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International broadcasting services are typically designed to serve public diplomacy and soft power objectives. Traditionally, Western powers have explored and benefited from this state-sponsored media category. However, countries in the Global South, like Brazil, have endeavoured to establish cross-border television services to bolster their international presence. This paper scrutinizes TV Brasil Internacional as a case study, examining its designated functions, management, and funding models. The research illuminates through document surveys and semi-structured interviews that while the channel initially reflected Brazil's external policies and public service ideals, structural alterations enabling increased governmental intervention alongside budget cuts rendered the international service dormant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advocates the transgression of incumbent theoretical divisions between rural and urban abodes of production and draws on new analyses of contemporary spaces of capital and labour antagonisms in Brazil. It does so to articulate a broadening of the definition of class and class struggle towards an emancipatory praxis that does not necessarily prioritise industrialised workers. The study has a particular focus on the reconfiguration of socio-spatial arrangements linked to 21st century commodity cultivation, extraction and trade and subsequent class tensions on the material and epistemological frontier between (hydro, agro and mineral) mega projects and the autonomous territories of rural subjects. The renewed degradation of conditions for a labour force that has always been precarious, the dissolving dichotomy between proletarianised and peasant labour, and the ongoing resistance to corporate capture by communities is evoked to contrast distinct metabolic relations within rural territories with the objectification of labour and nature under capitalism. The analysis reveals new configurations of class domination, tension and counter movements. Many critical scholars, particularly those in the Global South, have been attentive to alternate readings of the world by indigenous, African descendent, peasant and agro-extractivist communities that may be unfamiliar yet underpin vociferous, and often fatal, resistance to capital accumulation. The task to effectively situate these struggles within a theory of broader, heterogeneous class struggle and integrate this 'wealth' of collective struggle and knowledge towards societal transformation remains important work in progress. In this spirit, the paper offers some possibilities for making new conceptual and material connections between rural and urban productive spaces and across currently fragmented class formations and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peacekeepers are seen as a UN tool for promoting domestic changes in host countries, but little is known about the political consequences when officers return home. During the last 10 years, Brazilian presidents appointed a significant number of former peacekeepers to key political functions. How and why do former peacekeepers end up so involved in government affairs? To answer this question, this paper focuses on the array of skills acquired by peacekeepers in domestic missions and reinforced abroad. Drawing on a set of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to military, former political decision-makers, and researchers, as well as other primary and secondary sources, this paper details how political articulation, experience in conflict management, and prestige empowered Brazilian military officers to resume their tradition of intervention in politics. This paper also shows that peace operations can produce deleterious outcomes for troop-contributing countries in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football is an integral part of Brazil's historical-cultural process, and tourism represents one of the segments deeply impacted by the occurrence of sporting mega-events. The present study aims to present and critically reflect on the main legacies and impacts that these events brought to the Brazilian population. This paper is based on notes surrounding the legacies put forward for the city of São Paulo. To do this, information gathering lends to suggestions that help situate future planning and organization. The purpose of this paper concerns sociocultural and economic futures and the role of tourism and events for local communities based on the current realities and challenges in Brazil. The article is based on a qualitative approach, where descriptive and explanatory information is triangulated. This study utilizes a range of methods, employing a combination of bibliographic research, documentary analysis, and content analysis to frame the base of the research. Moreover, we use field research techniques such as semi-structured interviews with managers, questionnaires administered to residents, interviews with local representatives, direct observation, and active participation in events held at the main stadium associated with sport mega-events in São Paulo, namely, the Neo Química Arena. Noteworthy findings demonstrate a discrepancy between the objectives pursued by host city planners, who strive to maximize the positive legacies encompassing local infrastructure, stadiums, and the city's image, and the experiences reported by local residents, who have encountered negative impacts and legacies resulting from the same sport mega-event. These adverse effects include issues such as flooding, gentrification, exclusion from decision-making processes, and real estate speculation. Stadiums are considered the greatest tangible legacies of sport mega-events, although their construction and maintenance costs are questionable. The participation of local residents seems to be essential in the promotion, knowledge, appropriation, belonging, support, and transparency in all phases of the mega-event planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates the extent to which imaginaries of climate and ecological breakdown attend to the memories, knowledges, and experiences of communities already impacted by histories of racism, colonialism, and poverty. Drawing on insights from Black studies and decolonial thinking, the article reflects on how the causes and effects of anthropogenic climate