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The importance of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in developing a skilled labour force capable of functioning in a highly competitive global world, has been largely acknowledged. This is particularly so in the Caribbean, where stakeholders generally agree that TVET offers unique opportunities for countries to develop their human capital and advance their economic development. This research paper utilizes a systematic literature review (SLR) to evaluate relevant literature on TVET in the Caribbean over the past quarter-century, from 1996 to 2021. The study aims to analyze and present the state of research in the region to identify gaps and recommend some focus for future research directions/agenda. This gap hopefully will help stakeholders (practitioners, scholars, and policymakers) develop appropriate strategies to address future challenges relating to TVET in the Caribbean. We discovered 93 relevant papers in the review, which were reduced to 45 documents after applying our inclusion/exclusion and quality assurance criteria. The 45 selected papers were examined, and the findings revealed a concerning decline in the level of research over the past few years. Based on the review, after a surge in publications in the first half of the last decade, there has been a sharp decline in TVET research in the Caribbean in the second half of the decade. This occurred at a time when many TVET challenges remain to be explored and addressed. Several contemporary areas that will require additional attention in the future. These include TVET delivery during a pandemic, remote learning for TVET, and TVET challenges in the digital era as well as the level of TVET readiness to prepare the workforce of the Caribbean for the 4th industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the pattern of female labour force participation since the 2000s in South Asia (SA) and the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The objectives of the paper are twofold: first, to identify the factors that have led to changes in the patterns of female labour force participation in the two fastest-growing regions of SA and LAC and compare the underlying reasons behind the disparate trends; and second, to explore the policies appropriate for the two regions that can raise female labour force participation. From descriptive statistics and a review of existing research on gender inequality in employment in the two regions, the paper finds that a plethora of factors shape the extent of gender inequality in labour force participation. However, each of the factors has different roles and importance in the two regions, debunking any particular relationship pattern between economic growth and the gender gap in labour force participation. Hence, it is imperative to formulate multipronged, country- and region-specific policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to summarize the main methods and themes used on organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO) research in Latin American and the Caribbean. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted by means of a broad and systematic strategy to locating, selecting and analyzing papers on OL/LO, written in different languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish). Systematic searches were carried out at the two databases (Web of Science's Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus), and 15 specific Latin American and Caribbean journals were identified as data sources for the review. A thematic analysis was carried out using NVivo and cluster analysis. Findings: In all 79 papers published between 2000 and 2017 were included in the synthesis and results: 18 are theoretical papers and literature reviews and 61 are empirical papers (30 qualitative, 24 quantitative and 7 multiple methods). These empirical papers revealed the study of the OL/LO concepts in organizations located mainly in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Costa Rica. Five topics represent the main themes addressed on OL/LO studies in Latin America and the Caribbean and are avenues for future research in the field: (i) knowledge and KM (i.e. knowledge management), (ii) culture and leadership, (iii) innovation and improvement, (iv) learning (for example, learning process, learning styles), and (v) entrepreneurship and sustainability. Originality/value: This paper provides a summary of the research methods and themes used in the OL/LO field in Latin America and the Caribbean, suggesting insights for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue expands on the ongoing dialogue on the decolonial project by bringing together thought-provoking papers that examine the communication of female political leaders in the Global South. It draws on data from West Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East to elucidate how female politicians deploy language (including multimodal forms) to position themselves in the political arena and utilize linguistic resources to navigate the discursive practices associated with their political roles and responsibilities. The issue offers a critical discursive perspective on the complex interplay of gender, culture and political leadership, and holds implications for how key issues such as voice, agency, solidarity and empowerment are conceptualized and enacted in specific sociocultural contexts. It also contributes to overcoming epistemicide by decentring knowledge production and underscoring the importance of valuing and engaging with different knowledge systems, especially non-Western epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health conditions often go untreated, which can lead to long-term poor emotional, social physical health and behavioural outcomes, and in some cases, suicide. Mental health-related stigma is frequently noted as a barrier to help seeking, however no previous systematic review has considered evidence from the Caribbean specifically. This systematic review aimed to address two research questions: (1) What is the impact of mental health stigma on help-seeking in the Caribbean? (2) What factors underlie the relationship between stigma and help-seeking in the Caribbean? Methods: A systematic search was conducted across six electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Global Health, PsychInfo, Scopus and LILACS). The search included articles published up to May 2022. Experts in the field were consulted to provide publication recommendations and references of included studies were checked. Data synthesis comprised of three components: a narrative synthesis of quantitative findings, a thematic analysis of qualitative findings, and a meta-synthesis combining these results. Results: The review included nine articles (reflecting eight studies) totaling 1256 participants. A conceptual model was derived from the meta-synthesis, identifying three themes in relation to mental health stigma and help-seeking in the Caribbean: (i) Making sense of mental health conditions'; (ii) Anticipated/Experienced stigma-related experiences and (iii) Individual characteristics. Conclusion: This review provides insights into the relationship between mental health stigma and help-seeking in the Caribbean based upon the current research evidence. This can be applied in the design of culturally