Fabio Maldonado is a PhD student in the Department of International Development at King’s College London and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of War Studies. He holds a Master’s in Latin American Integration from the University of São Paulo (2017) and previously lectured in the Department of International Relations at universities in São Paulo, teaching International Political Economy and Latin American International Relations.

Over the last decade, Maldonado has built a research agenda on the political economy of Brazil and Latin America, engaging with Marxist Dependency Theory, theories of imperialism, Marx’s theory of value, and Latin American Marxism. This work is complemented by extensive field research across Latin America—including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica—and Brazil.

Additionally, Maldonado is advancing research on dependency theory variations and technological dependency—authoring, with Heinrich Böll Foundation support, a book chapter on digital health in Brazil—and leading a consultancy on digitalisation in family and peasant farming for the MST (Landless Workers’ Movement).

Research

Thesis title: 'Surplus-Brazil: dialectics of Brazilian dependent capitalism in the 21st century'

Maldonado's research focuses on:

• Marxist Dependency Theory, dependency theories and their contemporary revival
• Marxist political economy, imperialism, subimperialism, and value theory
• Socioeconomic and labour dynamics in Latin AmericaTechnological dependency

His current research examines the pattern of capital reproduction in Brazilian capitalism through the analysis of capital circuits in dynamic sectors, focusing on the trajectory of the profit rate, surplus-value, labour super-exploitation, and international value transfers.

PhD supervision

• Principal supervisor: Dr Ingrid Kvangraven
• Secondary supervisor: Professor Alfredo Saad-Filho

Further details

See Fabio's research profile