change can be mapped onto geographies of racialised violence and social dispossession. Specific emphasis is given to Rio de Janeiro, notably its port area, a geographical space where future-oriented narratives remain oblivious to the city's history of anti-Black violence and Indigenous genocide. In parallel, the paper looks at the recently built Museum of Tomorrow and its public representations of the Anthropocene. Overall, the article contends that pluralising accounts of the Anthropocene might offer alternative epistemic entry points for understanding and interrupting the mounting ecological catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical scholarship has shown that neoliberalism has reinforced Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism and projections of Muslims as undesirable in many contexts, particularly in 'the West'. Little is said about other impacts neoliberal ideology has had on the ways Muslim (immigrant) communities are viewed and (dis)integrated into Muslim-minority contexts. Against this backdrop, this paper argues that Muslims can also be desired and systematically mobilized in predominantly non-Muslim countries where neoliberalized economies capitalize on their identities. The argument is illustrated through case studies in contexts of halal food production and trade in New Zealand and Brazil. Drawing on conceptualizations of neoliberal utility/necessity perspectives on immigrants as well as on assemblage thinking, this paper shows, first, that neoliberal restructuring has played a major role in the development of trade relations with the Islamic world and thus in the emergence of demands for Muslim expertise, service providers and workers in both countries. It demonstrates, second, how Muslim identities have been systematically assembled to meet these demands, and third, that the assemblages are at the same time limited by largely (though not exclusively) neoliberal logics. Finally, the paper shows that many of the assembling practices and logics are similar in both contexts and likely to be found elsewhere. Their effects, however, diverge due to different local conditions. The findings imply that relations between neoliberal ideology and the ways Muslims are viewed and (dis)integrated in Muslim-minority contexts are complex and unfold differently across space, and that this complexity deserves greater academic scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 2020, the world was left in an unprecedented state of shock by the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil quickly became the epicenter of new cases of contamination, where the propagation of the virus was unrestrained, despite boasting one of the strongest Universal health coverage systems in Latin America. This paper has at least three empirical contributions to the literature about economic resilience and the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly it is a critical issue regarding the "economics versus life" trade-off, which is an essential question for developing countries, given that policymakers must decide between policies to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections without damaging the economy. Secondly, our findings suggest that the early adoption of isolation measures applied in 2020, such as the financial aid and the vaccination have been effective in controlling the effects of the pandemic, especially in vulnerable microregions. Furthermore, it was verified that the Emergency financial aid was a fundamental policy in minimizing the economic impacts of the pandemic and allowing people to practice social distancing, contributing positively to the Employment Resilience Index and negatively related to the growth rate of deaths due to COVID-19. The contribution of our study is to measure an inverted U-shaped curve to demonstrate that policymakers must achieve a minimum of families to decrease the COVID-19 deaths. These contributions are essential and straightforward findings to lead policymakers' decisions in developing countries facing financial constraints in the public budget and population reticence about physical distancing, self-quarantine and vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to conduct a critical review of the academic works on railway history in Brazil. We read and analysed 492 theses and dissertations by graduate students in Brazil (published from 1974 to 2020). A qualitative and quantitative approach was used over time to characterise the increasing production of academic theses and dissertations on railway history in Brazil and which authors, bibliographies, archives, and historical sources have become essential for railway researchers. The results of this review indicate that several academic areas are interested in the theme and some authors have become references to the most varied railway studies. In recent decades, authors who research more specific subjects have gained greater visibility in graduation essays. The bibliography of their studies should be interpreted according to how sources change with time. Authors of the reviewed papers had to use alternatives to research railways due to archival issues and instability of access to documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the majority of Brazilian public schools, poverty and social injustice prevail. Most students come from disadvantaged realities, and their future seems to be already defined by a lack of social mobility, exclusion from civil rights, and violence—a situation that has worsened with the global pandemic. Rooted in ethnographic research in public schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, this paper explores the role of pedagogies of care in creating alternative, possible, and preferable narratives about the future of these students. By using the metaphor of "school as soil", the study identifies care in four dimensions: time, heterogeneity, mattering, and fertility. It draws on 12 semi-structured interviews with teachers from eight different public schools that were part of a larger doctoral project. By researching school as soil, we examine how pedagogies of care encourage teachers' speculation about preferable imaginaries for the future of their students. Results show that despite precarious resources and scarce institutional support, pedagogies of care appear in multiple reported situations, aiming to inspire learning