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In a world of growing international competition and rivalry between China and the United States, Latin America and the European Union (EU) are caught in the same thorny dilemma. Positioned between these global giants, both regions are facing a retorn to a Westphalian system of nation-states, which undermines their roles as emerging regional players. In view of these new global challenges in Latin America and the EU, this paper uses a qualitative and comparative approach to explore foreign policy discourses on autonomy in both regions. It examines their goals and priorities and assesses the potential regional and interregional consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the behavior of the Economic Fitness indicator as a measure of the international competitiveness of Latin American economies, as well as an indicator of their relationship with per capita income gaps and the Human Development Index (HDI). Positive correlations were found between per capita income gaps and the stagnation of the international competitiveness of Latin American economies, as well as between human development levels and the productive structure, suggesting a causal relationship between human development and competitiveness. This paper also finds that the Economic Fitness indicator fluctuates significantly when estimated using exports in domestic value-added, suggesting that the original estimate may over- or underestimate competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the results of the policies applied in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on the study of various economic and social indicators in two groups of countries, one of which is made up of those that formed part of the so-called "progressive wave" of the 21st century (Group 1) and the other of those whose governments responded to liberal orthodoxy by maintaining a neo-liberal economic model (Group D). The structural changes that occurred and their subsequent development are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We aim to propose the thesis that the trajectories of the Anthropocene and the current mainstream understandings of development are intertwined from the beginning. It means that the Anthropocene and the "development" are coetaneous: the implementation of development policies for the so-considered underdeveloped regions started to happen at the same time of what is known as The Great Acceleration of production, consumption and environmental degradation in a global level. Method: In this conceptual paper, we adopt a decolonial critique as an analytical lens and argue that different geopolitical positions may be necessary for approaching the issue of the Anthropocene from epistemological reflections that can include the cultural and political context of the production and reproduction of local knowledge. Results: Our theoretical argumentation sheds light on the role of Global North and South relations in shaping the environmental crisis. Latin America (LA) exemplifies the modus operandi of the intertwinement of the practical effects of development policies and the environmental consequences underlying the Anthropocene, in which natural resources are over-explored to satisfy export-oriented trade, from the South toward the North. LA is not only a propitious context to show the validity of our thesis, but also the source of alternatives to such developmental model. Conclusion: The emphasis on development as a cause of the Anthropocene supports The Great Acceleration thesis. The proposition of the name Developmentocene comes from the thesis that development and Anthropocene are coetaneous, the intertwinement of both resulting in the very definition of the new epoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically evaluates the results in terms of economic growth and structural transformation of the new economic model implemented by most Latin American countries since the early 1990s. The new model, which had macroeconomic stability and export orientation as its core components, has been unable to develop more dynamic comparative advantages in the current global era and, as a result, has resulted in lower rates of economic growth than in Asia. The paper closes with an analysis of the impact of the current financial crisis in the region. It highlights the short-term costs, but also acknowledges the opportunities that the crisis is creating to promote a greater number of new progressive development alternatives that place more emphasis on the role of learning and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framed within the development policies for the region, educational agendas for Latin America represent specific commitments that transcend the improvement in the results of specific tests permeating both pedagogical practices and conceptual frameworks in which these ones acquire meaning. This paper covers some of the commitments made by these agendas and develops the general framework in which participation of philosophical community is expected and required as a guarantor and promoter of the construction of spaces for reflection and action on educational system. [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]

Most scholars and policy makers classify the motivation behind China's global economic activity as an effort to project soft power or to exercise "extractive diplomacy" by locking up natural resources across the globe. In this paper we argue that China, through its state financial institutions and firms, is also significantly motivated by simply commercial reasons. To shed light on this debate, we examine the extent to which China's policy banks provide finance to sovereign governments in Latin America. We find that Chinese policy banks now provide more finance to Latin American governments each year than do the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Indeed, the large loan size, high interest rates and focus on industry and infrastructure of Chinese finance has less in common with these international financial institutions (IFIs) and more in common with the private sovereign bond market. In this way, Chinese finance appears primarily commercial in nature. Chinese banks offer slightly lower interest rates than the private market, but these are not necessarily concessional subsidies to support a political agenda. The Chinese banks are exposed to less risk because they tie their loans to equipment purchase requirements and oil purchase contracts. Through these risk-lowering arrangements, Chinese banks can profit by lending to countries that have been priced out of the sovereign debt market. While it can be difficult to distinguish between the three types of economic statecraft outlined above, we argue that commercial profit is also a major force behind China's economic statecraft that has been largely overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper explores the importance of processes in institutional change and the relationship between processes and patterns of change. Using an ongoing case of police reform in Rio de Janeiro, the police pacification units (Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora) as an illustration, we develop two claims. First, the concept of reflective planning, developed by urban planning scholars, may help development scholars understand processes of institutional change. Second, some patterns, such