Academic autonomy has been a dominant issue among Latin American social studies, given that the production of knowledge in the region has been mostly suspected for its lack of originality and the replication of Euro-American models. Politicization within the higher education system and recurrent military interventions in universities have been considered the main structural causes for this heteronomy and, thus, the main obstacles for 'scientific' achievements. This groundbreaking book analyses the struggle for academic autonomy taking into account the relevant differences between the itinerary of social and natural sciences, the connection of institutionalization and prestige-building, professionalization and engagement. From the perspective of the periphery, academic dependence is not merely a vertical bond that ties active producers and passive reproducers. Even though knowledge produced in peripheral communities has low rates of circulation within the international academic system, this doesn't imply that their production is - or always has been - the result of a massive import of foreign concepts and resources. This book intends to show that the main differences between mainstream academies and peripheral circuits are not precisely in the lack of indigenous thinking, but in the historical structure of academic autonomy, which changes according to a set of factors -mainly the role of the state in the higher education system. This historical structure explains the particular features of the process of professionalization in Latin American scientific fields.

This document is the final report of the Third Intergovernmental Consultation on the Establishment of a Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from January 27-30 2004. For waters under the sovereignty of coastal States, the Consultation agreed that a regional body for the management and development of coastal fisheries, with advisory powers only, be set up under Article VI of the FAO Constitution. For the high seas, it agreed that there should be a separate instrument, outside of the FAO, with the power to take binding decisions on conservation and management measures. The Consultation recognized the right of involvement of coastal States in the high seas instrument and identified linkages between the proposed coastal State and the high seas arrangements. The Consultation also agreed on the draft text for a resolution to the FAO Council and for the statutes of a regional body for the management and development of coastal fisheries. Possible elements of a draft agreement for the high seas were briefly discussed.--Publisher's description.