In this edited volume fourteen scholars, mostly from Latin America, analyze the current state of relations between North America and Latin America in a number of sectors - economic, security, politics, and the environment. Particular attention is paid to processes of economic integration that dominated political discussions during the decade of the 1990s - NAFTA, MERCOSUR, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Because most of the scholars are from Latin America, the book has a perspective that is often lacking in books on similar scholars written almost exclusively by scholars from the U.S.

Social protection serves as an important development tool, helping to alleviate deprivation, reduce social risks, raise household income and develop human capital. This book brings together an interdisciplinary team of international experts to analyse social protection systems and welfare regimes across contemporary Latin America. The book starts with a section tracking the expansion of social assistance and social insurance in Latin America through the state-led development era, the neoliberal era and the pink-tide. The second section explores the role played by local and external actors modelling social policy in the region. The third and final section addresses a variety of contemporary debates and challenges around social protection and welfare in the region, such as gender roles and the empowerment of CCT beneficiaries, and welfare provision for rural outsiders. The book touches on key topics such as conditional cash transfer programmes, trade union inclusionary strategies, transnational social policy, state-led versus market-led welfare provision, explanatory factors in the emerging dualism of social protection institutions, social citizenship rights as a consequence of changing social policy architecture and different poverty reduction strategies. This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians working on social protection in Latin America, or interested in welfare systems in the global south.

Critical study of Cuban novelist and Proust's influence on selected works.

This book offers a discussion of the origins of Latin American dependency theories and their implications for contemporary social theory. The book explores the conditions of emergence of this intellectual movement, the trajectories of some of its main formulators, as well as the circulation of their ideas, their reception in other contexts, and their influence on other theoretical formulations and problems of the present. The book is aimed at social scientists interested in broadening the scope of social theory towards the Global South, in processes of knowledge circulation between central and semi-peripheral regions, as well as in understanding the problems of dependency, modernisation, and development processes in Latin America. The book can be used both as an introduction to these themes and to delve deeper into specific issues.

Volume 1 of 6 of the complete premium print version of journal forum for inter-american research (fiar), which is the official electronic journal of the International Association of Inter-American Studies (IAS). fiar was established by the American Studies Program at Bielefeld University in 2008. We foster a dialogic and interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Americas. fiar is a peer-reviewed online journal. Articles in this journal undergo a double-blind review process and are published in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

The overall context of this book is set by the decline of the globalization paradigm’s ability to grasp the complexity and uncertainty of the current era. It takes a new approach based on the frame of "transformation" viewed as a catalyst to understand the complex interconnected nature of the world around us from a concrete, grounded perspective. Labour or work is still what makes the world go round, and Latin America offers a unique laboratory of social transformation since the "pink tide" of the 2000s. The left it refers to is a new non-dogmatic version that does not just recycle old debates but, rather, opens up new perspectives. The book is at once global in its ambition while grounded in labour and Latin American realities. Theoretically based and empirically robust, it will enthuse the reader to pursue their own research on matters covered here. Part I deals with several key debates around labour including the emergence of a precariat, from a standpoint that foregrounds labour agency but also the view from the South, that is, the majority world. Part II takes up various debates around contemporary Latin America from a cultural political economy perspective with an emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation. Part III explores the contributions from the broadly defined left towards an understanding of the current challenges faced by those seeking an alternative to the status quo in Latin America and beyond. Providing a theoretically sophisticated yet readable text on key contemporary issues, this fully interdisciplinary book will find a broad audience among researchers, scholars, and advanced students of labour, Latin American and development studies, economics, sociology, and politics.

Panorama of Rural Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean 2018, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), addresses the important challenges faced by the region in developing its rural territories to achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly SDG 1 to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. After many years of progress, poverty and extreme rural poverty in the region have started to increase again. This is worrying news for countries of the region and the international community because, if they do not return to the path of rural poverty reduction, millions of people will be excluded from the opportunity to contribute to the development of their families, communities and countries. The 33 Member States of the United Nations in the region have pledged their commitment to eradicating rural poverty by 2030 and, despite the recent trend, it is still possible to achieve this goal. This report also highlights the persistence of significant gaps between rural and urban areas, which is incompatible with sustainable and equitable development. Of the 169 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, 132 require actions that must be carried out in rural territories.