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The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how much the science education community has yet to understand about myriad variables that impact accurately informed socioscientific issue decision-making. Toward that end, this study investigated 415 university biology students' COVID-19 behaviours and opinions regarding how COVID-19 mandates might be associated with their views about COVID-19 science and scientists, risk perceptions, race/ethnicity, gender, and political orientation. Science-supported actions and mandate support were more highly exhibited by Asian and Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic students compared to White non-Hispanic students. Science supported actions and mandate support were also significantly associated with increased COVID-19 risk perceptions and knowledge and confidence about COVID-19 science. Higher levels of political conservatism was significantly associated with lower levels of COVID-19 mitigating actions and mandate support. Political orientation appeared to mediate the relationship between views about COVID-19 science, COVID-19 actions, and mandate support. These and other findings demonstrate that cognitive and sociocultural factors associated with socioscientific decision-making are complex and vary across contexts. An implication of this study is that efforts to promote a pragmatic science literacy for accurately informed SSI decision-making will require multivariate and synergistic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses 70 scholarly articles on doctoral education in Latin America from 2011 to 2021, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model. The research identifies key trends, themes, and defining characteristics within the literature. We propose a three-wave evolution model for doctoral education in Latin America based on the findings. The results show the consolidation of doctoral education in several countries, the ‘second wave’, with themes such as quality assurance policy, program development, learning, curriculum, and advising. The study also highlights the emergence of research hubs as a ‘third wave’, in which doctoral programs attract individuals from different backgrounds and locations who mobilise knowledge and ideas within and across regions. Our three-wave model of evolution for doctoral education offers a way to articulate research and policy around doctoral education in Latin America, a critical step towards significant research hubs and pertinent programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a common critique of the Global South that its rising protagonism is a tool for authoritarian forces. The prominent role of authoritarian countries in coalitions such as BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement, which claim to represent the Global South, has strengthened this concern. To shed light on those issues, this paper provides an in-depth case study of the 2024 elections crisis in Venezuela and the role of the Global South in resolving it. The question asked is to what extent countries identifying with the Global South were able to simultaneously promote democracy and adopt a foreign policy identity aligned with the Global South. The paper shows how the position and action of different Global South countries differed significantly, from an outright rejection of the fraudulent elections, to their endorsement. There were also concerted efforts by countries strongly identifying with the Global South to facilitate a democratic solution. The main argument developed is that a Global South narrative’s interweaving of anti-imperialism and opposition against foreign interference with opposition against liberal democracy promotion has left a limited space for democracy advocacy among countries with a Global South identity. This may weaken democratic forces among Global South countries in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies about the politics of southern cities, particularly Latin American cities, need to pay more attention to the political institutions behind urban governance. These institutions, additionally, were not created by design but are a product of intertwined historical processes. This article analyzes the main features and transformations of Latin American local governments, their politics, and governance, looked at from the angle of their historical formation. Mobilizing arguments from urban studies and political science usually developed apart, I start with the legacies of two intertwined historical processes—urbanization(s) and state formation(s)—to later observe their recent transformations since the recent return(s) to democracy. The reconstruction of these intertwined historical trajectories and of the effects of the present democratic period help to jointly explain the most important features of the politics of local governments in Latin America that influence their governance and actions—capacities, political grammars, actors, and coalitions—as well as their recent transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study investigates the drivers of e-commerce continuance intentions among older consumers in Latin America. It employs the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) to develop and test a conceptual model of e-commerce adoption for older adults in Chile. Data were collected through an online survey involving 202 participants aged 65 and over. The findings reveal that attitude toward e-commerce and three UTAUT2 predictors—performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence—are significantly related to e-commerce continuance intentions. Consumer innovativeness also has an indirect relationship through its impact on attitudes toward e-commerce. Additionally, facilitating conditions and habit are indirectly and significantly related to e-commerce continuance intentions through their influence on effort expectancy. However, hedonic motivation, perceived privacy risk, and health condition do not serve as significant predictors of e-commerce continuance intentions. This study enhances the understanding of older consumers’ intentions to continue adopting e-commerce in a Latin American country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Body Project (BP) intervention for body image issues is supported by extensive efficacy and effectiveness research, most of which has been conducted in the United States. The BP uses cognitive dissonance to help participants critique the ideal appearance through written, verbal, and behavioral exercises. This reduces the internalization of the appearance ideal, which in turn decreases body dissatisfaction symptoms and, in some individuals, the onset of eating disorders. To broadly implement this program in Mexico and Latin America, Comenzar de Nuevo (CdN), a non-profit organization for eating disorder treatment, partnered with the Body Project Collaborative in 2014. Together, they created a training and implementation infrastructure. This paper explores the adaptation of BP and its implementation in Mexico and Latin America. We used sustainable business, marketing, and educational models to fulfill CdN's mission to reduce eating disorder risk