appropriate future research, and to support policy and practice towards stigma reduction, and improved mental care help-seeking in the Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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 paper presents an innovative approach to addressing critical global challenges in long-term energy planning for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The paper proposes and tests an international enabling environment, a delivery ecosystem, and a community of practice. These components are integrated into workflows that yield four self-sustaining capacity-development outcomes. Planning long-term energy strategies in LMICs is particularly challenging due to limited national agency and poor international coordination. While outsourcing energy planning to foreign experts may appear to be a viable solution, it can lead to a reduction in government agency (the ability of a government to make its own informed analysis and decisions). Additionally, studies commissioned by external experts may have conflicting terms of reference, and a lack of familiarity with local conditions can result in misrepresentations of on-the-ground realities. It is argued here that enhancing national agency and analytical capacity can improve coordination and lead to more robust planning across line ministries and technical assistance (TA) providers. Moreover, the prevailing consulting model hampers the release and accessibility of underlying analytics, making it difficult to retrieve, reuse, and reconstruct consultant outputs. The absence of interoperability among outputs from various consultants hinders the ability to combine and audit the insights they provide. To overcome these challenges, five strategic principles for energy planning in LMICs have been introduced and developed in collaboration with 21 international and research organizations, including the AfDB, IEA, IRENA, IAEA, UNDP, UNECA, the World Bank, and WRI. These principles prioritize national ownership, coherence and inclusivity, capacity, robustness, transparency and accessibility. In this enabling environment, a unique delivery ecosystem consisting of knowledge products and activities is established. The paper focuses on two key knowledge products as examples of this ecosystem: the open-source energy modeling system (OSeMOSYS) and the power system flexibility tool (IRENA FlexTool). These ecosystem elements are designed to meet user-friendliness, retrievability, reusability, reconstructability, repeatability, interoperability, and audibility (U4RIA) goals. To ensure the sustainability of this ecosystem, OpTIMUS is introduced—a community of practice dedicated to maintaining, supporting, expanding, and nurturing the elements within the ecosystem. Among other ecosystem elements, training and research initiatives are introduced, namely the Energy Modelling Platform for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific as well as the ICTP Joint Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development. Once deployed via workflows, the preliminary outcomes of these capacity-development learning pathways show promise. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate their long-term impacts, scalability, replication, and deployment costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss changes in the roles of librarians against the backdrop of emerging technologies. Design/methodology/approach: Through reflection on practice drawn from the author's 30 years in librarianship, this paper explores the evolving role of librarians in the constantly developing technological environment and demonstrates how librarians can combine information resources, technology and research assistance in these constantly changing spaces. It also explores how technology enhances the role of the librarian, with specific reference to ChatGPT. Findings: The author stressed the need for library courses for credit to allow for feedback, assessment and critical thinking. The need for continuing professional development for librarians was highlighted. Additionally, areas such as Scholarly Publishing, Metrics and Analytics, Academic Integrity and Intellectual Property were identified as areas of focus for the 21st century Librarian. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to changes in roles as a result of emerging technologies which impact librarians. It is set in the Caribbean. Practical implications: This paper is relevant for librarians, regardless of their geographical location, who are also required to be fluid, keep on the cutting edge, adapt and adopt to deliver service in the face of constantly advancing technology. Originality/value: This paper is a reflection on an original experience from a Caribbean territory. it also explores recent developments in technology, more specifically ChatGPT, and its impact on the roles of librarians. It provides contributions to the ongoing discourse on the evolving role of the librarian from a different perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the articles included in this theme issue.Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the contributions in this theme issue to one key question: is there a symbiotic relationship between tourism development and logistic services in the Caribbean?Findings Even though the papers in this theme issue have focused on examining different interconnections between tourism and other activities, all suggest that tourism development and logistics services are symbiotically related. Each of the contributions has suggested that strategies to improve logistics activities will enhance the development and growth of the tourism industry.Originality/value The conclusion presented draws on the analysis of the theme. The conclusion also presents a review of all the papers submitted to the theme issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean nations have leaned on and undergirded their early childhood programmes with Developmentally Appropriate Practices promulgated by the NAEYC. For many years the guidance provided by DAP has been used in both the development of standards of practice for early childhood professionals as well as curriculum development. In recent years however, as Caribbean nations have attempted to employ more Caribbean-centric approaches and understandings of Early Childhood Care and Education, the role of DAP and its applicability to Caribbean Early Childhood Care and Education systems have been questioned. Now that DAP has evolved to provide greater consideration to socio-cultural differences across settings, the role of DAP must be re-examined. This paper focuses on the evolving role of DAP in Caribbean early childhood settings. Importance will be placed on presenting the work of Caribbean early childhood educators in relation to the new philosophical and theoretical tenets of the fourth version of DAP. This paper identifies ways in which the revised DAP position guidelines more readily address cultural and social nuances of ECCE practice in the Caribbean. It also identifies areas where specific focus should be highlighted to ensure that DAP represents the Caribbean reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anuario Turismo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Empresas Turísticas y Hoteleras 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.)

