In this volume, Latin Americanist scholars explore the recent evidence relating to the ways in which partial state failure in the continent is interacting with new types of organized violence, thereby undermining the process of democratic consolidation that has characterized Latin America over the past two decades. This 'new violence' stems - as this book's case studies from Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil and other countries, including El Salvador, show - from a heterogeneous variety of social actors including drug mafias, peasant militias and urban gangs (collectively referred to as actores armadas), as well as state-related actors like the police, military intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces. These armed actors are reproducing organized social and political violence beyond the confines of democratic politics and civil society. The results, as the authors warn, include both 'governance voids' - domains where the legitimate state is effectively absent in the face of armed actors prevailing by force - and an erosion of the capacity and willingness of state officials themselves to abide by the rule of law. These tendencies, in turn, pave the way for a possible reinstallation of authoritarian regimes under the control of politicized armies or, at the very least, the spread of state violence in one form or another. Why these tendencies need to be taken so seriously is, the authors argue, because of the deeper social roots underlying them - notably the failure of neoliberal economic policies and weakened state structures to deliver the jobs, standards of living and social services every democratic citizenry has a right to expect. The Argentinian collapse and persistent Colombian and Venezuelan crises receive special attention in this regard.

Using a gender-sensitive political economy approach, this book analyzes the emergence of new migration patterns between Central Mexico and the East Coast of the United States in the last decades of the twentieth century, and return migration during and after the global economic crisis of 2007. Based on ethnographic research carried out over a decade, details of the lives of women and men from two rural communities reveal how neoliberal economic restructuring led to the deterioration of livelihoods starting in the 1980s. Similar restructuring processes in the United States opened up opportunities for Mexican workers to labor in US industries that relied heavily on undocumented workers to sustain their profits and grow. When the Great Recession hit, in the context of increasingly restrictive immigration policies, some immigrants were more likely to return to Mexico than others. This longitudinal study demonstrates how the interconnections among class and gender are key to understanding who stayed and who returned to Mexico during and after the global economic crisis. Through these case studies, the authors comment more widely on how neoliberalism has affected the livelihoods and aspirations of the working classes. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in migration studies, gender studies/politics, and more broadly to international relations, anthropology, development studies, and human geography.

Todo comunica. Este es el axioma básico de la comunicación, también para las organizaciones. Comunicación corporativa. Claves y escenarios constituye un manual transversal y necesario, que actualiza y estudia las claves, los elementos de interés y las distintas vertientes que comprende la comunicación corporativa en el contexto actual. Los autores y autoras de este manual son grandes conocedores de cada uno de los ámbitos de especialización referidos y, por lo tanto, las voces más adecuadas para explicar cómo la función de comunicación puede optimizarse en las organizaciones. Comunicación interna, comunicación interpersonal, comunicación de crisis, comunicación y responsabilidad social corporativa o comunicación online son solo algunos de los temas abordados. Su mirada analiza las tradicionales y nuevas necesidades que afectan a la comunicación corporativa y la mejor manera de resolverlas. El libro resulta comprehensivo, actual y necesario para alumnos, investigadores y profesores, gerentes y directores de comunicación y, en general, para todos los interesados en este ámbito profesional y del saber.

The timely Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars who provide a coherent state of the art overview of the complex relationships between religion and violence. This companion tackles one of the most important topics in the field of Religion in the twenty-first century, pulling together a unique collection of cutting-edge work A focused collection of high-quality scholarship provides readers with a state-of-the-art account of the latest work in this field The contributors are broad-ranging, international, and interdisciplinary, and include historians, political scientists, religious studies scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, theologians, scholars of women's and gender studies and communication

Kids Learn! is a parent-involvement resource designed to bridge the away-from-school gap in instruction with standards-based activities in reading, writing, and mathematics. The resource also: models how parents and caregivers can be more involved with their child's learning during vacations and other breaks from school reinforces information learned during the just-ended school year, while preparing students for the upcoming grade leveloffers suggestions for quick and fun family activities that will provide a rich knowledge base for students to draw upon in the coming school year