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Territorial inequality associated with the location of population and activities, access to infrastructure and services, employment and material living conditions, is a historical reality in Latin America. This phenomenon has accompanied the demands of successive development models, and since the mid-twentieth century it has begun to be recognised in its full complexity with the installation of developmentalist governments. As a result, various public policies were adopted that failed to have a significant impact on these inequalities or to address their social consequences. Given the need to reformulate approaches, optimise resources and overcome obstacles in the implementation of public policies, this paper seeks to analyse the policies on the government agenda in Argentina from the change of management materialized at the end of 2019, identifying the limitations, achievements and potentialities of the policies proposed in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and their effects on territorial inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ford Foundation's involvement with the social sciences in Brazil coincided with the early years of the military regime that ruled the country between 1964 and 1985. The paper studies how changed political circumstances in the United States and abroad induced the Foundation to gradually abandon the technocratic approach that had governed its overseas programme since the 1950s, thus introducing a critical shift in its policies toward the developing world. A grant proposal to the University of Brasília, which had been subject to repeated military interventions since 1964, highlighted the ethical dilemmas raised by the goal of fostering policy-relevant research in an authoritarian political context. Relying on a pragmatic decision-making framework that converted ethical and ideological considerations into cost–benefit exercises, the Foundation finally moved away from the maxims of modernisation theory to embrace new strategic priorities like human rights, democracy and intellectual pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective - This paper aims to revisit the relationship between the Latin American and U.S. stock markets during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methodology-The dynamic connectivity between these markets was estimated by implementing the time-varying VAR model (TVP-VAR) for daily data from January 2010 to June 2021. Results - There are three main results. First, although spillovers from each market accounted for most of their variance, exchanges were not entirely independent of each other. Second, the U.S. and Brazil were net transmitters of spillovers, while Argentina and Chile were net receivers. Finally, the magnitude of net spillovers is not high enough to characterize a contagion effect. Practical implications - The inclusion of Latin American stock markets in the scope of Covid-19 studies is an important contribution to the literature that often neglects Latin American markets in its samples. Originality - The study of the connection between markets in the presence of Covid-19 differs from most that focus exclusively on the impact of Covid-19. Understanding the relationship between Latin American and U.S. markets in the presence of a crisis unlike any that has occurred before can help investors in their investment strategies and policymakers, governments, and monetary authorities interested in the integration or disintegration between markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the content of discussions held over three seminars on the theme of the heterogeneous subfield of Social Cartography in Brazil and in Latin America. It produces a reflection that represents the issues raised by those who design, develop and participate in these cartographic experiences. It cited relevant literature, but most of the contributions presented emerged from discussions that took place during these events. The research aims to contribute to the expansion of cartographic discussion in Brazil and in Latin America, which includes different perspectives and ideas about conceptual, epistemological and methodological dimensions of mapping experiences that increasingly integrate situations of cartographic disputes that are being overlapping territorial disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The People’s Republic of China has consolidated its status as a great power and strengthened its presence in different regions of the planet. In accordance with its economic development strategy, Beijing’s growing bond with Latin America is part of China’s need to guarantee access to raw materials and energy resources. In this framework and through economic diplomacy, China has strengthened its trade relations, as well as loans and investments in most of the region’s countries. Brazil is an example of this relationship pattern, as one of China’s most important partners and top investment destination in Latin America. It became Beijing’s top commercial partner in 2012. This paper will analyse the composition and evolution of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil between the years of 2004 and 2020. In order to do so, we will study the main projects carried out by the country, as well as the characteristics of the Chinese companies (state or non-state) that participated in the process, in order to understand their most important features. Likewise, we will analyse the articulation of the Chinese FDI with its trade flows. We will start from the premise that Chinese investments in Brazil are directly linked to Beijing’s strategic interests, while at the same time guided by market logics that try to maximise profits. In this vein, within the framework of the ‘going out strategy’, state companies play a fundamental role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the role of supreme courts of justice in some of the recent removals from office of progressive "pink tide" Latin American presidents and governments where so-called "new right" governments have taken power. It shows the composition of the supreme courts to be a decisive factor in removing these governments from power. The core hypothesis is that the judiciary may have served as a body for legitimating interruption and dismissal processes led by the legislature in contexts of institutional paralysis (or conflict with the executive branch). To demonstrate this, the case of Brazil is analysed and specifically the role played by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in the dismissals of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the development of cinematography from Argentina and Brazil in the 1930's. After the appearance of sound films, in both countries there was investment in studios, equipments, technicians and in the formation of a star system. However, if the production in Argentina grew numerically and had acceptance of the public, in Brazil the same did not occur. The paper raises