In this comparative environmental history, we examine the divergent trajectories of Colombia’s coastal forests since the mid-19th century. In the Pacific lowlands, natural resource extraction by a black peasantry altered the forested landscape but did not transform it completely. Left by the white, merchant elite in charge of the extractive process, this post-emancipation society maintained their territorial independence and avoided significant internal differentiation. Racial divisions, however, signaled the continuation of disparities that had their origin in slavery and colonialism. In the Caribbean, by contrast, the expansion of cattle ranching better integrated the region into the nation, but at the expense of extensive deforestation and the marginalization of what had been its relatively independent peasantry. By paying attention to the ecological and social basis of landscape appropriation and change, we suggest that environmental history can help us better understand the production of inequality in Latin America.

Das Ende der Armut ist erklärtes Ziel der Weltgemeinschaft. Nicht nur unterschiedliche Deklarationen der Vereinten Nationen fordern ein Ende der Armut, ebenso zeigen Ökonomen wie Jeffrey Sachs optimistisch auf, was getan werden muss, damit die Armut genauso besiegt wird wie früher die Pocken. Allerdings ist die Idee eines Endes der Armut nicht neu. In diesem Aufsatz wird die Entstehung der Idee eines erreichbaren Endes der Armut historisch rekonstruiert. Dabei wird deutlich, dass ein Ende der Armut erst dann zu einer realistischen Option wurde, als man unter Armut nur noch absolute Überlebensarmut verstand und Armut empirisch zu messen begann – und damit Aspekte wie Ungleichheit ausblendete. Unsere Vorstellung davon, was Armut ist, wurde durch diese enge Sichtweise nachhaltig geprägt. Das erhoffte Ende der Armut wird daher genau nicht ein Ende dessen sein, was Armut eigentlich ausmacht.

The history of independent Brazil may be divided into three major state- society cycles, and, after 1930, five political pacts or class coalitions can be identified. These pacts were nationalist; only in the 1990s the Brazilian elites surrender to the neoliberal hegemony. Yet, since the mid-2000s they have been rediscovering the idea of the nation. The main claim of this essay is that Brazilian elites and Brazilian society are “national-dependent”, that is, they are ambivalent and contradictory, requiring an oxymoron to define them. They are dependent because they often see themselves as “European” and the mass of the people as inferior. But Brazil is big enough, and there are enough common interests around its domestic market, to make the Brazilian nation less ambivalent. Today Brazil is seeking a synthesis between the last two political cycles – between social justice and economic development in the framework of democracy.

El problema de la desigualdad ha ido tomando un lugar central en los lineamientos políticos de las agendas de los organismos internacionales para pensar la implementación de políticas sociales en América Latina. Con la preocupación de que la desigualdad devenga un eufemismo y pierda su potencial de cuestionamiento a las relaciones de poder existentes, el texto propone aportar a la reflexión acerca de los usos de dicha categoría cuando se constituye en parte del discurso hegemónico de estas instituciones y el modo en que articula el consenso vigente en lugares que concentran poder de clasificación e intervención política sobre aquella región. A través de la sistematización de informes y documentos publicados por el Banco Mundial, la CEPAL y el PNUD, así como de fuentes secundarias, el paper ofrece un abordaje epistemológico y metodológico crítico para el uso de esta categoría que pueda ser retomado a la hora de construir nuestras propias agendas de investigación.

El presente trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de la investigación empírica que he conducido sobre las recientes extensiones de derechos políticos a inmigrantes en Latinoamérica considerando su relevancia dentro del panorama teórico global sobre el fenómeno y, a partir de ello, generando hipótesis sobre las desigualdades que podrían generar en la región, desde una perspectiva de ciudadanía política y justicia global. El artículo está organizado en seis partes, excluyendo las conclusiones. Primero, una introducción a la literatura que ha tratado la ciudadanía en Latinoamérica. Segundo, una aproximación a la perspectiva de la ciudadanía que desde la cual se observa la relación entre la extensión del derecho a votar a los residentes no-ciudadanos y las desigualdades en este trabajo. Tercero, una exposición más detallada del marco teórico; especialmente de las hipótesis existentes que explican las extensiones de derechos políticos a no ciudadanos. Cuarto, una descripción concisa del panorama mundial de los derechos políticos de migrantes no ciudadanos. Quinto, una descripción de las características de los casos latinoamericanos con el objetivo de entender de qué reformas se trata y de evaluar si existe un patrón regional distintivo respecto al mismo fenómeno en el mundo. Sexto, el adelanto de hipótesis para entender el porqué y el cómo de estas reformas, con sus variaciones, para futuros estudios sobre las razones por las que diferentes tipos de reformas de extensión de derechos políticos a migrantes aparecen en Latinoamérica.