Through a case study of three educational youth exchanges from London to the Caribbean island of Grenada in the early 1980s, this paper situates decolonisation as a site for youthful agency. Assessing official and ephemeral exchange material held in archives in London and the Caribbean alongside original oral history interviews with key actors, the paper argues that an analysis of youth exchanges as informal education spaces helps bring into focus young people's agency in decolonisation both as a historical process and conceptual undoing. While the paper asserts that exchanging produced transformative moments of becoming in which young people's global educational encounters transcended local perceptions of race, it also reveals youth exchanging to a revolutionary nation was no holiday, and that "youth exchange geographies" were governed, predetermined and impeded by the organisational labour of youth workers, fundraising initiatives, and unfolding international politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista INVI is the property of Universidad de Chile 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.)

Civil society is seen as a key actor within and for global development. However, spatial representations of civil society within the global development landscape are dominated by scale, place, and verticality, neglecting more relational understandings of civic participation. Engaging with archipelagic thinking, drawn from the work of Édouard Glissant, Derek Walcott, and others, this paper makes a case for thinking about civil society through archipelagic relational ontologies. By employing an archipelagic lens to empirical material from research with civil society groups in Barbados and Grenada, the paper explores the relational creativity and metamorphic transformations that are part of civil society action. Utilising an archipelagic lens to think about civil society organising emphasises how civil society activity is produced, performed, and operationalised through creative relational arrangements that span (and contest) dominant spatial categories. For civil society actors this 'metamorphic creativity' – the crafting of these relations, the bringing together of 'bits and pieces', and the transforming and reworking of these relations to produce new forms and spaces of civic activity – is key to sustaining civil society and their own civic identities. This illustrates the creative, yet fragile nature of civil society, concluding that through these metamorphic relations civil society actors foster new civic spaces and identities, yet civil society simultaneously may also be constituted through, and potentially (re)produce (new) hierarchies of power. Civil society is seen as a key actor within and for global development. However, spatial representations of civil society within the global development landscape tend to neglect relational understandings of civic participation. This paper engages with archipelagic thinking to explore the importance of creative relationalities for civil society organising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ad-minister is the property of Universidad EAFIT 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 is part of a continuing discourse in the Caribbean about the exercise of sovereignty and the need to hold steadfast to the concept as a bulwark against imperial erasure of cultural identity. The essay argues against such conventional wisdom. It is intended to move beyond popular notions of sovereignty to unmask the reality of conflict, subordination and violence embedded in the idea of sovereignty. The article also looks at the way sovereignty is deployed in the Caribbean as part of popular, political discourses, and provides examples of how the concept is made unsustainable in its practice. It is an approach which allows for a materialist reading of the political development of the role the state plays in shaping the consciousness of the nation into an understanding of the idea of sovereignty. In conclusion, the paper returns to the specifically cultural logic of sovereignty, engaging the notion of "the sovereignty of the imagination," articulated by the eminent Caribbean novelist, George Lamming, as a way of reconceptualizing this political concept. The paper ends with the notion that sovereignty in the Caribbean is a myth and should be abandoned for a more realistic understanding of the actual power of the postcolonial state in the global political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beach ridges originate from various depositional processes and occur in a variety of settings. This paper assesses their nature and distribution on the islands of the Greater Caribbean based on a literature review and the identification of sites using Google Earth© 7.3 imagery. The morphological and orientation parameters were measured for each site, and a measure of storm density was developed. These were statistically analysed to develop a classification of beach ridge types. The results show a diversity of beach ridge systems, in terms of setting, morphology, composition and preservation. The presence or absence of an adjacent coral reef is a major differentiating element at the regional level. A regional beach ridge plain classification is proposed, including two main classes, marine beach ridges and river-associated beach ridges, with further sub-divisions based on exposure to hurricanes or hurricanes plus swell waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One major effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was the abrupt shift from traditional face-to-face (f2f) teaching and learning to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Student evaluations and reflections by lecturers indicate that the move to the predominantly online environment during the Covid-19 pandemic posed both challenges and opportunities. To capitalize on the opportunities afforded by ERT that can be utilized in another similar event or in movement from f2f to virtual classrooms, it is important to interrogate the challenges and factors that facilitated the transition to online learning. This paper utilizes a community of inquiry framework (CoI) to investigate the components of teaching styles, assessment styles, and student demographics on engineering students' performance during ERT at a top traditional f2f university in the Caribbean. A survey conducted was informed by CoI and student environment during the ERT transition. A quantitative study with regression analysis of survey data was utilized. Qualitative responses were also captured and analysed. The study has found that a teaching presence which demonstrated clear course design, facilitation and communication was a significant contributing factor to a comfortable online learning transition. Online learning was also impacted by aspects of the home environment like family support, distractions, and quality of living that contributed to a difficult transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to identify the opportunities for resetting Caribbean tourism along the lines of sustainability, the use of SMART technology and social inclusion so that it benefits all of its stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that draws on research about the limitations of Caribbean tourism and the emerging needs of tourism stakeholders in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings: The paper proposes five areas of focus - educating smartly, becoming a smart and strategic employer, using technology smartly to identify value and values of internal and external customers, thinking, buying, using sustainably and connecting the dots in joined up government. Research limitations/implications: The paper draws on current research on problems associated with pre-pandemic tourism and proposes ways that these can be addressed. It utilizes the service-profit chain model to identify the relationships between internal and external service value. Practical implications: Caribbean tourism interests have the choice of using the pandemic as an enforced pause or an opportunity to reset. This paper assumes the latter choice and makes specific recommendations for private and public sector interests to shape a sector that is socially inclusive and sustainable and that incorporates smart technology. Social implications: The Caribbean is the world's most tourism dependent region but a critical examination indicates that the pursuit of tourist numbers and dollars has come at a cost to local residents. The paper utilizes the new three Ss of smart destinations, social inclusion and sustainability to recommend ways in which tourism can better serve the region and a new generation of tourists. Originality/value: Tourism in the Caribbean has grown exponentially but not always in a way that benefits all of its stakeholders. Covid-19 forced a cessation of most activities and created an opportunity to rethink tourism. This paper recognizes that the changing needs of external and internal stakeholders must be considered if tourism is to be successful and sustainable, and proposes five overlapping and important innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists several books related to the Caribbean area along with the publication's opinion on them and comments on the review process followed by the publication for these books. Topics include the review process followed by the publication for books from various genres including books like "Conceiving Freedom: Women of Color, Gender, and the Abolition of Slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro" by author Camillia Cowling.

