Paper short abstract:

This paper will address the current trends on scientific research and mobility in Mexico, as well as on the country’s capacity for technological innovation. The objective is to provide an answer on whether or not is possible for Mexico to achieve development with the current trends on these indicators.

Paper long abstract:

Even with a noticeable economic stability over the last 12 years, Mexico has shown limited progress to boost its economic growth by investing on R&D activities. With an investment on R&D of merely 0.43% of its GDP, Mexico is behind its Latin American counterparts Brazil (0.91%) and Chile (0.53%). Yet, some trends and indicators show that a different reality might be feasible for the country.

On the one hand, Mexico is training more engineers and scientists than ever but, at the same time, the country is currently Latin America's top "exporter" of highly-skilled migrants. The brain circulation theory portrays this dilemma as both a challenge and an opportunity, where the "brainpower" that the country has abroad indicates lack of opportunities and infrastructure, but it also may be a significant source for capacity building in the long-term.

Technology is another powerful means for innovation. Even though most of Mexican technological sophistication is limited (and based on the "maquilas"), Mexico has exports more manufactured products than the rest of Latin America put together. Moreover, the country has become one of the top places for start-ups: In 2011, Mexico was the second largest player in the Start-up Weekend Community, only behind the US.

This paper will address the current trends on scientific research and mobility in Mexico, as well as on the country's capacity for technological innovation. The objective is to provide an answer on whether or not is possible for Mexico to achieve development with the current trends on these indicators.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will look at the transformations of the conditional cash transfer programmes of Ecuador and Chile. It will explore the institutional and discursive factors shaping these transformations as well as the different approaches to development these transfrmations may be reflecting in each case.

Paper long abstract:

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) emerged and expanded in Latin America at the turn of the century, in the context of the crisis of neoliberalism in the region in which the levels of poverty and extreme poverty were a major concern. Ecuador and Chile were no exception and in 2003 both countries launched this type of social protection programmes whereby direct transfers of money are granted monthly to households under the condition that their children attend school and/or regular health checks. As the decade went by, poverty and extreme poverty improved in both countries and several attempts were made to reform, transform and even supersede these programmes. It will be argued in this paper that, as was the case at the moments of design and reform of these programmes, the interplay between institutions and political discourse is playing a crucial role in shaping the possibilities of transforming and superseding these programmes. Despite the CCTs in Ecuador and Chile being designed with similar technical features, the findings on which this paper is based suggest that these programmes were transformed differently in these countries. The differences in the redefinitions of Ecuador and Chile CCTs seem to be reflecting the emergence of two strikingly diverse approaches to development, poverty and exclusion in current Latin America that could be marking the beginning of the end of CCTs in the region.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines current debates in Peru with regard to the changing nature of class following the increased consumer power of the formerly poor.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at data from Peru to examine where the debate around the so-called 'new middle classes' currently stands. While there is a clear reduction in poverty, and some indication of newly gained consumer power among previously poor communities, there are also indications that the boundaries between poverty and social mobility are fragile. In addition, the emerging literature raises questions around the relationship between marginally increased consumption power and differentiated citizenship. Are structural inequalities based on gender, race, ethnicity and perceptions of class being overcome or are these divisions continuous? How do Peruvians define 'middle classes', new and old, and how does this affect people's wellbeing?

Paper short abstract:

This paper briefly aims to focus on the roots of neodevelopmentalism regarding the last decade of Latin America. Basically neodevelopmentalist approaches considering Brazil’s experience since Lula would be considered. What is going on in real terms under these initiatives would tried to be answered.

Paper long abstract:

This paper briefly aims to focus on the development strategies regarding the last decade of Latin America.

Given that Latin America is one of the unique geography that developmentalist approaches and integration policies have strong historical roots (Dabene, 2010) that goes back to 19th century besides by the 20th century, it seems that the divergence and convergence of independency and developmentalism ideas lead to the emergence of two important schools (structuralism and dependency) from Latin America that also have worldwide influences.

Currently "neostructuralism", "neodevelopmentalism", "development within", "endogenous development" are among the main concepts that have been defined as alternatives to neoliberal agenda. Addition to these considering the social exclusion and the level of poverty , pro-poor policies have been on the agenda of the governments. Basically "neodevelopmentalism" in Latin America is being called as a paradigm shift from the old developmentalist approaches of 1950s (Ocampo and Ros ,2012) as a reaction to market based development and policies applied under Washington Consesus. Since then the discontinuity and continuity from neoliberalism is one of the critical question to be answered.