processes, give voice and agency to the socially marginalized, and allow for ways of thinking that offer alternatives to the seemingly ubiquitous oppressive relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores China's increasing media engagement with Latin American partners. It examines the case of Mundo China (MC), a China-news segment broadcast by the Brazilian news channel BandNews TV and co-produced in partnership with CCTV. By conducting content analysis, we assess how China is presented, contrast the framing of China before and since the partnership agreement, and compare the televised image of China between BandNews TV and other news channels in Brazil. The findings show that MC has assisted in diversifying and balancing the ratio of positive frames in relation to the overall China-related reporting across the broadcasters sampled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether localized trade shocks from China influence Brazilians' views on integration with the country. We test the following hypotheses: (1) as trade shocks are localized, views on trade should form at the local, rather than at the individual level, and (2) as localized trade shocks affect both workers and companies in a same region, they should also influence legislators' views on China. Our analyses find support for both claims, but only among losers from Chinese trade. Residents and legislators from localities hurt by import shocks tend to hold negative views about economic ties with China, whereas neither residents nor legislators from localities benefitted by export shocks exhibit more positive views about the country. Our paper contributes to the literature on the politics of trade by incorporating meso-level theories of trade preference formation and by establishing the conditions under which the interests of constituencies should shape legislators' views on international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sought to understand public attitudes and behavior toward criminal justice institutions in Brazil. Using a cross-sectional data from a sample of Brazilians, we made very important and intriguing observations about Brazilians' attitudes. Among these observations is the finding that the presence of crime results in favorable attitudes toward the Brazilian judiciary. Also, sense of security, corruption (bribe solicitation), and citizens' trust in the media predicted attitudes toward criminal justice institutions and officials. Given that this study is one of the few studies that have examined this issue in the Brazilian context, the findings serve as a starting point for discussion about improving the relationship between citizens and the system. Specific implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how to generate development while preserving the environment is central to the history of the Brazilian Amazon. Many decades of top-down state interventions conceived and executed under a developmentalist framework have resulted in a socioenvironmental crisis. In response, the Sustainable Oil Palm Production Program (SPOPP) was launched in 2010. It promised to break with developmentalist visions and articulate environmental and sustainability concerns. This paper uses assemblage thinking to examine how these contrasting, often impossible-to-balance, views manifest within SPOPP implementation. We describe how non-human actors (trees, diseases, previous policies and agroecological zoning technologies) interact with human actors. However, powerful actors, in the state and beyond, continue to garner support for their developmentalist interests and thwart or depoliticize environmental and social concerns, thus limiting change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding George Soros and the 'Globalist invasion' had been concentrated primarily in Eastern Europe, Russia and the United States. However, since Jair Bolsonaro's presidential victory in Brazil, Soros has become a target of the far-right in the country. On Soros' 90th Birthday in August 2020, the right-wing group 'Movement for Conservative Brazil' (Movimento Brasil Conservador – MBC) launched a campaign called 'International Day Against George Soros', aiming to attack the billionaire's reputation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how this campaign worked across online platforms as a strategy to popularize the Globalism conspiracy theory in the biggest Latin American country. We aim (1) to map the dynamics of disinformation dissemination across chat apps using hyperlink analysis; and (2) to interpret conspiratorial narratives about George Soros shared on chat apps during the month of his 90th birthday. We collected messages mentioning the anti-Soros campaign in WhatsApp and Telegram public groups and channels to extract hyperlinks and domains. These websites were manually categorized in an effort to analyze which conspiracy theories about George Soros are being disseminated on chat apps in Brazil. Our results suggest an increasing cross-platform dissemination of narratives attacking Soros. This case study illustrates how the rise of a transnationally networked political right has been accompanied by an emerging alternative digital communication infrastructure through which conspiracy theories circulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing stock of road infrastructure in Brazil is still suboptimal and presents a bottleneck for economic growth. Concessions are being used to leverage the development and delivery of road infrastructure, although the first concessions have experienced some difficulties. Based on past lessons, Brazil has revised the regulatory framework and concessions models, by acting at three main critical success factors: creating a clear and transparent regulatory framework, improving procurement rules to ensure a more effective search for the "right" partner (and filtering opportunistic investors), and, finally, establishing a more effective risk-sharing strategy, providing the right incentives to mitigate delays and contractual breach, while increasing the bankability and overall project's quality. This paper provides an overview of these changes and provides valuable lessons for academics and practitioners involved in concession design and management, particularly, in the road sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory governance has been used to direct public