The North American Mosaic has four overarching features. First, it is, to the extent feasible, based on comparable information on the status and trends of major indicators of the state of the environment in Canada,Mexico, and the United States. Second, the report confirms that these three countries together make up an incredibly complex, dynamic, and interconnected ecosystem in which humans play a dominant and decisive role. Third, the report raises important and sometimes disquieting questions concerning the sustainability of some current trends. Finally, the report is a reminder that our economic, social, and physical well-being are utterly dependent on the life-sustaining services provided by nature. This report emphasizes the importance of developing mutually compatible economic, social, and environmental goals and policies across the three-country region.

Can the increasing significance of knowledge-products in national income-the growing weightless economy-influence economic development? Those technologies reduce "distance" between consumers and knowledge production. This paper analyzes a model embodying such a reduction. The model shows how demand-side attributes--consumer attitudes on complex goods: training, education, and skills for consumption (rather than production)--can importantly affect patterns of economic growth and development. Evidence from the failed Industrial Revolution in 14th-century China illustrates the empirical relevance of the analysis.

In a study crucial to our understanding of American social inequality, Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum investigate the return of sweatshops to the apparel industry, especially in Los Angeles. The "new" sweatshops, they say, need to be understood in terms of the decline in the American welfare state and its strong unions and the rise in global and flexible production. Apparel manufacturers now have the incentive to move production to wherever low-wage labor can be found, while maintaining arm's-length contractual relations that protect them from responsibility. The flight of the industry has led to a huge rise in apparel imports to the United States and to a decline in employment. Los Angeles, however, remains a puzzling exception in that its industry employment has continued to grow, to the point where L.A. is the largest center of apparel production in the nation. Not only the availability of low-wage immigrant (often undocumented) workers but also the focus on moderately priced, fashion-sensitive women's wear makes this possible. Behind the Label examines the players in the L.A. apparel industry, including manufacturers, retailers, contractors, and workers, evaluating the maldistribution of wealth and power. The authors explore government and union efforts to eradicate sweatshops while limiting the flight to Mexico and elsewhere, and they conclude with a description of the growing antisweatshop movement. Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000

By combining chronological coverage, analytical breadth, and interdisciplinary approaches, these two volumes—Histories of Solitude and Histories of Perplexity—study the histories of Colombia over the last two centuries as illustrations of the histories of democracy across the Americas. The volumes bring together over 40 scholars based in Colombia, the United States, England, and Canada working in various disciplines to discuss how a country that has been consistently presented as a rarity in Latin America provides critical examples to re-examine major historical problems: republicanism and liberalism; export economies and agrarian modernization; populism and cultural politics of state formation; revolutionary and counterinsurgent Cold War violence; neoliberal reforms and urban development; popular mobilization and counterhegemonic public spheres; political ecologies and environmental struggles; and labors of memory and the challenge of reconciliation. Contributors are sensitive to questions of subjectivity and discourse, observant of ethnographic details and micro-politics, and attuned to macro-perspectives such as transnational and global histories. These volumes offer fresh perspectives on Colombia and will be of great value to those interested in Latin American and Caribbean history.

Vacant urban land--the product of land market activity, the actions of private agents, and the policies of public agents--is an important challenge for policy makers. Vacant lots on the urban fringe and in central and interstitial areas have affected growth patterns in Latin America. Contributors to this book analyze the problems and opportunities related to vacant urban land in five cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Quito, Ecuador; Lima, Perú; and San Salvador, El Salvador.