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For five hundred eighty days, between 2018 and 2019, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remained imprisoned in the city of Curitiba, about two hundred miles South of São Paulo. During that period, more than twenty thousand letters were sent to him from all regions of the country—the result of a campaign initiated by the Workers' Party and rapidly disseminated through social media—correspondence now archived at the Lula Institute, in the city of São Paulo, as part of the Lula Presidential Archives. This article surveys the status of private presidential archives in Brazil, probing the nature of "prison letters" and their uses in campaign actions for Lula's release, with special attention to the circulation of documents in digital format on websites and social media. The authors had access to the documentation cited in this piece during the mobilization for the Lula Livre movements. Finally, the article contributes to the study of political correspondence and analyzes the challenges posed to historical research by the digital circulation of documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1730, the Inquisition of Lisbon arrested José Francisco Pereira, a man raised in West Africa and enslaved in Brazil then Portugal, who had learned along his transatlantic journeys the art of making amulets known in the eighteenth century Portuguese-speaking world as bolsas de mandinga. Mixing European esoteric material into objects of Afro-Atlantic agency, bolsa- makers such as José Francisco created objects of trustworthy might that brought empowerment and security of body and mind to a diverse clientele. The bolsas , as well as similar empowered objects created in Atlantic Africa reveal the deep and mutually transformative spiritual and material connections that the slave trade engendered between Europeans and Africans in the early modern period. Common concerns produced similar answers, not least newly defined or redefined notions of witchcraft and fetish and, more broadly, conceptions about the nature of power and its multivalent entanglements with the material world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies whether the mining sector can represent a true engine of growth for selected Latin American countries through the suppliers' entry and upgrading within mining value chains. We start by using international trade data to study where mining value is added and how rents are distributed across countries. Despite their importance in the production and exports of copper ores and concentrate, the participation of the selected Latin American countries in copper value chains is still confined to the upstream segment. Moreover, their share of innovation relevant for the sector remains very limited, although new data on patenting and publications show that the sector is becoming increasingly innovative worldwide. Then, we use new microeconomic evidence from case-studies in Latin America to explore the specific opportunities and obstacles faced by mining suppliers in entering the value chain and upgrading within it, and how the regulatory and innovation systems have influenced this process. We show that barriers related to the contractual practices, lead firms' attitudes, and the hierarchical industrial organization of the sector, coupled with the countries' weaknesses in local innovation and regulatory systems, have been contributing to hamper suppliers' entry into mining value chains and upgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reply by authors to a comment on their study related to petrogenesis of rhyolite in Paraná, Brazil. It notes that a fractional crystallization model for a rhyolite can be easily reconciled with highly eruptive temperature and similar incompatible element ratio. It mentions that upper-crustal derived materials can be distinguished by oxygen isotopes.

The contribution of this paper is to discuss the particularities of financialisation in peripheral economies, emphasising the channels through which financialisation contributes to redefining their trajectory of structural change. This paper has, as a reference, the structural regression of the Brazilian case, which is characterised by the deindustrialisation and trade specialisation marked by export reprimarisation. The aspects covered are the financialisation of non-financial corporations, of the exchange rate and of the determination of the commodity prices, which are associated with the Dutch disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the determinants of rentier income in contemporary financialised capitalist economies by analysing the case of Brazil. It argues that different drivers of rentier income may have comparable potential to channel a substantial share of aggregate income to asset owners. The paper estimates an expanded functional income distribution for Brazil for the period between 2000 and 2019, which distinguishes between rentier income, wages, profits of enterprise and government income. In the last two decades, the share of rentier income in Brazilian GDP has fluctuated around an approximately stable trend even though its composition has changed profoundly. The estimation presented allows for an analysis of the role played by financial expropriation (i.e. interest payments out of wage income) in this expanded functional income distribution, which points to alternative results concerning the recent trajectory of the wage share of income and of the distributive conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a cost-benefit analysis is applied to the optimization of practices involving radiation protection, the alpha value is used to determine the amount of money required to be invested in a practice to minimize radiation doses to acceptable levels. The alpha value is often linked to the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, so the monetary reference value of person-Sievert can often be different in each country. Evaluation of the alpha value in Brazil was performed in 1993 and 2000 making use of the procedure advised by ICRP to produce projections up to 2015 and subsequently in 2004 by using the procedure recommended by the IAEA. This paper, in response to the social and economic situation in Brazil, calculates the alpha value and compares it with the projections of the 1993 and 2000 papers and includes a dollar correction to take account of the differences in the purchasing power from that time. This procedure illustrates the significant gap of value in use and that the actual value should be two to three times higher. By GDP per capita, the authors could calculate the alpha value updated to various countries including the European Union and compare them with the official value currently in use. In conclusion, it is believed that all countries that adopt an alpha value should upgrade it to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazil, many D/deaf persons use the country's official sign language, Libras, to communicate and develop a sociocultural identity. For most Libras users, learning how to read and write