatic of the predominance of ground rent in South American capitalism, and which conceals the violent repression of an autonomous indigenous project of petroleum-based modernization. The original accumulation of 21st century socialism can therefore be interpreted as a “fantasy of origins”, which functions to reproduce the primitive accumulation of capital.

M3 - Article

VL - 50

SP - 233

EP - 254

JO - Antipode

JF - Antipode

SN - 1467-8330

IS - 1

ER -