factors, including weight stigma, in the Latin American region. By integrating strategies to combat weight stigma within our program delivery, we strive to contribute to a more inclusive and supportive environment. We trained master trainers, regular trainers, and/or group facilitators from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Spain; and implemented the BP in 15 public schools supported by sponsorship programs. This paper provides crucial lessons learned, future directions, and implications for dissemination and implementation efforts in this region of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation is an intellectual endeavour that requires engagement with authors and conceptual frameworks from different times and worlds. It is not a neutral or simple task of converting linguistic codes but a situated, partial, and interested process that goes beyond mere intellectual activity. In translating Stuart Hall into Spanish for a Latin American audience, specific challenges and interests arise, as detailed in this article. Three main challenges are discussed: preserving the contextuality and complexity of Hall's writings, resisting the temptation to simplify or academicize his work, and ensuring that translations facilitate meaningful cross-cultural exchanges. The article underscores the importance of understanding Hall's work as an intellectual and political project, deeply rooted in specific historical and cultural contexts, and argues for an approach to translation that remains faithful to these dimensions while making his ideas accessible and relevant to contemporary Latin American readers. Finally, the paper reflects on the political significance of translation, highlighting how ideas can transcend boundaries and enrich local debates. Hall's concepts, such as articulation, context, and conjuncture, are presented as valuable tools for understanding and intervening in the social and political realities of Latin America today. The article concludes by emphasizing the ongoing relevance of Hall's intellectual and political contributions and the need for translations that honour his legacy while engaging with the specific challenges and opportunities of our present moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyse the links between domestic violence and children abandoning their family home, using new empirical evidence from the Latin American inmate population. Interest in this group is obvious, as it is precisely because they ran away from home that many may have ended up in a criminal environment and finally, in prison. Among prison inmates, family violence is a strong predictor of abandoning the childhood home. Such inmates have a significantly higher risk of reporting having run away from home at least once before the age of 15, irrespective of their family, peer/school, and neighbourhood context. Domestic violence is a risk factor, triggering a series of events that result in children running away from their homes (victims of domestic violence or witnesses to it). This study suggests a relationship between different configurations of domestic violence and runaways, and provides an additional benefit by relating these two elements to the inmate population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reexamines the rise and fall of Operation PBFORTUNE by restoring the contributions of its Latin American participants. In 1952, a loose network of Caribbean Basin regimes sought to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz's democratically-elected government in Guatemala. At the same time, the U.S. government's State Department and CIA held the same goal. Lobbied by Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza on behalf of Guatemalan counterrevolutionary Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, the Truman Administration inadvertently approved what Caribbean Basin officials interpreted as their own scheme. Although the CIA would be regularly notified of meetings among Latin American actors, Assistant Secretary of State Edward Miller grew increasingly frustrated as Caribbean Basin officials contacted State Department officials whom Miller intended to keep unaware. When the State Department ended the program, U.S. officials blamed their Latin American counterparts in order to maintain plausible deniability and circumvent any discussions about their respective department's role in Operation PBFORTUNE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the importance of centering Haiti and the Caribbean in hemispheric studies, especially as the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CJLACS) celebrates its 50th anniversary. Topics include the historical context of Haiti's significance in the Caribbean and Latin America, the complexities of contemporary migration phenomena affecting the region, and the need for an inclusive approach that recognizes the unique challenges faced by Haiti.

AbstractIn limited-resourced Latin-American cities, adapting urban regulations and capturing value offers great potential for developing affordable land. We explored what counts for the significant variance in local land management implementation within Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region. Analysed municipalities successfully developed high-quality instruments to expand affordable land markets. However, local planning effectiveness does not find limits in the quality of planning itself. Depending on the municipalities’ relative location within the metro area, the national-level pipeline infrastructure plans, the politically driven finance choices, and divergent administration protocols favour or hinder the capacity to implement an effective urban land development strategy at local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gated communities house 40% of Bogotá’s population today. Streets formed when two gated communities face each other, dominated by fences and walls are a common sight. Situating our research on informal social control and critical security theories, we analyse how gated communities shape non-exclusionary access and security in the streets and public spaces outside the gates. Applying systematic observations and interviews in streets outside gated communities in Bogotá, we collect data from all public space users. We show that in these spaces, the passer-by is perceived as a threat and hence not welcomed. We find that gated communities are redistributing access and security not just inside but also outside the gates, serving the needs of some, while dismissing the collective interest of inclusive and secure public spaces for all and hence are a threat to the democratic nature of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) poses significant healthcare challenges in Latin America (LA) due to its high prevalence and unique healthcare dynamics. Despite global advancements, LA faces specific hurdles in effectively managing RA. Areas covered: This review examines RA epidemiology, treatment strategies, and clinical challenges in LA. RA prevalence varies, with higher rates among indigenous populations. While conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) are recommended as first-line therapy, access remains inconsistent. Biologics and targeted synthetic DMARDs are available, but biosimilars have limited accessibility, with drug prices varying significantly. Key barriers include supply interruptions, diagnosis delays, and high non-adherence rates driven by socioeconomic factors. A severe shortage of rheumatologists, particularly in rural areas, affects patient care. Cardiovascular events, comorbidities, and endemic infections further complicate RA management. Expert opinion: Although RA care in LA has improved through better use of csDMARDs and advanced treatments, major challenges persist, such as a shortage of specialists, limited medical education, and fragmented healthcare systems. Expanding training programs, enhancing telemedicine, and ensuring drug supply continuity are essential. Strengthening clinical research, improving access to affordable treatments, and developing comprehensive, region-specific strategies are crucial to closing the gap between LA and more developed regions in RA care.