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This paper considers the physical, verbal, and visual aspects of how LGBTQ protest and rebellion are and have been staged in the United States. It examines whether “staging” should be taken literally or figuratively, and explores the interactions between performers and audiences, whether the performance is explicit or subtle, possibly involuntary. A heuristic angle is that of audiences and stages: just as staging should be addressed differently depending on whether the audience is internal or external to the LGBTQ community, audiences are not inherently internal or external, but the boundary may fluctuate. Likewise, the stages on which LGBTQ protest is performed are not given or fixed, but contingent on larger social, political, cultural, and economic factors. The article examines examples that are illustrative and telling of the ways in which LGBTQ protest and rebellion may take on a theatrical form, or the staging itself may endow some practices with a degree of politicity.

This paper deals with the social process through which flooding in Buenos Aires is understood as a question of public policy. By focusing on institutional vulnerabilities, it will show how public policies contribute to risk perception, and how decisions regarding institutional intervention are made when flooding becomes a political event. Through the case study of the catastrophic April 2013 precipitations, this paper will contextualize the problem by looking at the actions and the mistakes of local authorities. It will also offer a critical reading of the statements coming from government workers, experts, and local residents during that period: what their arguments are, the facts they stress, how they assess risks and how they relate them to public institutions. Secondary sources will be used to describe the historical context; a qualitative approach (interviews, participant observation, print and digital sources) will highlight how events and risks are interpreted by social actors.

This paper assesses the origins of water-related vulnerabilities among the Andean populations of the Rio Mocoties valley in Venezuela, which was struck by deadly floods and mudslides (la vaguada) in February 2005. The paper stresses the role played in this social disaster by changes in agricultural practices and in land uses (deforestation, the conversion of agricultural surfaces, urban growth). Its methodology is based on the cross-referencing of cartographic data―obtained thanks to satellite images (ISIS SPOT 2012 Program) or aerial pictures―and sociological surveys in order to show the parallel perception of the evolution of land uses between instrumental and human points of view. Beyond the social situation and the extent of the changes which can be observed on the slopes of this watershed, this paper will show how the discourse on vulnerability factors may vary according to the actors at play (village dwellers, farmers, elected officials)―thus proving the fundamental link between social representations and the perception of water-related risks.

Uruguay is a small country in southern Latin America with a population just above three million people. Uruguay has recently been in the international spotlight for its advanced legislation. This paper analyzes three laws that took the regional and international community by surprise: a law that allowed women to terminate their pregnancy, another law that approved equal (same sex) marriage, and a law that introduced the state regulation of marijuana use. These three laws were passed in a relatively short period of time (2012-2013) and they represent what has been called “the new rights agenda.” This article describes each of these laws. It focuses mainly on the processes behind each initiative and identifies the social and political actors involved in them, as well as the arguments the latter put forward and the debates that ensued. Finally, this paper explores how these debates embody and express new demands, needs, and rights.

The 10th of March 1952 military coup d’Etat lead by Colonel Fulgencio Batista put an end to the democratic period that started up when the Cuban Constitution of 1940 was ratified. From that moment on, the opposition to the Batista’s government evolved from pacific demonstration to urban terrorism and guerrilla warfare until the insurrectional movement managed to oust him in January 1959. Aside from the studies published by Sergio López and Francisco Pividal, or the testimonies given by Luis Buch, many aspects of the activities that were carried out by those clubs supporting the Cuban insurrection between 1955 and 1959 are still mainly unknown. This paper is based on Latin-American and American papers, as well as personal archives from Havana and Miami. By following the aforementioned researches, this article tries to define the role that Cuban women performed in this external groups and sections. Concretely, It will be examined the clubs and women activists in México, United States, Chile and Argentina.

