Industry in Jujuy (1973-2014). Breakdown of the import substitution model, deindustrialization and productive specialization

Abstract

The industrialization question is a necessary element of discussion in development planning of any territory, especially because of the leading role that is usually assigned to the industry as a growth engine and driving space of an accumulation model with social inclusion. However, the role that the industry plays in an economy, as well as its internal structure, varies according to the current accumulation model and, even, can present contradictions in political programs that put this block at the centre of the strategies. Therefore, this paper analyses the route of the industry in Jujuy, as a territory lagging behind in the industrialization path, over the last four decades (1973-2014), since the breakdown of the import substitution industrialization model from the deployment of neoliberal policies in the country until the last period of industrial growth in the years of post-convertibility, all in articulation with the national economic context. This is intended to show some continuities and ruptures experienced in the manufacturing sector in this long-term journey based on the analysis of the corresponding economic censuses. The absence of a structural change in the productive-industrial specialization throughout the cycle will be evident, with the respective insertion of Argentina in the international division of labour and the ostensible territorial and regional inequities.