scholarly journals A call to arms: time to do cognitive science in Latin America

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos

Previous theoretical reviews about the development of Psychology in Latin America suggest that Latin American psychology has a promising future. This paper empirically checks whether that status remains justified. In so doing, the frequency of programs/research domains in three salient psychological areas is assessed in Latin America and in two other regions of the world. A chi-square statistic is used to analyse the collected data. Programs/research domains and regions of the world are the independent variables and frequency of programs/research domains per world region is the dependent variable. Results suggest that whereas in Latin America the work on Social/Organizational Psychology is moving within expected parameters, there is a rather strong focus on Clinical/Psychoanalytical Psychology. Results also show that Experimental/Cognitive Psychology is much underestimated. In Asia, however, the focus on all areas of psychology seems to be distributed within expected parameters, whereas Europe outperforms regarding Experimental/Cognitive Psychology research. Potential reasons that contribute to Latin Americas situation are discussed and specific solutions are proposed. It is concluded that the scope of Experimental/Cognitive Psychology in Latin America should be broadened into a Cognitive Science research program.

Author(s):  
Felipe Gaytán Alcalá

Latin America was considered for many years the main bastion of Catholicism in the world by the number of parishioners and the influence of the church in the social and political life of the región, but in recent times there has been a decrease in the catholicity index. This paper explores three variables that have modified the identity of Catholicism in Latin American countries. The first one refers to the conversion processes that have expanded the presence of Christian denominations, by analyzing the reasons that revolve around the sense of belonging that these communities offer and that prop up their expansion and growth. The second variable accounts for those Catholics who still belong to the Catholic Church but who in their practices and beliefs have incorporated other magical or esoteric scheme in the form of religious syncretisms, modifying their sense of being Catholics in the world. The third factor has a political reference and has to do with the concept of laicism, a concept that sets its objective, not only in the separation of the State from the Church, but for historical reasons in catholicity restraint in the public space which has led to the confinement of the Catholic to the private, leaving other religious groups to occupy that space.


1978 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-339
Author(s):  
Aldo Ferrer

Since 1973 most of the Latin American countries have experienced deterioration in their balance of payments due to the economic recession in the industrial countries and the oil price increases. The consequent adjustment process has called for stricter regulation of domestic demand and new advances in import substitution. Adjustment was less painful due to access to private financing in the international capital markets which, however, produced a sharp increase in the external debt.This article does not propose to review the recent patterns of external payments, already extensively analyzed in the periodic reports of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, the International Monetary Fund, and in other studies. Rather, it will attempt to emphasize some long-term changes in the world economy and in Latin America that influence the international participation of the region. It is in this context that the adjustment process of the balance of payments and the external debt should be evaluated.


Author(s):  
Walter D. Mignolo

This chapter outlines a map of the border of the empires whose tensions contributed to the fabrication of a homogeneous notion of Latin America in the colonial horizon of modernity. These conflicting homogeneous entities are part of the imaginary of the modern/colonial world system. They are the grounding of a system of geopolitical values, of racial configurations, and of hierarchical structures of meaning and knowledge. To think “Latin America” otherwise, in its heterogeneity rather than in its homogeneity, in the local histories of changing global designs is not to question a particular form of identification but all national/colonial forms of identification in the modern/colonial world system. These are precisely the forms of identification that contribute to the reproduction of the imaginary of the modern/colonial world system and the coloniality of power and knowledge implicit in the geopolitical articulation of the world.


Author(s):  
Brian Wampler ◽  
Stephanie McNulty ◽  
Michael Touchton

Latin America is PB’s birthplace and the region where it was first widely adopted. PB currently exists in almost every country of this region of the world. This chapter documents PB development in Brazil, its spread from Brazil to other countries as well as PB’s transformation since the 1990s, when it changed from a social justice program to a policy tool that promotes citizen empowerment and community mobilization. Latin America also led the way with the first mandated programs, as Peru’s national government was the first country in the world to require that all subnational governments adopt PB. Latin American PB programs are among the most studied in the world, which means that solid research findings identify when and where PB produces significant social and political change. Most importantly, there are many comparative, longitudinal, and large-N studies from Brazil that demonstrate that PB is generating positive change. But, research on other countries, such as Peru and Mexico, suggest that PB’s impact is much weaker in those countries. The chapter provides a summary of the rich body of evidence that has emerged since 1989, and describes PB in Brazil, Peru, El Salvador, and Mexico.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce M. Wilson

