Chris Hesketh

Dr Chris Hesketh

Political Economy Fellow 2019

Indigenous struggles in the context of neo-extractivism: A comparative analysis of Mexico and Bolivia

This research will conduct an analysis of indigenous struggles in Latin America and their evolving positionalities with regards to the state, in the context of neo-extractivist development (a development strategy focused on natural resource extraction with the state working in tandem with private capital). Specifically this project will undertake a comparison between indigenous movements in Mexico (the country in Latin America with the highest number of indigenous inhabitants) and Bolivia (the country in Latin America with the highest proportion of indigenous inhabitants as a percentage of the total population).

More information

Research outcomes

Hesketh, C. (2025).

What’s at stake in the plurinational state debate? The case of Bolivia. Radical Americas, 10(1), 1-21.

Hesketh, C. (2023).

Indigenous resistance at the frontiers of accumulation: Challenging the coloniality of space in International Relations. Review of International Studies. 2025;51(1):64-83. doi:10.1017/S0260210523000268

Hesketh, C. (2022).

Clean development or the development of dispossession? The political economy of wind parks in Southern Mexico. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5(2), 543-565.

Hesketh, C. (2020).

Between Pachakuti and Passive Revolution: The Search for Post‐colonial Sovereignty in Bolivia. Journal of Historical Sociology, 33(4), 567-586.

Areas of interest

International Relations Political Economy Historical Sociology Political Geography Political Theory Latin American Studies Mexico Latin America Central America Indigenous People Extractivism Bolivia South America

Cohort

PEF2

Biography

Chris Hesketh is Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Sussex. He received his BA, MA and PhD all from the University of Nottingham. Before joining the University of Sussex in 2023 he taught at Oxford Brookes University where he was Reader in International Political Economy. He have also taught previously at Birkbeck College and the University of Nottingham.

Chris has an inter-disciplinary research agenda that combines political economy, the historical sociology of international relations, political geography, political theory and Latin American studies. These interests are captured in his monograph, Spaces of Capital / Spaces of Resistance: Mexico and the Global Political Economy (University of Georgia Press, 2017) which was shortlisted for the 2018 International Political Economy Group book prize.

His current research revolves around the political economy of development in Latin America focusing specifically on Indigenous resistance to neo-extractivist development in the region. Empirically Chris's work has focused on Mexico and Bolivia where he has conducted fieldwork on numerous occasions. He is also interested in the intersections of International Relations and international theory.

Biographical details correct as of 25.03.26