explanatory hypotheses for this difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the similarities and differences between neo-developmentalism and neo-extractivism. The evaluation compares Brazil with nine other Latin American countries and is based on a framework that considers both economic policies and their outcomes. On the policy side, it looks at income, monetary, international trade, industrial and mineral resource policies; on the outcome side, it observes the composition of both exports and the Gross Domestic Product. In the end, we argue that neo-developmentalism and neo-extractivism are actually variations of the same development route and may face similar challenges in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on achievements of the expansion policies in Latin American universities, focusing on their strengths and the grey areas that can limit their democratizing effects. From a theoretical viewpoint, outlines of the concept of democratization will be examined, acknowledging diverse meanings and approaches. This theoretical construction will be applied to analyze the cases of Argentina and Brazil. The working hypothesis poses the existence of a certain cut back in the democratizing scope of these policies, which implies that, although new social groups have access to a college education, this situation does not always translate into reducing social inequalities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of whether – in line with the Chinese economic approximation to Latin America during the last decade – the region has experienced political changes in terms of countries' foreign policies, shifting their traditional alignment with the positions of the regional hegemon, the United States. Given this general focus, the research project focuses on evaluating a specific issue of global governance: climate change policy. Here I find a marked difference between the Chinese and the US position, constituting two opposing poles between which Latin American countries must operate. I consider the cases of two countries, Brazil and Chile, in terms of their discursive location between China and the United States on global climate change policy. I was able to identify discursive changes throughout the decade that suggest a political alignment of the two Latin American countries with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a general analysis of the relations among United States and Latin America considering issues such as the questioning of the US centrality globally and in the hemisphere, Brazil's policies to the region and the impact of the growing relations with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the relationship between the performance of Latin American stock markets with their real economies, applying seven econometric models for the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The relationship between stock market yields in these countries and their respective GDPS is examined and compared, applying to the series for each country unit root tests, cointegration analysis, error correction model analysis, Granger causality modeling, self-regression vector analysis, stimulus and response functions, and variance decomposition analysis. The series comprise the following stock markets: Argentina's MERVAL, Brazil's BOVESPA, Chile's IGPA, and Mexico's IPC, as compiled by Economática. The GDP series were obtained from the Cepalstat data base. The series are monthly and are for the period 1993-2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to identify if there was some link between the use of foreign savings and the deterioration of indicators of external vulnerability in the period preceding the exchange crises in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, which occurred between 1994 and 2001. For that, one needs to provide a brief theoretical discussion on the issue of external vulnerability and the ways to measure it, in order to establish the possible relations between this and the use of foreign savings. Among the methodological procedures needed to develop this work, let us first point out the gathering of data from the countries analyzed; these data are: national accounts, net foreign debt, short-term external debt, external debt service, exports of goods and services, international reserves, and GDP, which were obtained from international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These data allowed us to calculate different indicators of vulnerability, as the ratios external debt/exports, reserves/foreign debt, the debt service/exports, and the debt service/GDP, in order to make a comparative analysis of the economies involved. It is important to highlight that the economies analyzed had in common the indiscriminate use of foreign savings in the periods that preceded their respective crises. However, the economic growth of the countries in that period was negligible when compared to the average growth of the emerging economies. The study shows it is due to the fact that these countries did not direct the bulk of capital raised abroad to the productive sector, as evidenced by the low proportion of gross fixed capital formation in relation to GDP in that period. The data analyzed also reveal a deterioration of indicators of external vulnerability in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. The paper concludes that this deterioration is associated to the way of using foreign savings, since they replaced the domestic savings instead of complementing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Latin American and Asian perspectives on the biofuels emerging industry. The Brazilian's possibilities of participation on this industry evolution and the involvement on the world trade for ethanol and biodiesel are discussed. Also, an investigation about who will be the main "strategic" partners of Brazil in this sector is made: the huge consumer markets of developed countries or the emerging and also hungry consumers of energy Asian economies? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology, which is the manipulation of matter at a scale of one billionth of a meter, is poised to be one of the main technological developments of the twenty-first century. Although great uncertainty still surrounds it, the advances in nanotechnology have been impressive, and, given its potential, capitalist competition in the field is becoming increasingly intense. This paper addresses nanotechnology from a socio- political and geo-economic perspective in order to highlight the dynamics and interests at stake, the social networks and power relations involved, and the existing tensions due to capitalist competition and contradiction, among other aspects. This case study of nanotechnology in the Western hemisphere allows us to show and discuss some of the principal ways high technology is fomented in the metropolis (the United States in this case) and how this research agenda is adopted in the periphery (in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]