budget and policy priorities. Grassroots politics also offers democratic pathways for negotiations over permits for businesses such as mining. In this paper, I focus on notions of time in policy-meetings between a mining company, the affected community in the district of Miguel Burnier, Brazil, and mediators between them – members of a municipal council for cultural heritage. I used ethnographic data to investigate whether participatory councils could abridge temporalities and offer a compromise. While the company offered improvements in quality of life in an uncertain future and the council needed to preserve local cultural heritage, residents suffered from pressing problems in the present: depopulation, pollution, and unemployment. My findings show that participation could not solve residents' socio-economic problems efficiently, for these same problems affected their ability to voice concerns and wait for compensations. Relaxing immediate economic pressures improves the process of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Precision medicine (PM) is emerging as a scientific bandwagon within the contemporary biomedical sciences in the United States. PM brings together concepts and tools from genomics and bioinformatics to develop better diagnostics and therapies based on individualized information. Developing countries like China and Brazil have also begun pursuing PM projects, motivated by a desire to claim genomic sovereignty over its population. In spite of commonalities, institutional arrangements produced by the history of genomics research in China and Brazil are ushering PM along different trajectories. In the Chinese case, we identify a strong state-backed push for PM combined with a dynamic network of international academic and private actors along the lines of networked technonationalism that has made large-scale, speculative PM projects possible. The Brazilian case is characterized by an institutional void at the federal level in which PM is driven by domestic academic actors in universities in the regional level, resulting in smaller scale, needs-driven PM projects. Through these cases, this paper shows how a scientific bandwagon adapts to national histories and institutions. Through this peripheral translation of the scientific bandwagon, the global infrastructure of biomedical knowledge has the potential to be transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are strong arguments about the positive effect of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on companies' performance. This effect is also extensive formicro and small enterprises (MSEs), which tend to adopt ICTs in lower levels in comparison with large companies. In this context, this paper has two goals: to analyze the effect of firms' size on (a) the relationship between strategic planning and ICTs use; (b) the relationship between ICTs use and interaction with customers. The sample of the study comprises 171 BrazilianMSEs, and we used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. The main results indicated that even in small companies, size is an important variable to explain the antecedents and consequents of ICTs use. The positive effect of ICTs use was stronger among small companies, reinforcing the relevance of technology for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article approaches the relationship between the aims of Paulo Freire's education for liberation and the praxis of popular communication in Brazil. The goal is to understand the extent to which aspects of Freire's thoughts can intersperse with concepts and practices of popular, community, and alternative communication in Brazil. The study is based on bibliographic research on Freire's work while reflecting on some of the principles of the education for liberation, particularly those embedding the praxis of popular communication in social movements. This paper concludes by arguing that principles such as 'communication as dialogue', 'critical consciousness', the ability to become a 'subject', 'education as a practice for freedom', 'connection to reality', and 'social transformation' lie prominently in the concept and practices of popular and community communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do welfare programs affect beneficiaries' perceptions of social mobility? This paper uses the case of Brazil's Bolsa Família Program to assess whether, how, and to what degree the welfare program affects beneficiaries' views of their potential social mobility. It makes a key contribution to the understanding of social mobility by incorporating the role that race and gender play in beneficiary respondent's evaluation of social mobility. Use of an original field survey undergirds the finding that, in contrast to conventional understandings of Brazilian racial and social dynamics, beneficiary status operates differently for Afro-Brazilian and White beneficiaries, as well as for male and female beneficiaries. Specifically, that the program has significant empowerment effects for White women beneficiaries, but that it does not affect the evaluations of Afro-Brazilian women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the implementation of social policies in São Paulo (Brazil) during the 2000s, this article critically examines the commodification of poverty. The article explores the impact of the introduction of market logics and privatization as shaped in respect to social protection in a context where the informalization of labour is growing. The text begins with a discussion of social citizenship in Brazil and its transformation over time. Thereafter, the article unpacks the 'commodification processes' of social policies during the 2000s to unfold how this influences the organization of a competitive and social labour market outsourced especially to NGOs and associations. The creation of indicators of productivity and 'social participation' as well as the introduction of measures to incentivize entrepreneurship, the article suggests, become entries into accessing social rights. The ways in which social workers and beneficiaries experience processes of financialization and monetarization of social aid, the article shows, indicate changing understandings of social citizenship and its implications for the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elected officials routinely do not reflect the racial diversity of the