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Over the past decade, Mexican climate policy has captured worldwide attention for its ambition and level of commitment to international goals. Mexico was one of the first countries to adopt a climate change act, the 2012 General Law on Climate Change (referred to as the Mexican Climate Act, MCA). However, Mexico has been unable to fulfil its self-imposed climate goals and the innovative national climate legislation has only produced limited results. By assessing the functioning of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Climate Change (CICC) and the National System on Climate Change (SINACC), this article analyses how and why climate policy fragmentation occurs during MCA implementation. This paper argues that the lack of integration observed in the Mexican case is the result of a dynamic process characterized by multi-level paralysis, which is caused by three interconnected factors: (1) weakness of the Mexican federal system affecting vertical integration of climate policy (CPI); (2) ambiguities in MCA mandates impeding horizontal CPI; and (3) uneven leadership in Mexican climate policy that generates a breach between promises made abroad and actual domestic implementation capacities. The empirical findings of this paper are based upon quantitative and qualitative content analyses applied to the minutes of meetings of both the CICC and the SINACC, together with 22 elite-interviews with officers close to the policy process. This paper concludes that if there is a blueprint for organizing the Mexican administrative system, it has to start with rethinking the role of climate federalism. Key policy insights Mexican climate policy suffers from policy fragmentation and administrative instruments conceived for integration are not functioning properly. A reform of both is needed. Three interconnected factors generate policy fragmentation in Mexico: weakness of the Mexican federal system affecting collaboration across levels of government (vertical CPI); ambiguities in MCA mandates impeding coordination (horizontal CPI); and uneven leadership that generates a breach between the promises made abroad and actual domestic implementation capacities. Mexico has to rethink the role of climate federalism. The country adopted a model not suitable to its political and administrative culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis 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.)

Instead of focusing on "why voters appear to tolerate rather than punish" as most previous literature, this paper advances an alternative explanation: it seeks to explain how voters process information about corruption. Consistent with research on public opinion formation, this paper argues that voters can perceive the same event and make different interpretation about its meaning. Based on an original survey experiment conducted during the 2018 presidential election in Mexico, this study finds that citizens hold partisan attitudes and are motivated to protect these partisan predispositions, which make them interpret common events in different way. In particular, when this study informed voters that an unnamed candidate engaged in corruption, respondents unequivocally considered such actions as corrupt. However, when the name of their co-partisan candidate was explicitly mentioned as engaging in the same activities, voters rejected to qualify them as corrupt. Partisans are not "tolerating" or "condoning" corruption; partisans tend to choose interpretations that rationalize their partisan priors and justify their co-partisans' behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) is a psychedelic and entheogenic compound that has been used for centuries by Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon, Caribbean, and more recently in communities in Northern Mexico in ceremonial practices and to connect with nature. In recent years, there has been growing interest in 5-MeO-DMT to treat mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In response, there has been an increase in scientific research of the efficacy of 5-MeO-DMT in treating such conditions. Little is known about the compound's historical use; this paper will explore and examine the known writings about the origins and original use of 5-MeO-DMT. Additionally, this paper will present the limited data and accounts regarding the use of 5-MeO-DMT and the intersection of those accounts in historical and cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International production networks in machinery industry have formed three large clusters, each of which is in East Asia, North America, and Europe. This paper investigates the recent evolvement of the connection between Factory Asia and Factory North America with highlighting the role of Latin American countries as a mediator. For this purpose, we utilized trade matrices and gravity equations to measure each country's level of commitment to each bilateral machinery trade after controlling the size of the economies, distance, and others. Our major findings are threefold: first, Mexico is the only Latin American country that plays a connecting role between two Factories. Second, in 2010–2019, the linkage of exports to Mexico from not only China but also other East Asian countries is strengthened particularly in machinery parts and components. Third, export linkage of China with Mexico is further intensified in 2019–2021 particularly in machinery parts and components due to the US-China confrontation, the USMCA, and other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with Latin America countries experienced a process of significant expansion over the past two decades. Even though Latin America was not considered as part of the BRI when it was first established, China designed its economic strategy toward the region by emphasizing investment, financial and industrial capacity cooperation, besides trade. Afterwards, China invited Latin American countries to participate in the BRI at the China–Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Ministerial Forum in Santiago in January 2018. Twenty-one Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have signed up to the BRI. However, there are few LAC countries that have not done so, among them the region's largest economies such as Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, although Brazil is with full AIIB membership. This paper focuses on the specific economic relations between China and Mexico, as far as Mexico is the less involved LA country into the BRI, and Mexico's position toward China is more aligned with that of its North American partners than to the Latin American countries. This article analyzes the specific situation of Mexico, characterized by its deep integration and dependency on the US market and examines the current economic relations of China and Mexico, considering the impact of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement on the bilateral economic relations. The structure of bilateral trade between Mexico and China is also examined, using the Grubel-Lloyd Index (GLI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis 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.)

