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Although many international relations (IR) theory and international political economy textbooks consistently reference dependency theory, it is commonly considered a passé , outdated, or defunct theoretical approach. This paper challenges conventional wisdom, stressing the continued relevance of dependency as an analytical approach. Overall, it argues that Dependency theory represents a successful effort at decentering IR. To do so, it first discusses decentering as an effort to challenge and engage core concepts in IR to transform the "universal" understandings of global politics. In this sense, Dependency theory decentered IR by introducing an understanding of the world in which Western and non-Western spaces are mutually constitutive, highlighting the role of non-core contexts in creating and maintaining the status quo of the universal. Second, the paper analyzes the influence of Dependency theory in modern discourses of political economy like the resource curse, globalization, Post-Colonialism, and Post-Developmentalism. These parallelisms show Dependency's effectiveness at decentering IR and transforming the way the discipline studies non-core spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American citizens are more concerned about the consequences of climate change than citizens of any other region in the world. However, this concern does not always lead to prioritizing the environment over economic growth. This paper argues that individuals' economic constraints moderate the relationship between their beliefs about the seriousness of climate change and their preferences with respect to the dilemma between prioritizing the environment or economic growth. The analyses of 2016 Americas Barometer (Lapop) surveys in 18 Latin American countries, with hierarchical linear models and generalized structural equations, show that the level of concern about climate change has a significant positive effect on the prioritization of the environment among individuals with above-average wealth and a negative effect among individuals with below-average wealth. This work makes two contributions. First, the study analyzes the conditional effect of concern about climate change on environment prioritization depending on individual economic constraints; and secondly, it contributes to scholarship about environmental attitudes in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific discourses are influenced by worldviews and values shared by scientific communities. In terms of sustainable development, as for other subjects, the production, dissemination and reception of knowledge structure the discursive universe of academic activities. This paper provides a mapping of the field of academic interactions based on a sample of 93 influential intellectuals active in sustainable development thinking in Latin America, from a review of more than ten thousand citations over a period of forty years (1972-2012). The software Gephi was used to draw figures that highlight these networks along three separate periods of time. A first period runs from 1970 and the start of modern environmental concerns until 1987 and the publication of the very influential Brundtland Report. A second period (1987-2002) covers the period of a flourishing institutional concept of sustainable development until the Johannesburg Conference. And the third one runs until the Rio+20 Summit in 2012. This quantitative analysis is complemented by a qualitative analysis of the works and relations of the most influential authors. The results show a gradual structuring of the discursive field on the subcontinent. We are able to trace the main relations between authors in Latin America and outside, mostly to the US and Europe. Our results also show that many academics in the sub region elaborated critical discourses that developed in synergy with various social movements that strive for justice and socio-environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the similarities and differences among Latin American structuralism, dependency theory, and Thorstein Veblen's Imperial Germany (1915), exploring the connection on such as aspects as path dependency, technology, and economic policy. Imperial Germany is similar to many of the principal policy recommendations espoused by the structuralists and dependency theorists. Nevertheless, structuralism is closer to the ideas of the institutionalists and Veblen himself. In conclusions, the structuralists and Veblen's version in Imperial Germany agree that an industrial policy ought to be guided by the government, even though Veblen and the institutionalists clearly see social change through technological improvement, which is missing from structuralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of trade liberalization, economies in Latin America have endeavored to capitalize on their comparative advantages and join global production processes; despite the fact that industrial exports have grown, however, they have had only a modest impact in terms of boosting the product in Latin American economies. The objective of this paper is to determine the influence of industrial exports on the product in six Latin American countries, using the input-output model and the network theory. The hypothesis sets out to prove that out of an economy's total transactions, the spillover effects from the industrial sector exports in each country are more diversified the more the country trades with the United States, even if these effects are weak, due to the low structural articulation in each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the universe of literature on franchises, several studies have examined the impact of franchising on economic growth, tending to focus on growth rather than development, although the empirical research has already concluded that franchising does have an influence on economic growth. Likewise, some articles have underscored the importance and influence of franchising on development, but have failed to provide empirical proof of its true sway. With that in mind, this paper provides empirical evidence demonstrating the relationship between franchising and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overweight and obesity, two of the planetary nutritional disorders, can also affect populations from developing countries. In Argentina, similarly to the majority of countries of Latin-America and the Caribbean, excess weight problems affect more than a half of adult population(FAO, OPS, OMS. 2017. 