scholarly journals Environmental issues, interdisciplinarity, social theory and intellectual production in Latin America

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila da Costa Ferreira ◽  
Sônia Regina Cal Seixas Barbosa ◽  
João Luiz de Moraes Hoefel ◽  
Roberto Guimarães ◽  
Dimas Floriani ◽  
...  

While dealing with both interdisciplinarity and environment and society area as fields that harbor scientific contentions regarding ideas, practices, institutions and habitus (Bourdieu), this paper aims at providing an account of the multifaceted processes implied in the institutionalization of environmental concerns in Latin-American academia and research centers. The paper discusses the extent to which one can legitimately talk about "a Latin- American scientific specificity", supposedly resulting from peculiar theoretical approaches or even from particular socio-environmental features (such as widespread poverty and high rates of social inequality, along with unparalleled levels of biodiversity). Last but not least, the paper seeks to draw a sort of thematic map (via bibliographical review) as well as a consideration of the levels of scientific institutionalization of environmental issues in six different research centers located in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil.

2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (04) ◽  
pp. 59-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Elizabeth Jacobs

Abstract Grassroots environmental activism among Latin America's poor has altered the debate over environmental policy, social welfare, and citizenship. Yet the question remains whether this social mobilization of the poor is part of a larger trend toward broader environmental concerns and democratic political participation, or a shortlived movement susceptible to the same pressures that have dissolved community mobilization in the past. This article compares Brazil with other Latin American and European countries in surveys of environmental awareness, concerns, and reported behavior. It finds that Brazilians residing in the urban periphery link their own local environmental concerns to more global considerations, and that concern for and activism on environmental issues is positively related to wider community involvement.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Da COSTA FERREIRA

Tendo a sociologia ambiental como centro da abordagem este texto focaliza, de forma analítica, a evolução do envolvimento da ciência social no trato da problemática ambiental. Esta evolução parte de uma análise dos pensadores clássicos da sociologia e vai até o momento presente. Ao tratar da relação entre questão ambiental, ciências sociais e interdisciplinaridade no Brasil, o texto evoca instituições acadêmicas e científicas, bem como a produção intelectual no país, e conclui por constatar que ocorreu uma internalização desta questão nas ciências sociais brasileiras. Ideas for an environmental issues sociology − social theory, environmental sociology and interdisciplinarity Abstract With environmental sociology as its central approach, this text places an analytical focus on the evolution of social science’s involvement in addressing the environmental issue. This evolution stems from an analysis of sociology’s classical thinkers from the past until the present day. In addressing the relationship between the environmental issue, social sciences, and interdisciplinarity in Brazil, the text brings to the fore academic and scientific institutions as well as the country’s intellectual production, and concludes by showing that this issue has become an integral part of social sciences in Brazil.


Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta

The growth of Evangelical Protestantism and Pentecostalism is widely regarded as a potent argument against the validity of secularization theory. To explain this growth, Chapter 12 draws on theoretical approaches to analysing new social movements, which allows an expansion of the repertoire of explanations concerning religious change and a testing of alternatives to the models provided by secularization theory. To explain the worldwide growth and relative resilience of the Evangelical and Pentecostal movements, the chapter identifies a number of conditions and explanatory factors: cultural and social confirmation, religious syncretism, social deprivation, and the widespread magical worldview and broadly accepted spiritistic beliefs in Latin American countries that are conducive to the acceptance of Pentecostal experiences and healing rituals.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Mai Thanh Dung ◽  
Nguyen Minh Khoa ◽  
Phan Thi Thu Huong

The need for sustainable development underscores the role and importance of integrating environmental concerns in non-environmental policies because it is evident that environmental regulations only are insufficient to manage all environmental issues. Law enforcement on environmental protection in Vietnam clearly demonstrates this situation. Vietnam’s legal system of environmental protection is incompatible or overlapped with other sectoral laws and in fact many environmental matters have been implemented in accordance with sectoral laws while disregarding environmental considerations due to the lack of specific and explicit environmental provisions or requirements in sectoral laws and regulations. From that situation, the paper emphasizes the need to integrate environmental protection requirements into the sectoral laws of Vietnam and proposes some fundamental criteria and procedures to integrate environmental requirements into sectoral laws.


2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 262-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvon van der Pijl ◽  
Karina Goulordava

This article discusses the controversies over the blackface figure Black Pete (Zwarte Piet)—central to the popular Dutch Saint Nicholas holiday tradition—and the public uproar surrounding the Saint Nicholas feast in 2013. It combines history, social theory, and patchwork ethnography, and draws on theoretical approaches discussing race, capitalism, and the commodification of cultural difference to establish an understanding of the controversial character. In doing so, it argues that Black Pete is an invented tradition that marks a “white Dutch habitus” in which the historical context of colonialism and the legacy of slavery is repeatedly ignored or denied.


