Seeing and not seeing populism in Latin America

I suggest a different, if complementary approach to understanding populism by turning to the specificity and complexity of Latin American politics in the 20th and 21st century histories. First, I view populism in the context of Latin American nations’ failures to achieve equality and inclusion as they modernized. In so doing, I consider together what I call “the first coming of the people on the scene,” between the Mexican Revolution and the military governments of the 1960s and 70s, and the “second coming of the people on the scene,” between the 1980s and the present. I suggest that we are seeing today a repetition of mid-20th century experiences and that the present should be seen as a replay, with key differences, of the 1960s and 1970s.Accepted manuscrip

Religion, social movements, and zone of crisis in Latin America

This repository item contains a single issue of Issues in Brief, a series of policy briefs that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.Based on the outcomes of a three-year project led by Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA), this Issues in Brief explores the connections between religion and social movements in Latin America, especially in areas where efforts have been made to expand citizens’ rights and institute reforms to improve social justice. The authors use examples presented by collaborating scholars at the project’s conferences to show how religion is, in fact, an intrinsic part of everyday life and has played an important role in both revolutions and evolutions toward democracy in the region. They argue that any assessment of where Latin America has been and where it is headed must understand and consider “the multiple roles played by religion as citizens fight for new rights and reshape democratic politics.

Historical Political Economy: What Is It?

In this chapter, we define what historical political economy (HPE) is and is not, classify the major themes in the literature, assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the literature, and point to future directions. We view HPE as social scientific inquiry which highlights political causes or consequences of historical issues. HPE is different from conventional political economy in the emphasis placed on historical processes and context. While we view HPE in the most inclusive manner reasonable, we define it to exclude works that are either solely of contemporary importance or use historical data without any historical context (e.g., long-run macroeconomic time series data). The future of HPE is bright, especially as more historical data from around the world become available via digitization. Consequently, the future frontier of the field likely falls outside of the US, which is the concern of a disproportionate amount of the current literature

M E A N I N G S A N D M O B I L I Z AT I O N S : A Cultural Politics Approach to Social Movements and States*

Social movements offer a unique view of politics because they create new forms of organization and representation at the intersections of daily life and formal institutions. Social movements establish these new forms amidst and out of multiple cultures, economies, and political practices, often in ambiguous and contradictory ways, and the processes of their creation are deeply historical and cultural. It would thus be mistaken t

Vascular injury from an arterial closure device

onographic examinations are commonly used to assess groin access sites for complications after endovascular procedures. Along with a rise in the number of endovascular procedures, there has also been increased use of percutaneous arterial closure devices, which facilitate immediate hemostasis and earlier patient mobilization.1,2 Here we report the sonographic appearance of an injury related to the deployment of an arterial closure device

Recombinant R-spondin2 and Wnt3a Up- and Down-Regulate Novel Target Genes in C57MG Mouse Mammary Epithelial Cells

R-spondins (Rspos) comprise a family of four secreted proteins that have important roles in cell proliferation, cell fate determination and organogenesis. Rspos typically exert their effects by potentiating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. To systematically investigate the impact of Rspo/Wnt on gene expression, we performed a microarray analysis using C57MG mouse mammary epithelial cells treated with recombinant Rspo2 and/or Wnt3a. We observed the up- and down-regulation of several previously unidentified target genes, including ones that encode proteins involved in immune responses, effectors of other growth factor signaling pathways and transcription factors. Dozens of these changes were validated by quantitative real time RT-PCR. Time course experiments showed that Rspo2 typically had little or no effect on Wnt-dependent gene expression at 3 or 6 h, but enhanced expression at 24 h, consistent with biochemical data indicating that Rspo2 acts primarily to sustain rather than acutely increase Wnt pathway activation. Up-regulation of gene expression was inhibited by pre-treatment with Dickkopf1, a Wnt/β-catenin pathway antagonist, and by siRNA knockdown of β-catenin expression. While Dickkopf1 blocked Rspo2/Wnt3a-dependent down-regulation, a number of down-regulated genes were not affected by β-catenin knockdown, suggesting that in these instances down-regulation was mediated by a β-catenin-independent mechanism