In September 2017, two strong earthquakes hit the central region of Mexico, producing substantial damage to the historical buildings. A retroactive analysis for assessing the pre-event seismic vulnerability of these constructions allowed for testing the suitability of an existing parameter-based approach based on material and geometrical features. More than 160 adobe buildings in four municipalities of the State of Morelos were surveyed and included in a vulnerability-oriented GIS database. Data were collected on-site and managed by resorting to open-source GIS software combined with a Python-based database management tool and a cloud-based platform for onsite data collection using mobile devices. The parameter-based approach was used for assessing the analytical seismic vulnerability of the buildings and implementing a secondary, more conservative assessment that considers uncertainties associated with the data acquisition process. The capabilities of the database were further used to train a Machine Learning algorithm aimed at overcoming some representativeness limitations of the parameter-based analytical method. This third approach was found to be suitable for assessing the vulnerability of the building typologies addressed in this investigation. Although the implementation discussed in this paper is limited to a specific vernacular typology, it can be used to conduct customized local calibrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical reflection on the ways extractive industries manifest within and across place. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Mexico over 8 months in 2019–2020, this paper focuses on the experiences of residents living in a town adjacent to an underground silver mine in Valles Centrales, Oaxaca, Mexico. I argue that a focus on lived, sensory and long-term engagement between people and mining opens new avenues for geographers to consider 'what mining does'. Looking beyond the language of 'impacts', I build upon work on cultural geographies of presence and absence to put forward the notion of 'mining presence': mining's present and absent affects and materialities that interweave with residents' everyday lives, homes, bodies, and landscapes. In other words, I explore the qualities of mining that bring the San José mine into a neighbouring town and mediate spaces of daily life. In doing so, this paper contributes to the geographies of the extractive industries by showing that attention to life with mining requires a re-thinking of the spatiotemporal relations of extraction itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the leadership implications of adopting the European Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) in a non-European context. A multiple case study compares the Latin American regions of Medellín, Colombia, and San Luis Potosí, Mexico. A variety of data collection procedures are used, including in-depth interviews with 33 relevant actors from the triple helix that participated in the S3 design. The paper contributes to the literature by identifying the leadership capabilities that lead to effective S3 in intermediate metropolitan regions, as well as the factors that foster and hinder those leadership capabilities. This paper argues that the leadership roles for S3 include a systemic perspective among a wide range of stakeholders, but also an evolutionary perspective to manage novelty and break path dependencies. Second, it argues that the degree of centralization and institutional context affect regional leadership. Finally, four leadership capabilities are suggested based on both systemic and evolutionary perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the relationship between bicycle travel and gender relations in changing social contexts? How can socio-cultural research contribute to a nuanced analysis of women and cycling without relying on universalizing translations? Drawing from intersectional feminist ethnography and decolonial theory, this paper complicates certain generalizations about the relationship between women and bicycling. Through a reconstructive approach to Mexican history, it examines the bicycle's changing roles and meanings as well as the ways that women confront gender stereotypes on and off of the bicycle. This paper aims to resituate diverse women's experiences in local cycling histories and current planning agendas. It posits the need for greater attention to the complex social processes that enable and restrict bicycle travel, engendering multiple and at times conflicting meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from an ethnographic study with U.S.-born children who had relocated to their parents' hometowns in Mexico, we engaged transborder and dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit) frameworks to understand the compounding, deterritorialized ways undocumentedness and dis/ability shape educational experiences across borders. In this article, we focus on the experiences of two familias and argue that a transborder DisCrit framing is necessary to reveal how undocumented parents advocate and dream across disjunctures in search of access to educational supports and humanizing futures for their children with dis/abilities across the countries they call home. Findings reveal how intersecting forms of undocumentedness, or exclusion from papers for access and belonging, constrained families' access to movement across geopolitical borders, schooling and health-care institutions, and documented diagnoses needed to access learning supports. In the implications, we explore what approaches to policy, education, and research might look like if they centered the experiences, subaltern knowledges, and humanizing dreams of transborder parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on equestrian sports, including horseracing, has been developed in contexts in the Global North. This has led to a narrow perspective of what horseracing is and means in different historical and sociocultural contexts. This paper extends this reach through considering informal horseracing events in Mexico. Based on understanding gender as a 'doing' rather than a 'being', and as an integral part of all social practices and identities, the races are examined as leisure events that function as sites through which masculinities are performed and (re)produced. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the horseracing events are identified as spaces in which male-male interactions provide opportunity for men to perform culturally hegemonic norms of masculinity, against a backdrop of shifting economic and social practices that are affecting wider gender relations in Mexico. Although women also have a presence in horseracing, they play a marginal role within the events which celebrate and foreground male homosociality. Masculinities are performed and validated predominantly through male-male interactions and expressions of male dominance over the horses. This paper thus illustrates the importance of gender to understanding different leisure practices and the significance of social and cultural context to examining leisure generally and equestrian sports specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon an abundance of theoretical literature describing the role of deportation in the assertion of nation-state sovereignty, this article asks how deportees experience state sovereignty. Its conclusions are informed by an 'ethnography of removal' drawing on 62 interviews with 25 Mexican deportees interviewed in their communities of origin in Oaxaca after '3D' (detection, detention and deportation) removal. Acknowledging deportation as an example of legal violence, the paper describes various other types of violence (physical, structural and symbolic; executed by state agents, private contractors, other deportees, criminal organisations, and communities of origin) that produce US sovereignty at the level of individual experience. '3D' deportation causes suffering, embarrassment and fear. The paper shows how US borders are externalised on the micro and meso level without the involvement of state actors as deportees, invested with a new governmentality after being violently deported, exercise border controls over themselves and refrain from returning to the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to deepening insights on social media in agricultural research by presenting a case study on how a research and education centre in Mexico connected, communicated, and interacted in a research and education community on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach – By using a Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach, 1585 tweets were analysed. The data was gathered using NodeXL. Afterwards, SNA was performed through the igraph R package. Findings – The dynamic of virtual interaction around an agricultural research and education centre shows that different roles are needed to connect and foster the interaction on Twitter, as well as to spread information broader. While some accounts are functioning as creators of information, others act as consumers and diffusers of it, and a few more accounts play both roles. Practical Implications – To increase the size and strengthen the interaction of a network on Twitter, it is advisable to have the support of other accounts and to promote its use among potential users. This requires capabilities to develop a social media strategy and pro-actively engage new followers. Theoretical Implications – Through a SNA approach, it is possible to understand better the functions of weak and strong ties in virtual settings, i.e. the former to extend the network, and the latter to strengthen it. These ties can enhance information dissemination and enable exchanges on social media. Originality/value – This paper applies SNA as a theoretical and methodological framework to demonstrate that the interactions among users are different when a whole network is analysed, and when it is divided into the mentions and retweets networks. By doing this, hidden patterns are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the planning challenges faced in addressing equity? This paper discusses the importance of understanding institutional and policy contexts affecting planners' efforts to close water access gaps across communities in low and middle income countries. Three challenges combined complicate local governments action towards water access: decentralization of water policy, high levels of inequality and low levels of local capacity, what we call the 'impossible triad.' Our analysis of two programmes designed to address the needs of the most marginalized communities in Mexico shows that programme requirements still fail to consider local constraints. Prior to decentralization, policies designed to reduce water access inequality relied on national government provision of municipal water infrastructure. Decentralized water policies differ, presenting severe institutional challenges for even the most well intentioned planners. This paper emphasizes the importance of national-level government involvement in addressing national-level inequalities and calls for reconsideration of decentralized policymaking structures to address massive water access inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the recent increase in Australian students undertaking study abroad opportunities, an effect of a neoliberal society, there has been a plethora of literature in this area with the extant literature focusing on students’ motivations and subsequent benefits of exchange. This paper examines how the capital acquired during intercultural experiences are performed by Australian exchange students. Interviewed before, during, and after Mexican sojourns, the students initially (re)produced a stylized pastiche of ‘Mexico’. Made in urban Australia, this imaginary comprises Frida-Kahlo themed restaurants and Dayof-the-Dead exotica. As a result of geographic distance and limited migration from Mexico, Mexicanidad in Australia operates as a vacant conceptual category into which ‘cool’ yearnings can be inscribed. Despite problematizing their pre-departure constructions at times, the students continued to employ this version of Mexicanidad in their performance of the role of Mexican expert, in Mexico and on their return. This article theorises the functions of such identity performances, proposing that exchange experiences, and the intercultural capital they acquire, serve as a method by which students can construct and perform transnational identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis 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.)