The objective of this working paper is to reflect upon the entanglements between Law and Development and to point out the possible contributions a decolonial studies approach can offer with regard to the renewal of the field. The first part introduces the apogee, decline and reemergence of Law and Development as a field of research and applied policy. The second part presents some of the theoretical tools that decolonial studies provides that may serve to enlarge the research interests of Law and Development – from one which focuses on legal reforms and “best practices” to a more reflective approach sensitive also to the impacts of applied research. The subsequent parts discuss the future of the field and suggest new venues of research that link this interdisciplinary field to a Decolonial agenda and specifically encourage the study of the implications of legal reforms and development policy for indigenous peoples‘ groups. Furthermore, the paper argues that a decolonial studies perspective helps to shift the focus of Law and Development to the interactions, resistances and alternatives presented by indigenous movements in the face of national development projects.

Based upon the results of three empirical studies conducted in Chile, this paper discusses: (1) the expansion of the perception of a specific type of inequalities in this society: interactive inequalities. These are perceived inequalities that focus on the treatment received in ordinary interactions between individuals and between these and institutions; (2) The fact that these new perceptions must be understood in the context of specific socio- historical transformations of the meanings and scope of the notion of equality. Therefore, this paper pays attention to the paths by which equality has acquired new content in Chilean society – equality in the social bond – making possible and legitimizing the perception of what we have called interactive inequalities. Finally, it argues for the importance and analytical priority of the sociological study of equality, especially when approaching inequalities.

This paper explores the Cuban case to understand how contentious voices have managed to bridge asymmetries of access to public space thanks to their critical use of new information and communication technologies (NICTs) Internet. I argue that we need to look at how contentious uses of NICTs have reinforced existing processes on the island, while creating new channels of expression and linkage. The paper shows that the transnational dynamics of linkage put into place by a lively web of émigrés, Cuban activists and intellectuals as well as foreign journalists and scholars have allowed for the convergence of contentious micro arenas which already existed but were formerly segmented. This process of convergence has in turn allowed for the emergence of a more intricate public space and for the creation of a somewhat autonomous contentious space. Although this evolution of the Cuban regime is positive as far as freedom of speech, it is clear that new inequalities in access to voice emerge: the protagonists of those new social spaces are limited to specific social categories, namely the urban, young and highly educated.

The struggles for land discussed in this paper have occurred in contexts characterized by some improvement of laws and policies designed to protect ethnic and cultural minorities in Brazil and Colombia, following the “multicultural turn” in international law. The paper discusses to a greater extent the cases of communities of Afro-descendants who live in areas disputed by agribusiness companies interested in expanding palm plantations mostly for biodiesel production. We found out that the introduction of new rights has first unleashed a local process of ethnic re-identification. In a certain way, minority rights themselves have created those minorities they are supposed to protect. Nevertheless, new minority rights have also reframed the conditions under which struggles for land are conducted and negotiated in Colombia as well as in Brazil. Seen as relays in an electrical circuit, minority rights serve to modulate power at the local level: in some cases, new rights amplify minorities’ power; in other situations, they can help contain the problems of abuses of power.

En este trabajo se comparten reflexiones sobre relaciones involucradas en los procesos de producción de conocimiento antropológico. Se lo hace con base en una práctica profesional mayormente desarrollada sobre distintos procesos organizativos y de producción cultural de pueblos indígenas (particularmente del pueblo mapuche en la Norpatagonia argentina) y, en menor grado, sobre la actualización o no de derechos humanos, indígenas y ciudadanos en instituciones de encierro. A partir de estas experiencias de trabajo, se exploran tres formas de intercambio distintas según propicien asimetrías de conocimiento buscadas o no buscadas, reconocidas o no; colaboraciones acordadas o demandadas para la producción de conocimiento; o autonomías consensuadas o mutuamente reclamadas en las respectivas prácticas del conocer. Si el cuerpo central del artículo desarrolla algunos aspectos y aprendizajes a partir del ejercicio de esas tres formas de intercambio, sobre el final se sugieren algunas revisiones respecto de cómo pensar la interculturalidad y la producción de conocimiento intercultural en diálogo con cómo concebimos el trabajo interdisciplinario.

