The appearance of sound film boosted entertainment circuits around the world, drawing cultural cartographies that forged images of spaces, nations and regions. By the late 1920s and early ‘30s, film played a key role in the configuration of national and regional cultural identities in incipient mass markets. Over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this transmedia logic not only went unthreatened, but also intensified with the arrival of new media and the development of new technologies. In this respect, this book strikes a dialogue between analyses that reflect the flows and transits of music, films and artists, mainly in the Ibero-American space, although it also features essays on Soviet and Asian cinema, with a view to exploring the processes of configuration of cultural identities. As such, this work views national borders as flexible spaces that permit an exploration of the appearance of transversal relations that are part of broader networks of circulation, as well as economic, social and political models beyond the domestic sphere.

Based on a decade of field research, this work is the first book-length, scholarly examination in English of the role of Catholicism in Mexican society since the 1970s through 1995, and the increasing political activism of the Catholic church and clergy. It is also the first analysis of church-state relations in Latin America that incorporates detailed interviews of numerous bishops and clergy and leading politicians about how they see each other and how religion influences their values. It is also the first analysis of the Mexican Catholic Church which uses national survey research to examine Mexican attitudes toward religion, Christianity, and Catholicism, and provides the first inside look at the decision-making process of bishops at the diocesan level.

Part of the International Library of Policy Analysis series, this book provides the first detailed examination of the practice of policy analysis in Mexico. Whilst shaped by the legacy of the Mexican state’s colonial history as well as by recent social, economic and political developments, the study of policy analysis within Mexico provides important comparative lessons for other countries. Contributors study the nature of policy analysis at different sectors and levels of government as well as by non-governmental actors, such as unions, business, NGOs and the media, promoting the use of evidence-based policy analysis, leading to better policy results. The book is a vital resource for academics and students of policy studies, public management, political science and comparative policy studies.

A stunningly beautiful backdrop where cultures meet, meld, and thrive, the U.S.–Mexico borderlands is one of the most dynamic regions in the Americas. On the Border explores little-known corners of this fascinating area of the world in a rich collection of essays. Beginning with an exploration of mining and the rise of Tijuana, the book examines a number of aspects of the region's social and cultural history, including urban growth and housing, the mysterious underworld of border-town nightlife, a film noir treatment of the Peteet family suicides, borderlands cuisine, the life of squatters, and popular religion. As stimulating as it is lively, On the Border will spark a new appreciation for the range of social and cultural experiences in the borderlands.