in Portuguese, the country's official written language, is a challenge. To address the problem, we present a framework for codesigning accessible technologies for and with D/deaf persons. In this paper, we describe and analyze the case study of an environment to support the teaching–learning process of written Portuguese as a second language. Our main contribution is the documented experiences of codesigning with D/deaf and hearing participants, through individual and collaborative work, which increased confidence and creativity and enhanced empathy through sharing own experiences. Various types of participants were included through the entire framework process, and important values were reinforced, such as ownership and self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether the 1998 Brazilian law that increased the minimum employment age from 14 to 16 lowered child labor and increased school attendance and whether those effects persisted beyond age 16. Using a regression discontinuity design, the results indicate that the ban had a significant impact on urban boys, a cohort that represents half of all paid child labor in Brazil. This cohort had a 35 percent decrease in paid labor, driven mainly by a decrease in informal work, and an 11 percent increase in the share of those only attending school. In addition, there is evidence that these effects persist past the age of enforcement where the affected cohort was less likely to work and more likely to be only attending school beyond age 16. Overall, the results suggest that enforced bans on child labor can have significant immediate and persistent impacts on affected populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving from contemporary ethnography to Brazilian poetry from the turn of the twentieth century, this paper extends recent calls to attend more to relationships in religious studies. Scholars have argued that focusing on intimate relations allows us to stay critical while overcoming the impasses produced by opposed approaches, especially those that either privilege materiality or interiority. This paper explores how a focus on relations inspired by the work of Marilyn Strathern, which acknowledges the broad reach of relations—from the interpersonal to the conceptual, nonhuman, and evil—offers more than just a way to unite approaches. I read relations through cordel poetry from northeast Brazil, including verses found in the rubble of Brazil's most notorious war, Canudos (1897). Engaging critically with studies of popular media that naturalize mediation, materiality, and politics as analytical starting points, I show how focusing on relations can help transform both the terms of our analyses and the politics of our descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent debate on leniency policies is the interplay between the public and the private competition law enforcement. The lack of a well-established set of rules regarding damage claims may be harming the effectiveness of the Brazilian Leniency Program, either by discouraging the wrongdoers from applying for leniency in already formed cartels or by not being threatening enough to deter the cartel formation. The paper objective is to analyze the best policies for leniency applicants regarding the damage liability in Brazil. We conclude that the optimal policy is providing immunity to the leniency applicant, and after that the damage claim lawsuits can be encouraged with no undesirable effects. Extensions confirm the following: the immunity is even more effective when there is risk of betrayal; the immunity is the best policy in the case of ex-post leniency; the immunity is the optimal policy when there is no bankruptcy, otherwise the applicant liability should be the minimum necessary to avoid the bankruptcy; immunity regarding criminal sanctions for individuals is the optimal policy; for international cartels, the optimal policy is a combination of immunity regarding damage claims in all jurisdictions. JEL codes : L13; L41; L44 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians allocate public resources in ways that maximize political gains, and potentially at the cost of lower welfare. In this paper, we quantify these welfare costs in the context of Brazil's federal legislature, which grants its members a budget to fund public projects within their states. Using data from the state of Roraima, we estimate a model of politicians' allocation decisions and find that 26.8% of the public funds allocated by legislators are distorted relative to a social planner's allocation. We then use the model to simulate three potential policy reforms to the electoral system: the adoption of approval voting, imposing a one-term limit, and redistricting. We find that a one-term limit and redistricting are both effective at reducing distortions. The one-term limit policy, however, increases corruption, which makes it a welfare-reducing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature analyzing the spatial distribution of scientific and technological production in Brazil identifies differences in the regional distribution of scientific and technological resources. In this paper, we contribute to this discussion, by analyzing the dynamics of the production of new scientific knowledge in the states that contributed the most to national scientific production in the period 2000–10: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, also known as the ‘scientific quartet’. Our hypothesis is that even with federal policies aimed at the expansion and decentralization of the production of new scientific knowledge, this production is still strongly anchored in the ‘scientific quartet’. We further identify a concentration of scientific production in three major areas of knowledge: agricultural, biological and health sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper estimates the effects of economic downturns on the expansion of Pentecostal Evangelicalism in Brazil. Regions more exposed to economic distress experienced a persistent rise both in Pentecostal affiliation and in the vote share of candidates connected to Pentecostal churches in national legislative elections. Once elected, these politicians carry out an agenda with greater emphasis on issues that are sensitive to fundamental religious principles. We, therefore, find that recessions led to the rise of religious fundamentalism in tandem with the transfer of political capital to elected Pentecostal leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are biopharmaceuticals prescribed in oncology, rheumatology, and for other chronic and autoimmune diseases. Over the last decade, the demand for MAbs grew significantly in developing countries like Brazil, concomitant to the restructuring of the global biopharmaceutical industry, opening windows of opportunities for catching-up economies. This paper aims to analyze the capacity of a public policy, the so-called Production Development Partnership Program (PDPP), to encourage the generation of national capabilities to the local biopharmaceutical industry and technological upgrading in the