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This paper explores the relationship between access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and family arrangements in the distribution of work in four Latin American countries. We find that households in which all children aged 0 to 5 receive ECEC services exhibit smaller gender gaps in unpaid work, mainly due to a decrease in the amount of time women devote to care work. Women in these households devote more time to paid work, such that the gender gap in total work does not differ between households based on use of ECEC services. However, use of ECEC services for children aged 0 to 5 is associated with reduced hours of unpaid work among women and an increase in women's hours of paid work. These findings confirm the importance of increasing access to early childhood care and education services to reduce gender gaps in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural race-based inequalities in Mexico cannot be denied. Anthropologists and social scientists have thoroughly documented racism at both personal and systemic levels. Following I.M. Young's framework, this paper identifies two possible pathways for the anti-racist movement in Mexico: the liability and the social connection models. The former uses guilt to assign responsibility —it requires an agent to be voluntarily and causally connected to injustice; the latter does not isolate perpetrators but assigns responsibility to all agents who contribute (voluntarily or not) by their actions to the structural processes that produce injustice. After examining the trajectory of the Mexican anti-racist movement, this paper demonstrates that activists are relying too heavily on the liability model. Furthermore, drawing from ethnographic material from Brazil and the United States, the paper suggests that this model is not only unnecessarily confrontational and ineffectual, but potentially counterproductive for the anti-racist movement, as it is prone to provoke a defensive response. In turn, this paper suggests focusing on the structural nature of racism in Mexico and developing ways to communicate this effectively, in order to foster the positive prospects of successful anti-racist activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration. Aim: (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to determine inclusion of palliative care in public policy documents on healthcare for older people in 13 rapidly ageing countries. Design: Directed documentary analysis of public policy documents (legislation, policies/strategies, guidelines, white papers) on healthcare for older people. Using existing literature, we developed a reference framework and data extraction form assessing 10 criteria of palliative care inclusion. Country experts identified documents and extracted data. Setting: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain. Results: Of 139 identified documents, 50 met inclusion criteria. The most frequently addressed palliative care elements were coordination and continuity of care (12 countries), communication and care planning, care for family, and ethical and legal aspects (11 countries). Documents in 10 countries explicitly mentioned palliative care, nine addressed symptom management, eight mentioned end-of-life care, and five referred to existing palliative care strategies (out of nine that had them). Conclusions: Health care policies for older people need revising to include reference to end-of-life care and dying and ensure linkage to existing national or regional palliative care strategies. The strong policy focus on care coordination and continuity in policies for older people is an opportunity window for palliative care advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from an ethnography with mixed-status families residing in Mexico, we examine what we term transborder literacies of (in)visibility, or diasporic people's innovative interactions around texts that prepare them to move across incompatible mononational institutions divided by borders. Through close attention to the literacy practices families engaged in as they applied for their children's U.S. passports from Mexico, we demonstrate how these literacies were not just about expanding authentic ways of reading and writing to include both U.S. and Mexican ways, but instead required unique transborder literacies across mutually unintelligible, racializing mononational systems so that children could (re)access their rights on both sides of the border. We argue that recognizing families' complex transborder literacy practices of (in)visibility could offer a novel anti-oppressive lens to transform how educators make sense of the complexity of immigrant families' literacies, movements, and educational supports across borders and national schooling systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the written reflections of 30 Canadian undergraduate students who participated in an international field course focusing on migration and human rights in Mexico. It endeavors to understand how the students reconciled their thoughts and feelings about trauma and oppression in an intercultural setting. Borrowing Foucault's 'ethic of discomfort', which emphasizes the proactive and transformative potential of discomfort in education, the paper extends existing scholarship in teaching and learning around study abroad and social justice by focusing on ethically complex situations in the field. The findings reveal that while preparation for unprecedented and unforeseeable scenarios during an international field course was challenging for faculty, exposing students to the realities of migration ultimately facilitated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to identify the risk factors for emotional intimate partner violence (IPV) against women and girls with children in Mexico from an ecological perspective. To that end, we generate a dataset with 35,004 observations and 42 covariates, to which we apply an additive probit model estimated with a boosting algorithm to overcome high-dimensionality and simultaneously perform variable selection and model choice. The dataset integrates 10 information sources, allowing us to properly characterize the four levels of the ecological approach, which is the first contribution of this paper. In addition, there are three key contributions. First, we identify a number of factors significantly linked to emotional IPV against women with children: age, age at sexual initiation, age at marriage (or cohabitation), autonomy regarding professional issues, social support networks, division of housework, the community's Gini index, women's economic participation in the municipality, and the prevalence of crime against males in the region. Second, we discuss some risk factors whose effects have not been examined or have been underexplored for Mexico; these include women's decision-making autonomy, social support networks, distribution of housework, the community's economic inequality, and criminality. Third, we identify specific risk subgroups that are generally overlooked: women who had their first sexual intercourse during childhood and women who got married (or moved in together with a partner) late in life. The main results suggest that strategies aiming to promote women's social and economic empowerment and reduce criminality should also incorporate a gender component regarding emotional violence against women with children in