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The author examines how a North American commercial Web site developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute serves as a vehicle through which American hegemony and cultural imperialism are propagated to Latin America. The author argues that the content of the web site pages, which contain American cultural symbols and values, may serve to influence or change the values of its Latin American visitors.

Esta dissertação investiga os fatores que dão pouco espaço qualitativo e quantitativo para a América Latina no noticiário da grande imprensa. O estudo é baseado em dois eixos: o ambiente sócio-histórico e o ambiente jornalístico. É da intersecção destes campos que se monta o cenário de solidão da América Latina. A pesquisa demonstra que o continente latino-americano é cindido, por processos históricos, no que defini como 'América Latina Oficial' e na 'América Latina Popular'. A grande imprensa é o aparelho ideológico da 'América Latina Oficial' como a imprensa alternativa é da 'América Latina Popular'. Desmonta-se o mito da imparcialidade e conclui-se que para a América Latina não ser condenada à solidão é preciso desenvolver e estudar os movimentos sociais latino-americanos, incluindo seus processos de comunicação. / This dissertation investigates the factors that give little qualitative and quantitative space for Latin America. The study it is based on two axles: the environment partner-description and the journalistic environment. It is of the junction of these fields that if mounts the scene of solitude of Latin America. The research demonstrates that the Latin American continent is separate, for historical processes, in that I defined as 'official Latin America' and 'popular Latin America'. The great press is the ideological device of “official Latin America" as the alternative press is of 'popular Latin America'. The myth of the impartiality is disassembled and is concluded that it Latin America to be condemned to the solitude is not necessary to develop and to study the Latin American social movements, including its processes of communication.

Esta dissertação investiga os fatores que dão pouco espaço qualitativo e quantitativo para a América Latina no noticiário da grande imprensa. O estudo é baseado em dois eixos: o ambiente sócio-histórico e o ambiente jornalístico. É da intersecção destes campos que se monta o cenário de solidão da América Latina. A pesquisa demonstra que o continente latino-americano é cindido, por processos históricos, no que defini como 'América Latina Oficial' e na 'América Latina Popular'. A grande imprensa é o aparelho ideológico da 'América Latina Oficial' como a imprensa alternativa é da 'América Latina Popular'. Desmonta-se o mito da imparcialidade e conclui-se que para a América Latina não ser condenada à solidão é preciso desenvolver e estudar os movimentos sociais latino-americanos, incluindo seus processos de comunicação. / This dissertation investigates the factors that give little qualitative and quantitative space for Latin America. The study it is based on two axles: the environment partner-description and the journalistic environment. It is of the junction of these fields that if mounts the scene of solitude of Latin America. The research demonstrates that the Latin American continent is separate, for historical processes, in that I defined as 'official Latin America' and 'popular Latin America'. The great press is the ideological device of “official Latin America” as the alternative press is of 'popular Latin America'. The myth of the impartiality is disassembled and is concluded that it Latin America to be condemned to the solitude is not necessary to develop and to study the Latin American social movements, including its processes of communication.

