This case study examines and analyses the socio-environmental impacts of the implementation of ecotourism in Colombia’s Tayrona National Natural Park from the period following the peace agreements in 2016 until 2021. This paper explores the social and environmental implications of ecotourism as a means of territorial pacification, assessing the park’s environmental trajectory and the current administration to determine if its management aligns with the ecotourism objectives of environmental conservation and protection of indigenous communities within their ancestral territory. Additionally, the study also evaluates the debate surrounding the environmental and cultural sustainability of ecotourism as a development strategy, and assesses its positive and negative impacts on this natural area previously affected by armed conflict.

In the early 21st century, Bolivia and Peru experienced remarkable economic growth, coupled with notable reductions in poverty and inequality. However, the subsequent economic slowdown triggered by declining international commodity prices raised concerns about the sustainability of their progress. Historically, both nations have been vulnerable to fluctuations in global commodity prices, often resulting in social unrest and political instability. This study examines whether the significant influx of resources to Bolivia and Peru from 2003 to 2013, attributed to the commodity boom, fostered structural transformation or, on the contrary, reinforced their dependence on the global economy. Analyzing macroeconomic and productivity data, the research indicates a strong correlation between their economic performance and the commodity supercycle trend. A primary finding suggests that rather than fostering a more self-reliant economic integration, the 21st-century economic boom exacerbated the reliance of both nations on natural resource extraction. However, a more nuanced examination reveals divergent medium-term impacts driven by each nation’s development model. Peru, through diversification of international revenue streams and prudent macroeconomic policies, managed to mitigate the effects of declining commodity prices. In contrast, Bolivia’s economy bore the brunt of diminishing income, not only due to the end of the commodity boom but also due to insufficient investments in productive sectors.

This document is a guide for writers of social scientific articles based on empirical research, including course papers and theses as well as conference papers, discussion/working papers, journal articles, book chapters, and monographs. It offers tips for structuring research articles and tailoring them to specific audiences, warns of common mistakes, and allows insights from an experienced editor into what the most important elements are for a successful publication.

The rise of the Popular Republic of China (PRC) is one of the most significant events in contemporary international relations. However, at the global level, the “re-emergence of China as a major global power has led to a considerable debate over the likely consequences for the rest of the world” (Jenkins, 2010: 810). China’s growing power raises questions as to the meaning of its superpower status as a nation, and the impact of its newfound influence in not only the Asia-Pacific region, but also the Global South (Dessein, 2015). In the specific case of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the debate centers on the potential disadvantages that China’s vast supply of financial resources might bring for the region. Accordingly, the current paper is intended to examine the debate that has arisen in recent literature around the impact of China’s increased economic presence on Latin America –with win-win relations on the one hand and new dependency on the other.

actors when an area under their control becomes the target of increased extractive activities. National and local public regulations safeguarding the environment, the assignment of extractive rights to individuals or companies, and handling of ensuing conflicts are developed in an institutional gray zone. This paper analyzes how informal institutions developed in early period become hybrid institutional entanglements that depend largely on configurations of power. It does so by looking at two cases in Peru: Water extraction in Ica, mostly by large companies and gold mining in Madre de Dios, mostly by small scale miners. Taken together, these cases show the institutions resulting from state governance of extractive activities depends heavily on the agency and political leverage of the state but also of other social actors.

La comparación “El Niño Costero” de Lima y la “Crisis del Agua” de La Paz permite establecer generalizaciones útiles para la comprensión de los desafíos de la adaptación al cambio climático (CC) en ciudades del sur global. El estudio plantea que 1) la adaptación al CC comienza con un cambio de perspectiva desde un horizonte que percibe a la realidad como lo conocido, a una mirada desde la incertidumbre; 2) tanto en Lima como en La Paz, el desastre tuvo un carácter sistémico con encadenamiento: temporal, social, institucional y político; 3) la relación entre desastre relacionado al cambio climático e incremento de desigualdades que afectan a la cohesión social de la ciudad; 4) la importancia de la fortaleza de la democracia como condición para el carácter transformativo de la adaptación.