the context of intimate relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which Mexican immigrants experience, narrate, and describe stress and the extent to which it impacts their efforts at engaging in physical activity using a biocitizenship framework. Data were derived from a mixed-method study among Mexicans living in New York City recruited from a large Catholic church. The qualitative sample of 25 participated in quantitative and qualitative components of the study and as such we include some of these quantitative indicators as descriptors. Our main qualitative findings reveal that study participants experience stress and time constraint as factors that contribute to the waning of their physical and mental well-being. As such, time constraints for many of our participants were among the factors that contributed to high perceived levels of stress. They attributed this to their difficulty maintaining a physically active lifestyle due to factors like the fast-paced lifestyle in New York, working long hours, and not having enough time to exercise, though some important differences in narratives were noted across gender. Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving the health of immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in New York City specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scarce evidence exists on barriers to physical activity in Mexican women. Despite evidence from other countries, no research has investigated the influence of the breast on PA in this population. Objective: To determine the association between the breast and physical activity in Mexican women. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Methods: Volunteers were 279 Mexican women from Veracruz, Durango, and Baja California states, who completed a paper survey of their demographics, brassiere characteristics, breast pain, and frequency and amounts of weekly physical activity. Results: The first barrier to physical activity was time constraints, followed by breast-related issues. Breast pain was reported by 47.1% of women, and the breast as a barrier to physical activity participation was reported by 30.6%. Responses, such as "I am embarrassed by excessive breast movement" and "My breasts are too big" were the most frequently reported breast-related barriers to physical activity. Breast pain was associated with the menstrual cycle and exercise. Breast health knowledge and pain intensity were unrelated to moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity. The 36.4% and 6.7% of women did not meet weekly moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity guidelines, respectively. Weekly moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity was similar between women reporting breast pain and those who did not. Conclusions: Because the breast was the second most significant barrier to physical activity, it is imperative to increase breast health knowledge in Mexican women to reduce impediments to physical activity. Plain Language Summary: Perception of Mexican women regarding their breasts as a barrier to physical activity Physical activity provides numerous health benefits, sometimes associated with reversing or delaying several diseases. However, barriers to increasing physical activity in women remain, as the breast is an anatomical aspect that is unique to women. Breast pain has been reported in more than 50% of women who perform physical exercise. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the associations between breast characteristics and barriers to physical activity in Mexican women. Two hundred and seventy-nine women from three Mexican states voluntarily participated in the study. They answered survey questions on the history of bra use, barriers to physical activity, and essential demographic characteristics. The main findings of this study were that issues related to the breasts were reported as the second barrier to physical activity participation. In addition, time constraints were reported as the main reason impeding physical activity participation. Public health initiatives should support attempts to increase breast satisfaction among women of all breast sizes to stimulate engagement in physical activity throughout their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Sarah Mazelis Paper of the Year Award, which recognizes authors whose articles in the journal "Health Promotion Practice" made contributions to the fields of health education and health promotion and reports that in 2014 the award was given for the article "Integrating Health Literacy and ESL: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Hispanic Immigrants" by Francisco Soto Mas, Erika Mein, Brenda Fuentes, Barry Thatcher, and Héctor Balcázar.

This paper aims to discover 'How long can/should a survey be?' by asking the question to respondents themselves in a web survey implemented by the Netquest fieldwork company in Mexico in 2016. It is a question that is frequently asked, even if research has already been carried out on the impact of survey length on non-response or data quality. The study conducted for this paper concluded that the ideal survey length is a median of 10 minutes and that the maximum survey length is 20 minutes. The reported lengths were significantly linked to the fact that respondents liked answering the survey and that they trusted that their data are treated in an anonymous way, but were not found to be linked to the sociodemographic variables tested, except age in the case of maximum length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Protocol of Amendment to the Agreement between the United States of America, Canada and the United Mexican States erased many of the TRIPS-plus provisions inserted earlier into the Canada- United States of America-Mexico Agreement (hereafter, CUSMA) signed on 30 November 2018. While the erasure of the provisions shows the contributions made to promote access to medicines, the Agreement still retains TRIPS-plus provisions, including the provisions on patent term extensions. Thus seen, irrespective of the changes introduced by the Protocol of Amendment, patent term extensions may have a negative implication on access to cost-cutting medicines (biosimilars and generics). Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on patent term extensions, as contained in the CUSMA's Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) chapter. The paper investigates if & how the patent term extension has the potential to impede access to affordable medicines (biologics and chemically synthesized medicines). In so doing, the paper provides possible responses to the question, do the provisions on patent term extensions hinder the timely access to affordable medicines? As such, the first part of the paper succinctly looks at CUSMA. Section "Patent protection under the TRIPS agreement" examines the TRIPS patent regime. While "The CUSMA's rules on patent term extension" section discusses the nature of obligations included in the CUSMA's IPRs chapter, the Section "The CUSMA's rules on patent term extension vis-à-vis access to medicines" analyzes the potential implications of patent term extensions on access to affordable medicines. The final section concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which contemporary mobility dynamics in Mexico have changed over the last decade, leading to protracted displacement. It focuses on three populations: (1) the internally displaced due to violence; (2) Mexican nationals returning from the United States, both voluntarily and due to deportation; and (3) populations seeking asylum in Mexico and the United States. These three populations are not usually analyzed together and do not squarely fall under the traditional legal definitions. The paper outlines ways that situations of protracted displacement and insecurity present challenges in four interconnected arenas of life: housing, legal status, employment, and emotional well-being. For governments and local communities, protracted displacement requires immediate humanitarian responses and the development and implementation of public policies focused on integration. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations based on its findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) initiated its "Democratizing Data" project in 2013 to make detailed demographic information widely available on the US undocumented, eligible to naturalize, and other non-citizen populations. The paper begins by outlining top-line findings and themes from the more than 30 CMS studies under this project. It then examines and refutes four persistent misconceptions that have inhibited public understanding and needed policy change: (1) migrants never leave the United States; (2) most undocumented migrants arrive by illegally crossing the US-Mexico border; (3) each Border Patrol apprehension translates into a new undocumented resident; and (4) immigrants are less skilled than US-born workers. The paper then offers new analyses in support of select policy recommendations drawn from a decade of democratizing data. It concludes with a short reflection and a case study on the failure of data, evidence-based policy ideas, and national ideals to translate into necessary reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does organized crime affect foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries? Some research examines the effects of crime, such as homicide rates, on FDI. However, we know little about how organized crime in particular might affect such investment. This paper examines organized crime and FDI in Mexican states between 2000 and 2018. This case is important because Mexico is one of the top global recipients of FDI. At the same time, criminal violence has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico in recent years, and scholars seek to understand the violence's wider effects. We explain how organized crime competition, as opposed to crime generally, should shape investors' decisions. Analyses using original data on criminal organization territory find that higher numbers of criminal groups are associated with lower levels of new FDI. Other measures of crime, such as homicide rates or crime rates, are not associated with foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the potential responses of international labor mobility to the recent COVID-19 health shocks, using a New Economic Geography model inspired by recent events in Central and North America. The model suggests that the restraining impact of COVID-19 on migratory flows may retain potential emigrants in Mexico and Central America, enlarge the home market in the region, attract foreign and local businesses, and increase real wages. Moreover, this prediction unveils opportunities for the future from the opening of new, regular migratory pathways between Central America and Mexico. These would concentrate population and industry in Mexico, raise the market potential in the area and boost real wages in Mexico – and possibly in Central America as well – despite the partial deindustrialization of the Central American hinterland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, the undocumented population residing in the United States (US) increased slightly to 10.3 million, compared to 10.2 million the previous year. The gradual decline or near-zero growth of this population has continued for more than a decade. However, the large increases in apprehensions at the southern border in recent years, along with continued legislative gridlock in Congress, could portend a new era of growth of this population. Unfortunately, the data needed to determine whether the population will enter a period of growth after 2021 — or whether the era of near-zero growth will continue — will not be available for at least a year or two. The most accurate demographic estimates of the undocumented population are derived from data collected in the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Estimates of the size of the undocumented population in 2022 will not be available until early 2024. This report focuses on the most significant trend in the undocumented population in the past decade — the remarkable decline of 1.9 million in the undocumented population from Mexico from 2011 to 2021. The decline for Mexico in this period was 600,000 more than the total population increase from the seven countries (in order) with the fastest growing US undocumented populations: Guatemala, Honduras, India, Venezuela, El Salvador, Brazil, and China. This paper finds that: The long-term decline, or near-zero growth, of the total undocumented population that began in 2008 continued in 2021. The percent of undocumented residents in the total US population declined from 3.8 percent in 2011 to 3.1 percent in 2021. The undocumented population from Mexico declined from 6.4 million in 2011 to 4.4 million in 2021, a drop of 1.9 million in 10 years. A total of 2.9 million, or 47 percent, of the US undocumented population from Mexico in 2011 had left the undocumented population by 2021. The drop in the undocumented population from Mexico from 2011 to 2021 occurred nationwide, and the decline affected the undocumented population in nearly every state. The fastest growing undocumented populations by country in the last 10 years were from Guatemala, Honduras, India, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Brazil. The combined undocumented populations from these six countries grew by 1.2 million. Countries that had declining populations after 2011 included Poland, Peru, Ecuador, Korea, and Philippines, in addition to the large drop for Mexico. California had the largest decline in undocumented residents — 665,000 from 2011 to 2021. The undocumented population from Mexico living in California during this period declined by 720,000. The combined undocumented population in California, New York, and Illinois fell by more than one million from 2021 to 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article grapples with issues of urban wastewater sanitation in one of Mexico's most polluted river basins, through an analysis of a river restoration project centered on the construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Taking an ethnographic approach to the study of infrastructure, the main argument is that, beyond their possible contribution to reducing pollutant loads, in this context municipal WWTPs can best be understood through the concept of "duplication," whereby the infrastructure works serve as a vehicle for the transfer of public resources to the private sector, through construction and operation contracts. At the same time, these plants also fulfill objectives related to their symbolic value, in this case as indicators of a commitment to resolving one of the state's main socio-environmental conflicts, while studiously avoiding its root causes, including industrial pollution sources. From an urban political ecology perspective, the paper also examines how investment in wastewater treatment infrastructure in the basin continues to reinforce social and environmental inequities, particularly for peri-urban communities along the Santiago River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators on the U.S.