OPINION – Dollarization in a global world: socio-anthropological perspectives
Call for Essay Proposals
For at least two decades, new paradigms in the social sciences have contributed to understanding the role of money in social life. The role of the US dollar in consolidating US hegemony since the mid-20th century is well known. However, its transformation into a “global currency” circulating in multiple territories, extending beyond international trade and finance (not only as a currency for elites), and becoming entrenched in monetary systems—replacing or working alongside other national currencies to become a unit of account, payment, or exchange in the daily lives of vast populations in the Global South—is still a phenomenon that needs to be understood.
The challenge of this joint call between Escuela IDAES (UNSAM, Argentina) and CLACSO, with the support of CODESRIA, was to select proposals of works focused on “national” cases that allow integration into a transnational comparative framework on how the US dollar has become and operates as a “popular” currency (Luzzi and Wilkis, 2019) legally or de facto integrated into the everyday and ordinary economic practices of very varied social sectors and in extremely heterogeneous contexts.
All applications received were found to be in a condition to be evaluated by the Jury, which considered their quality, relevance, coherence and timeliness in accordance with the terms of the call for applications.
The evaluation assessed the quality of the proposals submitted, as well as their soundness and intellectual contribution to the problem of the call and, by virtue of this, decided to choose 10 (ten) proposals that will receive support of USD 500 (five hundred US dollars or its equivalent in national currency of the applicant's country of residence) as recognition, against delivery of the final article and the inclusion of their work in the final collective publication.
The evaluation process was carried out by a jury made up of Johana Parra (University of Rosario, Colombia), Fernando Rabossi (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Ariel Wilkis (IDAES School, Argentina).
According to the evaluation carried out, the list of the 10 (ten) selected essay proposals is presented below:
| Researchers | Country of the endorsing institution | Essay title |
| Federico Neiburg | Argentina | Colonial legacies or monetary pluralities: The Haitian dollar and other Central American and Caribbean dollars |
| David Pedersen | United States | Dollarization and the Meaning of Money in El Salvador |
| Stefan Mikuska | to Canada | Dollarization and Monetary Conflict in Zimbabwe |
| Juana Isabel Ramos Ávila and Andrés Eduardo Chiriboga Tejada | Ecuador | Construction and social legitimation of the two monetary repertoires of Ecuadorian dollarization: economic elites, financial groups and media |
| Susan Rina Velasco Portillo and Omar Velasco Portillo | Ecuador | Informal institutions as a cause of persistent dollarization in Bolivia |
| Luis Emilio Martínez and Luis Santiago Sarmiento Moscoso | Ecuador | A dollar a case! Monetary practices and economic life in the public markets of Cuenca, Ecuador |
| Charles Giuseppi Castillo | Venezuela | Venezuela in the stage of its popular dollarization: from the petrodollar to the "black market trumps". |
| Omar Vázquez Heredia | Venezuela | The process of real dollarization of the Venezuelan economy and the resulting increase in workers' income: Effects on wage conditions and labor relations |
| Juan Agulló | Brazil | Enclave dollarization: the case of the Triple Frontier of the Paraná |
| Osnaide Izquierdo Quintana | Cuba | Economic strategies based on dollarization in Cuban society during the process of updating the Economic and Social Model. |
This ruling is irrevocable and cannot be appealed.
Buenos Aires, February 2, 2022