A key component of student mathematics achievement relates to the cognitive domains. This paper examines student mathematics achievement in three cognitive domains (knowledge, comprehension, reasoning) as per different achievement grades, across four years (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), and by gender. This study used the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) mathematics results across four years from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which is the main public examination board in the Caribbean. The sample constituted 69,945 public school students from 161 secondary schools in Jamaica. The study found a regular pattern of cognitive domain performance at all grade levels and in each of the four years under consideration. Students performed best in the knowledge domain, followed by comprehension, and then reasoning. Students with the highest overall achievement demonstrated the highest achievement across the three domains and there was also a strong, significant, positive correlation between students' overall grades, that related to knowledge, comprehension, reasoning, and the cognitive domains. Another key finding was that for the knowledge and comprehension domains there was a significant difference in the performance of males and females in favour of females, but the related effect sizes were minimal. Practical implications and potential directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the mutually constitutive processes of race and neoliberalism in the labour market navigation and integration for Black Caribbean and South/Southeast Asian international student graduates in Canada. The data was gathered from recent international students and key informants in Canada's immigration policy circle using semi-structured interviews. The paper reveals that international student graduates (ISGs) are constrained to seek out precarious and low-skilled forms of employment and participate in a labour market that profits from cheap, exploitable flexible labour. Participants in areas outside the populous Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are perceived as contingent workers. The paper concludes with an argument for centering both race and neoliberalism in future empirical studies of ISG labour market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noting the frequency of tropical storm hazards and related disasters within the Caribbean, this paper initially highlights the relatively short average period of 'storm awareness timing' in the region, less than 24 hours, with variations in time and space. Next, it evaluates the results of a survey on communicating disaster risk by a range of participants at the 2016 Wet/Hurricane Season Caribbean Community Climate Outlook Forum in Dominica. Respondents commented that there may be a 'weekend effect' possibly hindering quick action and suggested that improved institutional support was needed to use climate information better. Analysis of these two datasets in tandem offers a unique understanding of whether the timing of events may contribute to limitations on responses by local authorities. Lastly, the paper ends with insights into how this research can assist regional authorities in enhancing and utilising climate information for disaster risk reduction, as well as by indicating where critical issues remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special collection examines insurance as an increasingly central mechanism in shaping how the effects of climate change are transforming local economies and ways of life. The papers study a range of exemplary cases, ranging from agricultural micro-insurance in development policy and regional sovereign risk facilities in the Caribbean to public and private insurance in the United States. This framing essay situates these papers in a longer tradition of scholarship on the government of risk and security. It also describes three themes that run through the papers: the economization of climate change; the moral economy of risk and responsibility; and the plasticity of insurance as an abstract technology that may be taken up in various governmental assemblages, in the name of various political projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-typhoidal Salmonellae (NTS) are common foodborne pathogens throughout the world causing acute gastroenteritis. Compared to North America and Europe, there is little information on NTS in the Caribbean. Here we investigated the prevalence and characteristics of NTS present in the local poultry of the Cayman Islands to determine the public health risk. In total, we collected 156 samples. These were made up of boot swabs of 31 broiler farms and 31 layer farms (62 samples), paper bedding from 45 imported chick boxes, and 49 pooled cecum samples from feral chickens, each sample representing 10 individual chickens. Salmonella was isolated using the ISO 6579 protocol and isolates were characterized using Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) analysis. Eighteen Salmonella isolates were obtained and comprised six S. enterica subspecies enterica serotypes and one subspecies houtenae serotype. Serotypes were: S. Kentucky (n = 9), S. Saintpaul (n = 5), S. Javiana (n = 1), S. Senftenberg (n = 1), S. Poona (n = 1) and S. Agona (n = 1). S. Kentucky strains were all ST152 and clonally related to poultry strains from the United states. S. Saintpaul ST50 strains showed clonality to North American strains. Over half of the strains (n = 11) contained resistance genes to at least two antibiotic groups and five strains were MDR, mainly those from imported day-old chicks. The blaCMY-2 gene was found in S. Kentucky from day-old chicks. Strains from feral poultry had no acquired AMR genes. While serotypes from feral poultry have been identified in human infections, they pose minimal risk due to their low virulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russia–Ukraine conflict has caused a global food security crisis, impacting sustainable development goals. Predicting the crisis's impact on food security is crucial for global stability by 2030. From a macro-perspective, this paper constructs a food security evaluation indicator system and a food security composite index (FSCI), and using the autoregressive integrated moving average model to predict the variations in the FSCI for different regions of the world from 2023 to 2030 under scenarios with or without the "Russia–Ukraine conflict." By quantitatively analyzing the differences in these variations, the potential impact of the conflict on regional food security is assessed. The results conclude that the global food security level progressively improved over the past 20 years. The FSCI in Europe, Latin America and Caribbean increased at a faster pace than the global