Research on entanglements of power inquires into the multiple positions from which power of domination and resistance are exercised across time-spaces. This paper discusses the dominating efforts of colonizers (Europeans, Yucatecans, Mexicans and US-Americans) to territorialize the Mexican Caribbean in order to anchor it to global patterns of accumulation. The hegemonic power to grid, survey and discipline a region that for a long time was conceived as “empty space” becomes entangled with the resistance power exerted by indigenous Maya and local ecosystems. These entanglements of power have converged in contemporary Akumal to produce a geometry of spatial segregation in which Mestizo and Maya workers are segregated by government and businesses from spaces designated for tourist use. My findings show that spatial inequality has been constructed along a pattern of increasing globalization, local reconfigurations of local power positions, and the trans-nationalization of space. In Akumal this pattern could only be imposed by reinterpreting space, through tourism, from the logic of a resource to be exploited, to the logic of a good to be preserved and enjoyed in-situ. Local resistances to this hegemonic pattern have managed to delay and sometimes bend some of its spatial outcomes. The latest of these bends led to the creation of Akumal Pueblo. An analysis of the detailed genealogy of this bending reveals that a great source of resistance power to alter hegemonic spatial outcomes resides in human agents whose identities were formed autonomously, that is, squarely outside the region’s entanglements of power, but who have chosen to re-signify them in order to fully embed themselves within these entanglements.

América Latina ha registrado un periodo sin precedentes de crecimiento sostenido y reducción de la desigualdad. El auge económico, a través de un incremento de los ingresos públicos, permitió aumentar el espacio fiscal disponible y, junto con ello, el gasto social y la inversión; asimismo, a través de instrumentos como los programas de transferencias condicionadas, se logró una disminución de la desigualdad sin precedentes. En este sentido, vale preguntarse cuál puede ser el rol de la política fiscal que permita mantener el ritmo de disminución de los coeficientes de desigualdad distributiva en los países de la región. Las características de la desigualdad en América Latina, con los rasgos de alta concentración del ingreso y una significativa disparidad regional, requieren que para lograr una mejora en los indicadores de igualdad se realicen esfuerzos no sólo por el lado del gasto sino también en los medios de financiación. La estructura de ingresos fiscales en la región está basada en impuestos al consumo y en ingresos procedentes de la explotación de recursos no renovables. La base imponible de ambas fuentes de recursos se caracteriza por su alta volatilidad. Este trabajo analiza el rol de los ingresos fiscales como un instrumento para disminuir la desigualdad en la región. Para ello se analizarán las opciones de fortalecimiento de la imposición sobre la renta personal que permita mejorar la capacidad redistributiva del Estado y que, además, dada su condición de estabilizador automático pueda ayudar a disminuir la alta volatilidad de los ingresos.

El trabajo se propone abordar las desigualdades socio-económicas existentes en las relaciones entre los diferentes agentes de la vitivinicultura argentina luego de su reconversión, haciendo especial hincapié en el papel que tiene el capital trasnacional en la configuración de éstas. Se considera a la desigualdad como un fenómeno multidimensional y relacional que tiene que ser abordado de forma procesual. Se parte de la reestructuración que se produjo en esta agroindustria en la década de los ´90 en el marco de los procesos de globalización y de la implementación de políticas nacionales neoliberales. Las principales transformaciones fueron el creciente flujo de inversiones extranjeras, el aumento de ventas al mercado externo, la modernización tecnológica, los cambios varietales y de manejo de los cultivos, la expansión del consumo de vinos finos y el aumento de la integración entre productores y bodegas. La investigación se contextualiza espacialmente en la principal provincia vitivinícola de la Argentina: Mendoza. Se trabajó principalmente con fuentes estadísticas de organismos especializados como la Oficina Internacional de la Viña y del Vino (OIV) y del Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV) y de datos obtenidos de páginas web de las empresas. Asimismo se realizó una exhaustiva revisión bibliográfica sobre la temática.

Este trabajo se centra en la construcción y el mantenimiento de la autonomía cultural de los mestizos-ribereños del Alto-Momón, en las tierras bajas de la Amazonía peruana. Las nociones de proceso hegemónico y de autonomía cultural se proponen como eje de análisis de la evolución de las desigualdades y asimetrías sociales desde el principio del siglo XX hasta nuestros días. Tras un recorrido histórico, que describe como los colonos del Alto-Momón construyeron una alternativa socio-económica al fin del boom del caucho, veremos como hoy en día su autonomía cultural está afectada por las acciones de actores transregionales. Por un lado, las acciones de ayuda al desarrollo de ONGs, locales y europeas, y, por otro lado, las negociaciones con una compañía petrolera internacional a la cual el estado otorgó como lote de explotación el territorio donde viven las comunidades del Alto-Momón.