citizenry. In Latin America, these descriptive gaps are particularly pronounced. A growing number of studies investigate the causes of racial disparities in representation, however, extant research largely focuses on national assemblies. In this paper, I extend this well-trod line of research to an understudied context, local elections. Using a dataset that covers mayoral elections in Brazil, I demonstrate that multiple factors hinder Afro-Brazilians, who comprise a majority of the Brazilian population, from winning public office. I show that barriers to candidate entry, resource disparities between white and Afro-Brazilian candidates, and race-based preferences among voters contribute to racial inequality in political representation. These results indicate that members of marginalized racial groups often must overcome multiple barriers to achieve electoral success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the dynamic relationship among elites, media, and the public during authoritarian rule. Using Brazil’s military regime (1964–85), it investigates whether changing press censorship influenced public support for military rule during the period of political liberalization. This paper uses the exposure-resistance model of opinion formation, in which a person’s probability of supporting a position depends first on her probability of exposure to and reception of an elite cue advocating that position, and secondarily on the probability that she resists that position once exposed. Her likelihood of exposure to and reception of elite cues increases with her attention to news media and the extent of her political awareness; her odds of accepting the positions advocated by elites depends on her political ideology and her critical capacity to evaluate the content and source of the cue. Using three public opinion surveys carried out between 1972 and 1982, and an analysis of newspaper content during the dictatorship, this research demonstrates that censored media convinced Brazilians to support military rule initially, only later during political liberalization, to expose them to increasingly critical coverage of the regime, convincing many to abandon their support for the regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The goal of this paper is to suggest that municipalities can facilitate the central government's ability to carry out its desired policy goals. Using three institutional variables that provide internal evidence for each case, I will argue that within some institutional configurations the center may seek uniformity of outcome by trying to circumvent governors and/or regional intermediation and forge a direct relationship with municipalities. Based on research from the area of social protection policy in Brazil and Argentina, I suggest that direct national-local collaboration contributed to the ability of the Brazilian central government to bypass governors and evenly spread non-contributory welfare goods across its territory and alleviate poverty. I argue that such policy collaboration is less likely to be institutionally feasible in a federal system like Argentina's, where such equivalent collaboration is impeded by the ability of its provinces to directly capture local units of government and undermine national policy outcomes and executive preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses organizational culture change from a longitudinal perspective. It analyses how the organizational culture of a major Brazilian telecommunications company changed during its 27-year history from a condition of integration to one of fragmentation and then differentiation. The paper identifies the sources of these changes, paying particular attention to the role of institutional and political factors. Based on the empirical data, a framework for analysing the dynamics of culture change in organizations is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How widespread is strategic voting in two-round electoral systems, and which types of voters are most likely to engage in such behavior? While runoff elections are common in presidential systems around the world, research on strategic voting in these settings remains limited. This paper explores four different types of strategic behavior that are possible in two-round systems, including some types, such as "strong-to-weak" strategic voting, which are not possible in single-shot elections. We use a nationwide survey to assess the incidence and correlates of strategic voting in Brazil's 2018 presidential election, where thirteen candidates competed in the first round. We find evidence of "weak-to-strong" strategic voting at a similar rate to that documented in single-round elections in other countries. We find little evidence of other types of strategic voting. Furthermore, we show that voters' confidence in their predictions of the likely electoral outcome and their ideological preferences strongly predict strategic voting. These results point to the importance of accounting for voter beliefs and attitudes in addition to objective voter characteristics to explain strategic voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades there has been a tendency throughout Latin America of the expansion of activities associated with the primary sector, such as mining, oil, cattle and soy, namely reprimarization. This tendency reflects the growth of the commodities markets and China in recent years. This paper examines the implications for both the environment and development in general, as a result of the reprimarization tendency in Argentina and Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Brazil’s industrial trajectory, beginning with an analysis of the process of import substitution industrialization and its role historically. This is followed by an analysis of industry after the transition to neoliberalism. The resulting evidence implies a clear process of deindustrialization, and upon examining the pattern of exports, a process of re-primarization as well. The paper concludes with a discussion of these troubling trends for the current trajectory of the Brazilian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