average, with growth rates of 0.035/(10 years) and 0.034/(10 years), respectively. However, the FSCI in the Sub-Saharan Africa showed a declining trend. By 2030, it is expected that the Russia–Ukraine conflict will have a significant impact on the food security of Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, with a contribution of 1.49% and 0.29%, respectively. However, the impact of the conflict on food security levels in Asia and Latin America and Caribbean is relatively small. This study introduces a new quantitative method to assess and project the overall influence of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on food security. The findings contribute crucial scientific support for effectively evaluating and monitoring the sustainable development objectives related to global food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates on the idea of the epistemology of ignorance developed in Charles Mills's work beginning in the 1980s and continuing throughout his writings. I I argue that his account developed initially from experiences of racism in north America as well as certain methods of organizing within parts of the Caribbean left. Essentially the epistemic practice of ignorance causes knowers to discredit or push away knowledge they in fact have. But this gives us cause for hope, for restoring existing knowledge through changing ideas about who knows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean populations face increased displacement, dispossession and debt burdens due to shocks related to climate change. As the major neighbouring power that is the most significant historical contributor to global warming, the United States has persistently deflected from this responsibility. Instead, its climate plans are weaponized to target potential climate refugees who constitute a 'national security threat' and are faced with risks of premature death. These policies also aim to create green capitalist peripheries following racial capitalist logics. The paper contends that US climate interventions and policies increase the likelihood of Black dispossession within Caribbean societies. These policies commit to supporting so-called 'left-behind' white communities in need of a 'just transition', while Caribbean racialized subjects are not as equally deserving. To explain this, the paper examines major climate policies, in particular the recent Congressional Climate Action Plan of the US House of Representatives and President Biden's climate proposals. It juxtaposes policy claims against political actions and racial capitalist historiography of the United States, especially its past treatment of climate refugees from the Caribbean. This analysis shows the persistent ways in which US climate policies advance organized abandonment and a neocolonial relationship predicated on an unjust system of racial capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, we are held to live in the Anthropocene, bringing to an end modern binary imaginaries, such as the separation between Human and Nature, and with them Western assumptions of progress, linear causality and human exceptionalism. Much Western critical theory, from new or vital materialism to post‐ and more‐than‐human thinking, unsurprisingly reflects this internal crisis of faith in Eurocentric or Enlightenment reasoning. At the same time, a radically different critique of modernity has gained prominence in recent years, emerging from critical Black studies, which places the Caribbean at the centre of the development of a new and distinct mode of critical thought. In attempting to grasp the ways in which Caribbean thought and practice have been seen to enable a distinctive alternative non‐Eurocentric imaginary, this paper heuristically sets out a paradigmatic framing of 'abyssal geography'. We emphasize two key points. The first is that abyssal thought is not grounded in abstract and timeless philosophical assumptions but figuratively draws upon aspects of Caribbean practices of resistance and survival, for example, from the Middle Passage, Plantation, carnival, creolization, dance forms and speculative fiction. The second is that abyssal work engages the legacies of modernity and coloniality by explicitly seeking to question the lure of ontology: seeking to disrupt, suspend and to problematize the modern project of the human and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is a recurrent and well-known cardiovascular event and a leading cause of death worldwide. We identified reliable epidemiological evidence of stroke in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and estimated the prevalence and incidence of stroke, overall and by sex, in that region. A systematic search in OVID (Medline, Embase and Global Health) and in the Latin America and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS) until the end of 2020 was made for all cross-sectional or longitudinal studies estimating (or allowing the estimation of) the prevalence or incidence of stroke among individuals of the general population ≥ 18 years from LAC countries. No language restriction was applied. Studies were assessed for methodological quality and risk of bias. Pooled estimates were calculated using random effect meta-analysis as high heterogeneity was expected. A total of 31 papers for prevalence and 11 papers for incidence were included in the review for analysis. The overall pooled stroke prevalence was 32 (95% CI 26–38) per 1000 subjects and were similar among men (21; 95% CI 17–25) and women (20; 95% CI 16–23) per 1000 subjects. The overall pooled stroke incidence was 255 (95% CI 217–293) per 100 000 person-years, being higher in men (261; 95% CI 221–301) compared to women (217; 95% CI 184–250) per 100 000 person-years. Our results highlight the relevance of the prevalence and incidence of stroke in the LAC region. The estimates were similar in stroke prevalence by sex, but with higher incidence rates among males than females. Subgroup analyses highlight the need for standardized methodologies to obtain appropriate prevalence and incidence estimates at the population level in a region with a great burden of cardiovascular events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper sets out to characterize the publication dynamics of collaborative research partnerships between Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean (EULAC) region in the last forty years. We adopt two approaches when analysing data based on the following assumptions: (1) Collaboration is characterized by a central relationship established between researchers from one LAC and one EU institution. (2) Bi-regional collaboration is characterized by a series of scientific publications forged with different scientists and institutions. The objective of this review is to draw a map of the EULAC