Políticas ambientales y gobernabilidad en América Latina


Book Description

Se explora los alcances y límites de las políticas ambientales a través de las nociones de gobernabilidad y gobernanza ambiental. Se presenta innovaciones a las políticas públicas y reflexiones sobre las modalidades de incidencia de los actores sociales en los sistemas de gobernanza ambiental.




The International Handbook of Political Ecology


Book Description

The International Handbook of Political Ecology features chapters by leading scholars from around the world in a unique collection exploring the multi-disciplinary field of political ecology. This landmark volume canvasses key developments, topics, iss




Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America


Book Description

This handbook covers social movement activities in Latin American countries that have had profound consequences on the political culture of the region. It examines the developments of the past twenty years, such as a renewed upswing in popular mobilization, the ending of violent conflicts and military governments, new struggles and a relatively more democratic climate. It shows that, from southern Chiapas to Argentina, social movements in the 1990s and especially in the 2000s, have reached new heights of popular participation. There is a lack of research on the politics of this region in the contemporary era of globalization, this volume partially fills the void and offers a rich resource to students, scholars and the general public in terms of understanding the politics of mass mobilization in the early twenty-first century. The contributors each address social movement activity in their own nation and together they present a multidisciplinary perspective on the topic. Each chapter uses a case study design to bring out the most prominent attributes of the particular social struggle(s), for instance the main protagonists in the campaigns, the grievances of the population and the outcomes of the struggles. This Handbook is divided into seven substantive themes, providing overall coherence to a broad range of social conflicts across countries, issues and social groups. These themes include: 1) theory of Latin American social movements; 2) neoliberalism; 3) indigenous struggles; 4) women’s movements; 5) movements and the State; 6) environmental movements; and 7) transnational mobilizations.




A Critical Approach to Climate Change Adaptation


Book Description

This edited volume brings together critical research on climate change adaptation discourses, policies, and practices from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Drawing on examples from countries including Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Russia, Tanzania, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands, the chapters describe how adaptation measures are interpreted, transformed, and implemented at grassroots level and how these measures are changing or interfering with power relations, legal pluralismm and local (ecological) knowledge. As a whole, the book challenges established perspectives of climate change adaptation by taking into account issues of cultural diversity, environmental justicem and human rights, as well as feminist or intersectional approaches. This innovative approach allows for analyses of the new configurations of knowledge and power that are evolving in the name of climate change adaptation. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental law and policy, and environmental sociology, and to policymakers and practitioners working in the field of climate change adaptation.




Neoliberalism and Unequal Development


Book Description

Since the 1970s, neoliberalism has evolved from ideology to political programme, from political programme to public policy, and from public policy to constitutional rule. This process of change has been made possible through the endorsement of an uncritical, a-historical, and apolitical economic theory that legitimized technocratic despotism, financial deregulation, precarious labour, and constitutional-political emptying. This book examines critical perspectives in mainstream neoliberal development analysis. It examines the neoliberal experiment as a global historical construct through the cases of Africa, Latin America, and Europe. The analysis begins in 1980 with the Structural Adjustment Plans in Latin America and Africa, followed in 1990 by Maastricht in the case of Europe and the euphoric shift that took place, typified by the Africa Rising narrative, which attempts to promote the idea of an economically emerging continent. It also considers the weakness of the state resulting from neo-liberal austerity and fiscal stabilization policies, which have amplified the inability to collectively deal with the social, economic, and political impact of the COVID-19 crisis. One of the key features of the book is the extensive comparative analysis between regions, using case studies, including examples from African countries. The authors connect the different regional perspectives, included in the book, in a clear and coherent way, such that it will appeal to students and scholars interested in the social, economic, and political outcomes of globalization and will also be of interest to official development agencies and third sector organizations in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.




Urban Policy in Latin America


Book Description

This book evaluates the impact of 20 years of urban policies in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. It argues that evaluating the fulfillment of past commitments is essential for framing and meeting the new commitments that were taken in Habitat III over the next 20 years. Taken as a whole, the book provides a critical assessment of the economic, social and environmental consequences of urban interventions during Habitat II. The country-level chapters have been written by recognized experts in urban issues, with first-hand knowledge of the Habitat process, and deep familiarity with the problems, statistics, actors and political contexts of their nations. The latter part of the volume considers wider topics such as the Habitat Commitment Index, the New Urban Agenda and the regional and global-scale lessons that can be extracted from this group of countries. Urban Policy in Latin America will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and policymakers across development economics, urban studies and Latin American studies.




Emergency Politics in the Third Wave of Democracy


Book Description

Emergency Politics in the Third Wave of Democracy aims to make an important contribution to the study of emergency politics by offering an up-to-date study of how it works in practice. Specifically, it studies the uses given to the “regime of exception” mechanism in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru in the first decade of the 21st century and analyzes potential incompatibilities with the two pillars of democratic governability: efficiency and legitimacy. This book offers a thorough review of existing literature on emergency politics, offering conceptual clarification, identifying three types or paradigms of emergency politics (repressive, administrative, and disaster) and pointing to regimes of exception as a useful route to their study. It also provides an overview of emergency politics in Latin America throughout history, pointing to the predominance of regimes of exception and the repressive paradigm. The book describes the continuity of the repressive paradigm in Peruvian emergency politics to deal with both social protest and the apparent threat of organized crime and terrorism, as well as how Bolivia has shifted from a repressive to a disaster paradigm in the face of pressure to deal with climate change. It also analyzes the predominance of an administrative paradigm in Ecuadorian emergency politics in the context of weak institutions and difficulties in implementing policy as well as a populist style of leadership. Ultimately, the book offers some “best practices” in relation to the design and use of regimes of exception in democratic contexts. Other studies on emergency politics tend to focus on legal or formal issues in the context of the United States War on Terror. This study is decidedly political and empirical in focus, offering analysis and interpretation as a result of intensive fieldwork carried out by the author in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Consequently, this volume offers important contributions to our understanding of emergency politics in general (with evidence from the periphery) as well as to our understanding of democratization processes in the Third Wave.




The Left Hand of Capital


Book Description

In The Left Hand of Capital, Fernando Ignacio Leiva provides a theoretically grounded analysis of the last thirty years of socioeconomic policies in Chile, beginning at the end of the Pinochet military regime in 1990. He skillfully probes how innovative center-left politico-economic initiatives transformed the state's relationships with the country's urban poor, indigenous peoples, workers, students, and business elites, thereby contributing to institutionalize, legitimize, and renew Chile's neoliberal system of domination. Leiva documents how such politics, progressive in appearance, were pivotal in forging new arts of domestication, "participatory" social control mechanisms, and commodified subjectivities. This landmark book guides us into a deeper awareness about the limitations of center-left politics, not only in Chile, but elsewhere in the Americas and Western Europe as well. At a time when far-right movements seem to be growing in the Global South, Europe, and the United States, this book offers valuable insights into the predicament of social democracy and how, as in Chile and in the context of global neoliberalism, it can become the "left hand of capital."