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ABSTRACTThis article examines the ongoing critiques and debates around the 'participatory turn' in development theory and practice and suggests anarchism as a practice‐oriented theoretical framework for engaging with what participatory development ought to achieve. Explicit links are constructed between key terms in these development debates and anarchist political philosophy, and a call is made for greater attention to anarchism as a theoretical framework for radical and transformative development practice. This article then analyses empirical experiences of 'anarchistic partnerships' between development experts and grassroots peasant‐indigenous organizations in north‐west Argentina, who, although not self‐identifying as anarchist, adhere to ideals such as horizontal prefigurative politics and radical democracy that are effectively anarchist in their orientation. These experiences challenge the NGO–social movement divide and offer a virtually unexplored form of radical development practice that is worthy of further academic attention. Thus, while this article is concerned with familiar debates in development studies, it offers some preliminary directions for advancing theoretical and practical knowledge regarding transformative participation.

Social mobilization in Latin America today is often characterized by the adoption of discourses and praxes of radical democracy by social movements. Principles of wider participation in decision making are central to the collective communal economic ventures for capitalizing on peasant production of raw materials of the Movimiento Campesino de Santiago del Estero–Vía Campesina, a peasant organization that is fighting for secure land tenure and higher standards of living in one of Argentina's least urbanized and poorest provinces. Although at present the economic impact of these activities is not particularly notable, their importance lies in their contribution to the development of economic, social, and political consciousness among the members of the organization. La movilización social en América Latina hoy en día se caracteriza frecuentemente por la adopción por parte de los movimientos sociales de los discursos y praxis asociados con la democracia radical. Principios de una mayor participación en la toma de decisiones son fundamentales para los colectivos comunales de empresas económicas para la capitalización de la producción campesina de las materias primas del Movimiento Campesino de Santiago del Estero–Via Campesina, una organización campesina que lucha por la tenencia segura de la tierra y mejores niveles de vida en una de las provincias menos urbanizadas y más pobres de la Argentina. Aunque en la actualidad el impacto económico de estas actividades no es particularmente notable, su importancia radica en su contribución al desarrollo de la conciencia económica, social y política entre los miembros de la organización.

This article contributes to discussions on capitalist transformation and impact on peripheral agriculture by focusing on the province of Santiago del Estero in northern Argentina. The concept of land grabbing is useful for qualitative analysis of the recent dynamics in the land market in this peripheral territory, where the concentration of land for agrarian use is historical but has accelerated in recent decades with the expansion of soybean cultivation. Tensions between capitalist and noncapitalist actors have been taking place within the current crisis of the world capitalist system and its expansion to marginal lands, often occupied by peasant producers with precarious tenure and different logics to that of market capitalism. The province's history is characterized by processes of different temporalities and scales of limited capitalist transformation, agrarian land concentration, and exploitation of local populations. This article seeks to understand the overlaps and tensions in these processes.