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rejection from parents can lead transgender (trans) youth and young adults to experience poor health outcomes, while parental and sibling acceptance and support can be protective against poor health outcomes. The role of family in adult trans women's lives has been minimally investigated. Aim: This study aimed to explore experiences of familial rejection, acceptance, and support in the lives of trans women sex workers living with HIV in the Dominican Republic. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 trans women ages 23 to 49 in Santo Domingo in 2019. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the interviews. We developed narrative summaries and a case-based matrix to analyze data within and across participants and confirm patterns and themes in the data. Results: Familial rejection and acceptance were processes with most participants receiving acceptance from at least one family member over time as well as receiving emotional and instrumental support. Poor health outcomes influenced by rejection and lack of support included suicide attempts, depression, and substance use. Conversely, acceptance and support bolstered well-being and provided housing stability and assistance with HIV treatment. Conclusion: Family rejection and acceptance play an important role throughout the life course. Working with families to become accepting of their trans family members could improve trans women's health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that fashion curation in Latin America must be redesigned in order to disseminate the complex histories of fashion in the region, which are inherently tinted with forms of systemic oppression that stem from European invasions and colonialism. It begins with two recent case studies from Colombia before moving onto a brief overview of the development of fashion curation in Latin America, which highlights the dominance of Eurocentric views of fashion in exhibitions throughout the region. To move beyond these limited narratives, the article ends by offering some initial ideas to redirect future curatorial practices and strategies based on contemporary and critical approaches that engage with decolonial scholarship around fashion in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I propose that caring/careful practices of becoming-supervisors are practices of response-ability within neoliberalized academia. These practices, based on a feminist ontology of reciprocity, active co-presence, sensitivity and receptive openness, created a friendly atmosphere where students’ feelings and needs were taken into account and enabled their academic development in a rationalist-individualist competitive context. I present interviews with 15 doctoral students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) regarding their relationship with their becoming-supervisors. The analysis showed that students’ perceptions of assemblage-professors’ caring/careful practices included: post-human treatment, facilitating the research, mentoring, and sheltering. Caring/careful practices allowed the students to be inspired and build trusting relationships. However, care is complex and is co-opted by the neoliberal system, which means that a complete transformation of the academic culture is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do regional institutions promote more equitable governance in the global South and, in particular, do they enable more gender-equitable governance? We examine these questions in the light of regional governance actions and policies under COVID-19, drawing on evidence from Latin America and Africa. We argue that weak regional gender equality norms contributed to the downgrading of the rights of women and girls in policymaking during COVID-19, within both member states and regional organizations, which resulted in women and girls paying an unnecessarily high price during and after the pandemic. Using interview and documentary data, we show that the existence of gender equality norms led to an initial recognition of the need for gendered protections in COVID-19 policies but that these were side-lined, and the rights and needs of women and girls deprioritized, as the pandemic deepened. We also discuss the gendered costs of deprioritization in terms of preventable everyday harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restitution of colonial cultural property, which is currently the subject of much debate in Europe, raises several challenges. At first glance, it requires recognizing the injustices associated with coloniality itself and determining how restitution can occur. This requires an in-depth understanding of certain aspects that are particularly challenging, for example, the complexities related to the ways in which provenance research is conceived and conducted or the role that human rights play in postcolonial contexts. At the heart of such debates seems to be the need for legal reforms and greater respect for the interests and rights of the communities of origin. Taking into account the Latin American context, this paper critically examines how colonial cultural property restitution policies in some European countries have attempted to address some fundamental aspects underlying the consideration of the Indigenous peoples involved but, at the same time, have overlooked other aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: US Hispanics have several health disparities, greater tobacco/nicotine-related illnesses, lower access to smoking cessation, and lower rates of cessation. Understanding cultural constructs linked to tobacco/nicotine use may provide a greater understanding of future cultural adaptations of cessation interventions. This study used a multidimensional acculturation framework, with cultural practices, identity, and values, to test links between measures of acculturation stress, multidimensional acculturation (language-based enculturation and acculturation, cultural identity, familism), and tobacco/nicotine use, and interactions with gender. Design: Participants were 391 adult Latin American immigrants (69% women); 12% self-reported tobacco/nicotine use in the past six months. Results: Path analysis showed acculturative stress, β =.16, and acculturation, β =.20, were positively related to tobacco/nicotine use. Enculturation, familism, and Hispanic cultural identity were not related to tobacco/nicotine use. There were no significant acculturation by enculturation or gender interactions, but women were less likely to use tobacco/nicotine than men, β = −.36. Conclusion: Findings suggest that tobacco/nicotine cessation interventions for Latino immigrants may be enhanced with an emphasis on the mitigation of acculturative stress, attention to the adoption of US cultural practices, and gender. Future research should examine specific sources of acculturative stress or social norms related to tobacco/nicotine use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin American countries have been at the forefront of pension privatization and since 2008 they have also pioneered reform reversals. Previous studies have focused on single cases or a small number of them, given that pension reform is a complex phenomenon arising from the combination of different causes. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the article analyzes a set of 32 pension reform cases in eight countries from the early 1990s until 2021. It finds four different pathways that combine institutional, structural and policy legacy conditions. It demonstrates that fsQCA is a useful tool for broader comparative policy work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How work is organised is a critical component of firms' learning process. Because of that, the relationship between firms' work organisation and their innovative effort is endogenous in nature and, in turn, causal effects are hardly identifiable. This paper aims to contribute by analysing the effects of organisational work practices oriented toward knowledge sharing and innovative efforts in Uruguayan firms between 2009 and 2015. Our research design allows us to test both the endogenous relationship and the potential causal effects, using econometric panel data techniques and instrumental variables. The results corroborate the endogenous relationship between these variables. Moreover, a positive and significant effect of communication practices on the innovative effort is identified in low-tech manufacturing firms but not in high-tech firms. This result offers valuable implications for public policy and industrial practices in developing countries since it reflects the main features of an innovation pattern that mostly relies on modernisation strategies rather than on high-tech innovations based on R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differing reactions between Western nations and the Global South to Russia's invasion of Ukraine present a puzzle. Shouldn't post-colonial states be just as concerned about the principles of national sovereignty and non-intervention as Western countries? The idiosyncratic, ad hoc explanations on a country-by-country basis are insufficient to account for a much broader phenomenon. This article deconstructs the "sovereignty principle" as it is seen in the Global South and examines the standing of the so-called Rules-Based Order (RBO), allegedly under mortal threat by Russia's action. It then argues that a far better explanation for the Global South's reaction is the rise of Active Non-Alignment (ANA). The foreign policy doctrine of ANA arose in Latin America in 2019–2020 in response to US–China tensions, It then spread to the rest of the Global South in 2022–2024 because of the war in Ukraine, BRICS expansion, and the war in Gaza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article discusses the politics of capital mobility in dollarized Latin American economies. Building upon the Polanyian notion of double movement and the international financial subordination research program, I contend that the ideology of the governing party and the strength of popular mobilization still contribute to policy variegation in capital flow management even at the bottom of the global currency hierarchy. The case studies on Ecuador and El Salvador since the late 2000s provide support for this argument. In both countries, administrations led by post-neoliberal left-wing parties tightened capital flow management, while their right-wing successors gave a new impulse to capital mobility. However, these regulatory cycles varied according to the strength of popular pressures. In Ecuador, where social movements had a strong mobilizational capacity, post-neoliberal governments deployed encompassing capital controls, while their right-wing successor had to follow a gradualist approach in their liberalizing agenda. In El Salvador, on the other hand, given the relative weakness of the bottom-up pressure, post-neoliberal administrations pursued a targeted macroprudential approach, while the right-wing successor faced little resistance to implementing a radical neoliberal agenda that included even the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender alongside the United States dollar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fotográfica en Red is a collective network of professionals dedicated to preserving the photographic heritage in Latin America. This group was only possible thanks to online tools that allowed the meeting and parallel work and research between people of different countries. The purpose of this paper is to share our experience as a working group to encourage and reinforce the importance of collective work as a tool for the widespread dissemination of knowledge, validation of methodologies adapted to our reality, and claiming our own narrative as agents of custody of Latin American photographic heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Paper Conservation Seminar has now been held as four face-to-face events and four online events. It is a three-day international event delivered in Spanish and Portugese with keynote talks from national and international conservation professionals from Mexico to Chile presenting projects covering works on paper in diverse formats including documents, photographs historic books, and artworks. Countries such as Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Spain and Costa Rica have sent delegates to discuss both the social and cultural aspects of conservation work. The seminar is a completely free event for its attendees. It is intended to be suitable for all, with high-level talks addressing issues of management, preservation, conservation, restoration and disaster recovery among many others. From the third event onwards, training workshops for basic treatments have been developed, with the participation of recognized conservation professionals from universities and international institutes, allowing the number of attendees to remain constant since the Covid-19 pandemic. It creates networks and fosters collaboration for professional and institutional projects. The seminars have generated a connected and active community of paper conservators in the region, aware of our limitations, and capable of solving problems collaboratively and according to local resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University dropout is a serious problem in higher education that is increasingly gaining importance, as it