Many Latin American countries have experienced improvements in income over recent decades, with several of them now classified as high-income or upper middle-income in terms of conventional metrics. But has this change been mirrored in improvements across the different areas of people’s lives? How’s Life in Latin America? Measuring Well-being for Policy Making addresses this question by presenting comparative evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with a focus on 11 LAC countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay).
Public Health and Beyond in Latin America and the Caribbean: Reflections from the Field explores the diverse and complex public health landscape, from global to regional to local, by considering historical and socio-cultural factors to contextualize the ongoing public health crisis. Drawing on four decades of field experience, research, and teaching, Sherri L. Porcelain uses case studies to offer a realistic view of the public heath struggle in Latin America and the Caribbean. Using specific countries as regional examples, the book shows how population health has been inextricably linked to political, economic, social, cultural, ethical, ecological, environmental, and technological factors. Chapters in this book will examine the history of public health issues associated with international development, globalization and the international political economy, disasters, diplomacy, and security studies coupled with the changing role of key actors driving the global and regional agendas. The final chapter examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for the future of public health. This book is recommended for undergraduate students interested in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as others concerned with global and regional population health challenges.
This book highlights current debates about concepts, methods, and policies related to poverty in Latin America. It focuses on child and adolescent well-being and the issue of inclusive societies. Its goal is to promote new and critical thinking about these issues globally and in Latin America. The authors clearly emphasise the need to develop new conceptual and practical avenues that can address the issues of poverty, marginalisation, exclusion, and old and new inequalities in post-neoliberal times. The objective is to advance the rights of all children and adolescents in the region. This urgent book represents a unique opportunity for practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and students to get access to the most up-to-date key knowledge on child poverty and inequality from a conceptual and practical point of view.
"This book makes a vital contribution to the current literature on human well-being. Through a condensed but incisive analysis of a wide range of sources, from ancient philosophy to the political constitutions of modern nation states, Annie Austin builds a strong case for a universal core of human well-being. Her identification of the vital importance of an "infrastructure of sociality" should be noted by academicians, politicians and policy-makers who are seeking to use well-being as a means of rethinking how we are to meet the challenges of the 21st century." —Allister McGregor, University of Sheffield, UK This book examines the differing policy implications of the different conceptions of wellbeing across the world. There is an ongoing debate, in both philosophical and policy circles, about the legitimacy of universal frameworks of wellbeing. Who should decide what it means to live a good life? Is it possible to arrive at a shared definition, or is there simply too much individual and cultural diversity in conceptions of the good life? By devising an ‘overlapping consensus’ on wellbeing, the book represents a starting point for political negotiation and public deliberation about the kinds of societies we (as collectivities) wish to create, and the kinds of lives we (as individuals embedded in those societies) want to live. The book provides philosophically-informed public policy insight, making it a valuable contribution to interdisciplinary wellbeing scholarship.
"Each experience described here has its own history, as can be seen in each one of the chapters. Yet, all of them are part of a single reform process with shared historical roots and influences ... As proved by the experiences included in this book, a great deal can be learned from mental health reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. On the one hand, each initiative developed truly original and innovative solutions for some of the problems usually encountered in the reform processes. Obviously, many of the innovative solutions can be applied in those countries that are at a similar stage of development as the Latin American and Caribbean countries where the reported experiences took place. However, many of these innovations also can be useful to any country interested in reforming its mental health services, regardless of the country's degree of development. I also believe that the reform of mental health services in Latin America and the Caribbean--given specific aspects such as the dynamic following the Caracas Declaration and the impact of international cooperation--help us to better understand the real importance of some factors, such as social and political aspects and international cooperation, in implementing mental health service reforms."--p. iv.
Why do some societies fare well, and others poorly, at reducing the risk of early death? Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services, in a wider range of ways than is sometimes recognized. These conclusions are based on case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, as well as on cross-national comparisons involving these cases and others.
Brazil has occupied a central role in the access to medicines movement, especially with respect to drugs used to treat those with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). How and why Brazil succeeded in overcoming powerful political and economic interests, both at home and abroad, to roll-out and sustain treatment represents an intellectual puzzle. In this book, Matthew Flynn traces the numerous challenges Brazil faced in its efforts to provide essential medicines to all of its citizens. Using dependency theory, state theory, and moral underpinnings of markets, Flynn delves deeper into the salient factors contributing to Brazil’s successes and weaknesses, including control over technology, creation of political alliances, and instrumental use of normative frameworks and effectively explains the ability of countries to fulfill the prescription drug needs of its population versus the interests and operations of the global pharmaceutical industry Pharmaceutical Autonomy and Public Health in Latin America is one of the only books to provide an in-depth account of the challenges that a developing country, like Brazil, faces to fulfill public health objectives amidst increasing global economic integration and new international trade agreements. Scholars interested in public health issues, HIV/AIDS, and human rights, but also to social scientists interested in Latin America and international political economy will find this an original and thought provoking read.
The "quality of life" concept of quality of life is a broad one. It incorporates basic needs but also extends beyond them to include capabilities, the "livability" of the environment, and life appreciation and happiness. Latin America's diversity in culture and levels of development provide a laboratory for studying how quality of life varies with a number of objective and subjective measures. These measures range from income levels to job insecurity and satisfaction, to schooling attainment and satisfaction, to measured and self-assessed health, among others. Paradox and Perception greatly improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America based on a broad "quality of life" concept that challenges some standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income. The authors' analysis builds upon a number of new approaches in economics, particularly those related to the study of happiness and finds a number of paradoxes as the region's respondents evaluate their well-being. These include the paradox of unhappy growth at the macroeconomic level, happy peasants and frustrated achievers at the microlevel, and surprisingly high levels of satisfaction with public services among the region's poorest. They also have important substantive links with several of the region's realities, such as high levels of income inequality, volatile macroeconomic performance, and low expectations of public institutions and faith in the capacity of the state to deliver. Identifying these perceptions, paradoxes, and their causes will contribute to the crafting of better public policies, as well as to our understanding of why "populist" politics still pervade in much of the region.
Challenging traditional approaches to medical history, Disease in the History of Modern Latin America advances understandings of disease as a social and cultural construction in Latin America. This innovative collection provides a vivid look at the latest research in the cultural history of medicine through insightful essays about how disease—whether it be cholera or aids, leprosy or mental illness—was experienced and managed in different Latin American countries and regions, at different times from the late nineteenth century to the present. Based on the idea that the meanings of sickness—and health—are contestable and subject to controversy, Disease in the History of Modern Latin America displays the richness of an interdisciplinary approach to social and cultural history. Examining diseases in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, the contributors explore the production of scientific knowledge, literary metaphors for illness, domestic public health efforts, and initiatives shaped by the agendas of international agencies. They also analyze the connections between ideas of sexuality, disease, nation, and modernity; the instrumental role of certain illnesses in state-building processes; welfare efforts sponsored by the state and led by the medical professions; and the boundaries between individual and state responsibilities regarding sickness and health. Diego Armus’s introduction contextualizes the essays within the history of medicine, the history of public health, and the sociocultural history of disease. Contributors. Diego Armus, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Kathleen Elaine Bliss, Ann S. Blum, Marilia Coutinho, Marcus Cueto, Patrick Larvie, Gabriela Nouzeilles, Diana Obregón, Nancy Lays Stepan, Ann Zulawski
