CELSO FURTADO AND DEVELOPMENT THINKING: HERITAGE, CRITICISM, AND RELEVANCE

Abstract

This article offers an expanded and analytical reading of Celso Furtado’s contributions to the understanding of development and underdevelopment in Brazil, with emphasis on the historicity of the problem and the construction of public policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities. It contextualizes the genesis of his work within the intellectual environment of CEPAL and Latin American structuralism, explaining the central-periphery theory, the differentiation between growth and development, and the notion of underdevelopment as an autonomous historical process. It examines his action in the creation and conduction of SUDENE and discusses the limits and possibilities of regional planning in Brazil. The study engages with subsequent criticisms and readings, emphasizing the relevance of Furtado’s thinking in the face of topics such as early deindustrialization, subordinate insertion into global chains of value, and the persistence of social exclusion. In the end, it is argued that the agenda proposed by Furtado, combining structural change, social reform, and expansion of rights, remains an indispensable reference for development that is simultaneously economic, social, and regionally balanced.