2016 América Latina y el Caribe. Panorama de la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, Sistemas alimentarios sostenible para poner fin al hambre y a la malnutrición. Santiago de Chile (Chile): Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura y la Organización Panamericana de la Salud. Available from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6747s.pdf), and more seriously, coexist together with nutritional deficiencies. This paper explores the evolution of both dietary intake and public action in Argentina, in the light of global change and local economic and social instability. This analysis is made in the context of Latin-America and gives special attention to lipids. The first part is dedicated to the evolution of nutritional situation of Argentinian population and their food intake, including lipids. The second part presents the evolutions of political actions related to food and nutrition developed in Argentina; it provides special focus on pioneering and successful public action to diminish the quantity of industrially produced trans fatty acids in food. The third part addresses a general non-exhaustive panorama of Latin-American nutritional situation, presents food consumption models evolution and discusses food and nutrition policies implemented in the region, including the combat against trans fatty acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Participation in primary care-focused medical service trips (MSTs) by North American providers is increasingly common, with many of these being conducted in Latin America. The literature has yet to comprehensively explore the nature of MST practice, including the use of evidence-based clinical guidelines. This integrative review presents an analysis of guidelines employed in MSTs in Latin America.Methods: MEDLINE and LILACs were searched using the terms 'medical brigades', 'Latin America', 'primary health care' and related terms. The search was limited to articles published between 2000 and 2015 in any language. Qualitative or quantitative articles were subsequently included if they described management protocols in the context of patient care on an MST occurring in Latin America. Additional publications were identified by searching the citations of articles reviewed in full. Themes were extracted to an Excel file, and objective instruments were used to evaluate article quality (Mixed Methods Assessment Tool) and the quality of guidelines (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II).Results: Of 391 abstracts screened, eight met inclusion criteria. All described MSTs operating in rural settings in Central America. Five were qualitative descriptive, including two travel reports, an ethics thesis paper, and a description of a dermatologic MST. Four described subjective clinician experiences while describing non-evidence-based treatment suggestions or practices. Only one described evidence-supported primary care interventions. Three studies were quantitative descriptive, including two epidemiological articles, one of which used case definitions for select diagnoses. One described the application of American Family Physician guidelines to the description of UTI prevalence on a MST. Article scores in MMAT quality domains were variable, and only one article achieved a positive overall AGREE II score for guideline quality.Conclusions: Existing literature demonstrates minimal development or use of clinical guidelines on MSTs in Latin America. Future work must focus on the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally sensitive, evidence-based guidelines for the management of patients receiving care from MSTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has for centuries been subject to the will and whim of external powers and thus it is not surprising that there are well-founded reservations among the peoples of the region in the face of China's increasing presence in their midst. The United States, in turn, is similarly uneasy about the new stakeholder in the hemisphere it has traditionally perceived as its zone of influence. This paper argues that analysts have paid insufficient attention to the declared intentions that consistently accompany Beijing's approach to Latin America, and that these offer strong evidence for a comparatively even-handed and fundamentally non-competitive approach. It draws out details of Chinese foreign policy rhetoric over an eight-year period and reviews it alongside US statements towards Latin America over the same time span, and concludes that there is much space for collaborative development, and little reason for contention, although risks of dependency and further deindustrialization remain: there is an urgent need for Latin American and North American scholars, pundits and government officials to pay attention to and understand China's declarations of intent towards Latin America, and engage with this rising power on her terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical analysis of the last 250 years of Cuban political history, from a perspective of its integration in the Spanish Caribbean. We discuss how the traditional Cuban political and ideological intolerance has contributed to the creation of an inefficient model of regime succession that has taken the country to its current stage. We present and examine several national and international conditions that we believe are necessary to achieve a peaceful transition toward an open and pluralistic system. We analyze and compare the transitions in Brazil, Mexico and Spain. And we draw several conclusions that may be applicable to the