This case study examines the co-authoring of unboxing videos by one six-year-old, second-generation Brazilian immigrant child and her mother in the United States. These videos were created in response to boxes filled with gifts they received yearly from relatives in Brazil. To understand this mother-daughter dyad and their video production, this study draws on metaphors of mobility, the logics of reciprocity and obligation in gift-exchange, and the concept of care constellations. The analysis of interviews, field notes, and unboxing videos identified specific routes, rhythms, and frictions that fueled this family digital literacy practice. It also suggested that participants were implicated in a pattern of caregiving through a transnational cycle of gift-exchange. These findings disrupt typical framings of the unboxing genre as a manifestation of U.S. capitalist ethos and foreground the material and discursive production of care in a transnational family's digital literacy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the relationships between three eating behaviors and nine motives underlying food choices made by Brazilian adults. Using participant responses to the short version of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire and the Food Choice Questionnaire, we investigated eating behaviors (cognitive restriction, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating) and motives for food choices (health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, and ethical concern). We used a structural equation model to test relationship pathways (β), with eating behaviors as independent variables and motives for food choices as dependent variables. Participants were 1297 individuals (69.5% female) with a mean age of 25.0 years (SD = 5.8). We confirmed the validity and reliability of the questionnaires in this sample. Restrictive eating behavior was significantly related to motives of health (β =.415), mood (β =.127), natural content (β =.364), weight control (β =.681), and ethical concern (β =.161). Emotional eating behavior was related to motives of mood (β =.277), health (β = −.137), and natural content (β = −.136). Uncontrolled eating behavior was related to motives of convenience (β =.226), sensory appeal (β =.121), price (β =.153), and familiarity (β =.090). We believe these findings can now help design future research and clinical interventions for managing people's risky eating behaviors and promoting beneficial food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

The service sector is emerging in importance in terms of economic development. Although the amount of research on the internationalization process of service industries is growing, investigations on the international lodging industry still lack sufficient research, particularly in relation to emerging economies. This paper aims to fill this gap by conducting an investigation into multinational lodging firms that have started operations in Brazil. It intends to determine whether multinational lodging firms follow any temporal, geographical, or entry mode patterns when investing in an emerging market. The findings show that lodging firms in Brazil have followed differing time patterns, but have followed a similar geographical scope. Non-equity involvement was the most favored form of involvement. Although similarities in the geographical and entry mode patterns were observed, the individual lodging firms followed different internationalization and expansion strategies in their entry into Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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

The paper analyses the economic impacts of China's reemergence on Brazil, looking at both the direct effects of China on Brazil in terms of bilateral trade and investment flows and the indirect effects through increased competition in export markets for manufactured goods and higher world prices for primary commodities. Despite a surge in Chinese FDI in Brazil in 2010, the main driver of bilateral relations is trade. While bilateral trade has grown rapidly, the pattern that has emerged has given rise to concern because Brazil's exports are concentrated in a small number of primary products while imports from China are almost entirely of manufactured goods that are becoming more technologically sophisticated over time. Brazil has benefitted in the short term from the high prices of primary commodities (partly caused by growing Chinese demand), but has lost export markets to China in manufactures, contributing to the "primarization" of the country's export basket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a pilot investigation in Candangolândia, near Brasilia, in Brazil in 2010. The purpose of the investigation was to determine the efficacy of a participative research methodology for investigating: people’s information needs; developing an information literate approach to problem solving; fostering problem solving and collaborative capabilities and enhancing a sense of citizenship. The research applied techniques that enabled people to collaborate and identify their information needs, as well as information solutions, through the exploration of a social problem that they had identified. Participatory Research and Action (PRA) was the chosen methodology. Nineteen techniques were applied. The findings indicated that it was possible to use PRA to explore information needs. Participants were able to identify, classify and prioritize information needs and use information in order to suggest solutions for the selected social problem. The intervention helped develop collaborative problem solving skills and a heightened sense of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the responses of a traditional Brazilian firm to recession and increasing foreign competition as expressed in its subcultural dynamics. A strong association was found between involuntary turnover in the top management team and affiliation with certain clusters of subcultural and even personal values. Although many of the effects found are expressive of themes in the literature on organizational adaptation to adversity, results also suggest unexpected challenges and extensions to current thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of licensing contracts provides strategic information about technologies that have been actually commercialized. This paper presents aspects of technology transfer in Brazil based on data from contracts for the exploitation of patents (EP) registered by the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI) in the period 2000—2006. A total of 