For decades, scholars and journalists have hailed the enormous potential of Brazil, which has been one of the world's largest economies for the last twenty years. But its promise has too often been curtailed by dictatorship, racism, poverty, and violence. Offering an interdisciplinary approach to the critical issues facing Brazil, the contributors to this volume analyze the democratization of the country's media, its nuclear capabilities, changing crime rates, the spread of Pentecostalism and indigenous religions, the development of popular culture, the growth of Brazilian agribusiness, and the implementation of sustainable economic development, especially in the Amazon. The only member of the large, newly industrialized, fast-growing BRICS economies (along with Russia, China, India, and South Africa) in the Western hemisphere, Brazil plays a unique role regionally and throughout the world. Emergent Brazil is a comprehensive and timely collection of essays that explore the country's major domestic concerns and the impact of its trends, institutions, culture, and religion across the globe. Jeffrey D. Needell is professor of history at the University of Florida and former Latin American program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is the author of A Tropical Belle Epoque and The Party of Order.

Since the popularisation of the internet, low-income Brazilians have received little government support to help them access it. In response, they have largely self-financed their digital migration. Internet cafés became prosperous businesses in working-class neighbourhoods and rural settlements, and, more recently, families have aspired to buy their own home computer with hire purchase agreements. As low-income Brazilians began to access popular social media sites in the mid-2000s, affluent Brazilians ridiculed their limited technological skills, different tastes and poor schooling, but this did not deter them from expanding their online presence. Young people created profiles for barely literate older relatives and taught them to navigate platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp

This book examines changing international dynamics through the lens of some of the leading think tanks from the emerging powers in the world. Through twelve case studies, the authors explore how security and international affairs think tanks in emerging powers collaborate with their policy makers to meet current and anticipate future foreign policy and security challenges. Overall, the book illustrates and analyzes how think tanks in a variety of political and economic contexts are able to contribute to their respective policy-making processes. Included in the discussions are the problems or successes that each respective nation’s think tanks face, where they feel the emerging nation will be positioned, and where they are failing to meet the policy challenges they face. The book provides a comprehensive look at successful foreign policy formulation to serve as examples for other think tanks in similar political and economic conditions.

Branding Brazil examines a panorama of contemporary cultural productions including film, television, photography, and alternative media to explore the transformation of citizenship in Brazil. The book takes a multi-faceted approach, weaving media studies with politics and cinema studies to reveal that more than a marketing term or project emanating from the state, branding was a cultural phenomenon.

Energy has always been essential to economics and politics. While global energy consumption increases, fossil fuels are depleting. The countries that will be hit hardest by declining energy resources are the emerging economies of the Global South, where the relevance of the industrial sector is only slightly declining (or, indeed, still on the rise) and where governments have subsidised energy consumption for decades. Climate change – a direct outcome of the increasing consumption of fossil fuels – hits these emerging economies hard. Against this backdrop, Energy Policy inthe Emerging Economies: Climate Change Mitigation under the Constraints of Path Dependence analyses energy policy in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africaand South Korea with particular regard to these countries’ contributions to climatechange mitigation. Advancing a new approach that expands on energy transition studies and the concept of path dependence, Sören Scholvin and Joachim Betzshed light on material conditions, energy demand and expansion plans, politico-economicconstellations, energy-related know-how and climate policy.

The New Brazil tells the story of South America's largest country as it evolved from a remote Portuguese colony into a regional leader; a respected representative for the developing world; and, increasingly, an important partner for the United States and the European Union. In this engaging book, Riordan Roett traces the long road Brazil has traveled to reach its present status, examining the many challenges it has overcome and those that lie ahead. He discusses the country's development as a colony, empire, and republic; the making of modern Brazil, beginning with the rise to power of Getúlio Vargas; the advent of the military government in 1964; the return to civilian rule two decades later; and the pivotal presidencies of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio (Lula) da Silva, leading to the nation's current world status as one of the BRIC countries. Under newly elected President Dilma Rousseff, much remains to be done to consolidate and expand its global role. Nonetheless, as a player on the world stage, Brazil is here to stay. "In part the [country's] success is due to external factors such as the high demand for Brazilian exports, particularly in China and the rest of Asia. But it also reflects sophisticated policy choices, including inflation targeting and maintenance of an autonomous central bank."—from the Introduction

This book is the first modern survey of the economic and social history of Brazil from early man to today. A fantastic overview for students and scholars interested in the economic and social landscape of Brazil.