–Mexico border work with students' intricate lived experiences while striving to provide them with an equitable education. For Latinx immigrant students, school discipline is a significant component of the broader educational experience. Nonconformity to US schooling norms and policies may lead to students being sent to alternative schools. In this paper, we explore how educators in an alternative school in Texas on the U.S.–Mexico border enacted advocacy for students. Our research questions ask (1) what relationships or traits facilitate or constrain leaders' advocacy to assist Latinx immigrant students in obtaining a quality education? and (2) what policies and structures facilitate or constrain leaders' advocacy to assist Latinx immigrant students in obtaining a quality education? Research for this paper comes from an embedded case study, focusing on one principal and six other educators in one K-12 borderland alternative school in Texas. Culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) practice frames the work conceptually. Study results reveal the principal and her staff experienced challenges but worked within the realities of the border, utilized critical discretion and courage in response to policy, and strengthened family and community relationships to reduce social and educational barriers for transnational students and families. The study demonstrates that increased professional responsibility among all organizational members is key for the safety, well-being, and inclusion of all students. Schools must develop individual capacity to participate in leadership processes to confront the numerous challenges that limit immigrant students' equal educational access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contends that the logical way to classify brands is to use a methodology based on consumer perceptions rather than academic/practitioner criteria, and that this may enable managers to more accurately define brand marketing strategies for current brands or relaunch efforts. It tests this theory using a quantitative instrument to assess consumer perceptions of local/global brand categorisation, with representative samples. Currently, most of the literature relating to the different typologies of brands (global, local, etc.) has been founded on academic/practitioner categorisations based on objective criteria. Consumers, on the other hand, do not know these categorisations based on objective criteria and may well see the brands differently. Existing research to categorise brands from the consumer's perspective has been conducted with qualitative techniques using small samples, meaning the results obtained are difficult to generalise. This paper relies on the results of an empirical research study based on a survey carried out among Mexican consumers using a new methodology that follows the suggested categorisation principles of Steenkamp and De Jong (2010). The results provide an actual categorisation of leading brands into 'global', 'local', 'glocal' and 'functional', based on consumers' perspectives, and reveal important differences in the categorisation of brands vs the traditional approaches found in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utility-scale renewable electricity generation is essential to decarbonisation as well as to ensuring affordable and secure electricity supplies around the world. Yet thus far there has been limited critical thinking dedicated to the complexities behind the finance and ownership of this new infrastructure and how national and local stakeholders should participate in and benefit from its development, particularly in contexts of high inequality in low- and middle-income countries. As the global renewable energy industry becomes increasingly consolidated and financialised, evidence from a number of countries suggests that despite the pro-environmental outcomes of utility-scale renewable electricity generation, the processes and institutions that procure and finance it have often failed to include or benefit individuals and communities living in the national and local vicinity. This paper therefore sets two key competing objectives of renewable electricity generation in context: as a predictable, long-term revenue stream for investors, and as a mechanism for socio-economic development and community empowerment. Building on scholarship from human geography, development studies and sustainability transitions, my analysis takes forward understandings of the role of finance in utility-scale renewable electricity generation as a key aspect of the political economy of the energy transition. In exploring the evolution of renewable electricity as a new and rapidly emerging asset class I consider how its development is increasingly determined by the frameworks and logics of finance and investment. Drawing on examples from South Africa and Mexico, I address the following questions: What are the evolving configurations and processes of finance and investment in utility-scale renewable electricity generation? How have they been facilitated? And what tensions have arisen from their implementation at the national and local level? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Politics in Latin America is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, I examine a case of dispossession that made land belonging to Indigenous Totonac residents of San Antonio Ojital part of the archaeological site of El Tajín. To do so, I examine the failure of a 2016 claim made to Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos. Rather than this being a case of purpose-driven dispossession or an unintended consequence of well-meaning policies, I trace the ultimate causes to multicultural recognition, 19th-century land reforms, and the expansion of archaeological research in El Tajín. Liberal land reforms brought a private property regime into being through enrollment and inscription, and Totonac landowners around El Tajín used the regime to their benefit. As El Tajín expanded though excavation, archaeologists and landowners used the private property regime's conception of space to address conflicts in El Tajín. The resulting pragmatic accommodations would ultimately fail landowners when an archaeological megaproject came in. Ultimately, I argue for an historical and contextual understanding of archaeology and land tenure to understand the discipline's diverse relationships with dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries in the Global South are particularly vulnerable to social and political violence. This paper suggests that such violence makes certain recalcitrant economic interests more open to taxes and spending on social welfare. Using results from a survey experiment of business owners and operators in Mexico, we show that relative to more innocuous institutional weaknesses, concerns over violence generally increase support for anti-poverty spending and decrease support for tax cuts. To build a theory, we explore heterogeneous effects and textual data. The findings suggest that business interests see anti-poverty spending as a tool for shoring up costs of violence in consumer