bi-regional co-publications divided into key areas of knowledge and the countries with more straight or weak scientific collaboration. In our results, we have observed how many studies are focused in emergent areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing presence and impact of predominantly female online influencers suggests the proliferation of a cultural phenomenon that characterizes the social aspects of our digital lives. Working with the notion of gender and maker literacies, this paper shines light on newer forms of making practices by looking at influencer cultures of five popular online social media platforms. Situating the research in a Caribbean context, this paper examines the "influencer culture" by looking at the platformized literacy practices of four Caribbean female influencers and using the concepts of literacy sponsorship and creolization as lenses through which to view the interrelationships and accompanying practices between the influencers and their local and global followers. The paper argues that social media platforms are strategically curated digital-maker spaces that influencers use to shift and change literacy practices and perspectives related to gender, language, and culture. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that these influencers' sponsorship of creolized literacies is reflected in their power to enact social change and transformation through advocacy, consciousness, and community-building. The paper concludes by considering the potential for such social actors and their digital-making practices to influence our contemporary global sociocultural and educational landscapes.

Piracy was once known and remembered as a treacherous and terrifying act in the Caribbean. As these bands of thieves and killers, hungry for the temporary pleasures of life, plundered the surrounding nations, devastation, and fear filled the lives of many who lived near these coastal regions. These feared pirates that lived and plundered for centuries have become romanticized images that take over Halloween stores, Disney films, birthday parties, and children's books. The idolized pirate naturally becomes geared towards children. This paper will look at romanticized pirate literature as well as accurate pirate literature that can be present in classrooms today to give children the opportunity to live in a completely different universe yet simultaneously learn about the heavy history that impacted the seas long ago. In addition, this paper will provide teachers and parents alike curriculum opportunities to teach children about accurate piracy by technology. Through this paper, educators will have the ability to recognize the moments when children can live in fantasy and the moments when children can learn a new piece of history so that piracy is not a discouraging topic, but an enhanced one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a narrative dataset constructed by David and Leigh (A new action-based dataset of fiscal consolidation in latin America and the caribbean, IMF Working paper 18/94, 2018) for annual fiscal consolidation shocks, this paper estimates the dynamic effects of fiscal consolidations on income inequality from Jordá's (Am Econo Rev 95:161–82, (2005)) local projections method for nine South American economies in the 1991–2017 period. By decomposing fiscal shocks, the baseline results suggest that spending-based fiscal consolidations significantly increase the Gini index, while tax-based fiscal consolidations do not show statistically significant effects on income inequality. The Gini index for disposable income rises 2.48% in eight years after a spending-based fiscal adjustment of 1% of GDP. The magnitude of this effect is higher than in most of the previous studies carried out for OECD countries. Our main finding for the impact of spending-based fiscal consolidation on inequality in the medium run is robust when using alternative control variables, lag structures, country samples, and the Cyclically Adjusted Primary Balance strategy for identifying the fiscal shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) constitute an overarching global milestone for creating a better sustainable future worldwide. The risk component of the agenda under the SFDRR must be better embedded into the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and integrating disaster risk management policy with broader development objectives at national and subnational levels in many countries is still a work in progress. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the progress between the SDGs and the SFDRR in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and its complementary features Design/methodology/approach: Comprehensive and contextualized analyses of the progress of SFDRR and SDGs related to the LAC region need to be fully addressed to examine synergies and trade-offs with the two global agendas. Based on empirical evidence from United Nations global reports, a literature review of DRR and DRM, as well as development planning evidence, this paper addresses the implications of building coherence between the SDGs and the SFDRR in the region. Findings: Interplay and connections of the two agendas are highlighted together with an analysis of coherence among indicators. Despite the richness of several indicators, the examined evidence suggests that derived from the current progress, indicators are unable to completely reflect the dynamics among disaster risk drivers for both the SFDRR and the SDGs in the region. Research limitations/implications: Data availability at UNIDSR as well as at the regional level can limit the scope of the research. When comparing and matching the agendas, results could be further improved upon new releases of data. SFDRR and SDGs have also ground for improvement and countries are doing well but still slow. Practical implications: The paper offers new insights and findings for decision/policy makers in Latina America and the Caribbean. Originality/value: The paper offers an overall understanding of the progress and coherence among SFDRR and SDGs global frameworks and provides insights to identify the gaps and opportunities that need to be addressed to integrate disaster risk reduction into sustainable development planning at national and regional scales in LAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the spatial politics of the Bermudian Black Power movement and its connections to Black Power political formations in the wider Caribbean and North America. This spatial politics is examined in detail through an engagement with the First Regional International Black Power Conference (BPC) held in Bermuda on 10–13 July 1969 and the subsequent Black Power political activity on the island that the conference inspired. Through this engagement