is essential to understand its causes and search for public and institutional policies that can help reduce it. This research uses conventional and extended Cox survival models to analyze the factors behind dropout rates at a co-financed higher education institution (HEI) in Ecuador. The latter allows us to model specific components, such as time-dependent and independent variables, and unobserved heterogeneity. The results show that certain student-related, family-related, or background characteristics are relevant for the ecuadorian context. However, the most influential factors affecting the dropout risk are institutional and academic. These findings provide valuable insights into the actions and policies that HEI can implement to mitigate dropout rates through internal measures that public policies can complement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on research conducted in four state schools with sixth forms to problematise two flagship 'disadvantage' policy agendas in the English context: the Pupil Premium (focusing on the narrowing of attainment gaps) and widening participation (focusing on fairer university access). While such 'priority' policies necessarily incorporate the promise of change, it argues that multiple forms of incoherence militate against this, including: their relative agenda-setting power in a highly marketised system; the contested, constitutive power of different proxy indicators; competing policy preferences that under-attend to the intersections between educational opportunities and material disadvantage. In contrast, interviews with school staff highlighted the transformative potential of lived experiences of disadvantage and reinforced the importance of adopting a wider lens than that of the school. The paper concludes that the absence of an over-arching theory of change is part of 'the problem' and it suggests where the mapping of one might begin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do international large-scale assessments influence education policy? How? Through scripts, lessons, or incentives? For some, they all produce similar outcomes. For others, different assessment data, shaped by different designs, and mediated by international organizations' (IOs) policy directives, prompt different policy decisions. For some, participation in these assessments may be linked to lower repetition rates, as per the policy scripts hypothesis inspired by world society theory. For others, assessments' comparison strategies (age vs. grade) influence repetition in participating countries, according to policy lessons or incentives hypotheses, respectively inspired by educational effectiveness research and the sociology of quantification, and particularly the notion of retroaction. Fixed-effects panel regression models of eighteen Latin American countries (1992–2017) show that participation in assessments is associated with changing repetition rates in primary and secondary, while controlling for other factors. The findings show statistically significant differences between some assessment types. The conclusions spur new questions, delineating a future agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family honour, protecting and upholding the family name, is central to familism. Yet, it has been somewhat neglected by scholarship on Latin American and Latino families. Familism involves prioritising the family over the individual. Likewise, the family of origin holds particular significance, offering material, social and emotional support, and shaping one's identity, honour and sense of belonging. Heteronormativity and patriarchy portray queer individuals as the causes of family shame. This study examined how family honour, as a component of familism, operates within kin dynamics, specifically focusing on same-sex cohabitation, as this living arrangement serves as a tangible expression of a non-normative sexual orientation. A life course perspective was used to study 24 cases of cohabiting lesbian, gay and bi/pansexual individuals in Chile. The results show the enduring significance of families in providing support, sociability, identity, and a sense of belonging. Nevertheless, it reveals notable instances of family rejection towards queer kin. In Chile, both families of origin and queer individuals employ subtle strategies to conceal their queerness, guided by notions of 'respect' associated with family honour and decency. These strategies involve unspoken agreements to maintain family bonds through discreet displays of queer behaviour without explicit acknowledgement of sexual identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been asked if Latin America has any lessons in anti-racism for other regions. This kind of comparative approach reifies and homogenises regions as distinct "cases", obscuring common ground. In contrast, a relational approach highlights commonalities and suggests that learning experiences in developing anti-racism can be shared across and within different contexts. Examples from Ecuador and Mexico suggest that the historical relation between race and class in Latin America has produced a "racially-aware class consciousness" that could be mistaken as a simple "lesson" for other regions about how to balance a politics of recognition with one of redistribution. A relational approach highlights that this "lesson" also applies within Latin American countries, because this racially-aware class consciousness is not simply a fully-formed given, but instead needs to be activated and developed in progressive directions, pushing against the currents of history and coloniality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore the use, production, and readings of images in antiracist work as processes in constant tension with racist logics. Racist logics are deceptive and entrapping, and the visible world is a particularly dynamic arena in which to analyse this. Images, specifically photographs, incorporate a nuanced and productive contradiction between their ability to illustrate, explain and evoke, on the one hand, while also ensnaring, on the other, partly through alluring and providing pleasure. This contradiction means that anti-racist projects may include the possibility of re-inscribing racist discourse and practice. Drawing on empirical examples from Mexico, this article interrogates how photographic representations of Blackness have been entangled with the racist logics and racial projects that feed them. Racialised images that emphasise the physical body of Black people raise questions about how mestizaje, Latin America's main racial formation, has coded the visual space of representation in confusing ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ecuador, the ideology of mestizaje has resulted in the denial or minimization of racism against Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. This denial coexists, however, with the consciousness of racialized difference. If racism is most of the time minimized and naturalized, in this paper I propose that we need to consider the circumstances that may generate awareness of racism and a public speaking up against it. Comparing two cases involving Afro-descendant and Indigenous people in conflict with