The novel, as a genre, has been nourished since its inception by history. In this vein, literary production in Latin America has not been an exception. From the time of the conquest to the beginnings of the republican era, writers have seeded their narrative with their own lives and experiences. The emancipation of the Spanish colonies in America markedly changed the historical, political, economic and social framework of the colonists who, as writers, were the period?s strongest witnesses. The new American nations, in some cases, populated their histories with fiction, when the fiction meshed with the socio-political agenda. Some of the topics covered by this type of writing included mestizaje and social caste, topics that reinforced national utopian projects. The two historical works analyzed in this thesis present characteristics of 19th century romantic novels, especially El atuad de uso. Theories of the historical novel proposed by Gyorgy Lukacs, Anderson Imbert, Seymour Menton and Jose de Pierola form a foundation for this research and analysis. To demonstrate the relationship between the new nations and the romantic novels of the 19th century, this work draws on the research of Doris Sommer. The theory of narrative and historical representation proposed by Hayden White serves to clarify the idea of history and fiction in literature. The works of Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir and Lucia Guerra-Cunningham helped capture the representation of woman throughout history. The two novels studied in this work may be categorized as historical novels since they are anchored in real historical events. The historical representation of the characters follows loosely the model used in the 19th century. Throughout these novels background topics like mestizaje, social castes, and the role of women in the era serve as a realistic backdrop.

<p>The thesis focuses on the environmental sustainability ofwater projects. The concept is analysed from the theoreticaland the implementation viewpoints The evolution of the conceptof sustainable development is presented, with an in-depthdiscussion on the present status of the environmentalsustainability of water projects. Several case studies areanalysed on different important aspects of environmentalsustainability. These case studies include the analysis ofissues like the role of institutions, effectiveness of legalframeworks, participation of stakeholders, contributions ofwater development projects to regional development,consideration of environmental and social issues, and impactsof social and environmental movements.</p><p>The impacts of the Ataturk dam, within the SoutheasternAnatolia (GAP) Project, Turkey, are analysed in terms ofplanning, policy making, institutional arrangements,infrastructural development, and human resources development.Its economic, social and environmental impacts during theconstruction phase and the first seven years of operation arereviewed.</p><p>The role of large dams in poverty alleviation andsocio-economic development are analysed, especially in terms ofresettlement. The current global thinking on involuntaryresettlement is reviewed, as are the experiences onresettlement of the people affected by water projects. Anassessment of the participatory process that was formulated forthe resettlement of the people affected by the construction ofthe Birecik dam, GAP Project, Turkey, is presented.</p><p>Institutional arrangements for integrated river basinmanagement in Latin America is analysed, with special emphasison the Brazilian and the Mexican experiences of watermanagement at the river basin level. Brazil and Mexico werechosen since they are by far the most advanced in this area,compared to all the other Latin American countries.</p><p>It is concluded that economic, social and environmentaldimensions should be considered concurrently within the goalsof water development. Social considerations are essentialbecause poverty is both a cause and an effect of environmentaldegradation, and societies festering with poverty and socialtensions will not have the means, or inclination, to makesustainable development a priority issue. There are noblueprints for a transition to sustainability, but there arepolicy reforms that could reduce environmental degradation,income disparity and persistent poverty. The water sector isnot an exception to this conclusion.</p><p>There is now considerable discussion on the operationalfeasibility of the sustainable development concept. It issuggested that sustainable development should be considered tobe a journey and not a destination. The world is nothomogeneous, and thus there cannot be one unique path tosustainable development that would be equally valid andapplicable for all countries of the world, and for alldevelopment sectors. Each country will have to base its waterdevelopment agendas depending on their own social, economic,cultural and environmental conditions, available managerial,technical and administrative capacities and societalexpectations and aspirations. For developing countries, as longas water development policies, programmes and projects cancontribute to socio-economic development, reduction in povertyand income disparity, and environmental conservation, they arewell on course in their long journey to sustainabledevelopment. Definitional debates as to what constitutessustainable water development are likely to beunproductive.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed Aug. 4, 2004). "December 2003." Also issued in paper format.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Harold Trinkunas, Robert Looney. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-66). Also available online.

