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Review: Building the Urban Environment: Visions of the Organic City in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, by Harold L. Platt Visions of the Organic City proliferated during the Cold War, along with new physical manifestations that broke with previous models, that included high-rise buildings, public housing projects, shopping malls, and industrial parks. The author invites the reader to a journey that originates in the late nineteenth century, as visions of the Organic City materialized with the inception of Modernism and the birth of the planning profession. [Extracted from the article]

At the strategy and policy levels, people in charge of SEA can act as moderators in the presence of potentially competing goals, while at plan and programme levels, they can play a facilitating or technical role. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is an expanding field of impact assessment that deserves the broad treatment presented in this book, featuring contributions from 46 authors that examine conceptual approaches and practical experiences in 31 countries. The chapter contains practical advice, too, such as a stepwise approach to the use of ecosystem services in SEA. [Extracted from the article]

In short, an updated edition of an important work, with the classical contents of an EIA textbook, the practice viewed from the perspective of the key players and seasoned with contemporary issues that will be on the agenda in the coming years. EIA changing practice is commented for selected contemporary topics: gender, the concept of socio-ecological systems, technological innovation and the "citizen 3.0". Five chapters present the basic blocks of the EIA process and three chapters deal with emerging or contemporary issues. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, I analyze texts by Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf considering poems from his two published books to date: Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (1989) y Pewma dungu,/Palabras soñadas (2003), both written in Mapudungun and Spanish. I propose to read his written poetry as a ritualization of voices, sounds and images that emerge from a Mapuche view of language and territory. My analysis highlights the way in which Lienlaf s poetic texts constitute registers of aural and sound experiences that resist what I call the “acoustic colonialism" imposed by the state, corporate and media agents that dominate the scene of neoliberal Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews several non-fiction books. 'Luis Barrágan's Gardens of El Pedregal,' by Keith L. Eggener; 'The Gray Cloth,' by Paul Scheerbart, translated by John A. Stuart; 'The Glass State: The Technology of the Spectacle, Paris, 1981-1998,' by Annette Fierro; 'Courtyards: Aesthetic, Social, and Thermal Delight,' by John S. Reynolds.

The article reviews the book "Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America," edited by Jean-Françis Lejeune.

Reviews the book 'The Mexican Economy: Twentieth-Century Structure and Growth,' by Clark W. Reynolds.

Reviews the book 'Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Chile,' edited by Paul M. Sweezy and Harry Magdoff.

The article reviews the book "Historia Magistra Vitae. Miscelánea de Estudios en Homenaje a Tarsicio de Azcona, OFMcap., Historiador" edited by José Ángel Echeverría.

Reviews the book 'La Realidad Económica Mexicana: Retrovisión y Perspectivas,' by Leopoldo Solis.

The article reviews the book "Troubled Waters: Warning on the Consequences of Damming the Biggest Amazon Affluent," edited by Glenn Switkes.

Reviews the book `Religion in Public Life: A Dilemma for Democracy,' by Ronald F. Thiemann.