markets, with some leaders even extending support to welfare-enhancing taxes. However, violence can create challenges in labor markets that increase operational costs, leading some business interests to resist tax policies that ask them to help fund social programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can public administrators tasked with enforcing immigration laws bring care and commitment to human relationships and public connections? The contemporary anti-immigrant (anti-Other) "narrative" related to immigration policy is provided as exemplary socio-political-administrative terrain for exploring this question. Considering the undocumented alien as the "other" that possess a threat to the whole is problematic for democratic immigration policy making and governance. This paper suggests that pragmatism and Hannah Arendt's political theory of publicness offer a theoretical groundwork for understanding and overcoming the destructive dynamics of "othering." This framework can help administrators, through reflection in action and situational awareness, make sense of their daily practice. Finally, the discussion centers on lessons for street-level bureaucrats to reconsider the border and "others" under a new light, as constitutive of the public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being on call without being on the clock is an important but underappreciated source of insecurity among low-wage workers. Drawing on fieldwork with 20 agricultural workers of the Texas-Mexico border region, this paper identifies several stages where workers are made to wait without pay and links these stages to economic precarity. These intervals occur at the local bus station, a hub for recruitment and departure, at home in both the US and Mexico, during travel to distant work sites, and in seasonal lodging. Workers use the Spanish colloquial term ' dioquis ', which they define as 'being without doing', to describe such uncertain periods of waiting which are required for them to work. Through dioquis, a liminal state, employers displace industry risk onto workers, leading to long-term instability. Expanding the implications of dioquis, the paper reveals the significance of temporal uncertainty for the marginalized across other contexts of work and waiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing tariff schemes often fail to achieve basic economic objectives. They set prices per unit that either exceed or fall short the social marginal cost and produce unfair distributional outcomes. In many cases, electricity rates also contribute to unsustainable fiscal deficits due to the (almost) generalized electricity subsidies. Moreover, inefficient residential tariffs do not favor the adoption of green technologies and the investment in energy efficiency improvements. We argue that the efficient deployment of green technologies, and more generally, the clean energy transition, will require electricity tariff reforms. In this paper, we use household level data and hourly industry data from Mexico to show how more efficient pricing mechanisms (such as a two-part tariff scheme in the context of efficient nodal pricing), combined with well-design environmental regulations (e.g., net-metering schemes) and correctly targeted transfer programs (e.g., means testing mechanisms) can improve economic, social, and environmental outcomes significantly, all at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1986 and 1990, the Mexican government reduced tariffs and import license coverage by more than 50%. The author, using micro-level data, analyzes the impact of trade reform on Mexican wages and employment. Industries that had greater reductions in protection levels, she finds, had a larger percentage of low-skill workers. Wage dispersion increased in both the non-tradables sector and, to a much greater degree, the tradables sector. This pattern suggests that trade reform increased wage inequality. The decline in import license coverage appears to have reduced relative wages of workers in reformed industries by 2%, but did not affect relative employment. Reductions in tariffs had no statistically significant effect on relative wages or relative employment. Between 1986 and 1990, Mexico under-took a dramatic trade liberalization program, reducing average tariffs and the percentage of domestic output covered by import licenses by more than 50%. Trade liberalization may have stimulated economic growth, but it may also have adversely affected workers in industries that experienced an increase in competition from goods produced abroad. This paper examines the effect of the Mexican trade liberalization program on wages and employment using micro-level data from the Encuesta Nacional de Empleo Urbano (ENEU), a survey of the 16 most populous urban areas in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applies an interdisciplinary approach to the bidirectional relationship between illicit drug trafficking activities (specifically, cocaine and opioid trafficking in Colombia and Mexico) and the architectures, spaces, and territories in which they are located. Certain spaces that determine or are determined by the actions of drug trafficking organizations are described, analyzed, and classified based on various methodologies and the use of academic, official, and press information. In addition, case studies are reconstructed using architectural and geographic representation mechanisms to exemplify and illustrate the main arguments. The paper examines the three stages of activity that constitute the illegal drug economy: production (involving the placement of crop fields and laboratories), distribution (which entails exploitation of mobility infrastructure), and cross-cutting activities in relation to drug trafficking support spaces. The research provides an articulated interpretation of the various drug trafficking activities from a spatial perspective, the characterization of spaces that are important to criminal organizations and to the performance of their activities, and insights into the spatial thinking strategies and tactics associated with drug trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and counter-disciplinarity are the hallmark of cultural studies and qualitative research, as scholars over the past three decades have discussed through extensive self-reflexive inquiry into their own unstable and ever-shifting methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 2018; Dicks et al., 2006: 78; Grossberg, 2010). Building on the interdisciplinary thought of Jacques Rancière and Caroline Levine on the one hand and traditions of participatory action research and activist anthropology on the other, we bring the methods conversation forward by shifting the focus from disciplines to forms and by making a case for aesthetic practice as qualitative research process. In this paper, the question of methods is approached through the action-based Cartonera Publishing Project with editoriales cartoneras in Latin America – community publishers who make low-cost books out of materials recovered from the street in the attempt to democratise and decolonise literary/artistic production – and specifically through our process-oriented, collaborative work with four cartonera publishers in Brazil and Mexico. Guided by the multiple forms of cartonera knowledge production, which are rooted not in academic research but rather in aesthetic practice and community relations, we offer an