This article analyzes the conditions that allowed for expansive rights revolutions in Costa Rica and Colombia. My research suggests that many of the preconditions for rights revolutions in other regions of the world are also central to understanding Latin American cases. Of particular relevance is judicial system design including the high courts’ operating rules concerning access, standing, and judicial formality. These factors can and do mitigate the need for extensive resources and support structures necessary in other non-Latin American countries in which rights revolutions have occurred.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 2149-2157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Bardach ◽  
María Belén Rodríguez ◽  
Agustín Ciapponi ◽  
Federico Augustovski ◽  
Alcaraz Andrea ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Disease burden due to tobacco smoking in Latin America remains very high. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of implementing smoke-free air interventions on health and cost outcomes in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, using a mathematical model. Aims and Methods We built a probabilistic Monte Carlo microsimulation model, considering natural history, direct health system costs, and quality of life impairment associated with main tobacco-related diseases. We followed individuals in hypothetical cohorts and calculated health outcomes on an annual basis to obtain aggregated 10-year population health outcomes (deaths and events) and costs. To populate the model, we completed an overview and systematic review of the literature. Also, we calibrated the model comparing the predicted disease-specific mortality rates with those coming from local national statistics. Results With current policies, for the next 10 years, a total of 137 121 deaths and 917 210 events could be averted, adding 3.84 million years of healthy life and saving USD 9.2 billion in these seven countries. If countries fully implemented smoke-free air strategies, it would be possible to avert nearly 180 000 premature deaths and 1.2 million events, adding 5 million healthy years of life and saving USD 13.1 billion in direct healthcare. Conclusions Implementing the smoke-free air strategy would substantially reduce deaths, diseases, and health care costs attributed to smoking. Latin American countries should not delay the full implementation of this strategy. Implications Tobacco smoking is the single most preventable and premature mortality cause in the world. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, supported by the World Health Organization, introduced a package of evidence-based measures for tobacco control. This study adds quality evidence on the potential health effects and savings of implementing smoke-free air policies in countries representing almost 80% of the Latin America and the Caribbean population.


Author(s):  
John Schwaller

H-LatAm, short for History-Latin America, is an electronic list that has served the scholarly community since the late 20th century as a forum in which important issues facing Latin American history can be debated. It has served as a means of spreading information about publications, a channel for soliciting research and research collaborations, and an instrument that links historians of Latin America who are spread throughout the world. A review of this resource allows for a look at the history of Latin American studies on the Internet—useful for understanding and researching early threads—and some of the specific contributions of H-LatAm to the profession.


2010 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-392
Author(s):  
Vincent Peloso

Stanley J. Stein, Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor of Spanish Civilization and Culture and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University, is a lifelong Latin Americanist. Together with his late wife Barbara, herself an accomplished bibliographer and historian of the region, Professor Stein wrote several books and articles that put their stamp on methods of writing the social history of modern Latin America, specifically on the impact of colonialism and industrialism in Mexico and Brazil in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is fair to say that no one who studied Latin American history over the last 35 years would have failed to engage the slim, elegantly written synthesis, The Colonial Heritage of Latin America: Essays on Economic Dependence in Perspective (1970). Recipients of grants and fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, singly or together, the Steins were honored for their path-breaking studies with the CLAH Robertson and Bolton prizes, the Conference on Latin American History Distinguished Service Award (1991), and the American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction (1996).


By 2025, Latin America’s population of observant Christians will be the largest in the world. Nonetheless, studies examining the exponential growth of global Christianity tend to overlook this region, focusing instead on Africa and Asia. Research on Christianity in Latin America provides a core point of departure for understanding the growth and development of Christianity in the “Global South.” This volume includes research from an interdisciplinary contingent of scholars whose studies examine Latin American Christianity in all of its manifestations, from the colonial to the contemporary period. Essays provide an accessible background to understanding Christianity in Latin America. They span the era from indigenous and African-descendant people’s conversion to and transformation of Catholicism during the colonial period through the advent of Liberation Theology in the 1960s and to conversion to Pentecostalism and Charismatic Catholicism.


1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Petrides

A preliminary survey of thirteen Latin American nations indicated that both the number and rate of importations of wild hoofed animals from Europe, Asia, and Africa, has increased rapidly in recent years. This is especially true for Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. In nearly every instance reported, the original stock of hoofed game was held under fence and no importer intended that animals should escape from his control. From these and other instances around the world, it seems that eventual escapes of captive ungulates held under normal ranching conditions are a virtual certainty. As the full effects of imported species on the plants and animals in their new environment cannot be predicted with certainty, guideline principles to govern species introductions are sorely needed.


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