biopharmaceutical sector in Brazil. It is a case study supported by qualitative data from twenty-three interviews. By focusing on technology transfer processes rather than on more complex strategies of technological learning and upgrading in domestic agents, the impact of PDPP has been marginal. We draw insights from this empirical appraisal to outline some lessons and challenges involved in the implementation of technology-upgrading policies in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Santa Catarina is a small, developed, and relatively safe state in South Brazil. Despite having positive social economic indicators, it still faces multiple challenges regarding forensic practices for personal identification. The objective of this paper is to discuss the recent advances and current challenges in the region, from the perspectives of anthropological and dental postmortem human identification, missing persons, and disaster victim identification (DVI) from 2019 to 2021. The recent creation of a Forensic Anthropology Sector (SAF) in the state's official forensic institution (Polícia Científica—PCI) has significantly improved identification of unidentified remains and optimised resources available for DNA analysis. However, SAF is still quite understaffed, which negatively affects the recovery of skeletal material, its preparation, and the time needed for filing reports. Santa Catarina has passed legislation for missing persons in 2015, 4 years prior to the sanction of federal laws implementing the national policy for the disappeared. Nonetheless, a lack of integration between stakeholders remains a problem that PCI has tried to circumvent with the Conecta Programme, a multidisciplinary and integrated initiative between families of the missing persons, police agencies, and the Public Ministry. The programme aims to collect not only reference DNA samples, but also relevant anthropological and dental data. It also offers facial progression services in cases of disappearances that occurred many years ago. Despite a history of disasters in the state, PCI still needs to implement international DVI standards at an institutional level. Recent training on Phase 1 DVI procedures, integrated with other responding institutions, indicates better preparation for future disasters. There are many challenges ahead for Santa Catarina's forensic institution and professionals that have yet to be addressed, but the overall situation on routine personal identification, missing persons initiatives, and DVI has improved over the last 2 years. Over the last 2 years, the Santa Catarina state in South Brazil has experienced significant improvements in personal identification procedures, missing persons policies, and DVI capacitation. The creation of the Forensic Anthropology Sector (SAF) in October 2020 (which also houses dental postmortem examinations) in the state's official forensic institution (PCI) has established an alternative for quick, low-cost personal identification in cases of unidentified remains, in addition to optimising resources available to DNA analysis. PCI's Programme Conecta has been locally promoting improved integration of missing persons' stakeholders with the newly instituted national policy for the disappeared in Brazil. Despite having a history of disasters and a recent first integrated training on Phase 1 DVI procedures, Santa Catarina state still needs to implement DVI procedures at an institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Labour Force Survey publishes monthly national indicators based on 3‐month rolling data. This paper presents state‐space models to produce state‐level single‐month unemployment rate estimates. The models account for sampling errors and the increased dynamics in the labour force series due to the unforeseen SARS‐COV‐2 pandemic. Bivariate time series models with claimant count auxiliary data and multivariate models combining survey data of several states are investigated. The results demonstrated the benefits of the univariate state‐space approach to produce unemployment official statistics for Brazil. Additionally, the regional multivariate model shows promising results but requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the challenges related to reducing socio-economic and health inequalities, building specific health system approaches for Indigenous peoples is critical. In Brazil, following constitutional reforms that led to the universalization of health care in the late 1980s, a specific health subsystem was created for Indigenous peoples in 1999. In this paper, we use a historical perspective to contextualize the creation of the Indigenous Health Subsystem in Brazil. This study is based on data from interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous subjects and document-based analysis. In the 1980s, during the post-dictatorship period in Brazil, the emergence of Indigenous movements in the country and the support for pro-Indigenous organizations helped establish a political agenda that emphasized a broad range of issues, including the right to a specific health policy. Indigenous leaders established alliances with participants of the Brazilian health reform movement, which resulted in broad debates about the specificities of Indigenous peoples, and the need for a specific health subsystem. We highlight three main points in our analysis: (1) the centrality of a holistic health perspective; (2) the emphasis on social participation; (3) the need for the reorganization of health care. These points proved to be convergent with the development of the Brazilian health reform and were expressed in documents of the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) and the Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI). They were also consolidated in the final report of the First National Conference on the Protection of Indigenous Health in 1986, becoming the cornerstone of the national Indigenous health policy declared in 1999. Our analysis reveals that Indigenous people and pro-Indigenous groups were key players in the development of the Indigenous Health Subsystem in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on foods advertised in supermarket circulars revealed that advertisement for foods at promotional prices influence food choices and shopping behaviour, but no paper reporting the Latin American context was identified. Furthermore, most studies only assessed the products advertised on the front pages and not in the entire circulars. This paper quantifies and categorizes, according to level of processing, the foods advertised in circulars from four Brazilian supermarket chains in order to assess their compatibility with the national dietary guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. Printed and online circulars were collected between June and July 2016. Foods items advertised were identified and classified into one of four categories using the NOVA classification as unprocessed or minimally processed, processed culinary ingredient, processed or ultra-processed. Sixteen documents were analysed, and 1786 food items identified, where 23% were