innovative 'trans-formal' methodological framework, which opens up new pathways for practitioners and researchers to work, think and act across social, cultural and aesthetic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While protests occurring in nationally democratic contexts rarely represent fundamental threats to the central state, they still need management when and where they occur. Thus, this paper suggests that, especially in federal countries, to explain the repression of protest, we must examine subnational politics. Subnational political elites, often tasked with protest management, can engage protesters and call for police restraint, but their capacity and authority affect their ability to carry out these tasks. The paper tests the theory using original event-level data on Mexican protests and responses and leverages within-country variations in democracy and state capacity. The paper shows that where subnational governments have bureaucratic capacity and where citizen linkages to the state cause them to see state agents as relevant, problem-solving authorities, protest events are less likely to be managed using a repressive response. In addition, the paper highlights a key difference between explanations of overall human rights violations and repressive responses to protest, namely, that electoral competition is not a significant factor reducing the likelihood of repressive responses to protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of "bypass urbanism" to account for a process of urbanization that is reordering center-periphery relations of urban regions into new hierarchies. Bypass urbanism became visible through a comparison of large-scale urban transformations at the peripheries of Kolkata, Lagos, and Mexico City by zooming out and considering their impacts on the socio-spatial structure of the extended urban regions. Bypass urbanism is not emerging from the construction of a singular new town or real estate project, but is the result of the simultaneous development of an ensemble of various independent but related projects. Therefore, bypass urbanism usually does not emanate from a coherent planning initiative, even less so from a hidden "master plan" at the hands of any single developer or state agency, but it emerges through a convergence of interests over large areas of land at the geographical periphery of urban regions that have been made available for new urban developments by various measures. We understand bypass urbanism as a multidimensional process that includes material-geographical bypassing, the bypassing of regulatory frameworks, and socio-economic bypassing in everyday life. It results in the creation of exclusive and excluding spaces that enable middle and upper-class lifestyles, at the same time leading to the peripheralization of extant urban areas that are bypassed and neglected. The massive scale of bypass urbanism that we have observed represents a new quality of urban development resulting not in isolated urban enclaves or archipelagos, but in the fundamental restructuring of the extended urban region with far reaching and incalculable repercussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational identity (OI) is a critical concept in understanding what is central, distinctive, and enduring to an organization. For headquarters of a multinational corporation that command multiple subsidiaries across nations and cultures, addressing a unified OI is challenging. Specifically, within tourism and hospitality management, scant attention has been paid to examine multinational tourism and hospitality corporations using OI frameworks. Thus, through a social constructionist lens, this paper aims to explore corporate and property OI of a multinational hotel corporation by using a single bounded case in Mexico. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, direct observations, and internal documentation. Findings indicated the connection and disconnection between corporate and property OI through localization and power dynamics. Theoretical and industry implications clarify insights to better understand the OI complexities in a multinational hotel corporation setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change from a subsidized zonal pricing system to a full nodal pricing regime in the new Mexican electricity market could improve the efficiency of electricity system operation. However, resulting price modifications might also swing surplus across producers and consumers. In this paper, we calculate nodal prices for the Mexican power system and further analyze how allocations of financial transmission rights (FTRs) can be used to mitigate resulting distributional effects. The share of FTRs to be allocated to different generation plants and loads is studied as a second step of an electricity tariff subsidy reform agenda that includes, as a first step, the change to nodal pricing and, as a third step, the reformulation of actual regressive subsidies in a progressive way. We test our model in a realistic nodal price setting, based on an hourly modeling of the Mexican power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the introduction of fraudulent “molecular detector” (non)technology into Mexico. The case is used to argue that contemporary science and technology studies’ approaches to scientific policy-making make basic assumptions about the societies they operate in that are inconsistent with the Mexican context. This paper also argues that contrary to what happens in the so-called Global North, the relative power of Mexican science in government and policy circles is as much limited by its relatively weak position as much as it is by self-censorship and unrealized impact in the country’s fragile democracy. The case is also used to highlight the necessity for more politically involved scientific institutions in Mexico, as these become critical safeguards against incoming destabilizing technologies from more powerful nations into the local “peripheral” context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Politics in Latin America is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mexico has experienced dynamic changes in its religious landscape, but relatively little is known about the ways in which the affiliates of the diverse religious groups differ in their socioeconomic and family characteristics. This paper examines religious group differences in key demographic indicators of socioeconomic status and family structure using the 2000 Mexican Census. The changing patterns of religious affiliation in Mexico signal increasing religious, socioeconomic and familial diversity. Non-Christians and Mormons stand out for having higher scores on education and the wealth index relative to other religious groups. Most groups have lower rates of consensual unions and higher rates of marriage than do Catholics. These same groups also tend to have larger families and lower divorce/separation. These trends seem inconsistent with the Catholic teachings about marriage, divorce and contraception. Apparently, new groups are attracting adherents who have family orientations that differ from main-stream Mexican society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do foreign investors have subnational political preferences? The political economy of foreign direct investment (FDI) involves not only choosing among host countries, but also the subnational location of the assets. However, factors