Cuban case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between Social Sciences and Public Policies is one of the most interesting aspects for those who study how to transfer the empirical evidence of government decision making which benefits a certain population sector. In this context, language and communication channels between researchers and decision makers are key issues to generate a significant approach. In this research paper, we reflect on this given topic, taking into account the relationship between science and public policy, regarding the Colombian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the importance of technologies of scientific origin in the evolution of Latin American agrarian capitalism during the past three decades. From the perspective of dialectic materialism as a method and epistemological positioning the following is concluded: the package of the green revolution left the process of agrarian salary distribution unresolved. On the contrary, new technologies aiming at productivity in the global market do allow a) to partially detach agriculture from the constraint of its natural rhythms, b) to substantially increase production capability in work and in the soil, c) to invigorate surpluses under the structure of agribusinesses, d) to free workers from rural economy and the food industry itself, and e) to guarantee salary relations as the predominant way of generating value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic premise of this paper is that the problem in the agency-social structure or subject-social structure relationship is crucial for understanding the present stage of take-off in the new phase of development or capitalism of knowledge following the recent global crisis of 2007-2009. This expresses the contradiction between neoliberalism, as a political-ideological projection, and a new technological-productive base, as well as the question of differentiation between developed "successful" countries and those that are "backward". Institutionalism and Gramsci's Marxism have offered solutions to the agency-structure dichotomy through very different theoretical approaches, the first seeking to explain the issue of differentiation between countries. Aspects of an alternative explanation are provided here through the Gramscian solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society and culture at the planetary level suffered major transformations during the twentieth century, particularly in the second half, largely because of the impressive degree of scientific and technological development. Forms of economic production also experienced profound changes, so much so that the greatest wealth, from an economic standpoint, now is generated by so-called knowledge-based production systems. The concept of a knowledge society has been forged to refer to these phenomena. Nevertheless, it is a fact that science and technology have brought about major changes, thereby making it urgent to develop strategies to strengthen the culture of science and technology throughout Latin America. The aforementioned concepts are discussed in this paper, along with possible strategies for bolstering the culture of science and technology. The authors also contend that a suitable model for a knowledge society in the Latin American countries should consider their broad and rich cultural diversity, which poses additional challenges. [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]

This paper uses the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to analyze the dimension of the middle class in various Latin American countries. One of its major findings is that during the first decade of this century, the size of the middle class in Latin America did not appear to depend on demographic factors. A second finding is that, in contrast with the majority of developed countries, government income and expenditure policies had little influence on increasing the size of the middle class in the Latin American countries in the sample. Finally, as in the developed world, labor market factors have little influence on the size of the middle class in Latin America, the main exceptions being Brazil and Mexico, where employment seems to increase the size of the middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the presence of foreign banks in Latin America. To clarify the discussion, we shall conduct a survey of the empirical literature devoted to internationalization in the banking sector so as to provide a better analysis of the determinants that currently underpin foreign banking investments. The multinational banks concerned come mainly from the European Union, particularly Spain, and primarily focus their investments in the region's large emerging economies. They display profitability indicators that are on a par with those of domestic banks, generate a significantly lower level of operational efficiency, but are more efficient in their management of risk. International banks can help reinforce banking stability by spreading new risk management methods, introducing new control procedures and strengthening asset solidity. However, they are partly responsible for the credit squeeze from which Latin America is suffering. Foreign banks can be the cause of new sources of banking fragility such as the exposure to foreign exchange risks, the increase in market influence, persistently high intermediation spreads and moral hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the situation of the agriculture sector in Latin America. It presents the causes of the crisis in this sector, and the actions taken by the developed countries to promote its development. It also presents an analysis of the agriculture sector's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the links it can generate. A whole chapter presents an analysis of the Costa Rican agriculture sector based on current data from various sources: Estado de la Nación, Promotora de Comercio Exterior, Banco Central de Costa Rica, Ministerio de Comercio Exterior, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]