In Mexico, over the last decades, water-related conflicts have become more frequent and have led to strong social movements. Studying such conflicts is interesting as they are either the symptom or the cause of vulnerabilities: knowing them can help reduce these vulnerabilities. This paper will analyze two Mexican provinces (Puebla and Chihuaha), which were deemed relevant because of their natural conditions (availability, accessibility, natural resources) and their dynamic growth (demographic evolution, numerous types of water consumption). It is based on a qualitative analysis of articles published in local newspapers from January 2011 to April 2013 and devoted to such conflicts, their causes, their protagonists, or the way they illustrate an opposition between agricultural, industrial, and urban interests. This will provide a sample of local water-related conflicts which will reveal the interactions between environmental dynamics, local practices, and public policies at the provincial level. The paper will also highlight some local initiatives or institutional interventions which have facilitated conflict-resolution and reduced vulnerabilities, while others have, by opposition, worsened gridlock and vulnerabilities.

This paper analyzes the images of Mexican photojournalist Héctor García. It is built around two of his most significant editorial proposals, both issued in 1958: Ojo! Una revista que ve, and photojournalistic column "F 2.8. La vida en el instante,"―two attempts at understanding the meanings and characteristics of his professional work. This paper describes the usefulness of his press photography in shedding light on specific aspects of large and complex historical events. It also reflects on his ability as a photojournalist to document a transitional society like Mexico in the mid-twentieth century and the many ways it can find echoes in other countries of Latin America.

This paper is part of a larger project on the impact of global ideas and practices related to “being young” on the construction of local political identities, particularly regarding the leftist groups and parties that took part in the student movement of 1968 in Uruguay. In a moment when these groups were searching for political answers before unprecedented levels of popular mobilization and labor organizing amidst an economic crisis and a repressive attitude by the government also withougt precedent in national history, thousands of young men and women with no political experience tested the limits of previous structures and ways of struggle. It was a time of extreme fluidity within the political left, with new and old organizations trying to attract these youngsters and integrate their interests and habits. Based on the analysis of a motto used by the youth branch of the Communist Party, this paper deals with the ways in which the debates on the demands of revolutionary commitment impacted on the roles demanded from the men and women who were becoming members of the different leftist organizations.

This paper analyses hiring practices in Chile in relation to the scarcity of women in leadership positions in Chile. It problematizes the discourse about hiring and selection practices in contrast with the current employment law. The paper shows how gender discrimination operates both directly and indirectly in various productive sectors. Despite the standardization of professional entry requirements in many labour domains, discrimination exists in most steps of the selection process. This discrimination not only limits women’s careers and their likelihood of reaching top positions, but also unveils how economic and social modernization in its neoliberal phase clashes with certain ethic ruling principles in contemporary Chilean society. The study is based on 43 interviews with employers, recruiters and professional candidates.

This paper studies the consequences of urban governance renewal in City of Las Vegas (Nevada) under the influence of businessman Tony Hsieh and the independent structure he founded, the Downtown Project. We argue that those actors can be considered as innovators because they depart from the traditional practices of urban planning in terms of entrepreneurial career-path, discourses as well as methods. Through the example of City of Las Vegas, we intend to highlight the urbanistic and social consequences of a renewed urban governance, which is a political process. Thus this paper questions the capacity for innovation included in Tony Hsieh’s and the Downtown Project’s urban planning project. It concludes on its mixed results: if the urban vision can be called an urbanistic innovation, it fails to produce social innovation in the field.

Despite scientific warnings about environmental issues, few advances have been identified to date oriented toward a sustainable transition. In this scenario, this paper aims to reflect on the relevance of addressing the political dimension and ontological conflicts in the study of transitions toward sustainability. Considering political ontologies allows for greater openness and understanding of diverse perspectives, recognizing that there are different realities and ways of seeing the world and that there is no single solution to all environmental problems. In doing so, it opens the possibility of moving towards multiple ontologies and promoting a sustainable transition that is more inclusive, fair, and adapted to our world's diversity of realities and perspectives. In order to contribute to these debates, this article proposes a critical reflection on the importance of considering political ontologies in addressing complex socio-environmental problems to move towards pluralistic governance. To this end, we examine political ontologies and the growing academic interest in incorporating the ontological dimension in environmental studies and the relevant contributions made by Latin America. Finally, we reflect on the relevance of valuing dissent in sustainable transitions and incorporating environmental pluralism in change processes.