Worldwide, it is widely recognized that violent conflicts constrain economic growth and development. Thus, it is necessary to research and analyse the main causes of violence and their relationship with development. This paper analyses how violence has affected economic development in the Mexican context during the 2000–2015 period. It takes into account that in the last decade, this country has had increased levels of violence, especially since the 'war on drugs' against drug trafficking was promulgated in 2006. This study uses different econometric models that apply the assessments of the panel unit root and cointegration tests and panel cointegration estimation. The results indicate that the tests used to validate the data allow the panel data cointegration relationships to be calculated. They demonstrate the existence of a long-run relationship between violence and economic development. Specifically, the results take into account that gross domestic product per capita and public investments have inverse relationships with the homicide rate, whereas poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and the Gini index have direct relationships with the homicide rate. Moreover, violence is strongly related to the deterrence variables. The findings of this study demonstrate that drug trafficking explains the increased violence in Mexico. Thus, it is important to develop and formulate adequate policies to control this situation, take measures to control violence starting with its root causes and promote social and economic development with a strategy to strengthen legal activities in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. support for border enforcement in Mexico has been ongoing for decades, but in 2014, after the arrival of unprecedented numbers of Central American minors and families to the U.S., even greater pressure was placed on Mexico to seal its border with Guatemala. This paper explores the resulting tensions between Mexican border enforcement policies outlined under Programa Frontera Sur, intended to tighten security and surveillance in the south of the country, and Mexico's 2011 Migration Law, intended to facilitate the protection of migrants' rights. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how the borders of the Mexican state are maintained through the (il)legibility of administrative rules and procedures in the context of conflicting immigration agendas. Specifically, this paper explores the precarious paths to legal protection via regularización de estancia por razones humanitarias, a temporary legal status granted to victims of grave crimes. It traces applicants' circuitous trajectories through bureaucratic processes and evolving enforcement landscapes, noting the costs and contingencies involved in making claims 'legitimate' and legible in the eyes of the state. This paper also brings attention to the positioning of migrant shelters at the margins of state inclusion, where formal and informal mobilities often intersect. As a feminist geopolitical study of state bordering practices, this research is useful in understanding lived impacts and responses to more recent strategies of administrative border enforcement, including the MPP and Title 42 programs. [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]

The aim of the paper is to present a hypothesis of upgrading within global value chains (GVCs). In Stage I, both backward and forward linkages are low at lower level of productivity growth, but it provides 'window of opportunity' to increase participation in GVC. Firms enter Stage II with increasingly backward linkages. Only those firms with enough accumulated technological capabilities for transforming into high value-added activities participates in GVC with increasingly forward linkages in Stage III. In Stage IV, both backward and forward linkages again decrease, albeit at a higher level of productivity growth, wherein the firms manage production processes fragmented at different locations. This hypothesis of 'upgrading within GVC in four stages' is verified while examining the pattern of backward and forward linkages of global electronics industry with a specific focus on the electronics industry of South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. It was found that the electronics industry of South Korea and Taiwan exhibited the pattern of 'upgrading within GVC in four stages' while Mexican electronics industry got caught in the 'Stage II' or 'low value-added trap'. The proposition is examined from technological capability-building aspects of the systems of innovation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale/Purpose: In June 2018 FIFA awarded the 2026 Men's Football World Cup tournament to a transnational bid comprising the United States, Canada and Mexico. We explore this moment of historical conjuncture to understand the interplay of football, SME processes, geopolitical symbolism, and legacy craft. Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on a critical document analysis of bid material, media reports, economic analysis, and secondary evaluation, we analyse how the United As One bid's core legacy tenets of certainty, opportunity and unity produced a complex narrative of economic, sporting, and political harmony and prosperity. Findings: We contend that while the bid employs common legacy tropes and axioms, United As One exposes the sustained fallacies implicit within bid constructions and paucity of legacy as a currency in the future of SME enterprise. Practical Implications: Stakeholder alliances are fundamental to sport mega-event bidding. Yet, collaborations are politically complex as each party balances benefits and risks. Accordingly, this paper forewarns all bid actors to be cogniscent of the roles they may play within the symbolism and rhetoric of bid construction. Research Contribution: Beyond the context of football, this paper adds new insights to ways sport megaevent bid visions fuse economic, socio-cultural, and public health advancement rhetoric to consolidate and masque persuasive host and legacy agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Mexico's relationship with the World Cup, from 1930 to 2018. Though a regular competitor, having missed very few final tournaments, Mexico failed to deliver remarkable results. The country is mostly known as a two-time host of World Cups, with a third experience scheduled for 2026. The paper delineates two periods in the history of Mexico's attendance to World Cups: 1930–1990 and 1990 to nowadays. The first was best summarized by disappointing defeats, administrative chaos, and precarious football style. The second is described by an uninterrupted string of qualifications systematically stumbling in the round of 16. Mexico's successful bids for hosting World Cup came because of a long-term strategy encompassing business interests, government support and capacity of permeating the inner circles of decision-making within FIFA. Mexico is perceived by most Central-North American and Caribbean rivals as an arrogant