My dissertation Woman, Nation and Identity in the Narrative of Juana Manuela Gorriti and Clorinda Matto de Turner follows the construction of female identity in the emergent Latin American imaginary, and uses the regional zeitgeist as a framework for the analysis of the works of Juana Manuela Gorriti (Argentina, 1819 - 1892) and Clorinda Matto de Turner (Peru, 1852 - 1909), the latter known as the author of the first widely-read novel about indigenous issues in Latin America. I intend to shed light on the parallels between the turbulent intellectual lives of these two authors, the uncommon voice conferred upon them as members of a privileged upper class, and their active involvement in national politics. My work on these authors and their texts, some of them understudied, focus on the concept of gender in relation to the national project in the violent post-independence era to understand the development of identity in Latin America. I elaborate on these topics by analyzing the feminine subject, the domestic space, and the national imaginary and exploring their textual articulations to demonstrate their relevance in the emergent nations. It is impossible to read these novels without noticing the contradictions between gender performance and the actions of the female characters. The reading of this counter discourse reveals the process by which the agency of the feminine subject subverts the symbolic order and changes the national imaginary. I trace the transfer of power from the male in the public sphere to the female in the private sphere, as well as the role of women in the national project as portrayed in these works. This analysis intends to demonstrate how opening up the private spaces serves to better illustrate, or illustrate in a detailed way, national actuality in opposition to written authorized History. / text

The important role that technocrats play in Latin America has stimulated a lively theoretical debate about experts’ influence in policy making and their effective independence from other sociopolitical players, especially politicians, international financial institutions and business. Through an in-depth analysis of the role of economic and health technocrats in Colombia from 1958 to 2011 and in Peru from 1980 to 2011, this dissertation demonstrates that technocrats are best conceptualized as autonomous actors in Latin America. This technical autonomy, though, varies in strength from policy sector to policy sector and even within the same policy sector across time. I propose a theory of technocratic autonomy to explain both the bases of experts’ autonomy and the determinants that explain the variation in the degree of autonomy across policy sectors and across time. Fundamentally, technocrats’ higher degree of expertise provides them with considerable leverage over sociopolitical actors and allows them to enhance their influence. x Four factors explain experts’ degree of autonomy and its variation across policy areas. First, a high level of technical complexity in a policy area enhances autonomy by making it more difficult for politicians to counter technocrats’ proposals. Second, the degree of technocratic consensus in a policy area limits the possibility of experts being replaced by other experts with preferences closer to those of politicians. Third, experts are more likely to gain autonomy in state areas where bad policy performance causes high political costs for the incumbent. Finally, a balanced constellation of diverse powerful stakeholders having interests in a policy area also enhances technical autonomy. These stakeholders monitor competing stakeholders and the incumbent, opening a space for technocrats to act with more autonomy. I argue that these four factors explain why economic experts, in general, are more likely to gain autonomy and entrench it over time, whereas health experts remain more vulnerable. These factors also explain the variation in technocratic autonomy over time within the same policy area. / text

A descriptive analysis of the data from 74 editors and reporters from 62 print-affiliated newspapers sites in Latin America indicate that journalists and print-based sites follow similar broad tendencies observed in different studies inside and outside of the region. The surveyed online editors and reporters -mainly young men with university studies- have a career background in print newspapers, with salaries equals or lower than their print colleagues. They perform weekly activities more related with immediacy than multimedia, and they perceive their primary function as disseminators and interpreters of information. Working in small and integrated newsrooms, online journalists basically interact with their print partner in terms of editing content. Although, advertising is a primary source of revenue, the majority of national, regional and local print-based sites confirm that they depend on the print partner for content and financing their online operations. Furthermore, the online version of papers do not fully take advantage of the Internet technology and capabilities, particularly multimediality and interactivity, or provide too much original new media content. / text