as the institutional bypass, when combined with particular processes, such as reflective planning, may reinforce each other and further the objectives of reform processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the importance of education as the core of the integration processes in Latin America. Vindicates the principles of Simon Bolivar and his teacher Simon Rodriguez, who considered our identity expressed in the strengths that unite Latin as the common language, culture and religion, which are fundamental to any integration process to strengthen our country's subjugation of major powers covered in their technological capacity could impose its conditions. It states that any process of social development is linked to education. This is the essence of the human capacity to foster innovation inventiveness and creativity. Predisposes education energies that contribute to human development. This article attempts to demystify other criteria, in the sense of believing that some factors, such as trade and institutionalization alone contribute to development. They are multi-causal factors associated, where education is the main enabling this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the importance of integration and identity as country strategies to promote better ways to market their products and sales of services to those involved in partnerships for generating complementary methods in common markets. Countries, especially those with weaknesses in meeting needs have sought ways associative integration, through the simple bilateral agreements, to the formation of economic communities, characterized by monetary integration, fiscal, labor, tariff, etc. In Latin America it is common to find a number of economic agreements signed between countries, such as the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), Group of three (Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela), CARICOM, which is a common trade agreement Caribbean. All these arrangements are designed to facilitate exchanges that make them viable complementary processes for generating default tariff markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is perceived as both boon and bane in host countries. Yet, whether immigration promotes, or undermines, economic development remains an empirical question. Using cross-national data for up to 122 countries, this paper tests whether cumulative immigration flows raise aggregate living standards in the long term. The results strongly support the hypothesis. Immigration, however, is not uniformly beneficial for all countries. A sub-analysis of the Latin American and Caribbean region reveals that immigration is less beneficial in the context of higher fertility rates. The results are discussed in the context of migration research and policy at the national and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The academic literature on Brazilian cities focuses overwhelmingly upon the metropolises of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. While fruitful in its own right, this research confronts scholars of Latin American cities elsewhere with two ongoing limitations: (1) Despite estimates that nearly one quarter of Brazil’s urban population inhabits the conurbation of Rio and São Paulo, at least 75% of urban space in Brazil, an area populated by roughly 120 million people, is consistently overlooked; and (2) the findings from these two megacities are often (and unfairly) extrapolated across other urban contexts in Brazil, perpetuating lingering misgivings about the overall ‘nature’ of Brazilian cities. In this paper, I consider the Northeast of Brazil, drawing upon my own research from the favela (slum) community of Pirambu, located in the city of Fortaleza, to help understand urban development outside of the Rio/São Paulo corridor. By considering historical circumstances, geographic specificity, theoretical implications, and the course of Brazilian development, I highlight informal urban growth in an oft-overlooked region of Latin America while, at the same time, revealing many of the geographic attributes that give Rio and São Paulo their truly exceptional character. My goal in this work is not to refute the work of others, but rather to underscore the importance of geographic context to socio-spatial processes of urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper picks up the discussion on Norbert Elias' social development concept, as a theoretical model which may contribute to the sociologic and historical studies on indigenous peoples in Latin America. Highlighting the case of Manuel Quintín Lame in Colombia, overcoming the traditional visions of social scientists and aiming at new cognitive instruments is suggested here, in order to achieve a reading in the light of notions of figuration, process continuity and intercultural education. The aim is to go beyond the genealogic explanations with the subsequent search of alternatives in process sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, there has been a wide claim made by both, political and academic voices, for a deeper state presence in current development process in Latin American countries. This claim seems not to be tackled by theoretical, methodological and/or empirical contributions analyzing whether states are capable to do what they have to do. Focusing on the Argentinean scenario this paper aims to bring the analysis of state capabilities back to the front. Based on a case study at the meso-level, and by developing ad hoc methodological tools, we show the legacies of the neoliberal experience of the 90s that have became weaknesses on state structure capabilities. Weaknesses that need to be tackle by the current claim to bring back in the state for Latin American (regional) development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some reflections about the possibilities which the development offers as a theoritical-pratical concept, capable of allowing the Latin American people to think of themselves, in an environment- of neoliberal globalization- hostile to their interests and finding out the ways that could take them to overcome the actual facet of transition characterised by the tough questionings to the postures of "consensus of Washington" and forges others of different content. The hypothesis which guided the elaboration of the work was that the theorisations of the Latin American thinkers that always have responded to the necessity of finding out the ways of social transformation. Since then, the development- understood sometimes as progress, sometimes like modernisation, some other times like social change and lastly, like merely economic growth-, can be considered one of the articulating concepts of Latin American thought. Consequently, there are some other reflections about the way that the Latin Americans have tried to understand their reality and up to which extent they have brought up their transformation. Above all, the reconceptualisation of development must be done considering the actual facet of capitalism; it is to say, under the conditions of neoliberal globalization and overcoming the slanted visions which consider its economic front only, putting sideways the social dimensions implied in the development. It is, thus, about rethinking and conceptualising the development submitting economic reason to the social reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]