team and any victory against them is appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines recent transformations in music industries associated with platformization by privileging the perspectives, experiences, and voices of artists. We draw on in-depth interviews with 41 musicians based in two Latin American countries: Costa Rica and Mexico. We analyze how artists perceive the "power" and limitations of playlists, how they think playlists are transforming music industries, and how they associate various forms of pressure with this process. We then show that artists' perceptions about these issues are not uniform but rather variable by discussing three logics that shape the meaning they attribute to Spotify and playlists: dominant, oppositional, and negotiated. Finally, the paper explains the factors that account for why musicians in these countries espouse these logics in different ways. The conclusion argues for considering platformization as more than a purely technological process that needs to be situated within the wider national histories and cultural configurations of the music industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudoscorpions can be found in different microhabitats, one of which is moss. In this paper, we report the first records of pseudoscorpions associated with mosses in Mexico. We found three species: Albiorix edentatus, Paratemnoides nidificator and a new species of the genus Cocinachernes which is described below as C. akalchesis sp. nov. The specimens were collected from moss of the genus Bryum. This new species has globose spermathecae with four tubes: two short and two long, with ocular spots in the carapace; trichobothrium distance between t and st is less than the distance of t from the fingertip, Femur L/B ranges from 2.4 to 2.9, tibia from 1.68 to 1.9, chela is 2.9 (without pedicel), and hand (without pedicel) ranges from 2.53 to 2.88; galea short and slightly robust, without divisions in males; anterior operculum with 36 setae long and acuminated, posterior operculum with 20 acuminated setae. This new species represents the second known species of Cocinacheres from Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top-down approaches often fail to involve, collaborate with, and consider social actors in the process of planning, design, and maintenance of public spaces (PDMPS). This research addresses how social participation is included in PDMPS in the Mexican case, by identifying the actors, the level of communication achieved, and their authority and power in the PDMPS process. The paper employs a case study approach, informed by semi-structured interviews. We use a democracy diagram to uncover the diversity of involved actors and how they are involved in the process. We show how government could provide support for social participation to implement participatory processes in PDMPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effects of the extraordinary measures implemented by the Central Bank of Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic on financial conditions. For this purpose, we estimate a factor-augmented vector autoregressive model for the period 2001–2021. Based on this model, we construct a Financial Conditions Index, estimate the response of this indicator and its components from a shock to the outstanding amount of these measures, and conduct a counterfactual exercise to further analyse the effect of the aforementioned measures. The main results indicate that these extraordinary measures seem to have contributed to improve financial conditions. In particular, we find that if these measures had not been implemented, the sovereign risk premium, the 10-year government bond yield, the slope of the yield curve, and the long- and short-term yield spreads between Mexico and the US would have been higher by around 56, 31, 27, 37, and 49 basis points in December 2020, respectively. At the same time, the Mexican peso/US dollar exchange rate and its volatility would have been higher by 5 and 2 percentage points, respectively. In turn, the Mexican stock market index would have been lower by 10 percentage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document calculates targeting performance indicators of electricity subsidies in Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. To do this, beneficiary and benefit incidence indicators are calculated using official household survey data and administrative records on electricity tariffs. In addition, this paper calculates inclusion and exclusion errors in the targeting of electricity subsidies. The results show that the share of poor households that receive the subsidy is very large in Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. However, the distribution of the subsidy is regressive in absolute terms, which implies that most of every dollar spent on keeping electricity prices low will benefit the wealthiest households. This document also finds large inclusion errors suggesting that an important share of the non-poor is also benefiting from the subsidy. These results shed light on the evaluation of electricity subsidies in the region to improve targeting and optimisation of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between drug-related detentions for possession or petty dealing and drug-related violence. Two theoretical mechanisms are explored: (i) when a dealer is detained, the market is disrupted, and competition increases; (ii) when a consumer is detained, other consumers are deterred and seek new dealers, generating competition among groups and, consequently, increasing violence. These hypotheses are quantitatively evaluated using geocoded data from local San Luis Potosí, Mexico markets. Results suggest a relationship between drug-related violence and detentions occurring in a nearby location. These results emphasize the inefficacy of drug law enforcement strategies for reducing violence related to illegal drug markets in local settings and open the discussion for exploring different policies to reduce violence related to organized crime and the harms associated with illegal drug consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As wind energy investments expand across rural areas, unique class dynamics and accumulation patterns result from this industry. The ejido La Venta town has hosted wind farms since 1994, allowing us to analyse the effects of wind power on patterns of social difference, land control and agrarian change. By drawing on agricultural censuses and on 40 interviews with landowners, this paper argues that wind energy investments shift patterns of land control, through fostering land-based incomes, over the long term. The result is enhanced social differentiation benefitting landowners with more than 20 hectares and pauperising those with small tracts of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the study of earth-based building techniques from the pre-Columbian site of la Joya in Mexico, which use soils containing a high proportion of fine fraction (loam and clay) stabilized