Review of Gerry Rodgers, Roberto Véras de Oliviera and Janine Rodgers (2023) Unequal Development and Labour in Brazil.

Northeast Brazil has suffered persistent disadvantage.This book takes a historical institutionalist approach to explain the origins of the poverty of the region as well as analysing the effects of various policies aiming to narrow inequalities within the Northeast and compared with other regions.It is based on extensive research and case studies, with a particular focus on patterns of work and employment.Five chapters take the reader through the processes of uneven growth and development in the Northeast of Brazil, from colonial times to the present.This is positioned in the wider context of the country's economy and its international connections.The opening chapter offers an overview and sets out the theoretical foundations and methodology of the authors.Drawing on regulation theory, among other theories, the volume highlights five institutional forms that play a central role in patterns of production and distribution: the monetary regime, forms of competition, integration with the international economy, the wage-labour nexus, and the role of the state.The authors find this approach revealing because it brings together economic and social relations in a single analytical framework addressing both macro-and micro-levels.The book draws on a long-running research programme at the Federal University of Campina Grande and the Federal University of Paraiba on production systems, economic sectors, labour markets and local development processes in Northeast Brazil.The second chapter covers economic and social change in the region, from the colonial era through the end of slavery to the present, and its implications for work and employment.The region's structural inequalities have deep roots.From the late 1950s through to the 1990s, state-driven investment built a new industrial sector with large projects conducted by big companies.Its growth tracked the quickening pace of national development, in which a small segment of relatively skilled and well-paid workers expanded while overall inequalities remained wide.Agriculture declined and rural workers and their families migrated to the larger urban areas within the region and to the southern metropolises.A neoliberal period took over in the 1990s, marked by a shrinking role for the state, privatisation, and flexibilization of the labour market.Growth weakened in the region and the country, alongside significant changes in the structure of production and employment, notably the emergence of the tourism industry.Overall inequalities and informal employment declined modestly in the decade up to the 2002 election.The presidents Lula da Silva (2003Silva ( -2010) ) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) launched a third period, changing the direction of policy to a new style of developmentalism.The Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC) emphasised job and income generation and was accompanied by social policies to support families, improve housing and access to energy, and increase minimum