The reinvention of the rail business: Argentina and Brazil, 1950-1990

• Grant number: 12/20155-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Lencioni
• Grantee: Ivanil Nunes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/10504-6 - State Argentine businessman in the railroad industry in the twentieth century, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the main Argentine and Brazilian state actions, respectively, front of the railway crisis, which occurred between the 1950s - when started rearrangement of businesses models in this sector in these countries, followed by re-granting of services to private businesses, in the 1990s. Moment this where if they consolidate in both the countries "an unusual" condition: the concessions of the railroads, although public interest, had started to answer to the interests, increasingly, private. Although diverse sociological and economic analyses argue that after World War II occurred the "end of the railway age" the hypothesis defended here is that these state actions are not limited to actions of vision "nationalist" of these. Such actions were not limited to a mere "dismantling operation."". Such actions had been determined by the necessities of adjustments to the new form of reproduction extended of the capital, based on industrialization and in the growing internationalization of production, when occurred increase the circulation of goods and people. The takeover of the system was one of those times when the railway industry was no longer profitable to private investors. At that time, both in Argentina and Brazil, the state assumed the role of rail business for decades, during which the railroad passed through the redesign of their business models until the moment, in the 1990s, the private economic interests turned back to the industry, demonstrating that these companies have become good business to investors. It is intended, therefore, to present a proposal alternative the analysis of this object. The attraction of the private interests to the sector, during the process of re-concessions in Argentina and Brazil in the decade of 1990 seems to be an element more to oppose the thesis of "end of the railway age".