In Mexico, 80% of water resources are used for irrigation purposes. But since the end of the 19th century, urban and industrial growth has strongly degraded water resources, quality- and quantity-wise. Communities located near large cities are particularly exposed to water-related vulnerabilities. This paper will use the example of the Atlixco region (Puebla) to show how geopolitical factors and local actors assess such vulnerabilities. Using secondary sources and data collected in the field between 2009 and 2012, it will deal with the country’s water policies and the grassroots actions undertaken in Atlixco and in the rural communities of Magdalena Axocopan and San Juan Tejaluca. Rural vulnerability entails the political and social representations of agricultural practices. The past history of social actors also determines how water-related vulnerabilities are managed. Those cannot be suppressed but local activists can try to question governing practices and established authorities.

In the field of ecological risk assessment, the dominant approach now defended by scientists, political leaders, and grassroots activists is that of reducing environment-related vulnerabilities―as the case presented in this paper will illustrate. In San Jose’s Greater Urban Area, in Costa Rica, two groups (one composed of experts, one composed of the local residents of the Quebrada Seca neighborhood) use the notion of vulnerability to reduce the impact of pollution and flooding on the population and on water resources. But resorting to this notion does not entail homogeneous practices as each group favors a distinct type of risk management, even if, in the end, they both need the protection of the community to operate. These groups therefore act as intermediaries between the stakes on the ground and the area’s local authorities in order to increase legal and political actions.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the United Fruit Company (UFCo.), a multinational corporation founded in 1899 in order to exploit the agricultural wealth of the Caribbean, was responsible for considerable amounts of propaganda, newspaper ads, postcards, books, etc. These were linked to the commercial and tourism activities of the United States in Caribbean countries. The goal of UFCo was to influence the imperial vision of the Central American and Caribbean area from an iconographic point of view. In that world of images, postcards were very important as artifacts in which a visual discourse imposed an ideal of social imagination that was stimulated by the banana company. One of the artists who participated in this process was Gomes Casseres, a photographer who left his name printed on several postcards that have been found and have been subjected to iconological examination. This paper will analyze such cultural artifacts and will show that these images responded to the idea of Caribbean geography that "mamita yunai" constructed and which imposed itself from afar as the "reality" of Costa Rica.

The Revista do Globo, a biweekly magazine, was one of the most influential publications of the Rio Grande do Sul in the first half of the 20th century. Among the many pictures then published, this paper will focus on the political ones, especially in the early years of the magazine. As textual signals lost strength when used to excessively praise some public figures, photographs were used to cast the latter in a positive light. From the beginning, photoreporters were asked to take pictures that would highlight political events and political leaders. The image of Getúlio Vargas offers a typical case. Getúlio Vargas became president in 1930 and stayed in power for the following 15 years. This work will analyse the documentary photographs of Getúlio Vargas which were published in Revista do Globo through the 1930s. The two visual and conceptual axes which will be used are the possibility of public representation and social protagonism.

This paper analyses the role of Argentinian interprofessional organizations (OIP) in the innovation systems of grain value chains. Three organizations are studied: ACSOJA, for the soybean chain, ASAGIR, for the sunflower chain and PROARROZ, for the rice chain. These OIP are interpreted as potential innovation networks and are part of the institutional structure of chains. They combine the logic of capital with territorial logic and initiate between these two logics a structural coherence that determines their specific role in the innovation process. The comparative analysis shows that the territorial and sectorial characteristics of each chain as well as the coordination mode chosen are significant to explain innovation results.