Author(s):  
Joanna Gocłowska-Bolek

The aim of the article is to analyze the events in the Latin American region in 2019, which took a form of social protests known as the "Latin American Spring". Although the duration, methods, reach, dynamics and degree of radicalization differed from country to country, a common regional characterization can be made. The article analyzes the causes of the protests and places them in the historical, political, economic and social context, indicating many similarities and common features. The article is based on participant observations (in Chile and Argentina) and an analysis of media relations and reports prepared by foreign research centers.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Berninger ◽  
Bruno Fiesenig ◽  
Dirk Schiereck

PurposeThe fundamental theory of Modigliani and Miller (1958) states that a firm's financing decisions are independent from the firm's value. Nevertheless, several empirical studies as well as theoretical approaches from the past decade impugn this relation for real markets with their immanent inefficiencies. However, these questions are rather than academic in nature: Especially the influence of macroeconomic conditions on the market perception of debt issues is from high economic importance, since the need for new liquidity usually becomes even more urgent when the economic conditions worsen.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes the reaction of shareholders to the issue of debt by Latin American firms under special consideration of the macroeconomic sentiment. To do so, a sample of debt issued by Latin American companies between 2003 and 2010 is empirically examined through an event study.FindingsThe authors empirically demonstrate that specifically in Latin America, debt issuing companies show a significant underperformance during recessionary periods and an overperformance during nonrecessionary periods. These findings differ from previous results for mature capital markets. The authors conclude that not only the overall economic conditions matter to explain stock market reactions on bond issues but also the maturity of the corporate debt market plays an important role.Originality/valueThe authors provide first evidence that the previously described changes in the returns on specific stocks depending on the economic sentiment (Baker and Wurgler, 2006) are under certain conditions also present in the market for corporate debt.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Silvia Rogošić ◽  
Branislava Baranović

The influence of social capital on an individual’s educational achievements is the subject of numerous scientific papers. Research on social capital is most frequently based on Coleman’s (1988) or Bourdieu’s (1986) theories of capital, which are related to different paradigms of social theory: whereas Coleman’s approach has its roots in structural functionalism, Bourdieu’s approach contains elements of conflict theory. A number of authors, starting with Bourdieu, attempt to explain and prove that, when connected with the education of individuals, the activity of social capital facilitates social reproduction. Other authors support the notion that social capital is, in fact, a powerful weapon that encourages social mobility. A third group of researchers emphasise that neither of these approaches in isolation can entirety explain the influences of social capital on an individual’s education (Ho, 2003). The present paper offers a review of research focusing on the influences of social capital on educational achievements, while outlining the fundamental differences between the two theoretical approaches that are most frequently used for research of this topic. The aim of the paper is to explain the influence of social capital on an individual’s educational achievements under Bourdieu’s and Coleman’s theoretical concepts, and to establish whether combining the approaches is possible. The conclusion and arguments show that it is legitimate to use all three theoretical approaches. 


Author(s):  
María Cecilia Míguez

Autonomy is a concept constantly referred to in Latin American foreign policy analysis, especially with respect to Argentina and Brazil. As great powers continue to exert effective control over peripheral economies and their political decision making, autonomy emerges as a possibility for self-determination in the areas where hegemonic powers’ economic, political, and cultural interferences are expressed. Although this is not a new concept, the quest for autonomy within the “global periphery”—and elsewhere too—still remains relevant. Helio Jaguaribe and Juan Carlos Puig’s theoretical approaches are fundamental epistemological contributions to international relations (IR), not only in South America (where the theoretical approach was first developed) but also to the wider IR field outside the mainstream scholarship. In line with global historical changes, autonomy took on some subsequent new meanings, which led to new and heterogeneous formulations that transformed, and in certain cases also contradicted, the very genesis of the idea of autonomy. As a result, the so-called autonomy “with adjectives” emerged within IR peripheral debates. The 21st century witnessed the rebirth of the concept amid the rise of multilateralism and the new Latin American regionalism, which brought its relational character to the fore. Some of the new approaches to autonomy, especially from Brazil, used the concept as a methodological tool to understand the historical evolution of the country’s foreign policy. As such, autonomy and its theoretical reflection remain central to the analyses and interpretations of the international relations of peripheral countries, and it is in this sense that the autonomy can be highlighted broadly as a Latin American contribution to IR discipline. The concept of autonomy has a unique and foundational content referred to the discussion of the asymmetries in the global order. Studying autonomy is critical to understanding peripheral countries’ problems and dynamics.


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