affecting investors' decisions about subnational location likely differ from the ones affecting international investment. This paper studies the effect of state-level partisanship on new FDI inflows to Mexican states. I argue that investors prefer states ruled by left-wing governors because they are more likely to invest in human capital. Statistical analyses using new data on subnational allocation of FDI in Mexican states between 1999 and 2017 support the main hypothesis. Given the persistence of authoritarian enclaves in Mexico, I also disentangle the effects of partisanship from subnational democratization. The partisan effect is independent from party turnover and political competition at the subnational level, and it is robust to different model specifications and estimation strategies. Additional evidence supports the plausibility of the argued mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates correlates of trichomoniasis among female sex workers who inject drugs (FSWIDs) in two Mexico-US border cities. HIV-negative FSWIDs aged 18 years or older were enrolled in a study between 2008 and 2010 in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez (Cd.), Mexico. All participants underwent a baseline interviewer-administered survey and did a rapid test for trichomoniasis. Using regression to estimate prevalence ratios, we examined sociodemographics, sex work characteristics, sexual health and behavior, substance use, and police and violence exposures as potential correlates of trichomoniasis. Of 584 women (284 in Tijuana, 300 in Cd. Juarez), prevalence of trichomoniasis was 33.6%. Factors associated with trichomoniasis in multivariable analysis were having money stolen by police in the past six months (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] =1.448, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.152-1.821), recent methamphetamine use (aPR = 1.432, CI = 1.055-1.944), lifetime syphilis infection (aPR = 1.360, CI = 1.061-1.743), ever use of a home remedy to treat vaginal symptoms (aPR = 1.301, CI = 1.027-1.649), and number of regular clients in the past month (aPR = 1.006 per client, CI = 1.004-1.009), while controlling for age and city of interview. Alongside the need for trichomoniasis surveillance and treatment programs, findings indicate that both structural and behavioral factors serve as primary correlates of trichomoniasis among FSWIDs in these cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply an intersectional perspective and test whether resource substitution, which predicts that education will be more strongly related to the health of women than men, is operating among adults included in the 2014 Study of Health and Migration in Mexico (SHMM). Findings revealed modest and somewhat contradictory evidence regarding the potential role of resource substitution. For Mexican women, rates of elevated waist circumference are very high regardless of education level, but for hypertension, there is a strong, negative association with education even after adjustment for controls. Different patterns emerge for Mexican men as regression models show that the probability of both elevated waist circumference and hypertension is higher among the more educated. Overall, results suggest that education is only health protective for women's risk of hypertension. In sum, this work highlights gender specificity in the relationship between education and health in Mexico, and that this relationship varies by health outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Politics in Latin America is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A burial and a rich offering were found under Room 2 in the Murals Building, Bonampak, a Mayan archaeological site situated in Chiapas, Mexico. This burial may be related with the creation of the famous mural paintings. A rich set of jewelry made of green stones was among the different objects found. Green stones have great importance in Mesoamerican cultures, those composed of jadeite being the most appreciated. To characterize the green stones, different spectroscopic techniques were used in a complementary way: Raman and infrared spectroscopies (FT-IR) were used for global mineralogical analysis, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were applied simultaneously in situ on the artifacts that were not successfully identified by these molecular techniques. In addition, XRF was used to contrasts the elemental information from pieces composed of pyroxenes that may be related to the raw sources of jade in Guatemala. The main minerals identified within the beads and earrings were jadeite with omphacite and jadeite with albite; to a minor extent, quartz, and serpentine. In this paper, the main features of the molecular and X-ray techniques are compared in order to determine the advantages and limitations of these spectroscopies for mineral identification. With this combination of techniques, it was possible to undertake a suitable characterization of the analyzed objects. This paper focuses on the XRD–XRF combined analysis for in situ noninvasive characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers empirical evidence on the impact of trade unions on wage inequality in Mexico. The results indicate that unions were a strongly equalizing force affecting the dispersion of wages in 1984, but were only half as effective at reducing wage inequality in 1996. Not only did the unionized percentage of the labor force fall considerably over the period, unions also lost some of their ability to reduce wage dispersion among the workers they continued to represent. Had unions maintained in 1996 the same structural power they possessed in 1984, the rise in wage inequality in the formal sector of the labor market between those years would have been reduced by roughly 11%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether corruption leads to the election of women and whether increased women's representation leads to lower levels of corruption are two questions with answers that remain uncertain and context-dependent. We explore the case of Mexico and theorize that three factors--gender stereotypes, demands for the inclusion of women, and expectations of accountability--condition the relationship between women's representation and corruption. We hypothesize that given the features of the Mexican system, revelations of corruption should lead to the election of women and women should not be less corrupt than men in office. Leveraging an original dataset of close to 20 years of municipal audits to mayors, we find supporting evidence. The occurrence of audits and recent revelations of corruption increase the likelihood of women being elected and municipalities led by women report no fewer irregularities as compared to those led by men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to popular narratives, it is not clear whether using social media for news increases belief in political misinformation. Several of the most methodologically sound studies find small to nonexistent effects. However, extant research is limited by focusing on few platforms (usually Facebook, Twitter or YouTube) and is heavily U.S. centered. This leaves open the possibility that other platforms, such as those that rely on visual communication (e.g., Instagram) or are tailored to strong-tie network communication (e.g., WhatsApp), are more influential. Furthermore, the few studies conducted in other countries suggest that