Als Alternative zu fossilen Rohstoffen bauen neue Technologien wie Elektroautos, Notebooks und Mobiltelefone auf Lithium-Ionen-Akkus. Entsprechend steigt die Nachfrage nach Lithium auf dem globalen Markt rasant an. Bolivien gehört zu einem der Länder mit den weltweit größten Vorkommen des für diese Batterien benötigten Rohstoffs Lithium. Der Abbau und die Weiterverarbeitung von Lithium sollen Bolivien aus den Armuts- und Abhängigkeitsstrukturen herausführen. Die vorliegende Studie analysiert das staatliche Lithium-Programm der Regierung Morales hinsichtlich seiner Potentiale, sowie insbesondere der spezifischen potentielle Konfliktszenarien und Dimensionen sozialer Ungleichheiten, die mit der Weiterverarbeitung des Lithiums am Salar de Uyuni im Departement Potosí verbunden sind. Die Studie unterscheidet zwischen Ungleichheiten auf globaler, nationaler, sub-nationaler und lokaler Ebene. Wesentliche Aspekte sind die Analyse der gesetzlichen Grundlagen bezüglich Partizipation und Umweltschutz und die negativen Folgen und Risiken für die Umwelt, vor allem des Wassers. Von den Umweltrisiken betroffen sind insbesondere der Bodenbau, die Weidewirtschaft und die Salzgewinnung der Landbevölkerung sowie der Tourismus.

Recent conflict between indigenous people and a self-styled indigenous state in Bolivia has brought to the fore some of the paradoxes and contradictions within the concept of indigeneity itself. The contemporary politics of state sponsored indigeneity in Bolivia has as much capacity to create new inequalities as it does to address old ones and there is a conceptual deficit in understanding contemporary indigenous rights claims, in particular, as they relate to the state. I reject Peter Geschiere’s (2009) suggestion that one should distinguish between ‘autochthony’ and ‘indigeneity’ but am inspired by these arguments to suggest that one needs to make a critical distinction between the kinds of claims different indigenous people make against the state. Of interest here are the consequences of indigeneity being transformed from being a language of resistance to a language of governance. I propose a conceptual distinction between inclusive national indigeneity for the majority which seeks to co-opt the state through accessing the language of governance and a minority concept of indigeneity which needs protection from the state and continues to use indigeneity as a language of resistance. Only by looking at the kinds of claims people make through the rhetoric of indigeneity can we make sense of the current indigenous conflict in Bolivia and elsewhere.

The paper explores the concepts of interpersonal, inter-firm, and interstate equality embedded in three contending visions for the evolution of international financial links within the Western Hemisphere. The free market- oriented regional financial project of the United States envisions extension of a NAFTA-like regulatory framework throughout the hemisphere. It promises Latin American citizens better financial services and their firms greater access to U.S. and Canadian loans and investment, in exchange for U.S.-style legal protections for foreign banks and (implicitly) for dramatically reduced financial policy space for Latin American governments. Venezuela’s vision of “Bolivarian” finance, exported to some of the circum-Caribbean and upper Andean region, promotes assertive state management vis-à-vis both foreign and domestic investors, populist redistribution, and increasing reliance on non- market financial transactions. It emphasizes equal credit access for poorer citizens and government retention of national financial policy space, but downplays the need for predictable financial regulation and property rights. Brazil’s regional financial project would unite South America through creation of continent-wide physical infrastructure and capitalist financial markets, while retaining an on-going role for public sector banks responsive to central government priorities. Brazil’s approach shares with the Venezuelan vision an emphasis on Latin American governments’ need for financial policy space, and with the U.S. vision a concern for regulatory predictability and financial deepening.

Latin American countries have historically failed to secure market incorporation (e.g. people’s participation in the cash nexus, which in turn requires the creation of a sufficient number of formal well-paying jobs) and social incorporation (e.g. decommodification of rights) simultaneously. High structural heterogeneity in production and weak fiscal capacity resulted in dual social systems and extended and informal labor market. Has this changed in recent years? This paper draws on the experience of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay to answer this question. We distinguish between short term outcomes – which may depend on benign international conditions –and policy changes which are more important for long term success. Our analysis highlights Brazil and Uruguay’s unique success overall and also shows that all countries have done better in terms of social than market incorporation. We also discuss some of the challenges to secure further improvements in market and social incorporation in the immediate future, including competition from China and low state capacity.