external actors, I analyze the role that different forms of violence play in the public articulation of racism. I contend that violent physical conflict may result in breaking the silence on state racism, while diffuse or slow forms of violence may result in the backgrounding of explicit denunciations of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are currently witnessing a turn to racism and anti-racism in Latin America. The recognition of racism is not new, but the attention and challenge to racism, in such an orchestrated way, is. What are the signals of such turn to racism and anti-racism? What are the overall lessons for Latin America and from Latin America to global antiracist efforts? This introduction looks at the arguments of the articles in this special issue to highlight how issues of racial visibility, naming racism, racial data, legal rights and recognition, entrepreneurship, mestizo identity, the possibilities of alliances, racially-aware struggles against class (and gendered) oppression, are key to understanding this turn. While we do not claim that these articles cover the full extent of this turn in Latin America, we suggest that analysing how this turn appears in Latin American opens useful ways of thinking about anti-racism more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of battling the quantitative and qualitative housing deficits, Latin American countries are seeing new types of challenges in housing. Neoliberal policies favouring individual (low-cost) homeownership have weakened social trust and solidarity between neighbours, and some housing areas face poor urban amenities. An example of this is Chile, where housing policy measures have brought adverse effects such as deteriorating housing quality and the relocation of families to peripheral areas. This has caused the breakdown of family ties, community life, and social cohesion. Although various studies on the housing deficit in Chile have been carried out, these studies have not comprehensively addressed the multiple dimensions of housing. Therefore, this review explores how Chilean housing policies have addressed the housing deficit from four dimensions: quantitative, qualitative, urban, and social. To this end, we reviewed Chilean housing policies and programmes and their response to the housing deficit from the neoliberal period onwards. We found that these policies and interventions have focused on solving the quantitative and, to a lesser extent, qualitative and urban deficits while sparsely addressing the non-physical or intangible social dimension. We conclude this article with recommendations to address the social deficit of housing in future policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given recent study abroad trends, Latin America (LATAM) offers untapped potential to contribute to U.S. campus internationalization. To diversify student populations and increase enrollment from LATAM, stakeholders should consider the language, academic, and cultural experiences of LATAM students admitted to U.S. graduate schools. This study bridges the gap between higher education institutions and potential students. To do so, mixed methods were employed to analyze the following: (1) responses to a 67-question survey completed by LATAM graduate students (n = 126) studying abroad at a large public R1 university in the Midwest, (2) TOEFL scores, and (3) transcripts of 13 follow-up interviews about academic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Results underscore the importance of effective English language instruction during college years to help students meet graduate school admission scores, especially in cases where K-12 English language training was inadequate. The study considers the extent to which participants became part of a community of practice, characterized by attributes such as language proficiency, high levels of achievement, and personal investment in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collaborative analysis of constructed wetlands in Latin America and the Caribbean, published in Spanish, brought together insights from 10 different countries in the region. The collective reports focused on both subsurface and surface flow wetlands. Treatment targets included industrial and agricultural discharges, yet the emphasis was on the treatment of domestic wastewater as a pollutant, and a lack of sufficient municipal wastewater treatment infrastructure. Common macrophyte genera as well as unique species were highlighted for their potential contributions to treatment and ecological diversity. Finally, a growing body of legal frameworks for establishment and protection were reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students embarking on fieldwork across Eurasia, Africa and Latin America will encounter various political practices of regimes and conflicts involving varying levels of open violence. Although they leave their universities equipped with often stunning theoretical and methodological knowledge, surprisingly little attention is paid to practical preparation for uneasy situations. Fieldwork handbooks do exist, but they rarely offer positionality-sensitive guidelines and cannot provide ongoing mentoring during fieldwork or debriefing upon return. Drawing on previous scholarship initiatives and my experiences conducting field research in authoritarian Central Asia, I call for an open academic debate on fieldwork in challenging contexts and increased peer-to-peer solidarity at all academic levels. Addressing teaching professionals, advanced PhD students and anyone else involved in teaching and training newcomers in research and learning, I offer specific examples of what such a cooperation and support leading to a more resilient community may look like in everyday academic and research practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature suggests that international trade may have different results over income inequality according to a country's trade and economic structure. The main goal of this article is to analyze the impact of international trade on income inequality in Latin American countries between 1997 and 2020. Our results suggest that international trade variables, such as trade openness and economic complexity, are highly significant and have impacted the income distribution. The results show that following the process of trade openness, the "simplification" of the economy led to a reduction in income inequality in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rising contestations to the Liberal International Order (LIO), it is crucial to highlight the contribution of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to international institutions and global governance, particularly considering its peripheral position in the world order. The Triple Nexus Approach (TPA), adopted in 2016, promotes a coordinated effort in providing humanitarian assistance and aid for development by integrating them with peace endeavours. The LAC region has provided political and conceptual contributions to each TPA component, providing alternative perspectives on multilateral governance in humanitarian action, development and peacebuilding, emphasising the pursuit of collective and