This paper analyzes the configuration of water inequalities in a region where the communities are linked in administrative, political and water terms by the city of Oaxaca de Juárez. Thus, from an urban-centric logic, the city becomes the great organizer of hydrological resources, creating a hydropolitan region where the urban peripheries can act as suppliers of water for domestic consumption and at the same time receiving wastewater. This situation, in addition to producing water inequality in the regions of the Atoyac River, generates socio-environmental conflicts throughout the region.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the city of Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta, has welcomed tens of thousands of newcomers attracted by the high salaries of a booming oil sands industry. In this context, one of the major challenges faced by the municipality and the companies is to retain employees and their families so as to build a sustainable community. In this paper, we will take a closer look at the way this challenge is being met, first by considering how humanistic geographers such as Yi-Fu Tuan and Edward Relph have defined the concepts of space and place so as to elaborate on this idea of “making Fort McMurray home.” Then, relying on field work conducted in October 2014, we will attempt to underline the different approaches the municipality and the oil sands companies have followed to frame the identity of Fort McMurray and promote identification with it. Finally, we will look into the part the non-profit sector plays in fostering a sense of place in this boom town.

This paper investigates the formation of social networks in the Latino communities of Los Angeles and Miami. In order to better understand how Latino immigrants adapt to the host society, this article offers a comparative analysis of the interactions within the different Latino communities and puts forward their role on the formation of social networks among Latino immigrants in these cities. The results show that social networks are highly dependent on the dynamics within the Latino communities as well as the urban context; these networks, their strength, and development differ in Los Angeles and Miami based on factors such as socioeconomic status, levels of segregation and ethnic concordance among the Latino communities.

Women have historically occupied places of resistance against authoritarian regimes, such as the dictatorships experienced in Brazil and Argentina in the 20th century. In such periods, the military personnel responsible for persecuting, torturing and murdering government opposition perpetrated against women forms of violence, which sought not only to destroy political dissent, but also to conform them to socially defined gender roles. In the context of “re-democratization” in post-dictatorial regimens, a transitional justice that is silent regarding the sexual and gender violence perpetrated by regimen agents contributes to a perpetuation of sexist and patriarchal conceptions even within the newly established democratic rule of law. The present paper seeks to compare how the living experiences of Brazilian and Argentinean women during the military dictatorships and their political engagement in the moment of the transition of regimes reflected positive or negatively in the consolidation of women’s rights in new democracies.

Going beyond the extensive literature dealing with Annie Proulx’s deconstruction of myths tied to the West, this paper delves into her palimpsestuous Wyoming short stories that transgress dominant norms and conventions of genres and genders. Focusing on Proulx’s grotesque, feminist revisions of old folktales and fairy tales, this article contends that her art of the short story provides an efficient tool to tinker with the rigid, ideological discourses reinforced by such tales when it comes to gender stereotypes. Recuperating the magic from older forms of short narratives, Proulx’s omnivorous, postmodernist tales thrive on potent fragments and mythèmes that both foreground and rekindle the ignition power of imaginative discourse. Her subversive mythopoeia and playful, self-reflexive writing thus pave the way for liberating flights of fancy that cross the boundaries between established genres and gender.

For the last three decades, Latin America has adopted legal innovations aimed at placing human rights at the center of the relationship between individuals and the State. This paper goes back to established Latin American precedents in order to answer two questions: How can such legal innovations lead to a more equitable management of resources? And to which extent do they contribute to social innovation? The point is to show that the ethnic question has not overshadowed the social question—far from it actually, as it has shed a new light on it. Latin American judges have been dealing with the ethnic question as a part of their reflection on human rights. In so doing, they have made the emergence of economic and social rights a judicial process by giving the control of resources-related policies to the courts. Courts have consequently opened their doors to political debates. However, despite the fact that the rule of law has been made effective, the potential for social innovation suffers from the inability of the legal system to make itself respected as a true check on political power.