Microfinance relates to the provision, by specialized microfinance institutions (MFIs), of small-scale financial services - such as credit, savings, and insurance - to the poorer sections of the population. These sections have traditionally been excluded by the financial system. Microfinance is viewed as a system put into place in order to overcome market failures that are created by banks and that are omnipresent in the developing world. In development policy, microfinance has received considerable attention during the last twenty years, and the industry has grown substantially. Interestingly, the sector has been more successful in reaching out to people in some countries than in others. The sector has also developed in an unequal way within countries. The reasons why this happened are not directly apparent. This doctoral dissertation addresses the uneven development of the microfinance sector and aims at identifying factors that explain it.<p><p>The dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part, which consists of two papers, combines different datasets on the outreach of MFIs to assess in which countries MFIs have developed most. The papers indicate that the microfinance sector is more present in the richer countries of the developing world. It also reaches more clients in countries that receive more international aid. Population density also plays a stimulating role, which partially explains why the sector is still underdeveloped in rural areas.<p><p>The second part of the dissertation, which exists of one paper, explores in more depth the relationship between traditional financial sector development and microfinance institutions. The paper, co-authored with Bert D’Espallier, shows that MFIs reach more clients and are more profitable in countries where access to the traditional financial system is low. This is in line with the market-failure hypothesis. Along the same line, we find that MFIs serve poorer people in countries with well-developed financial systems. This observation is an important element to take into account in the debate on mission drift of the sector, where it is feared that MFIs drift away from serving the poor. The paper shows that MFIs in countries with well-developed banking sectors have less space to move up market and consequently to drift from the sector’s general mission.<p><p>The third and final part of the dissertation is a quantitative study on the spread and expansion process of MFIs in one Latin American country, Peru. The roles that district characteristics play in the decision to open an MFI branch are scrutinized. The paper finds that MFIs mainly increase financial access in districts with higher levels of development. Districts where banks are already present also have a higher probability that MFIs will open a branch there. This demonstrates that the two kinds of institutions co-exist in several districts, but most probably serve another clientele. Overall, although strategies differ between different types of Peruvian MFIs, the paper finds that they do not seem to be driven by a pure developmental logic that would push them towards the poorest or totally unbanked regions of the country. <p><p>On the whole, the main conclusions of the dissertation can be summarized as follows. First, the dissertation demonstrates that the outreach of the microfinance sector is influenced by a number of macro factors. Consequently, country-specific and macro-economic factors should be taken into account when evaluating MFI performance. Second, the dissertation shows that MFIs substitute the traditional banking sector. MFIs thus fulfill an important part of their mission, i.e. they have helped to increase financial access in the developing world. However, the study also suggests that MFIs still fail to serve a significant number of poor people. This leads to a third important observation, namely that MFIs may in fact not strive to serve the poor as such. Rather, it seems that they are currently focusing on the un-served market in general. The observation indicates that there is a need for a more thorough investigation on the issue of whom the unbanked in the developing countries are and whom MFIs actually strive to serve. Finally, since the outreach and performance of MFIs is dependent on the presence of a stimulating macro-environment, it remains a challenge to serve the financially excluded in the more remote areas of the developing countries and the people in the poorest ones. <p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The thesis evaluates the extent to which human rights were promoted in United States Military Humanitarian and Civic Assistance exercises in Latin America. This is important because the promotion of human rights is a stated foreign policy goal, even in security cooperation programs. It will be argued that a human rights focus matters in the selection of training objectives, engagement in the interagency process, and coordination with the host nation. Comparative case analysis of Opening Roads-Ecuador 1987 and New Horizons-Nicaragua 1999 indicates that the post-Cold War US military is implementing some principles congruent with a human rights perspective, such as promoting sustainable development and good governance. / Lieutenant Commander, United States Naval Reserve

The Mexican Caribbean tourism sector is highly exposed to hurricane activity, yet coastal tourism is also a major driver influencing regional biophysical and social vulnerability to climate risks. Drawing on a political ecology approach and a vulnerability assessment, this study asks how experiences with extreme hurricane events in the Mexican Caribbean shape climate change adaptation in the regional tourism sector. This study uses multiple methods, scales and field sites to (a) examine how biophysical vulnerability to extreme hurricanes affects the tourism sector, (b) explain the changing conditions of social vulnerability linked to hurricane damage in the tourism sector and (c) assess the present and future opportunities and obstacles for adaptation planning. The main findings show that the region is experiencing a phase of unprecedented high intensity hurricanes. It is uncertain, however, whether changes in hurricane activity exceed natural multi-decadal variability. Tourism is one major driver of land use changes which have resulted in some of the world’s fastest increase in coastal urban sprawl. Most tourism infrastructure is located in areas with the greatest exposure to hurricanes. Hurricane Wilma which hit the region in 2005 is the most expensive natural disaster in the history of the Mexican insurance industry. Hotels have showed a high ability to recover operations after hurricanes. There is a high penetration of insurance ownership in hotels and there is substantial mobilization of public and private financial and human resources during hurricane disasters. Hotel responses to hurricanes, however, tend to be reactive and autonomous. One important consequence of hurricanes is that hoteliers in the interest to reduce operational costs, fire those workers with the weakest labour rights. Thus, hotel workers suffer from ‘double exposure’, a situation where hotel workers are confronted with the consequences of climate change while simultaneously suffering the consequences of globalization and neoliberal policies which have reduced the power of unions and weakened access to social security. The Mexican government has created a national climate change strategy and its operational programme which has led to the consolidation of an adaptation organizational structures at the national and state levels. I conclude, however, that adaptation planning may not result in the necessary actions on the ground since local actors are not well integrated yet into such efforts. This study shows the importance of regional adaptation research that takes into account perspectives from both the physical and social sciences. This study highlights the importance of interactions between local actors, the larger socioeconomic and political economy context to inform adaptation planning and policy.