context-specific outcomes for crisis prevention. Focusing on the period from the early 21st century to 2019, a time when the Triple Nexus theoretical structuring publications emerged, it is highlighted how contestations to the LIO and the changing world order have impacted global governance norms, creating opportunities for emerging and peripheral countries to shape post-liberal rules. This allows Global South countries to set self-determined development objectives and make a meaningful contribution to global rule-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nutritional interventions can help to develop healthy eating patterns during the transition to university, which is a critical transition for all college students. Purpose: This research aims to analyze eating behaviors and food choices through sustainable nutritional education interventions with college students from a multinational university in Latin-America. Methods: The nutritional intervention had eight sessions emphasizing lifestyle nutrition patterns. There was an intervention group (n = 85), and a control group (n = 80). This research evaluated the eating behaviors and food choice motivators before and after the intervention. Results: The nutrition education interventions showed that the group under intervention improved, changing from unhealthy to moderately healthy habits, whereas the control groups remained in unhealthy eating behaviors. Food choice motivations slightly differ from the two groups after the intervention. Discussion: The control group students reflected on their lack of awareness of good eating habits so that current trends could influence their food choices in social networks associated with the pandemic, economic factors, and supply. Translation to Health Education Practice: The findings from this research highlight opportunities for Certified Health Education Specialists focused on project development and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid rise of China as a major economic power, characterized by its expanding global trade and financial connections, has significantly heightened geopolitical tensions, particularly with the US. The primary objective of this study is to examine the ramifications of such geopolitical risks (GPR) on trading patterns within Latin America, employing a gravity model. The selection of Latin America stems from its ongoing transformation in power dynamics, with China emerging as the second largest partner, posing substantial competition to the US, which has historically been the region's primary trading partner. This region has also emerged as an attractive investment and trade destination with abundant natural resources and a growing middle class. By focusing on seven of the largest economies in Latin America – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela – from 2000 to 2020, our study yields valuable insights into the influence of GPR on trade dynamics. The findings underscore the overall detrimental impact of GPR on trade, with a disproportionately adverse effect on imports. This study represents a significant contribution by bridging existing gaps in the literature, particularly within the underexplored context of Latin America, while providing crucial guidance for policy formulation and informing future research endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does the notion of the public sphere serve to assess Latin America in networked times? The debate over the modern condition of the region and the contradictions of enlightenment values shaping a land conquered by the sword provides the backdrop for evaluating the pertinence of Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in the region, specifically regarding the chances the subaltern has to speak. Acknowledging its modern imprint and the varied criticisms it has received, the notion of the public sphere a la Habermas, offers a set of criteria for assessing the processes and outcomes of media and public communication development in Latin America. In this sense, this article connects the colonial imprint of Latin American nations, its struggles over media power, the meaning of communication, and the arrival of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the region through the notion of the public sphere. This overview exposes the features of the Internet in Latin America that perpetuate inequality, injustice, and the lack of voice while raising questions about the actual life of the "public" as a concept in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the eight years following the 2014 university system reform in Peru, there has been sustained growth in the scientific production of the Peruvian universities, evident by an increased number of publications in indexed journals compared to the pre-reform period. Using administrative data, the article investigates if the growth of scientific production is associated with the research-strengthening conditions of the Peruvian licensing model. Despite the low institutional research legacy in the university system, there is a strong association of the regulation linked to the university reform process in the production of academic articles. This result is robust to different specifications. Equally important is showing that this change has allowed universities with a limited research legacy to enhance their research output, which could be attributed to their increased necessity to adapt to a research-oriented approach already established by other universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the work of the Argentine political scientist Guillermo O'Donnell (1936–2011), one of Latin America's leading intellectual figures of the twentieth century. While previous analyses have concentrated on his legacy in the social sciences, this study offers an intellectual history of O'Donnell's ideas on democracy and inequality. It traces O'Donnell's shifting perspectives, from a structuralist view of global centre-periphery relationships to an emphasis on individual agency concerning inequalities. The article presents, first, an analysis of his early work, in particular his conceptualization of the "Bureaucratic-Authoritarian" State, which was connected to a specific view of inequality characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s. Second, the article focuses on his second major work, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, in relation to the most important political event in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, namely the various transitions from dictatorship to democracy. Thirdly, the article examines in detail O'Donnell's ideas on the quality of democracy, the state, and inequality in Latin America in the 1990s and 2000s. By exploring O'Donnell's intellectual journey chronologically, the article illuminates the shifts and continuities in his work, thereby highlighting the evolving perspectives on inequality of one of Latin America's foremost intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAchieving financial independence from parents holds importance in the transition to adulthood, particularly in high-income countries. However, this process becomes complex for young LGBTQ+ people and those from low- and middle-income