In recent years the Latin American region has become a stage for the emergence of new indigeneities, that is, the organization of new political subjects based on new typologies of indigenous identities that challenge the narrow constructions of indigeneity that require fixed geographic or cultural-racial characteristics. This paper aims to contribute to this growing research and literature as it presents a case study in which an environmentally dispossessed group has implemented a novel ethnic strategy based on the concepts of “ancestrality” and “peoplehood” in order to demand collective mangrove land titles, and thus, gain more control over their natural resources. In particular, it addresses the reasons explaining why the mangrove gatherers’ grassroots movement in Ecuador has declared itself to be the Pueblos Ancestrales del Ecosistema Manglar (Ancient People of the Mangrove Ecosystem). This paper argues that this ecosystem-based ethnic identity responds to a total lack of recognition and valuing of a cultural way of life with nature (mangroves). This case study highlights how current natural resource depletion is pushing novel deployments of indigeneity by the fact that this legal category entails rights to collective land and at the same time highlights the dangers of exclusion resulting from granting collective land titles exclusively in terms of indigeneity.

This paper examines why and how, amidst efforts to combat malnutrition both locally and globally, the post-World War II industrialization of Peruvian and Chilean fisheries focused ultimately on fishmeal production for animal feed. It highlights the transnational entanglements among the visions of key individuals and institutions in the emerging postwar international order and explains how these impacted fisheries development at the local scale. Despite technical assistance programs by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization that aimed to create local markets and use fish proteins to ameliorate malnutrition, industrialists from both North and South saw greater potential in fishmeal as an export commodity for farmed chickens, hogs, and later fish. By 1972, when the Peruvian anchoveta collapsed, the coastal waters off Peru and Chile had become the world’s primary source of concentrated fish proteins – a hidden but key ingredient in the global industrial food web – with serious consequences for local social and economic inequalities.

The article links reflections about Brazilian race relations with institutional transnational dialogues between Brazil and ‘Africa’. I point out that although racial/cultural mixture and the ‘brown’ census category have traditionally reflected much of national identity in Brazil, Brazil today is increasingly spelling out its blackness, both on the national and international scenes. This is happening at a historical moment when programs of ‘black’ affirmative action and other differential politics in favor of Afro-descendants are taking off in the country, and also at a time when Brazil is expanding its geopolitical and economic interests in Africa, by and large under the name of ‘South-South cooperation’. By my analysis, I suggest that while Africa is an interesting terrain for Brazilian geopolitical expansion and leadership in the South Atlantic, these transatlantic links may also represent a new frontier for the study of race relations in Brazil.

This paper explores the relationship between happiness and inequality. It does so firstly through an analysis of how "classical" authors of political economy and philosophy have linked these two issues. Secondly, major findings of "happiness economics" are discussed in the context of new insights about how happiness is influenced by inequality. This paper also addresses whether these findings provide any substantial arguments for combatting inequality on the grounds of promoting "happiness". It will be seen that although some empirical research shows that the prevalent levels of inequality influence happiness in society, the main argument in favor of tackling inequality for the sake of happiness is normative. In this interpretation, happiness is closely related to John Stuart Mill's neo-Aristotelian idea of "self-fulfillment" and less so to the neo-Benthamite notion of "hedonic pleasure". In the wake of an ever greater emphasis on analyzing people’s "subjective well-being" within national statistics, this has political implications as it calls for the importance of allowing free and broad discussions on the "fairness" of the prevailing political systems as an important prerequisite to promote happiness – and combat inequality.

Como alternativa a las materias primas fósiles, las nuevas tecnologías, como los vehículos eléctricos, las computadoras portátiles o los teléfonos celulares, están apostando por las baterías de litio. La demanda de litio en el mercado global está creciendo vertiginosamente. Bolivia es uno de los países con los yacimientos de litio más grandes a nivel mundial; su explotación y el procesamiento de litio son considerados como la salida a las estructuras de pobreza y dependencia. Este estudio analiza el programa estatal de industrialización del litio del gobierno Morales en Bolivia relativo a sus potencialidades y especialmente a potenciales escenarios de conflicto y a dimensiones específicas de desigualdad social. Dirige su mirada a las múltiples dimensiones de desigualdad que están entrelazadas en el procesamiento del litio en el Salar de Uyuni. Analiza el marco legislativo sobre participación social y sobre el medio ambiento, los efectos negativos y los riesgos ambientales que afectarían el agua, la agricultura, la ganadería realizada por la población rural, así como el turismo.