it is shown how the island of Bermuda and its black population were constitutive of transnational circulations of radical Black Power, and aligned thinkers and activists. This paper develops a reading of a politics of Black Power on the island as challenging hegemonic geographies and political spatialities of white supremacy through the envisioning of alternative, decolonial futures and a resultant pre‐figurative political praxis. Such a reading is built on the theory of West Indian scholars David Scott and Brian Meeks and the spatial ontology of Doreen Massey. D. Scott and Meeks have been key contributors to Caribbean critical thought for many decades, with D. Scott the long‐time editor of the Caribbean studies journal Small Axe, and both have been concerned with post and de‐colonial politics in the region and the role of temporality and historiography in conceptualisations of the Modern Caribbean and Jamaica in particular. This paper offers an exploration of a decolonial spatial politics and political praxis, through the theory of post‐colonial Caribbean intellectuals, that foregrounds the agentive and insurgent capacity of Black Power as a political movement in the imagining and pre‐figuration of emancipatory futures beyond hegemonic geographies of white supremacy, (neo)colonialism, and (neo)imperialism. This paper engages with the First Regional International Black Power Conference held in Bermuda in July 1969. Through examining the Conference and its afterlives, I foreground the decolonial spatial politics, praxis, and vision of Bermudian Black Power and its opposition to British imperialism, colonial rule, and transnational capitalist exploitation. I situate Bermuda within the broader context of the West Indian Black Power movement that I suggest represented a divergent decolonial trajectory to that of mainstream post‐colonial nationalisms in the region and the continued influence of (neo)colonial powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the print strategies of Britain's first Black editor, S. J. Celestine Edwards (1857?–1894), during his tenure at the antiracist journal, Fraternity. I show how Edwards capitalized on "scissors-and-paste" methods to articulate connections between minoritizing processes in British colonies and the US, thus formulating a theory of Anglo-Saxonism as a power relation reproduced across empires. Via the pages of Fraternity, Edwards reassembled this inter-imperial formation as an antiracist one, relying on reprints from the African American and British colonial press. Building on Caroline Bressey, I argue that Edwards extended the journal's function as a "relay station" for the colonial and African American press to his readers, whom he charged with memorizing and ventriloquizing Fraternity, and hailed as walking, talking issues of his paper. His directives to recirculate already reprinted texts inducted readers into an imagined community whose membership refracted across multiple publications rather than centered on one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper critically assesses debt as a response to ecological, fiscal, and climate disasters that have emerged within the 'blue economy' agenda in the Caribbean. Caribbean countries routinely suffer major losses of life, internal social and economic displacement, increased debt burdens, and significant economic damages due to hurricanes and ecological disasters in the context of an ongoing fiscal crisis. In response, regional public and national agencies have proposed 'blue economy' initiatives to address the regional need for finance, to rejuvenate financial flows, and to compensate for extremely constrained fiscal resources and externally imposed austerity (or debt bondage). Major recent hurricanes and ecological shocks illustrate uneven and interconnected spatial histories of anti‐Black dispossession, disenfranchisement, and deprivation, offering important empirical terrain from which to appreciate how contemporary 'disasters' have become new means to extend hierarchical plantation formations to the seascape through debt‐driven finance and austerity. The paper demonstrates the ways in which coercive financial instruments like catastrophe insurance, debt swaps, 'blue bonds', and traditional public debt constitute tools to further integrate these societies differentially into racialised financial geographies and entrench a coloniality of being. As traditional plantation structures become exhausted and lack capacity to effectively ensure growth, these innovative finance mechanisms are required for 'blue' accumulation. We situate spiralling debt burdens and these new instruments spurred by socially produced and postcolonial disasters within postplantation ecologies that describe socio‐political relations and spatial dependencies linked to interwoven logics of disaster‐based financial capitalism that seek to extend the extractive capacity of the plantation anew. These arrangements tend to naturalise and render disaster, death, and debt as ordinary events and obligations arising from postcolonial statehood, and take for granted their origins in racialised plantation structures. Climate and fiscal crises currently characterise the Caribbean and place major pressure on the region's limited sovereignties. To address these problems, Caribbean actors have proposed a number financialised products, such as 'blue bonds', catastrophe insurance, and debt‐for‐nature swaps and associated governance arrangements, to develop the blue economy. These configurations and relations deepen what I call the post‐plantation ecology, by intensifying extraction commodification, and exploitation of racialized labour towards 'blue' accumulation within the context of conditional sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatio‐legal dynamics of marine protected areas and their relation to socio‐environmental justice. It adopts a critical legal geography perspective to unpack ocean lawscape configurations triggered by territorial claims, the international mechanisms for maritime boundary‐making, and state sovereignty instruments. It is empirically focused on the Seaflower marine biosphere reserve, a protected area amid a geopolitical contestation between Nicaragua and Colombia in the southwestern Caribbean. By analysing its spatio‐legal history over two decades (2000–2021), the paper sheds light on the marine legalities of this region, which are often contradictory and overlapping. Focusing on the marine lawscape of Colombia, it explores the relationship between protected areas and marine territorialisation, also reflecting on the governance regimes' effects on indigenous livelihoods and marine biodiversity. The paper concludes that (i) marine protected areas are regularly being disrupted, re‐bordered, and reconfigured by the international ocean