nations, especially in cases of cross-border migration. This study presents qualitative insights drawn from testimonio interviews with 17 Venezuelan transgender women, aged 19–29, who migrated to Peru. Employing a thematic analysis, we explored four key themes: (1) motivations for leaving Venezuela, (2) financial support to migrate, (3) employment challenges in host countries, and (4) family remittance. Our focus centers on the participants’ challenges in achieving financial independence throughout their migration journey. Commencing migration from vulnerable economic positions, participants often received initial familial economic support. However, once established in Peru, they faced a paradox of sending remittances back to Venezuela to support their family even amidst personal economic difficulties in the host country. These findings reveal the complex financial interdependencies and vulnerabilities that mark the experiences of young Venezuelan transgender women migrants, contrasting sharply with the experiences of young transgender people in high-income nations. The findings challenge typical portrayals of young transgender individuals by illuminating the often overlooked role of Venezuelan transgender women migrants as familial providers, redefining financial independence in the context of global inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing greater social equity in balance with ecosystems is one of today’s greatest challenges. Little is known about the conditions which might facilitate these objectives finding synergy. The purpose of this special issue is to understand the conditions under which concerns for social equity and care for the earth can be addressed jointly at a micro-territorial level. This introduction discusses the Latin American landscape against which the relationship between social equity and care for the earth is explored. It summarizes some linkages identified in the literature and presents the rationale for choosing the broad terms of ‘care for the earth’ and ‘social equity’ as a focus. It concludes by highlighting some of the main findings of the contributions. Namely, that the objectives of social equity and care for the earth are in synergy when they are mobilized jointly by citizens, and when concern for outcomes and inclusive processes go hand-in-hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHousing cooperatives are being reconsidered in many countries worldwide as potentially relevant actors in the provision of affordable housing. This is also the case in Latin America, characterised by neo-liberal housing policies that have led to an increasing financialization of housing and marginalisation of the poor. Uruguay is an exception, with housing cooperatives playing a key role in the provision of affordable housing. For over two decades its Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM) has been advocating and actively supporting the establishment of cooperative housing in the region. In this paper, we examine the opportunities and challenges of housing cooperatives to penetrate in Colombia and El Salvador’s housing systems, two countries historically characterised by neo-liberal housing regimes. Based on empirical research in Uruguay, Colombia, and El Salvador, we will analyse the socioeconomic, political, and institutional factors that enable or constrain the emergence of housing cooperatives and their sustainability over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context marked by restrictive migration policies, precarious living conditions and a neoliberal market, this article explores how Venezuelan migrants incorporated themselves into the job market through informal entrepreneurship, the challenges they faced, and sources of resilience they developed. We draw on eleven semi-structured and in-depth interviews with Venezuelan migrants who participated in a micro-entrepreneurship training program delivered by a Santiago-based NGO during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature, vulnerability framework and thematic analysis, our findings suggest that there isn't a one-dimensional incorporation into the labour market experience among the group studied, despite similarities among the members; rather there is a dynamic intersectionality of gender, legal status, household economy and structural factors that amplify their precarity. The findings also highlight that migrants' capability of acquiring stable employment was essential to their well-being, in the absence of avenues to acquire formal employment, microenterprises became a source of motivation and resilience, providing them with a network of contacts and social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the stories of women migrants from Latin America who found themselves living precarious lives and struggling to sustain former idealised notions of their racial and class identities in London. Dispossessed of previous class membership due to an onward feminised precarity, a diminished social capital, undocumented legal statuses, and menial stigmatised jobs, women clung to an idealised perception of social status (shaped by white Eurocentric aspirations) to negotiate and reconfigure class and racial anxieties in London. They engage in various strategies that include processes of whitening through marriage and children, performances of taste and beauty, and negotiating their racialisation at work. These cases reflect the relevance of the coloniality of power, its influence in the subsistence of racial and class ideologies in Latin America, and in a global economy of care that produces and reproduces postcolonial forms of intersectional racialised and gendered exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unaccompanied trips are highly beneficial for children, yet their practice is difficult in unequal Latin American metropoles. This article investigates how the built and social environments influence children and young people’s trips in Santiago de Chile. It does so by reporting the findings of a stated preference questionnaire in which children and young people were invited to choose the preferred environment to walk unaccompanied in between pairs of images illustrating different social and physical attributes. The findings suggest that Santiago’s inequalities are mirrored in the environments through which children and young people prefer to walk unaccompanied. Attributes that enhance the streetscape (e.g., well-kept footpaths, grass), provide recreation and natural surveillance positively affect children’s willingness to make unaccompanied trips in wealthy areas. By contrast, those attributes are less significant for children and young people from other parts of the city, where other features have a greater impact (e.g., strangers drinking alcohol, off-licences, vehicles parked on the footpath). Furthermore, young girls are greatly discouraged from travelling unaccompanied in most circumstances, in both wealthy and not-wealthy areas. Public policies should prioritise non-wealthy neighbourhoods, improve the built environment, and strengthen local communities and local familiarity to create safer spaces that encourage unaccompanied trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]