While clientelism has been intensively studied in comparative politics from very different theoretical perspectives and angles, scholars typically emphasize the importance of organized networks and long-term relations for sustaining electoral clientelism. However, electoral clientelism continues to be widespread in many countries despite the absence of organized parties or electoral machines. In order to account for this puzzle, I propose an informational approach that stresses the indirect effects that investments in electoral clientelism have on vote intentions. By distributing minor consumer goods, politicians buy the participation of poor voters at rallies and different sorts of campaign events. I argue that this particular subtype of electoral clientelism -- "campaign clientelism" -- helps politicians improvise political organizations, influence indifferent clients, and signal their electoral viability to strategic actors. Thus, by influencing competition and the dynamics of the race, campaign clientelism shapes vote choices and electoral outcomes. Campaign clientelism affects vote choices through two causal mechanisms. First, this subtype of electoral clientelism can help establish candidates' electoral viability, especially where alternative signals provided by well-organized parties are weak. By turning out large numbers of people at rallies, candidates establish and demonstrate their electoral prospects to the media, donors, rent-seeking activists, and voters. In this way, politicians induce more and more voters to support them strategically. Second, campaign clientelism can convince unattached rally participants of the candidates' electoral desirability. While providing different sorts of information at campaign events, politicians help campaign clients make choices. Other things being equal, viable and desirable candidates have better chances of actually achieving office. Qualitative, quantitative, and experimental evidence from Peru, a democracy without parties, supports the informational theory's expectations. / text

Activists, artists, journalists, and intellectuals in the United States, from the 1950s to the present, have supported national liberation movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, arguing that anti-colonial struggles abroad were related to human and civil rights struggles in the United States. This dissertation builds on these foundations by tracing multi-racial and transnational connections among people and organizations in the United States, and between the United States and Latin America during the 1970s. Uncovering these connections that linked the Third World “within” to the Third World “without” across the Américas reconfigures the narrative of what happened to social movements in the 1970s, and helps us re-imagine the Chicano movement through the lens of an anti-colonial politics. This project bridges the local, national, and international terrains of political struggle by tracing the lives of activists and organizations in the United States and Latin America who defined their politics in relation to the Third World. It interrogates four inter-related themes: the prison rebellions in the United States, third world political activity in major U.S. urban centers, guerrilla theatre on both sides of the U.S-Mexican (and by extension Latin American) international border, and social movement connections between Texas and Mexico. My primary focus is on localized strategies for grassroots mobilizations rooted in working class cultural practices, multi-ethnic solidarities, and transnational political formations that were comprised of Chicano, Black, Asian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, American Indian, and white activists and artists. I also emphasize the local elements involved in the political alliances, coalitions, and solidarity efforts across geopolitical borders and different political perspectives. Overall, this project explores connections across, underneath, and outside the political, economic, and cultural construction of the nation state, and the hemispheric construction of the Americas with the United States as the primary political, economic and cultural power. These intertwined perspectives simultaneously step back to interrogate the larger international connections while focusing in on local manifestations of national issues refracted through a hemispheric lens. It is in the 1970s - a decade characterized by a shift in the policies of the crisis-ridden political economy of the Keynesian welfare state in response to these very struggles - that we should locate the early elements of what is currently referred to the anti-globalization movements. / text

This thesis contributes to the growing literature on low-income renting and affordable housing in Latin America. Through a case study of Independencia – a consolidated community in Lima’s northern cone – I examine the socio-economic foundations and potential implications of self-help renting in lives of participants. Low-income renting has a long history in Lima, but has largely operated outside of State intervention. While these policy decisions were the result of contextually specific political and economic pressures, they seem also to be a symptom of the changes in influential social and economic theories informing academic thinking on the region and their contributions to bias in the housing policies of many Latin American countries. In addition to several policy considerations based on research in Lima, some general considerations for future renting research are offered. / text