social media use increases political misperceptions. Still, these works use cross-sectional designs, which are ill suited to dealing with omitted variable bias and temporal ordering of processes. Using a two-wave survey fielded in Mexico during the 2021 midterm elections (N = 596), we estimate the relationship between frequency of news exposure on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, and belief in political misinformation, while controlling for both time-invariant and time-dependent individual differences. In contrast to political discussion, information literacy and digital skills, none of the social platforms analyzed exhibits a significant association with misinformed beliefs. We also tested for possible indirect, moderated, and reciprocal relationships, but none of these analyses yielded a statistically significant result. We conclude that the study is consistent with the "minimal media effects" paradigm, which suggests that efforts to address misinformation need to go beyond social platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hypersensitivity reactions to anticancer chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies may lead to discontinuation of first-line treatment options. Identification of these reactions can provide specific diagnosis and treatment by rapid drug desensitizations. Objective: To determine the hypersensitivity reactions involved in anticancer chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies, and the safety and efficacy of rapid drug desensitization. Methods: We conducted an observational study of hypersensitivity reaction presented after the administration of anticancer chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies in Mexico. We documented the symptoms of initial reaction and their severity, and the results of skin tests. We also report our experience of the administration of 12-step (mild-moderate reactions) and 16-step (severe reactions) desensitization protocols in these patients. Results: Overall, 93 patients received 336 rapid drug desensitization; 105 to taxanes, 115 to platinum drugs, 101 to monoclonal antibodies, and 15 other anticancer chemotherapy. Hypersensitivity reaction to taxanes occurred in the first or second administration, platinum drugs after the sixth cycle, and rituximab in the first cycle. The most common symptom in carboplatin was urticaria, paclitaxel back pain, oxaliplatin and docetaxel dyspnea, and in the monoclonal antibodies cardiovascular symptoms. Skin tests were positive in 75% of the carboplatin group, and only 16.7% in docetaxel. There was a rapid drug desensitization success rate of 99.4% and 85.7% did not present any related hypersensitivity reaction. Conclusion: The diagnosis of hypersensitivity reaction to anticancer chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies offers a panorama in the management of oncological diseases. Our standardized desensitization protocol is safe and effective and can be reproduced in other centers to treat patients who need to maintain first-line treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a counterstory to damaging, dominant narratives concerning migrant experiences and border crossings. Through counter-storytelling, I share Rey's lived experiences as a transfronterizx (transborder) student who crossed the United States–Mexico border daily to attend school and eventually, participate in school music. The overarching question guiding the study was: What are a transfronterizx student's experiences navigating school and school music in the United States? Based on the findings, Rey encountered literal and metaphorical barriers as he pursued an education in the United States. In particular, navigating language, deficit-based teaching practices, surveillance, and policing were key in his narrative. Currently as a music educator, Rey draws from his personal transfronterizx background to inform his music teaching practices in a predominantly Latine school community. Considerations for working with migrant students and families are discussed in light of ongoing sociopolitical issues, including the need for more culturally and linguistically responsive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the current trends in conducting ethnographies, with time and funding limitations and the need to reflect on the researcher's positionality, this article explores the implications of conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a mixed team (in terms of gender, race and nationality) with highly vulnerable populations in a context of crisis. To that end, the article analyses the experience of conducting a team ethnography with African migrants in Tijuana, Mexico. While the study did not start with a self-awareness of what a team ethnography implied, as fieldwork developed the gender, race and nationality of both interviewees and researchers became crucial elements to produce a meaningful multi-layered, multiply-positioned ethnography. This article argues that methodological flexibility and the researchers' relationship with themselves and the respondents are vital elements that require further experimentation in ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue for the necessity and value of using critical theory to review tripartite politics across North and South America in the war on drugs. In particular, Herbert Marcuse's concept of one-dimensionality--a description of social structures and behaviors incapable of perceiving alternatives to existing realities--is elaborated. Using a Marcusian lens, I unpack key policy documents within the Mérida II Initiative, and the United States Northern Command and the United States Southern Command. The paper examines the mechanisms through which particular 'realities' emerge as prominent. In doing so, discursive and material tactics, embedded in political strategies which construct tangible problems to be solved, are highlighted. In the course of prescriptive policy measures, three regulating fictions materialize. First, Mérida II is cast in terms of a paradigm shift. Second, unilateral policies become bilateral agreements. And third, the hemispheric scale unfolds into regional divisions. All are tied in with a historical legacy of enacting symbolic illusion and a pattern of thought and behavior reduced to the given system. There are at least two significant outcomes. The first is the rendering of oppositional alternatives as Utopian or illusory. The second is the deployment of difference which continuously reproduces North-South divisions and upholds the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genotoxic, teratogenic, and cytotoxic chemical agents are often products of anthropogenic activities, such as agriculture and industry, and many eventually settle in marine and coastal ecosystems. Therefore, there is a need to implement monitoring programs that provide early warnings of the risks and problems associated with contamination to contribute to the conservation of coastal ecosystems and human health. This paper describes the fundamental characteristics of a micronucleus assay that uses seabird embryo blood and highlights its ability to detect the presence of micronucleogenic genotoxic agents along the coasts of Mexico. This paper also demonstrates the potential of this assay to assess possible seasonal and spatial effects of these agents on wildlife, which has direct implications for human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]