283 contracts were analyzed, covering 623 documents of industrial property (patents for invention, utility model and industrial design). Some findings of the study show that the contracts for EP correspond to 2.47 percent of all contracts of technology transfer registered; there is a significant number of contracts firmed between trans-national corporations and their subsidiaries; and there is strong regional inequality in this process of technology transfer that corresponds to the gap in technological development between different regions of Brazil. This work illustrates information that can be used by policy-makers, managers and developers of technology to identify strategies of companies and to subsidize national policies for technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the profit rate in Brazil between 1953 and 2003. There was a tendency for the profit rate to fall during the period under study determined mainly by the declining productivity of capital. There were three phases in the behavior of the profit rate. In the first phase, between 1953 and 1973, it slowly declined; in the second, from 1973 to late 1980s, it fell sharply; in the third, from late 1989 to 2003, it increased moderately. These phases correspond to the institutional arrangements of the Brazilian economy, respectively, to the import substitution industrialization (ISI) during the golden age of capitalism, to the crisis and rupture of ISI, and to neoliberalism.JEL classification: E25, N16, O30 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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PROFINT is a program of the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) which sends technological information contained in patent documents to companies registered in the program. This paper presents the results of a survey of users of PROFINT, identifying: a) the profile of these users; 2) their use of the patent system; and c) the results obtained from using technological information from patent documents. The work was based on documentary research and the application of questionnaires. The research showed that patent documents are being used as instruments of competitive intelligence, providing strategic information to assist managers of technology and innovation to generate and improve products and processes. Although the users of PROFINT also make use of other sources of information, the importance attributed to technological information obtained from patent documents was considered high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America accounts for approximately 8 per cent of the global generic market. Generics participation in the Latin American countries has been growing — however, the concept of generics differs considerably from country to country. In such landscape, Brazil has been distinguished not only because of the rigorous sanitary legislation — requiring bioequivalence tests and Good Manufacturing Practices certification for generic registration and aligning local regulation with internationally recognised scientific standards for proof of efficacy and safety — but also because of the market performance the generics have shown since their implementation in 1999. Annual sales reached US717m and 157m units in 2005 and displayed the highest growth rates among the different segments within the Brazilian pharmaceutical market. This paper reviews the Brazilian experience with generics, focusing on current regulatory and market issues and on the main challenges and opportunities expected for the near future in this region.Journal of Generic Medicines (2006) 4, 30–36. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jgm.4950045 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often suggested that some occupations are inherently more suited to men or to women. Such beliefs can become norms that can have powerful effects on those who inhabit, or wish to enter, such occupations. This article explores the discursive framing of gendered occupations by considering the experience of cis female military firefighter officers in the masculine world of the Corpo de Bombeiros Militar in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. We identify this Global South organization as extremely gendered but also profoundly colonial in its patriarchal order and its hierarchical culture and structure. We use Kristeva's and Butler's work on abjection to understand how these officers and their bodies are differentiated. Based on interviews and document analysis, we foreground their abjection using three examples: the organization's physical entrance test, the maternal body and its masculine organizational grammar. Yet, just as they are targets of exclusion, these women and their bodies are also necessary to maintain the hypermasculinity of this organization. Our contribution is to analyse abjection in a specific hypergendered organizational context where masculinity is not only amplified by the co-presence of military service and firefighting, but also where gender relations, structure and culture have deep colonial roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent political measures in Brazil, in conjunction with new environmental policies, could reverse previous achievements that had put the country at the forefront of social policy making. This article discusses the implications of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) for social policy. It is based on qualitative methods, namely, semi-structured interviews with subscribers from six administrative regions who participated through digital platforms. The results indicate that the factors determining consumer participation in CSA are health impact, strengthening local production, environmental concerns, and eating as a human right and political act. This article also demonstrates the need to promote participation among low-income and socially vulnerable families in CSA and to firmly connect food and nutrition security policy with health, and environment aimed at poverty alleviation. The novelty of this research lies in its consideration of the implications of CSA for environmental preservation and the promotion of a healthier and sustainable food system, namely for the low-income population, which can lead to the growth of eco-social policies in developing welfare states in the global south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]