Brazil was a major slave-holding country of the Americas, and slavery has left deep marks on Brazilian society. From abolition to the present, the representation of slavery has been elaborated and transformed, following the various historical moments experienced by the country itself. From the 1980s onwards, the context of theoretical and methodological renewal has opened the possibility of various approaches. Today, thanks to the proliferation of specific and regionally localized research, historians no longer consider the existence of a single model of slavery in Brazil, but a variety of practices adapted to the different realities of each region and social segment of the country. One of these approaches focuses on the presence of slaves in sectors and areas not directly related to the large agricultural production destined for exportation. The Sertão corresponds precisely to this kind of region, and the objective of this paper is to present the results of a punctual study on slavery in this backcountry area of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco during the 19th century. In fact, masters and slaves of this poor and remote region adapted the institution of slavery to their reality in a period of economic difficulties, thus giving a specific form to slavery in Sertão.

Several areas of Latin America suffer from water-related shortages and vulnerabilities. This situation has never been properly handled by local public authorities and has seen no real theoretical advances allowing a better understanding of the problem. This paper will focus on the conceptual analysis of socio-ecological systems and water-related shortages and vulnerabilities. It will use two theoretical approaches: that of complex adaptive systems and that of autopoietic social systems (i.e. systems able to maintain themselves in a larger environment, which makes them close to resilient systems). The goal is to suggest a few starting points for the study of this phenomenon, based on contemporary academic sources, in order to show how different theoretical models can be combined. The conclusion will stress the need to look for more complementary and inclusive perspectives to improve our understanding of contemporary environmental problems.

The Mendoza urban area (1 million inhabitants), at the center of the largest oasis in the world, is located on South America’s dry diagonal. In this arid space, water resources are scarce. There is only one source of surface water, the rio Mendoza, which accounts for two thirds of the water supply in the city. But in the Andes, the main water source for the oasis, climate change already has a tangible impact and the quantity of available water is declining. Hence a competition for water: as far as drinking water is concerned, downstream neighbourhoods are the weakest ones. Such areas are affected by low water pressure and they have to rely on tanker trucks and/or water wells. Poor neighbourhoods, like the Las Heras municipality, are the most impacted. Initially focused on the signs of potential socio-economic discriminations in water distribution, this paper shows instead that the real problem is of a technical nature. It also confirms management deficiencies on the part of local authorities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the aesthetics of photography produced by press photographers during the first decade of the 20th century. We are specifically going to review how the First Exhibition of Photographic Art was organized and developed, sponsored by the Society of Metropolitan Press Photographers, and inaugurated on December 18, 1911. Beyond just describing the event and the possible identification of the exhibited images, this work will focus on analyzing the concept of art and photography among the photographers who exhibited their work for the first time, such as Agustín Casasola, Manuel Ramos, Gerónimo Hernández, Ezequiel Alvarez Tostado, Antonio Garduño and Samuel Tinoco, among some other Mexican photographers from the early 20th century.

The political and cultural use of photographs plays a crucial role in the construction of Argentina’s collective memory, especially in the case of the dictatorship (1976-1983). This paper showcases some of the most meaningful analyses recently presented by different Argentinian academics. These texts show how images were created and used to convey the policy of state terrorism initiated by the military officers in power and enforced in several detention and extermination sites.

This paper discusses part of the regarding interviews carried out in Recife, the state capital of Pernambuco, within the research “ Recognition and memories of the ‘years of lead’: the reports from families of missing political activists and political prisioners during the military dictatoryship in Belo Horizonte, Recife, Brasília e Vitória”. In this data selection that is exposed here, there was the need to focus on understanding the impact of militancy against the military dictatorship in the family dynamics and in women and motherhood concepts. Nineteen interviews were accomplished and two were chosen as they highlighted the history of women in search of their children. The content analysis of those interviews led to the construction of two themed axes interrelated. In the first, the changes in social roles were studied, and, in the second, the occupation of the public space by the women/mothers. The impact that the military dictatorship had in the family dynamics was observed from the interviews setting up the role of the women within the family and the occupation of public space. As long as mothers of dead and/or missing militants displayed their traditional protecting role of their offspring, new ways to understand the women and motherhood were emerging and those women were gradually participating more in public life by exercising a political role and by modifying their position as woman and mother in society.