regimes governing the oceans; (ii) the link between the creation and management of marine protected areas and territorial jurisdiction compromises social and environmental justice, and (iii) inclusion of indigenous legalities might enhance equity and sustainability in ocean governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of military edifices in Spanish Caribbean was overseen by engineers, as previous studies have largely shown, but forced labor played a key role in the processes, an understudied aspect. Hundreds of enslaved workers in San Juan de Puerto Rico or San Juan de Ulúa (Veracruz, Mexico) and thousands in Havana (Cuba) helped create the built environment of the Spanish empire in the eighteenth century yet both their significant physical presences and housing situations have not been discussed at large. Furthermore, general maintenance of these structures was one of the duties of military engineers serving in Spanish Caribbean and, thus, archival material should be rich in describing this aspect, yet very few plans or reports offer any information concerning enslaved workers' habitations, apart from Havana's galeras and some sections of San Juan de Ulúa, both unpublished until now. Recognizing that Spanish authorities paid little attention to the lodgings of their enslaved workers, this paper considers the forms of structures created by enslaved peoples for their lodgings. Through examples discussed in Havana and for San Juan de Ulúa, this study demonstrates that European architectural traditions were eschewed in favor of native and, likely, African customs. These examples offer unique insights into enslaved peoples' living environments and expand our discussions into how race contributed to the diversity of architectural practices in the early modern Iberian world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crustal magnetic anomaly maps over oceanic regions are based largely on marine trackline surveys. These surveys, collected from the 1950s to the present, span a wide range of data quality and reliability. We discuss a methodology for constructing grids from these data with associated cell by cell estimates of grid uncertainty. The method is tested with a modern airborne survey for a representative region in the eastern Caribbean. The results are promising, producing an uncertainty estimate that is accurate to one standard deviation for the test area. As magnetic anomaly maps and grids are increasingly applied as constraints for geologic interpretation as well as for alternative navigation (e.g., navigation by magnetic field patterns in the absence of GPS), it is important to quantify the accuracy of these maps. Plain Language Summary: It is challenging to make maps of the variations in the Earth's magnetic field, called crustal magnetic anomalies, caused by the distribution of magnetic minerals in oceanic areas. The reason for this is that the best available data for most marine areas is from ship‐based measurements collected over many decades, from the 1950s to the present. The spatial distribution of these marine survey tracklines is highly variable as is their original data quality and reliability. Previous grids and maps constructed from marine trackline data have not included systematic estimation of the grid/map uncertainty. At best, earlier maps have included generalized statements about the estimated mean uncertainty. In this study, we present a methodology for estimating the crustal magnetic anomaly and the associated uncertainty from marine trackline data. The method is evaluated using a modern airborne survey of a test area in the eastern Caribbean, an area surrounding St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Key Points: Marine crustal magnetic anomaly maps are typically constructed from trackline data with variable uncertainties and spatial configurationsThis paper presents a methodology for creating data grids with associated cell by cell uncertainty from marine trackline dataThe method is tested against newly collected modern airborne magnetic data [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the special issue focused on Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C), featuring five papers penned by local authors. Reviewing Voluntas journal's main topics concerning LA&C as grassroots movements within civil society, the third sector including its definitions and institutional context, philanthropy, and volunteer work. After organizing these discussions, we summarize the five papers included in this special issue. We connect these papers with broader debates in the LA&C literature and emphasize their unique contributions. A significant amount of the LA&C research relies on case studies. We advocate for increased usage of local databases to conduct quantitative studies. Furthermore, while most theoretical models use non-local frameworks, we encourage research that presents fresh theoretical viewpoints to enrich the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability requires a combination of meaningful co-production of locally relevant solutions, synthesis of insights gained across regions, and increased cooperation between science, policy and practice. The Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) has been coordinating Place-Based Social-Ecological Sustainability Research (PBSESR) across the globe and emphasizes the need for regional scientific nodes from diverse biocultural regions to inform sustainability science and action. In this paper, we assess the strengths of the PBSESR communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We provide an overview of PBSESR literature associated with this region and highlight the achievements of two prominent regional networks: The Social-Ecological Systems and Sustainability Research Network from Mexico (SocioEcoS) and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies from Uruguay (SARAS Institute). Finally, we identify the potential in these nodes to constitute a regional PECS node in Latin America and discuss the capacity needed to ensure such function. The results of the literature review show that while still loosely interconnected across the region, networks play key roles in connecting otherwise cloistered teams and we illustrate how the SocioEcoS network (focusing on transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge towards sustainability) and the SARAS Institute (focusing on innovative approaches for looking at complex social-ecological problems, rooted in slow science and arts) operate as key connectors in the region. We conclude that these organizations combined can embody a Latin American node for PECS, and would thereby not only contribute to regional but also global capacities to advance the sustainability agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]