with bitumen, a combination considered inadequate by modern building standards. Experimental mud bricks were manufactured emulating the ancient technique representative of the construction in that region by using the raw earth of the archaeological zone mixed with additives of different nature. The bricks' cohesion was analysed by submitting them to mechanical stresses in compression mode. The effect of the inherent heterogeneity of hand-made bricks, along with the effect of the additive concentration on their mechanical behaviour, is discussed. Techniques such as determination of particle size, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy and total inorganic carbon-organic carbon were implemented for quantitative and qualitative measurement of the soil characteristics. Results indicate that synthetic additives provide better cohesion. Fracture analysis was monitored in real time by using acoustic emission technique in order to understand the mechanisms of failure. The main result is that the pre-Columbian recipe improves the mechanical performance of mud bricks, a knowledge important both for the conservation of the archaeological heritage architecture as well as for modern construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores smallholder farmers' perceptions of and adaptations to water scarcity in an irrigated system in south-eastern Mexico. Data from 85 farmers in four communities were collected through semi-structured interviews. The results show that farmers' adaptations are stimulated by their perceptions of the causes and dynamics of water scarcity. Findings also reveal that differences in perceptions of, and adaptations to, water scarcity within communities are due to characteristics such as irrigation techniques, water intake location, productive systems and access to groundwater. This study recommends the implementation of policies based on local conditions to cope with water scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the result of an inter-university educational innovation project developed between the University of La Laguna (Spain) and the Autonomous University of Baja California (Mexico). Students from both institutions, studying at the equivalent level to become future primary education teachers, analysed the way in which primary school textbooks approach the topic of heritage in the Canary Islands and in Mexico. Flipped classrooms and project-based learning were the main teaching methodologies, culminating in a final assignment: a written report by students. The results enable us to re-evaluate the knowledge transmitted through textbooks in the light of this history, and their facilitation in teaching and learning processes, with attention to their epistemological biases. Several topics were highlighted as core concerns in the use of textbooks for teaching heritage: the need to question the role of the textbook in the teaching process, and the importance of Indigenous heritage when teaching and holistic concept of heritage. In outlining the inter-university teaching project, the article also shows how the analysis of textbooks in both contexts, and their subsequent comparison, has made possible a reformulation of how students of education in the Canary Islands and Mexico are taught to teach history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emotions experienced by two Mexican women as a consequence of street harassment episodes while practising adventure outdoor activities. Leisure and travel often place women in unfamiliar space and places increasing their perception of vulnerability, thus reducing their participation and enjoyment, and also affecting their physical patterns as well as their emotional responses. In order to analyse affectual embodiment and its impacts in the use of public adventure space through coping strategies I rely on Ahmed's interpretations of anger, while Jiménez-Esquina's 'ambivalent fluxes' and Hall's 'sentient and emotional body' contribute to explore the emotion as a 'continuum' of embodied practices that shed light on Wilson and Little's 'geography of women's travel fear'. The analysis indicates the relevance of emotions in the construction of inclusive adventure space in a context of violence and insecurity, as well as the role of socio-cultural influence on the 'vulnerable women' social construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research about Community-Based Rural Tourism (CBRT) shows that participation of local stakeholders is a key factor in the pursuit of sustainability and supports the idea of using collaborative methods like Participatory Action Research (PAR) with local initiatives to address management and planning issues. This paper describes a case study in which tourism sustainability indicators (SIs) for a CBRT initiative were constructed through PAR with a group of women in rural Mexico. It reconstructs the steps and the process through which the indicators were established and implemented, and proposes a critical analysis of the assessment and its impacts on the group. The findings show that, provided that the SIs are adapted to the rural context, the co-construction of tourism SIs has led to assess the tourism activity using criteria adapted to the women's needs and vision. The PAR process encouraged collective action, horizontal dialogue and made more visible the inter-relations and power relations between the stakeholders, demonstrating the potential for collaboration and empowerment in a transdisciplinary perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends scholarship on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) through a case study in Saltillo, Mexico. The work is based on interviews (N:12) and survey work (N: 611) with women who have experienced GBV in spaces of public transport (busses) in this city. We extend existing work through an analysis of the role of the local state in GBV by exploring women's experiences of the systems in place to report and redress episodes of GBV in spaces of public transport. Building on existing conceptual work in feminist geography, we argue that systems for reporting gender-based violence in public transport can function as a mechanism of re-victimisation on the part of local authorities. Based on this analysis, we argue that the Mexican state is not only failing in its commitment to enable women to live lives free from violence but also acting as an agent of further violence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine whether opposition parties, particularly the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), can promote transition in the electoral authoritarian regime in Russia. We use the example of the National Action Party's (PAN) evolution as an "official opposition" party in Mexico and discuss how its campaign strategy and party identity evolved. Using a framework derived from the political marketing literature on party branding and rebranding, we argue that the PAN successfully rebranded itself via the electoral opportunities afforded by structure