categorized as unprocessed or minimally processed, and 63% as ultra-processed foods. While the mean proportion of ultra-processed and unprocessed or minimally processed foods advertised on circular covers was similar (p  =   0.49), the mean proportion of ultra-processed foods advertised in the entire circular was significantly higher than unprocessed or minimally processed foods (p  <   0.001). Brazilian supermarket circulars are stimulating the acquisition of ultra-processed foods, which does not encourage food choices to be in line with what is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how criminalized teenage girls who have committed homicide reconcile violent practices with self-conceptions of femininity in their personal narratives. Data come from 13 biographical interviews with adolescent girls incarcerated in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Drawing from Bourdieusian theory and narrative criminology, I examine how gendered social structures shape how girls produce intelligible and morally coherent accounts of their crimes. I found that girls share a narrative habitus that allows for three different frames to make sense of violence: violence as a gendered resource, as a gendered failure and as a gendered dilemma. This paper contributes to a growing feminist narrative criminology that investigates how personal narratives of violence are embedded in gendered social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is an essential stage of life for developing actions related to health promotion, especially in health education (HE). Public policies advocate for the expansion of participative technologies in this field, as well as different theoretical and methodological perspectives subsidize these. Among these, Paulo Freire's reference guide is practiced in Brazil and around the world. From the Freirean perspective, Thematic Investigation (TI) defines the content of the educational practice. This paper describes a methodological proposal of the Freirean Thematic Investigation for developing health educational practices and promoting health among adolescents. Initially, we describe the conception of the Freirean rationale that sets the grounds for the proposed method: human being, dialogical education and reality and their connections with HE with adolescents in a critical perspective. The methodological proposal is systematized into five stages: (i) Approaching adolescents and the field of educational practices; (ii) Reading reality; (iii) Seminars for analyzing reality reading and preparing the codifications; (iv) Critical analysis of reality; and (v) Planning educational practices. The TI confronts the adult-centric perspectives that characterize adolescent health care. Moreover, as a praxis, TI is a process of reflection and action with adolescents, allowing for not only the discovery of the themes that build educational practices but also for solutions (untested feasibility) for the individual and collective problems experienced by adolescents concerning their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents an externality from the agricultural use of the most widely applied herbicide in the world—glyphosate—on birth outcomes of surrounding populations. We focus on the subclinical effects of water contamination in areas distant from the original locations of application. Our identification relies on: (i) the regulation allowing the introduction of genetically modified seeds in Brazil; (ii) the potential gain in municipality-level productivity from adoption of genetically modified soybean seeds and the strong complementary between these seeds and glyphosate; and (iii) the direction of water flow within water basins. We document a significant deterioration in birth outcomes for populations downstream from locations that are likely to have increased relatively more the use of glyphosate. According to our preferred specification, the average increase in glyphosate use in the sample during 2000–10 period led to an increase of 5% of the average in infant mortality rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the causal impact of the change in law of December 1998 that increased the minimum legal age of entry into the labor force from 14 to 16. We used a difference-in-differences (DD) approach to estimate the impact of this law change on labor force participation rates as a whole, as well as for the formal and informal sectors separately. Our results showed that the ban reduced participation rates for boys by 4 percentage points and that this effect was mostly driven by the informal sector. We found no effect on girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging in collaborative networks can be an important facilitator of innovation for public sector science and technology (S&T) organizations. It is also an important component of S&T policies that require indicators that can assess the networks through which these organizations innovate. In this study, we apply network indicators to two S&T organizations that are part of the Brazilian public health sector. The indicators cover two complementary perspectives: one that considers the organizations' scientific networks and the other that considers their technological networks. The indicators allowed the analysis of the networks in which the organizations were engaged and the understanding of important aspects of their collaboration patterns that can support strategic decisions. The method employed in this paper proved to be a valuable diagnostic tool and a useful mechanism for evaluating the performance and supporting the development of S&T institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical investigation on countries' long-term growth usually relies on growth accounting methods, which are based on a supply-led approach, where factors accumulation are the main countries' growth constraints. This approach, however, ignores the importance of effective demand in explaining the long-term dynamics. Conversely, Keynesians stress the centrality of effective demand to explain why some countries present high growth rates for prolonged periods and others do not. They account for different views on the determinants of demand growth, such as exports dynamics, income distribution and public investment. The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it extends the SDA method – a method that allows us to identify sources of changes in input–output matrices – to account for endogenous consumption and import-substitution impacts, and, secondly, it applies this method to understand the Brazilian slowdown in the 2010s. Based on a Miyazawa–Leontief framework, it is possible to identify the importance of each of the demand factors in explaining countries' growth, considering both the autonomous sources of demand and their potential to spread through the economy via their multiplier effects. The application of this extension to investigate the Brazilian slowdown in the 2010s shows the importance of natural resource exports, public investment and absorption of domestic demand in different sub-periods. Based on these findings, we discuss the possibility of Brazil to restore its growth potential through specific demand stimulus, such as infrastructure investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is a crucial behavior to reduce the global burden of disease. The objective of this study was to understand the relationship between LTPA, employment status, and physical workload (PWL). This study analyzed data from 38 449 individuals interviewed in the National Health Survey (NHS), representative of the Brazilian population. This paper examines LTPA in the last 30 days and whether participants achieved the recommended physical activity (≥150 min week−1) according to employment status and PWL utilizing Poisson regression models. One third and ¼ of the participants reported LTPA in the last 30 days and achieved the recommended LTPA, respectively. Intense PWL was reported by 28.