(English) This work deals with dependency theory n conceptions of its two main exponents Andre Gunder Frank and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Metodologically is it based on a basic hypothesis of sociology of knowledge that human thought (both everyday knowledge and abstract theories) is fundamentally determined by its social and historical context. It follows necessity combine a historical and sociological approach. At first, the work concentrates on historical and theoretical conditions of emergence of dependency theory (especially modernization theory, Marxism and structuralism). A core of the work is focused on writings of Frank and Cardoso, their intelectual trajectory, metodology of analysis, concept of dependency and its political implications. Hereupon follows a sketch of political influence of dependency theory in a form of Frank's activity as an advisor of Salvador Allende and particularly of Brasil at a time of Cardoso's presidency and a survey of a vast and wide-ranging critics of dependency theory. Final part of the work is comprised by a sketch of contemporary position of dependency theory, its influence and actual relevance.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar as duas principais categorias presentes na filosofia de Leopoldo Zea: circunstância e mestiçagem, buscando elementos que possam contribuir para o pensamento educacional. O pensamento de Leopoldo Zea, filósofo mexicano do século XX, está na base da Filosofia da Libertação e iniciou suas pesquisas com o objetivo de compreender o homem a partir de sua realidade mais próxima, o México. Entende o homem como pessoa concreta, de carne e osso, inserido em suas circunstâncias, com as quais dialoga de maneira dialética: transforma-as, ao mesmo tempo, que é transformado por elas. As circunstâncias constituem sua situação vital, nas quais manifesta sua concretude e expressa sua liberdade. O homem é concebido como um ente histórico que participa da tripla dimensão temporal (passado-presente-futuro) e constrói a história à medida que enfrenta os problemas apresentados pelas circunstâncias. Sob essa perspectiva, busca a identidade do homem latinoamericano que deve se compreender como mestiço e reconhecer sua condição de dependência sócio-cultural para que possa iniciar um processo de libertação de qualquer situação de opressão. A libertação do homem de seu estado de dependência sócio-cultural só é possível através da compreensão histórica e do conhecimento de si mesmo. Daí decorre a proposta de que educar é formar homens livres, exigindo-se uma educação crítica e popular que dialogue com a realidade concreta. / The aim of this dissertation is to show the two main categories present in the philosophy of Leopoldo Zea: circumstance and miscegenation, seeking evidence that could contribute to the educational thought. Thought of Leopoldo Zea, Mexican philosopher of the twentieth century is the basis of Philosophy of Liberation and began his research with the aim of understand the man from his reality more closer, the Mexico. Does the man can as a concrete person, of flesh and bone, inserted in their circumstances, with which dialogue dialectically: it transforms them at the same time, which is transformed by them. The circumstances are their life situation, in which he demonstrates their concreteness and express their freedom. The man is conceived as a historical entity that participates in the triple temporal dimension (past-presentfuture) and builds the history as it faced the problems presented by the circumstances. From this perspective, search the identity of the Latin American man who must understand how mestizo and recognize his condition dependency socio-cultural so he can begin a process of release of any situation of oppression. The liberation of man from his reliance on sociocultural is only possible through the historical understanding and knowledge of oneself. Hence the proposition that education is to train men free, requiring a critical and popular education to dialogue with the concrete reality