of Mexican federalism, which ultimately led to the democratic transition in 1999. We then address the possibility of a similar evolution occurring in Russia, by examining how the CPRF altered its national campaign message between 2015–2018. Finally, we speculate whether local opposition victories will spark the kind of transition in Russia that occurred in other electoral authoritarian regimes, such as Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beyond job creation, informal economic activities have received little recognition for their contribution to economic systems. However, in recent years, new research trends have suggested that enterprises in the informal sector have productivity potential that can be encouraged through technological innovation. Nevertheless, the majority of these studies come from Asian and African countries, relegating Latin America's contributions to a marginal proportion. Through a qualitative analysis, this paper makes a pioneering contribution to the topic from a Mexican perspective, corroborating the presence of different types of innovations in the informal plastic industry and sizing its reach and social diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use and depressive psychiatric symptoms have been associated with migration and mobility. The Mexico-Guatemala border is a key transit point for internal, regional, and international migration flows. However, there is limited knowledge of the role of substance use, migration, and mobility on mental health among migrants at this border. Our paper explores the association of migration and mobility patterns with possible major depressive symptoms among migrants at this key geographic region. We recruited 392 substance-using migrants using modified time-location sampling. Crude and adjusted logistic regression models were developed. We found that 12% of the sample had possible major depressive symptoms. After adjusting for relevant covariates, including gender, income, and perceived homelessness, we found that recent rural-urban and short-term migrants had higher odds of possible major depressive symptoms, whereas international migrants had lower odds. Findings of this paper suggest that although migrants experience hardship and uncertainty, they may respond with complex and nuanced forms of coping and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines cinematic representations of mercenaries from the era of silent movies to the 1980s. It argues that cinema has been selective in the choice of historical periods to depict mercenaries and soldiers of fortune, ignoring for the most part the centuries of European state building in which mercenaries played a significant role. Most mercenary films are anchored in the near present and the paper focuses on Mexico and the Congo as terrains of political breakdown and external intervention. Since the 1950s, a range of films depict mercenaries in these terrains seeking money, adventure, and the thrills of killing, and the paper examines mercenary movies through the character structures of hero, anti-hero and villain. These three structures have shaped the portrayal of mercenaries in westerns and war movies as well as action and sci fi movies, where they have become hardened in the last two decades into range of stock stereotypes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Critical Political Economy (CPE) to explore energy transitions in Mexico. It analyzes struggles over competing energy visions from a decolonial, spatial and post-development perspective. The article frames energy transformations as more than a move away from fossil fuels: They encompass a radical overhaul of universalized Eurocentric capitalist modernity that call the state's role as both facilitator and driver of the energy transition into question. I examine two low-carbon infrastructure projects in the state of Yucatan, Mexico to build on Bridge and Gailing's notion of new energy spaces as the sites, scales and spatialities through which broader questions of political economy and contemporary struggles are being worked out. CPE of the energy transition must ensure that low-carbon infrastructures are not deployed as new forms of extraction, but rather as the material basis of pluriversal transitions informed by affected communities and their territorial struggles. Both studies on the political economy of energy transitions and territorial struggles can benefit from an open dialogue about how socioecological transformations are imagined, designed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on the evolution of North–South trade agreements, which historically involved countries in the global South relinquishing policy space for activist trade and industrial policies in exchange for locking-in preferential and stable market access. It takes as case study the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), drawing on the agreements, media coverage of the negotiations, and 107 interviews with negotiators and stakeholders in all three countries. I show how the renegotiation resulted in changing conflicts: while the Mexican government attempted to preserve its market access and sought to further restrict its policy space due to path dependence, the Trump administration wanted to reduce market access for Mexico and create uncertainty to re-shore production. The Trump administration partially succeeded by undermining the lock-in effect of trade agreements and including unprecedented provisions in USMCA. The actions of the Biden administration indicate a long-term shift in US trade policy towards protectionism. Combined with the USMCA sunset clause, this creates the risk that the US will use USMCA review periods to create market access uncertainty instead of seizing the opportunities to strengthen North American economic cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of city lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic exposed some social inequalities in Mexico. The paper evaluates the effects of the closure of the Alameda Central, a public park in the Historic Centre of Mexico City. It examines how its closure affected some vulnerable populations, including homeless people, beggars, street vendors, buskers, and male sex workers, to the extent that they resisted leaving or found ways to return to public space. The research shows how Mexican COVID-19 policies tended to overlook the diversity of populations making use of public space, and their various necessities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Eurocentric Globalization of Football (EGF), that is, the concentration of capital, broadcasts, players and coaches from around the world in the most powerful football leagues in Europe. It presents a historical analysis based on statistics and an ethnographic approach to three groups of fans of European clubs in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. It is concluded that EGF is defined by an unequal international division of labour that mainly benefits the European clubs and contribute to the reproduction