Diversos estudios sobre derechos y desigualdades en el contexto de la migración internacional y la transnacionalización del trabajo coinciden en poner de relieve la utilidad potencial o efectiva de los nexos entre organizaciones de la sociedad civil, sindicales y no sindicales. Con este trabajo procuro aportar a la comprensión de algunas limitaciones en la lucha que organizaciones de este tipo llevan adelante a propósito de las desigualdades que afectan a trabajadores/as migrantes bolivianos/as. El documento analiza la situación de los/as migrantes en Buenos Aires y La Plata (Argentina), y en Madrid (España), profundizando en un estudio de caso en el primero de estos lugares. Las limitaciones de estas luchas se aprecian en la desconexión de los/as propios/as migrantes respecto de ellas y, al mismo tiempo, son resultado de esa desvinculación. El trabajo hace hincapié en las dificultades que las organizaciones no gubernamentales y sindicatos pro migrantes exhiben para actuar sobre la intersección de dimensiones de la desigualdad (clase, nacionalidad, etnia y otras) y las formas aparentemente inconciliables de organización asociadas a las pertenencias colectivas que se desarrollan en torno a dichas dimensiones. Las divergencias resultan de la productividad que el trabajo de representación y organización social y política tiene en la caracterización de las desigualdades y en la configuración de los actores mismos.

It is far from obvious which theories are the most promising ones for the task of critically addressing interdependent inequalities in Latin America as well as global forms of inequality that affect Latin American countries. In this working paper, I look at Latin American postcolonial theories in this respect. Following Nancy Fraser’s analytic distinction of socioeconomic, cultural and political aspects of injustice, and affirmative as well as transformative remedies against them, I undertake a two-sided operation. In a first step, I use Fraser’s framework to shed light on the accounts of inequality that we can gain from the work of Aníbal Quijano, María Lugones and Walter Mignolo. In a second step, I tease out in which ways these accounts transcend and thus challenge the framework used on them.

Brazil has had a distinctive definition of national and racial identity, and it has changed considerably over time, and at each time held out different possibilities for social mobility and citizenship. This paper traces changing relationship between black identities and citizenship through four periods in Brazilian history: abolition, black protests in the 1930s, postwar re- democratization and the democratic movement against the military dictatorship in the 1970s. It emphasizes how the complex intersection of nation, social relations, class and race has had profound effects on not only the categories used to label people, but also on the nuanced definition of the goal of efforts to overcome inequality.

El modelo biotecnológico agrario se insertó en Argentina desde mediados de la década del 1990. A partir de ese momento, la producción agraria se ha tornado un eje central de la política económica de este país, generando profundas modificaciones económicas, políticas y sociales en el agro argentino. La importancia de la construcción de un andamiaje institucional para este proceso ha sido considerada, pero escasamente estudiada, por lo que los principios que sustentan las regulaciones en este país han sido poco vislumbrados. En este trabajo se busca analizar algunas características centrales de la normativa sobre bioseguridad en la Argentina, revisando las formas en que la misma retoma el principio de precaución y la noción del riesgo en semillas transgénicas. Para este trabajo, se ha construido una línea de tiempo en base a los relatos de los integrantes de la Comisión Nacional de Biotecnología Agropecuaria (CoNaBiA), encargada de liberar las semillas transgénicas, y a la lectura bibliográfica. Finalmente, se ha reflexionado sobre los principales elementos con los que estos sujetos construyen las nociones a estudiar, denotando la relevancia que el conocimiento científico posee en estos espacios y las consecuencias que estos elementos tienen en la participación democrática igualitaria.

The transnationalization of financial markets impacted on the fragmentation and recomposition of value chains which induced comprehensive processes of outsourcing and the commodification of bank services. This paper explores how this translates into the sectoral and internal reorganization of Brazilian banks and how work organization and social relations are affected. The case of (bank-owned as well as outsourced) call center not only reflects changes in the importance and form of service relations but also shapes a neotayorist reorganization of the labor process and the respective modes of control. As a result, a complex process of precarization and segmentation of the work force can be observed which impacts on new lines of inequality related to categories like gender, class and race. The analysis is based on a theoretical approach which refers to Michael Burawoy’s concept of the “politics of production” and categories of Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory like symbolic violence. This allows an analysis of power relations which also includes the dimension of identities. Thus a more fine-grained insight can be gained on how transnational restructuring affects redistribution on a macro, meso and micro level.