La elección de Mauricio Rodas como alcalde de Quito en 2014 marcó un punto de inflexión en Ecuador, ya que fue la primera victoria electoral de la derecha durante el gobierno de Rafael Correa. Planteo que el candidato triunfante logra interpelar a las crecientes clases medias a través de estrategias simbólicas de campaña que giran en torno a la supuesta superación tanto de las ideologías como de la conflictividad en las luchas políticas. Desde una perspectiva bourdieuniana, demuestro que el éxito de Rodas reside en llenar un vacío del modelo de representación de la “Revolución Ciudadana” mediante la oferta de un espacio de identificación que acoge a las clases medias consumistas. Para dicho fin, la inversión del discurso oficialista del “Buen Vivir” hacia el discurso ganador del “Vivir Mejor” resulta pivotante. Siguiendo las huellas del asesor de marketing político, Jaime Durán Barba, se vislumbran las conexiones regionales de las nuevas derechas latinoamericanas.

El trabajo analiza el fenómeno de captura corporativa del Estado usando un enfoque dinámico-relacional de juegos de poder. Esta captura de tipo económico se manifiesta en diversos continentes donde existen “democracias de mercado”, y se acentúa en América Latina a partir del “giro conservador” que se observa desde el 2016. Se explica la captura económica como un proceso de influencia excesiva de las corporaciones sobre la orientación de las políticas públicas. Esta influencia es el resultado de fuertes asimetrías de poder que se están acentuando gracias al uso de instrumentos y redes de influencia sobre el Estado, para lograr ventajas y privilegios que la sociedad civil no logra contener o revertir. El trabajo, luego de hacer un balance de lo escrito, tarea necesaria dada la diversidad de contribuciones, identifica factores históricos e institucionales como la concentración extrema del poder económico en manos de corporaciones privadas y su transformación interna para intentar manejar el contexto; la discrecionalidad del Estado y la tecnocracia y su tendencia a legislar por decreto, la porosidad de las instituciones políticas y su debilidad representativa; y el debilitamiento relativo de la sociedad civil por la pérdida de poder de los sindicatos y su mayor dispersión; todo ello genera situaciones de captura del Estado. Asimismo, identifica los principales instrumentos lícitos, dudosos e ilícitos de influencia como la financiación de partidos, el lobby y la puerta giratoria, y la secuencia en que se usan en red para maximizar la influencia corporativa sobre el Estado.

En el contexto de la emergencia del neoliberalismo, el régimen militar en Chile introdujo en 1981 el Código de Aguas que inició el proceso de privatización y transnacionalización del sector sanitario, transformando a Chile en el único país del mundo donde el agua es privada. Hoy en día el agua está controlada en gran parte por empresas transnacionales y fondos de pensiones, como el Ontario Teachers‘ Pension Plan (OTPP) que se ha convertido en el mayor accionista desde 2007. Desde la perspectiva de las desigualdades “entrelazadas” analizaremos las desigualdades sociales a nivel local y regional en Chile con respecto al acceso al agua y a la calidad de los servicios sanitarios al incluir los vínculos de interdependencias multidimensionales y transnacionales representado por el caso canadiense del OTPP.

Not only has been economic inequality on the rise, but also the research agenda on inequality has moved decisively from the fringes to the center of policy and academic interest. This new concern and concentration in respect to this topic, data records, and methodological approaches have given rise to a vast amount of literature. It is for this reason that I review the most important recent works engaging with the origins of economic inequality – a debate which remains highly controversial. The usual categorization to explain the different storytelling – “to be or not to be neoliberal” – seems inappropriate. In this review on “the rockstars of the realm” (Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson, Branko Milanovic and Walter Scheidel), I argue that the question and reason behind different approaches is instead: politics or the economy, which is the master that defines the space for action? The gradually established allegory of “the mirrored hourglass of inequality” illustrates the salience of this cleavage

fenómenos hidrometeorológicos y geológicos, que al impactar sobre población vulnerable puede generar desastres con efectos de intensidad y temporalidad variable. A pesar del creciente interés en controlar estos efectos mediante la implementación de cada vez más complejas estrategias de manejo o gestión de riesgo, esta tarea aún resulta esquiva y, por el contrario, la situación parece agravarse frente a los efectos del cambio climático. Este contexto invita a una reflexión sobre la conceptualización del riesgo con miras a abrir vías de análisis que sean pertinentes para su estudio en la región andina. El documento tiene como objetivo, entonces, hacer un balance de los aportes desde las ciencias sociales y enfoques interdisciplinarios. De esta manera, hace síntesis de las principales propuestas y debates en torno al concepto riesgo: el riesgo como construcción sociocultural, la agencia y materialidad del riesgo, el riesgo en los sistemas socio ecológicos y la ecología política del riesgo; y ofrece una aproximación conceptual planteando una ruta de acercamiento basada en el estudio de las institucionalidades en vínculo con las estrategias de manejo del riesgo por desastres.