Based on these the roots of developmentalist approaches in today's Latin America would tried to be defined. What is going on in real terms under these initiatives? What are the limits and contradictions of these experiences considering the development process would be the main questions that would tried to be answered. Brazil's experience since Lula period and aftermaths would be one of the specific case that would be included to the analysis.

Paper short abstract:

This paper wishes to discuss how an alternative development discourse among indigenous people and ethnic minorities can be documented and analyzed by a framework that aims to shred light into inter-ethnic power relations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper wishes to discuss how an alternative development discourse among indigenous people and ethnic minorities can be documented and analyzed by a framework that aims to shred light into inter-ethnic power relations. With a critical reading of mainstream development thinking, it focuses on the case of the Raramuri indigenous people of Northern Mexico and their political relations with dominant sectors of society. This is important as most studies use a universalizing approach to conceptualize development neglecting to consider conflicting local understandings of wellbeing.

The framework is composed by three main pillars. The first is to document through detailed ethnographic evidence local understandings of wellbeing for the Raramuri people which emerge in contexts of ethno-political oppression. The second is to uncover underlying power relations in the form of land conflicts and institutional arrangements hindering wellbeing and reproducing ethnically differentiated vulnerabilities. The third pillar is to analyze resulting mechanisms of resistance employed in order to control practices and customs that promotes ethnic distinction. These three pillars provide a novel framework to explore the formation and contestation of asymmetrical economic and political relations at the local level.

Using this framework, this paper finds that the Raramuri like other minority groups living in the margins of nation-states and global markets are constrained to act strategically to face political and socio-economic exclusion fluctuating between the tension of having the right to live differently and the need to be part of the larger society.

Paper short abstract:

Analysis of constitutional contradictions regarding the rights of nature and the Indigenous peoples and progressive development politics in Bolivia and Ecuador.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, Ecuador and Bolivia have achieved pervasive worldwide attention for their progress in environmental concern and as plausible options to confront the climate crisis and develop alternatives to global capitalism. The new constitutions of Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) have been labeled the most progressive ones in the world considering the proper rights of nature/the environment. The ancient Indigenous concept of Living Well or Sumak Kawsay on human beings coexisting harmonically with each other and the environment is the fundamental framing of these innovative constitutions, which also embrace advanced recognition of ethnically defined rights. Notwithstanding, the same constitutions likewise include articles granting the State the right to exploit and commercialize natural resources, which conflict with the rights of nature and the Indigenous peoples. The discourses of the actors involved in these conflicts can be categorized as ecocentrism and environmental pragmatism respectively, or more fluid combinations of both stands. This article argues that the constitutional contradictions between extractive economic development politics and environmental and ethnic rights are central in recent social conflicts in Bolivia and Ecuador. The incorporation of Sumak Kawsay in the constitutions and developments plans likewise generates new perceptions and interpretations of welfare politics, the common good and the understandings of development. Similarly, the same contradictions and the way they are being handled constitute serious challenges for the State in the respective countries, in being perceived as emblematic alternatives to the world capitalist system and the climate crisis.

Paper short abstract:

We suggest a new approach to analysing the distribution of natural resource revenues and apply it Mexico. Defining a natural resource entitlement as a citizen’s share of their country’s resource rents, we find that Mexican fiscal policy is no longer progressive when judged against oil entitlements.

Paper long abstract:

This paper suggests a new approach to analysing the distribution of natural resource revenues and applies it to the case of Mexico. It defines a natural resource entitlement as a citizen's per capita share of their country's natural resource rents. It proposes that the progressiveness or regressiveness of fiscal policy should be judged against a baseline that takes this entitlement into account. Applying this approach to Mexico it finds that, while official estimates imply that Mexican fiscal policy is progressive relative to market income, it ceases to be so once oil entitlements are taken into account. It considers a fiscal reform that would ensure that every citizen received their oil entitlement, and that in doing so would virtually eliminate extreme poverty.

Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the political process through which key stakeholders in selected countries bargain the allocation and distribution of EI revenues in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Paper long abstract:

The recent price and investment boom in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors has triggered widespread expectations for greater economic and social development, especially among developing countries. The choice of mechanisms for the use and distribution of extractive revenues is an inherently political process. For the most part, governments have favoured a greater decentralisation of EI-related revenues to appease local resistance to extractive industries but the modalities and mechanisms of fiscal decentralisation vary considerably across cases. This paper explains variation in redistributive mechanisms in four Andean countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. We argue that distribution modalities depend on the bargaining power of subnational actors and the linkages between national and subnational political actors. The paper builds on original field research undertaken during the last three years in the four Latin American countries and identifies some knowledge gaps regarding the effectiveness of different decentralisation modalities to improve development outcomes at the local level.