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 27.8–29.6%] of participants; 32.2% among men (95% CI: 31.0–33.5%); 24.3% among women (95% CI: 23.1–25.5%). Precarious employment was associated with a lower prevalence of physical activity among men [adjusted prevalence ratio (PRa) = 0.92; P = 0.016], but not among women (PRa = 1.11; P = 0.039). Employment policies and protection of the work environment are relevant aspects to stimulate physical activity, and may vary by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1807 onwards, bilateral slave-trade treaties stipulated how naval squadrons would rescue slaves from slave ships, and how states should arrange the settlement and apprenticeship of these slaves, to transform them into 'liberated Africans'. Comparing interactions between the state and liberated Africans at sea along the South African and Brazilian coasts, and in the port towns of Cape Town and Salvador, reveals how the legal status of liberated Africans changed over time. Current scholarship has framed liberated Africans in terms of whether they were attributed rights or suffered re-enslavement, and thus focused on their solidarity through claiming rights, 'ethnic survivals' or creolization. Instead, this paper argues anti-slave-trade legislation ascribed to liberated Africans a set of unguaranteed entitlements – promises regarding status and treatment without obligating states to uphold that status or treatment. By focusing on the precise aspects of legislation that operated at each point in the process of anti-slave-trade activity – rescuing slaves from slave ships, transportation to a port, processing through a court, and apprenticeship – this paper unearths how the law came into force in the encounter between state officials and liberated Africans, as part of the complex transition from slavery to free labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the 17th Workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Computation (WoLLIC 2010) held in Brasília, Brazil from July 6-9, 2010. One of the sponsors of the workshop was the Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL). Among the participants of the program were Michael Norrish, Bart Selman and Scott Weinstein.

This paper evaluates interactions between firms and universities in Minas Gerais, one of the Brazilian states. The heterogeneity in Minas Gerais replicates the heterogeneity that exists in Brazil as a whole. This paper adapts the pioneering Yale and Carnegie Mellon surveys (USA) to an immature national system of innovation. We found that, in immature systems of innovation, beyond their traditional functions, universities perform a dual role in their interactions with firms: they substitute for and complement the research and development done by the firms themselves. In addition, contrary to conventional wisdom, even in the so-called low-tech and medium-tech sectors, universities matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present considerations about the use of music as a critical and radical pedagogy in an International Relations class in the Global South. How can music help students understand the processes of marginalization, resistance, and struggle? Can it be understood as a tool to be used in the classroom to transcend traditional and marginalizing pedagogies? The contribution of our proposal derives from the possibility of a symbiosis between the teaching of critical, decolonial, and postcolonial perspectives and the language used to communicate these concepts and ideas to a young audience with different backgrounds. In this sense, we bring perceptions of the engagement with music as a pedagogical tool in an undergraduate course entitled " Decolonizing International Relations: epistemic violence and emancipation in Global South." By playing songs, not only the learning process became deeper and more meaningful to students, but it also opened margins to a dialogical interaction. We share our experience hoping to contribute to a meaningful debate among scholars, inspiring teachers to engage with decolonial/critical pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean grabbing occurs when traditional users, such as small-scale fishers, are pushed aside by new development activities. This grabbing must be prevented to avoid sea uses that maintain or increase social inequity. In this paper, we show that in tropical Atlantic countries, such as Brazil and Senegal, examples of ocean grabbing already occur. In this context, we analyse if Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) may be an opportunity to limit ocean grabbing or, to the contrary, poses a risk to increase it. MSP calls for an ecosystem approach that requires integrated coastal and marine management and involves stakeholders in developing a shared vision of the future, where society and environment are preserved. However, recent studies have shown that MSP is a process to be used cautiously to ensure equitable decisions. Meanwhile, the concept is spreading worldwide including in tropical Atlantic countries. We highlight that context matters and the specificities of the tropical Atlantic must be taken into account when deploying MSP processes. In the tropical Atlantic context, there is increased imbalances of stakeholder power, traps from decision support tools, and a need for adaptive management. These specific features must be addressed when deploying MSP in a way to avoid ocean grabbing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether Brazil’s financial system has a differentiated strategy in space. The analysis is based on the theory of liquidity preference, regionally differentiated. In addition, it assumes that the banking strategies are associated with centrality, as defined in Christäller’s central place theory. The analysis used indicators of 2,924 cities grouped according to the type of financial services they provide. In addition, the paper presents an estimation using a dynamic panel data econometric model for the period 2000–08, in order to test if the banking strategies are related to the centrality of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Few ecologists and evolutionary biologists are familiar with the ecology and evolution of the campo rupestre , an ancient azonal peinobiome characterized by a fire-prone, nutrient-impoverished, montane vegetation mosaic, home to thousands of endemics and climate refugia. With the goal of providing a synthetic view of the campo rupestre , we provide a brief historical account of the biological research, revisit its geographical distribution and identify knowledge gaps. The azonal campo rupestre is distributed as isolated and naturally fragmented sky islands, mostly in Central and Eastern Brazil and in the Guyana Shield, with significant areas across the Amazon, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga and Pantanal. Our proposal to elevate campo rupestre to the level of biome is expected to improve communication among scientists and consolidate the use of the term campo rupestre in the ecological and evolutionary literature, as is the case for analogous ecosystems, such as kwongan , fynbos , páramos and tepuis. Based on the identification of knowledge gaps, we propose a research programme comprising ten key topics that can foster our understanding of the ecology and evolution of campo rupestre and, potentially, support conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As international relations has started to grapple with its geo-cultural parochialism, the focus has been on its "Western-centrism" and on how "non-Western" international relations might be different. This article argues that attempts to deprovincialize "Western" (i.e. Euro-American) international thought do not always revolve around "non-Westernness," a negation with often cultural-civilizational connotations, but also deploy a North/South worlding that is more bound up with imperial-colonial experience and a "peripheral" concern with economic insertion into the core. Based on interviews with scholars, diplomats, and foreign policy intellectuals in Brazil, the paper explores the different ways "the South" is deployed—as (post)colonial subjectivity, as problematique, as relation, as outside, and as political move—to provide an alternative intervention into the debate on "Global IR." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effects of legislation in Brazil that banned the right to carry guns and provided for a voter referendum regarding whether to ban the sale of all firearms. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that gun-related homicides decreased by 12.2% and gunshot wounds that were 'intended to kill' by 16.3%, with the reduction of the former being especially pronounced in high-crime areas and among black males. There is no evidence of substitution effect as non-gun-related homicides were not affected. Two pieces of evidence suggest that the mechanism explaining this result is a decrease in the number of people carrying guns in response to the legislation: first, the number of cases of illegal gun carrying decreased and second, only gun-related homicides taking place outside the residence were reduced. Analysis of the subsequent voter referendum, which was defeated by a wide margin, shows stronger support for the complete firearms ban in the areas more affected by gun violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is renowned worldwide for its remarkable reforms in pharmaceutical regulation, as the Generic Drug Act that have enhanced access to essential medicines while lowering drug costs. In contrast with analysis of pharmaceutical regulation that invokes international guidelines as inspiration for countries to reformulate their norms or argues that regulations emerge in order to serve the interests of powerful interest groups; this paper focuses on actors' preferences and demands to explain how Brazil promoted this large-scale regulatory policy. Paradoxically, the generic drug regulation introduced in the name of patients and opposed by local firms given the high cost to adapt its plants and processes, is today opposed by important patient advocacy groups but solidified by the strong support of local and multinational pharmaceutical firms. The paper concludes that the state still matters for pharmaceutical regulation and that pharmaceutical regulation is only partially influenced by non-state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents new evidence on the effects of minimum age regulations obtained from a natural experiment. In 1998, a constitutional reform in Brazil changed the minimum working age from 14 to 16. The reform was the legislative counterpart of a broad set of measures taken by a government strongly committed to eliminating child labor. This article investigates the role of the minimum working age in this context. The setting allows for improvements upon past approaches based on comparing employment rates of children at different ages. A discontinuity in treatment is exploited, namely the fact that only children who turned 14 after the enactment date (mid-December 1998) are banned from work. According to regression discontinuity and difference-in-discontinuity designs, the null hypothesis of no overall effect of the ban cannot be rejected. Throughout the methods and specifications, an employment effect in a confidence interval of |$[-0.06, \, 0.03]$| (in percentage points) is found. A detailed heterogeneity analysis is performed and provides suggestive evidence of diminishing child labor trends in regions characterized by higher labor inspection intensity, which is interpreted as a trace of there being a law. However, contrary to what has been claimed in recent studies, the law seems not to have produced sizeable effects overall, at least in the short run. Power calculations and extensive sensitivity checks support these conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are only a small number of reported intervention studies to improve health literacy among older populations. This paper reports on a study designed to investigate the feasibility and potential impact on health literacy and health practices of embedding an intervention programme to improve health literacy with older people through established primary health care units (PHCUs) in a disadvantaged urban community in Brazil. This investigation utilized a quasi-experimental design, with 42 participants recruited for the intervention group and comparison group. The Alfa-Health Program was offered by a nurse in a PHCU as part of the public universal health system over a period of 5 months, and was compared for its impact on a range of health literacy and self-reported health outcomes with routine health care available for older people. The intervention achieved relatively high levels of participation, and positive feedback from participants. Some improvements in vaccination rates, health literacy and reported health behaviours related to food choices and physical activity were observed. The intervention made good use of existing facilities; the content and methods were well received by the participants. However, there were some difficulties in recruitment and in retention of participants. The study has demonstrated the practical feasibility of delivering a comprehensive health education programme designed to improve health