Las políticas sociales latinoamericanas de las últimas décadas recurren a la noción de “equidad” para abordar materias relativas a justicia social, desigualdad e inclusión social. Esta noción tiene multiplicidad de acepciones que responden a diversas teorías sobre justicia y enfoques sobre igualdad en política pública. Este documento indaga en las concepciones y aproximaciones teóricas que sustentan las propuestas realizadas por Consejos Asesores Presidenciales chilenos entre el año 2006 y el 2008, las que sirvieron de base para la formulación de leyes, reformas y políticas sociales, y realiza un análisis crítico respecto de los aspectos ausentes en tales enfoques que podrían dificultar enfrentar la reproducción de la desigualdad social.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon political equality and inequalities during the nineteenth century, a period that witnessed the formation and transformation of new polities in the former Spanish colonial territories in America. There are different ways of addressing this question; in this essay, I have chosen the category of citizenship as a conceptual tool that will allow me to provide a specific focus to an otherwise broad and imprecise topic. This category is central to our contemporary political debates, but it was also part of the political concerns, languages, and practices of the nineteenth century, although with different connotations from our own.

Paraguay se ha caracterizado por ser históricamente un país de emigración. El destino privilegiado ha sido Argentina, constituyendo un corredor migratorio Sur-Sur de relevancia para la región; en la actualidad emerge como destino España constituyendo un espacio de comparación. El presente trabajo explora la importancia de las remesas en Paraguay en relación con el contexto latinoamericano y la importancia que tienen en la economía del hogar. Mediante análisis multivariado se estudia quiénes las reciben y la relación que existe entre la recepción de remesas de diferentes orígenes y la ubicación de los hogares receptores en diferentes niveles socioeconómicos. Los principales resultados obtenidos sugieren que la economía doméstica de los hogares está afectada fuertemente por las remesas y que existen particulares dinámicas de autoselección que conectan a ciertos hogares receptores con espacios del Norte y a otros con espacios del Sur.

One key objective of the desiguALdades Research Network is to overcome the excessive focus on topics related to the state and national social configurations, and unveil instead the interdependent trans-regional relations present today in the various economic and non-economic dimensions of inequality. A research agenda about the connections between environmental challenges and the deepening of inequalities in Latin America is supposed to address several aspects. At the outset, one must recognize that phenomena associated with inequality are more relevant than those linked to poverty alone, which, in addition to its intrinsic importance to the social sciences, carries immediate implications to the formulation of adequate public policies. Likewise, one also needs to replace the focus on the economic aspects of inequality, and explore its non-economic aspects, which are directly tied to the complexity of the social relations and much more akin to the goals of the network. Hence, the proposed research agenda pays special attention to consumption patterns and their growing inter-regional homogenization, because among other aspects, these reveal interdependent variables embedded in recent inequality trends. In fact, making use of consumption patterns allows one to analyze key processes unfolding today, especially their interrelationship with other phenomena and processes, such as globalization, the differences between situations of inequality in national and local levels, the predominance of increasingly speculative financial capital, not linked to production and thus decoupled from the real economy, as well as key actors who are behind in these processes and who turn these into structural causes of deepening inequalities in Latin America and elsewhere.

The objective of the present paper is to investigate, in an exploratory fashion, how the current legal framework governing global relations was managed in the Brazil – Retread Tyres case in an attempt to perpetuate the unequal distribution of environmental risks and costs related to waste tyre disposal both from a statist and a globalist perspective. After introducing the issue, the context of tyre production and waste tyre disposal is presented. Then, the strategy related to discourse and forum choice will be outlined. Finally, some remarks on possible future developments will conclude the paper.

El objetivo central de este trabajo es analizar las representaciones sociales de la desigualdad social presentadas en los llamados Libros de Texto Gratuitos de Historia de México, producidos por el Estado mexicano. Estos libros, iguales para todos los alumnos que cursan la educación primaria, que después de cincuenta años de existencia son considerados un derecho fundamental, ofrecen un mismo horizonte en el acceso al saber. Además, estos libros son presentados por el Estado mexicano como los portadores de la “historia oficial”. Con base en cuatro grandes reformas de la educación primaria realizadas en el último medio siglo, los flujos de saber han modificado y transmitido versiones oficiales del pasado enmarcadas en distintos contextos sociopolíticos que permiten indagar cuáles son y cómo han evolucionado en estos libros las representaciones de la desigualdad social.

Until quite recently, Latin American countries widely assumed that legal discrimination against ethno-racial groups was a practice that took place elsewhere but not in the region. Somehow, the articulations between law and racial inequality remained successfully covered for almost two centuries. By tracing how such articulations could be hidden for so long, this article changes the focus on domestic legislation and offers a legal transnational approach for the analysis of the multi-scale intercrossing of racial discourses through law. It aims to elucidate the chronological and epistemic concurrence between different legal projects of racial stratification operating in different world areas and to expose the crucial role that law played in the racialization of society under colonial rule, and the continuities of such role in Latin America until the twentieth century.