of a kind of (neo)colonial world system. In Latin America, transnational fans are often seen as mere imitators of the so-called 'first world' lifestyles and traitors of the national culture. On the contrary, transnational fans conceive the EGF as an opportunity to transit freely through different cultural references, distinguish themselves socially, and build trans-scale identities that creatively challenge traditional ways of building identity in the globalized world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had social and clinical effects over the healthcare system. Globally, over 314.019.135 confirmed cases and 5.507.370 deaths have been recorded at 12 January 2022, based on the Dashboard updated by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The continuous rise in the number of asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and symptomatic patients has developed efficient and accessible models for prediction using Open Source Libraries and Cloud Services. This paper proposes different machine-learning algorithms to analyse the COVID-19 OpenData Resources from Mexico and Brazil, which represent the two major populations, economics and affected by disease countries in Latin America. This model uses only the COVID-19 patient's geographical, social conditions, economics conditions, clinical risk factors, symptom reports, and demographic data to predict recovery and death. The model of Mexico has an accuracy of 93% and the perceived mean of recall and the precision (F1 Score) of 0.79 on the dataset used. On the other hand, the model of Brazil has an accuracy of 69% and F1 score of 0.75 on the dataset studied. The result considers data from patients under the age of 0 and 120 years. The contribution of the work is the application of Big Data technologies and Machine Learning algorithms using Open Resource Libraries and Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the vision to improve the clinical diagnosis, even infectious disease with mathematical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher and headteacher assessments and professional development are deemed critical levers for improving quality education in an increasing number of countries and contexts. However, prioritising improvement is not always evident, given that sometimes those subjected to assessments are not effectively informed about their performance (e.g. from national teacher examinations) or how to improve their work via feedback. This paper explores the bridging role of feedback concerning teacher and headteacher assessments and continuing professional development in the Mexican context, where scarce research exists. This mixed-methods research contributes evaluation evidence of Mexico's 2013–2018 education reform, including high-stakes staff assessments and individual feedback reports. Survey data from 122 primary school teachers and headteachers and thirteen interviews with teachers, headteachers and policymakers indicate the feedback report made it difficult to distinguish between poor and proficient performance and identify strengths and weaknesses. Challenges regarding suitable continuing professional development following assessment feedback are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine transborder commuters' experiences (i.e. individuals who commute between U.S. and Mexican border cities frequently) during the Covid-19 pandemic, with keen attention to the links between racial capitalism and temporality. We address two interrelated issues: first, we unpack how the United States framed the pandemic through the metaphor of war and the production of the categories of 'essential work(er)' and 'essential travel' to ensure racial capitalism's surplus labor and continuation. These categories function like a double-edged sword, tying racialized populations to racial capitalism's temporality to exploit them while excluding privileged others. We argue that Covid-19's temporality conflicts with racial capitalism's temporality. While the former relies on the deceleration of everyday life, the latter depends on constant acceleration driven by profit-seeking. Using queer and feminist theoretical lenses, we then demonstrate how U.S. Covid-19 border restrictions at land ports of entry exacerbated transborder commuters' cross-border travels and privileged some based on legal status. As a result, they used public Facebook groups to navigate and comprehend new commuting conditions, disidentifying with the United States' official pandemic framing and producing their own. This shared experience catalyzed 'digital transborder kinships' or temporally-bound socialities rooted in relational care, advocacy, and knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a theoretical and practical comparison between the special education systems for the deaf in Finland and Mexico. The theoretical approach of research perspectives in Chou et al. (2014) and Hellsten (2020) supports this study. We focus on how?the gaps in special education that are present as early as elementary school increase the difficulties of integrating Mexican pupils with special educational needs (SEN) at university. We review the experience in education of deaf students in Finland and the feedback of deaf teachers and researchers.?The aim of the paper is to contribute to improved access to comprehensive and high-quality bilingual education for the deaf in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteromeyenia is an important genus of freshwater sponges characterized mainly by the presence of microscleres acanthoxeas. So far, two species are known from Mexico; H. baileyi and H. latitenta. In this paper, we redescribed H. latitenta and described the new species Heteromeyenia riojai sp. nov. from a morphological and molecular perspective. The main morphological characteristic of H. latitenta is the foraminal aperture of the gemmule, which is a prolonged tube, from which flattened cirrous appendages extend laterally; a characteristic absent in H. riojai sp. nov., which bears a short and slightly elevated foramen. The new species is distinguished by having acanthoxeas with fusiform to knobbed tips, gemmuloscleres in a single category, which are radially embedded in the theca of the gemmule. Due to the similarity in the form, size of the spicules, and geographic distribution of H. riojai sp. nov., and H. baileyi sensu Rioja, we considered that the Rioja's records must be assigned to the new species. We also aim to establish the phylogenetic relationships of the genus through nuclear-ribosomal molecular markers ITS2. Tree topology showed the Heteromeyenia species clustered together in a robust clade and closer to Corvomeyenia sp. (family Metaniidae) than to other Spongillidae genera. Our results support the previous molecular hypothesis, which strongly suggests the polyphyly of Spongillidae, even more in genera as Heteromeyenia and Trochospongilla, which displayed a large genetic distance with the other members of Spongillida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]