literacy in a PHCU in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of literature has emphasized the elite capture of democratic institutions as the explanation for the low levels of spending on public education in many low-income democracies. This paper provides an alternative to that longstanding hypothesis. Motivated by new cross-country facts and evidence from Brazilian municipalities, we hypothesize that many democratic developing countries might invest less in public education spending because poor decisive voters prefer the government to allocate resources elsewhere. One possible explanation is that low-income voters could instead favor redistributive programs that increase their incomes in the short run, such as cash transfers. To test for this possibility, we design and implement an experimental survey and an incentivized choice experiment in Brazil. The findings from both interventions support our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed several challenges to the Brazilian health system, among them the general context of ambiguity and uncertainty and the conflicting positioning of the government in power concerning scientific advice resources. Different aspects can be analyzed to explore the dynamics of strengthening and resilience of the system. This paper focuses on its analytical capacity, examining how it was developed and recently challenged. The investigation employed survey data, analysis of official documents and newspaper articles, and in-depth interviews with specialists and federal bureaucrats. The research shows the magnitude and relevance of that dimension of policy capacity in the federal health system and how it was crucial to the resilience of the system in defining the directions of the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil, although scientific-based recommendations were rejected by political leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the existence of a link between financial cycles and fiscal cycles, and discusses possible policy implications for developing and emerging economies (DEEs). It empirically analyses the impact of financial cycle shocks on the short-term dynamics of Brazil's fiscal policy by estimating a vector autoregressive (VAR) model for the period 1997–2018. The results indicate that financial cycles have pro-cyclical effects on the fiscal policy. This suggests that a fiscal policy should consider not only the cyclical behaviour of the output, but also its role in minimising financial factors. By explicitly linking Brazil's fiscal performance with Brazil's higher vulnerability to the financial cycle, this article adds to the literature that strives to understand the policy implications of the financialisation process in DEEs. It also contributes to the more general empirical literature on DEEs' fiscal dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to identify the macro-environmental dimensions through which Brazilian scientists and government officials have framed issues surrounding liquid biofuels over a period of time. This study analyzes scientific papers published by researchers affiliated with Brazilian institutions and official documents of the Brazilian government related to liquid biofuels. Documents published during a ten-year period (1997-2006) were collected from electronic sources. Text-mining procedures were applied through a framework of macro-environmental dimensions and their corresponding d-words in order to extract high-quality content. Results indicate that the macro-environment developed by Brazilian scientists differs from the one created by the government. Variations in describing macro-environmental dimensions existed for both the Brazilian government and for scientists during the period of analysis. Similarity tests reveal significant differences between the scientific documents and the government documents, indicating that Brazilian public policy regarding liquid biofuels is dissociated from the scientific findings of Brazilian researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the results of four country studies (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico) on the relative effectiveness of channels of interactions between public research organisations (PROs) and industry in driving specific types of benefits for researchers and firms. All studies used micro-datasets developed by a joint project using common questionnaires. Channels of interactions were classified into four groups (traditional, services, bi-directional and commercial) while benefits were classified into two groups for firms (short-term production and long-term innovation) and for researchers (economic and intellectual). It is found that the bi-directional (knowledge flows in both directions) and the services (knowledge flows mainly from PROs to firms) channels drive intellectual benefits for researchers. Firms tend to value the traditional channel (i.e. graduates, publications, conferences) more than any other channel. However, it is the bi-directional channel that drives the best benefits, especially those related to contributions to innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on recent research conducted in Brazil on young people's understanding and practices of public action. The research examines some of the initiatives in which young people today participate: community organizations, cultural groups and social movements, and asks what this engagement means in their day-to-day lives. The paper also examines the historical processes that have come to shape this present field of public action and identifies the emergence of new forms of political engagement through cultural forms which provide a key entry point for young people's participation. The paper provides an analysis of the ways in which young people often come to be engaged in forms of public action through cultural forms, such as music, dance, cinema, theatre, photography, which are used by a number of groups as tools for critical reflection, or conscientização, and as a means for personal and community development. The paper explores these processes and goes on to identify a genealogy in the non-governmental sector of an alternative pedagogy that was much influenced by Paulo Freire but which gains new forms through the use of various elements of contemporary popular culture and different types of information and communication technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we study the link between television and divorce in Brazil. We exploit variation in the timing of availability of the signal of Rede Globo--the network that had a virtual monopoly on telenovelas in the country--across municipal areas. Using three rounds of census data (1970, 1980, and 1991) and controlling for area fixed effects and for time-varying characteristics, we find that the share of women who are separated or divorced increases significantly after the Globo signal becomes available. The effect is robust to controlling for potential determinants of Globo's entry strategy and is stronger for relatively smaller areas, where the signal reaches a higher fraction