En este documento me detengo en los trabajos de construcción y significación de la categoría campesino/a por parte de movimientos populares de Brasil y de Argentina del llamado sector agrario. Indago cómo dicha categoría adquiere forma en base a la participación de los movimientos en ámbitos específicos. Con un enfoque multisituado, centrado en movimientos que actúan tanto a escala regional como nacional e internacional, presto atención a las cadenas de interlocución en las cuales tales entidades elaboran sus propuestas y ponen determinadas categorías en circulación. Me oriento a mostrar que las disputas en torno a la tierra, las políticas institucionales para la agricultura familiar, para la seguridad alimentaria y la erradicación del hambre, así como una multiplicidad de conferencias, encuentros, foros, eventos, etc. abocados a temas “ambientales”, constituyen espacios de intervención de los movimientos que son indisociables de la categoría que éstos ponen en escena. El texto muestra un trabajo de construcción de lo campesino cuya/s forma/s se delinea/n en interconexión con esos espacios, lo cual, más que un tipo social sustantivo nos lleva a observar relaciones y procesos de objetivación. De este modo, desde el estudio de la categoría, el documento pone de relieve las dinámicas sociales, particularmente las relaciones asimétricas, que impregnan la configuración del campesinado por parte de los movimientos analizados.

The studies of global social and economic inequalities in social sciences that go beyond “methodological nationalism” are recent but have older roots. The first theories to reflect on the global and trans-regional interconnections and asymmetric regional developments within the capitalist system can be traced back to a Marxian tradition. These theories were critical to the conventional approach to social inequalities (hegemonic in the Western European and US academic centers in the 20th century) restricted to within nation-state boundaries. However, during the last three decades, several new approaches have emerged to capture the construction of social inequalities within the context of transnationalization, which extend beyond defined political units such as the nation-state. Transnationalization is creating a new challenge to social scientists to review critically their premises related to their reference units and to study social inequalities by focusing on social, economic, cultural and political interdependencies from the global perspective. This paper will focus specifically on four different approaches to global inequalities: (1) global and international comparative research; (2) the world-system perspective; (3) the transnational approach; and (4) the approach of entanglements. The aim is to draw a critical balance of these recent approaches, examine the central theoretical arguments and empirical findings, identify shortcomings and make suggestions for further research.

This paper examines the ways in which the concept discussed under the term “intersectionality” can provide a productive framing for entangled inequalities, as both concepts have a lot in common. The paper argues that an intersectional sensibilization to conceptualizations of inequalities helps capture inequalities in their entangled historical, micro and macro level dimensions and avoid one-dimensional reductions. However, this concept which is itself deeply Euro- and U.S.-centric must be improved for use in transnational contexts and for other locations of knowledge production. As such, an intersectional epistemic sensibilization can prove useful for contextualizing and situating multiple knowledges and modes of knowledge production and provide a frame for an implicit critique of hegemony. This conceptual work is a necessary step towards developing ways to overcome asymmetrical social power structures as expressed in unequal circulations of knowledge.

In the last decade, the socioeconomic relationship between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the People´s Republic of China has increased massively. How has this new qualitative relationship between LAC and China affected inequality in LAC? This paper highlights the degrees of concentration of trade since the 1990s until 2011 and its technological content. Future research will have to deepen this relationship at the national, regional and even firm-level. Based on a brief critical review of the relationship between trade and equality/inequality, the document analyzes several of the outstanding features of the booming trade relationship between LAC and China. It concludes, among other issues, that both academics and policy makers have to overcome the bias against the agricultural sector and natural resources based on the concepts of global commodity chains, systemic competitiveness and territorial endogeneity. In addition, one of the most striking features of the new LAC-China trade is its increasing concentration, both compared with historical levels of LAC-China trade, as well as with the rest of the world, a development that will affect inequality in LAC substantially. It is not “old wine in new bottles”, but rather a new socioeconomic relationship with dynamic and profound impacts in LAC that will have to be considered in more detail by scholars and policy makers in the future.