Charla Rewriting the South: Latin America’s utopias between geopolitical shifts and climate narratives

Talk by Diego Crescentino, PhD in International Relations from the Autonomous University of Madrid, will deliver the following lecture in English: Rewriting the South: Latin America’s utopias between geopolitical shifts and climate narratives

This presentation examines how Latin America is rewriting its global role through conflicting utopian imaginaries that emerge at the intersection of shifting geopolitical narratives. It draws on three interrelated studies. The first explores how the notion of the Global South has evolved beyond binary frameworks of domination and resistance, revealing tensions between extractivist logics and environmentalism. The second shows how right-wing leaders such as Bolsonaro and Milei craft covert utopias rooted in environmental denial. And the third analyses Brazil’s foreign policy shifts between solidarity with the Global South and a turn towards the West. Taken together, these pieces show how the future of Latin American countries is contested not only through politics, but also through competing visions of what is real, what is possible, and what must be resisted.