of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1970s in South Asia and Latin America, there was a surge of experiences of offering small loans through innovative practices. Following these successes, the dissemination of microfinance institutions is seen all over the globe. Brazil stands out for being a pioneer in this field, having developed a microcredit program even before Grameen Bank, from Bangladesh, the main institution responsible for the spread of microfinance worldwide. This paper aims to understand the social practices, power relations and institutional infrastructure surrounding microfinance, taking the Global South as a starting point and focusing on Brazil. In so doing, it looks at the policy mobility of microfinance, shining light on how policy diffusion and transfer are entangled in the practices and processes of different institutions, actors and networks. It identifies two approaches within the formulation and practice of microfinance historically. Four illustrative cases are discussed in order to present the mobility of microfinance policies in Brazil drawing from the international scenario. The paper's point of departure for the analysis of the mobility of microfinance is that policy trajectories are fraught with ambivalence and contradiction. They are part of a complex universe permeated by hybridism over time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface wave analysis provides important information on crustal structure, but it is challenging to obtain accurate/robust models in aseismic regions because of the lack of local earthquake records. In this paper, interstation empirical Green's functions retrieved by ambient seismic noise in 75 broad-band stations from 2016 January to 2018 September were used to study crustal structure in west-central Brazil. Fast marching method was applied to calculate the 2-D surface wave tomographic maps, and local dispersion curves were estimated in the period range of 4–80 s for each geographic cell. 1-D damped least squares inversion method was then conducted to obtained shear wave velocity model. Finally, the average (⁠|$\tilde{\rm V}$| S) of the calculated VSV and VSH quasi 3-D models were used to characterize the crustal structure. Besides the checkerboard test resolution, a stochastic test with the effect of errors in the dispersion curves and choice of inversion parameters were carried out to better evaluate model uncertainties. Our results show a clear relation between the sedimentary thickness and geological units with the shorter period tomographic maps. Agreement has also been observed in longer periods such as the clear N–S anomaly along the Asuncion and Rio Grande Arches representing the boundary between the Chaco-Paraná and the Paraná basins. A 3-D composite velocity model shows a crustal structure consisting of three main layers. Some differences in lower crustal properties were found between the Paraná and Chaco-Paraná basins, consistent with a recently postulated, gravity-derived Western Paraná suture zone. However, no high velocities along the SW–NE axis of the Paraná basin were found to confirm proposed underplating. At the eastern edge of the Pantanal basin, the thin crust seems to be associated with a very thin (or lack of) lower crustal layer, consistent with a recently proposed crustal delamination hypothesis for the formation of the Pantanal basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on participatory democracy and the literature on associational democracy by exploring the impact that institutional reforms have on local-level configurations of civil society. In the 1980s a wide range of participatory experiments were initiated in Brazil, most notably Participatory Budgeting in municipal governance. Municipios that adopted PB in principle devolve much or all of the decision making on new investments to decentralized participatory forums. In this paper we consider the results of an eight-city matched-pair analysis conducted in 2004. in which we selected municipios that adopted PB in 1997-2000, and matched them with a similar municipio that did not in the same period, drawing from the full sample of municipios over 20,000 inhabitants. Building on relational theories of civil society, we show that PB has clear but limited effects on civil society. It moves civil society practices from clientelism to associationalism, but does not contribute to the capacity of civil society to self-organize, at least in the time-frame considered. We also show that this democratizing effect on civil society practices and networks is conditioned by pre-existing state-civil society relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents legal contributions to the technical analysis of the decommissioning stages of the oil industry. We seek to contribute to decision making based on multicriteria analysis about the options for uninstalling specific equipment in the production chain: subsea equipment. The objective is to demonstrate that there is legal predictability supported by the technical aspect for the options that are possible in each case. The methodology used was the literary revision combined with a national and international legislative analysis that allowed the presentation of the final conclusion. The comparison between the international norms, as well as the Brazilian legislation, in particular, the national solid waste policy demonstrated the legality of the application of a multicriteria analysis to base the decisions by the companies, as well as the inspection agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Brazilian native bee, Xylocopa spp. Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae), pollination on a scale relevant to individual smallholder farmers that produce yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims). The study areas are located in the vicinity of Pedro de Toledo and Itariri (Sao Paulo State—Brazil), in the Atlantic Forest region. The local economy is based on family farms, small stores, and ecotourism. The value was obtained using the ecological economics Avoided Cost Method, also known as replacement cost. Farms from this region informally hire temporary day laborers to supplement natural pollination with manual pollination of passion fruit flowers, so the cost of contracting temporary laborers was used to estimate the economic value of bee pollination. The value of pollination services was estimated at US$ 2,583.00 per hectare over 2 yr of P. edulis farming. Our estimates based on passion fruit farmer surveys and ecological valuation over 2 yr suggest that manual pollination accounts for 44–48% of production costs and results in a loss of ~58% of profits when wild bee pollination services are not available and manual pollination is required. We suggest that smallholder farmers follow the suggestions of previous studies and conserve adequate forest habitat for bee nesting and foraging, plan pesticide use around flowering and pollination, and supplement bee populations to maximize the benefit of the pollination ecosystem service and profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]