Desde los años 90, en los que las política neoliberales del expresidente Fujimori multiplican las concesiones, los conflictos socioambientales en el Perú son cada vez más numerosos y revisten de mucha violencia con muchas personas fallecidas. Usando informaciones del EJAtlas partimos de la hipótesis que los cambios en el metabolismo social y el consecuente aumento en la extracción doméstica de materiales provocan estos conflictos. A la luz de la teoría de la “colonialidad del poder y del saber” (Quijano 1992, Lander 2000, Grosfoguel, 2014) analizaremos las divisiones en el poder y el trabajo heredados de la colonia y reafirmados por el poder criollo que refuerzan el racismo inherente a la colonialidad. Veremos cómo se ha construido este racismo qué métodos se emplean para perpetuarlo en la actualidad, como se construyó la colonialidad del saber, es decir el domino de las mentes para poder imponer el racismo. Analizamos también qué tipos de violencia se usan contra la población que resiste a la implantación de los proyectos extractivos, qué alternativas están construyendo y cómo los movimientos por la justicia ambiental ayudan a reforzar la identidad y a encontrar salidas a la colonialidad. Por último, veremos qué rol toma la mujer en esta constelación de conflictividad.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is more than a set of goals and targets: it is a comprehensive “plan of action” that countries are translating into relevant policies. While this plan recognizes a need for different national paths towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it also provides guidance for policymaking, establishing means of implementation and follow-up and review mechanisms that are indivisible from the SDGs. Moreover, analyzing the 2030 Agenda as a framework for policymaking reveals general principles that are both explicit and implicit in the UN’s Transforming Our World document. After examining previous relevant UN and OECD frameworks; official 2030 Agenda documents; current international literature on the SDGs, and consulting key 2030 Agenda stakeholders in Peru, this paper identifies eight general principles for sustainable development policymaking in 2030 Agenda implementation that are relevant to all SDGs and sectors, and suggests areas for further research.

Research on the conjunction of business elites and sustainable development fascinates practitioners and international organizations but faces methodological and data collection challenges within academia. Firstly, studies on corporate sustainability have promptly increased but have been extremely focused on an organizational level of analysis, which inhibits figuring out whether business decisions have an impact at the macro or societal level. Secondly, major policy recommendations on sustainable development point to the creation of networks and partnerships among business elites, governments and civil organizations but it is largely ignored which specific type of network configuration goes along with sustainable development. Thirdly, the literature on sustainable development often considered business elites as homogenous and concentrated, even though conflicting views exist regarding aspects of sustainable development. Finally, the influence of business elites on environmental, social and economic policies has been more supposed than empirically demonstrated. Past research has been unable to overcome these challenges in part due to insufficient data clarifying the full breadth of business elite connections with political and civil organizations nationally and transnationally, and the lack of a combination of analytical tools for analyzing multilevel characteristics and actions. The present paper proposes a research agenda to comprehend the role of business elites in sustainable development. Future studies should use network analysis as leverage, uncover the networks among business and political elites, focus on Latin American economies and regions, bypass case studies and develop cross-national and transnational analysis, and turn to a combination of causal methods.

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987, social inequality has been a topic of concern for the international development community. In the last decade, given the rise of global inequality the subject gained even more prominence as several international organizations (UNDP, World Bank, OECD) began emphasizing the negative impact of social inequality on human well- being. The Agenda 2030, the current development strategy adopted by the United Nations in 2015, elevated “reducing inequality” to one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Goal No. 10). This paper connects with this growing concern over the impact of social inequalities on the opportunities for sustainable development. It proposes a research agenda for the social sciences to contribute to the debate by identifying the causal mechanisms that constitute the nexus between social inequalities and sustainable development. The focus on these intermediary steps is important in order to understand in more detail the barriers that social inequalities pose for more sustainable social, economic and ecological arrangements. This is especially necessary when it comes to designing or implementing strategies (political or technological) that aim to promote sustainable development, above all in highly unequal societies