Economic development in Puerto Rico after US annexation: Anthropometric evidence.

This paper considers economic development in Puerto Rico following its annexation by the United States in 1898, a watershed moment in the history of the island and the pinnacle of American imperialism in Latin America. Drawing on data from three surveys, I show that male height in Puerto Rico increased at more than twice the average rate for Latin America and the Caribbean between 1890 and 1940. I also show that Puerto Ricans at mid-century were among the tallest Latin Americans outside of Argentina and Uruguay. The evidence supports the conclusion that conditions improved substantially after US annexation, in contrast to the prevailing view in the literature.

Intervention mapping to address social and economic factors impacting indigenous people's health in Suriname's interior region.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies found that while internationally financed economic development projects reduced poverty when measured in terms of per capita GDP, they also caused indigenous people to become disassociated, impoverished and alienated minorities whose health status has declined to unacceptable lows when measured in terms of mercury poisoning and the burgeoning rate of suicide. In this study, we developed a needs assessment and a policy-oriented causal diagram to determine whether the impaired health of the people in this region was at least partially due to the role the country has played within the global economy. Specifically, could the health and well-being of indigenous people in Suriname be understood in terms of the foreign investment programs and economic development policies traceable to the Inter-American Development Bank's Suriname Land Management Project. METHODS: Interviews took place from 2004 through 2015 involving stakeholders with an interest in public health and economic development. A policy-oriented causal diagram was created to model a complex community health system and weave together a wide range of ideas and views captured during the interview process. RESULTS: Converting land and resources held by indigenous people into private ownership has created an active market for land, increased investment and productivity, and reduced poverty when measured in terms of per capita GDP. However, it has also caused indigenous people to become disassociated, impoverished and alienated minorities whose health status has declined to unacceptable lows. While the effects of economic development programs on the health of vulnerable indigenous communities are clear, the governance response is not. The governance response appeared to be determined less by the urgency of the public health issue or by the compelling logic of an appropriate response, and more by competing economic interests and the exercise of power. CONCLUSION: The health and well-being of the indigenous Wayana in Suriname's interior region is at least partially due to the role the country has played within the global economy. Specifically, the health and well-being of indigenous people in Suriname can be understood to be a result of foreign development bank-funded projects that drive the government of Suriname to trade land and natural resources on the global market to manage their country's balance of payments.

The seed of abundance and misery Peruvian living standards from the early republican period to the end of the guano era (1820-1880).

This paper examines 19th-century Peruvian heights from the early republican period to the end of the guano era (1820-1880). Analyzing male and female prisoner heights from the Lima penitentiary, we find that the physical stature of the lower classes stagnated throughout the period. In spite of the substantial profits generated by Peru's chief export product, guano, these revenues apparently did not filter down to benefit ordinary laborers.

Futebol e ferrovia: a história de um trem da industrialização que parte para o noroeste paulista / Football and rail: a train of industrialization that the northwest part paulista

O artigo busca desenvolver a relação entre a expansão da rede ferroviária no interior paulista e a evolução das práticas esportivas, mais especificamente o futebol. A ideia central é que o movimento ocorre do meio urbano para o interior, percebido agora não mais como um espaço tradicionalmente rural, mas no bojo do surgimento e expansão de vilas e cidades. Procura apontar as principais características da realidade política, econômica e social do Brasil na primeira metade do século XX e contribuir para a discussão sobre o desenvolvimento das práticas esportivas no período.

The article seeks to develop the relationship between the expansion of railway network in São Paulo and the evolution of sports, especially the soccer. The central idea is that movement occurs in urban areas to the interior, not as a traditionally rural area, but in the midst of the emergence and expansion of towns and cities. It identifies the main features of political scenario, economic and social in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century and contribute to the discussion on the development of sports in the period.

Nutrition, poverty alleviation, and development in Central America and Panama.

This paper reviews research with policy relevance for food and nutrition in Central America and similar areas. The research was conducted by the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) during the last three decades of the past millennium (1970-99). Six policy areas were selected for this review: agricultural commercialization and rural development; wage and price policies; human resource development; social safety nets, particularly complementary food programs; multi-sectoral nutrition planning; and food and nutrition monitoring for policy formulation. The contents and major conclusions of the work are described, as well as their public policy implications.

'Batedores da ciência' em território paulista: expedições de exploração e a ocupação do 'sertão' de São Paulo na transição para o século XX / Trailblazers of science in the São Paulo territory: exploratory expeditions and the settlement of the São Paulo 'sertão' at the turn of the twentieth century

Este artigo apresenta e discute a participação da Comissão Geográfica e Geológica de São Paulo, fundada em 1886, na cartografia e nos levantamentos de recursos naturais do território paulista a fim de viabilizar sua exploração econômica e ocupação agrícola, industrial e urbana. Coube à ciência e à técnica uma participação decisiva nesse processo, em que se confirma o papel mediador entre ciência e sociedade das instituições de pesquisa, particularmente a aplicada. A ação da Comissão viabilizou a montagem de uma rede de comunicação viária, seja fluvial ou ferroviária, tanto simultaneamente aos levantamentos quanto a posteriori, em decorrência da abertura de frentes territoriais de ocupação geográfica.

Founded in 1886, the São Paulo Geographic and Geological Commission took part in cartographic studies and surveys of the region's natural resources that were essential to the economic exploitation of these resources and to agricultural, industrial, and urban settlement. Science and technology played a decisive role in this process, where research institutions -especially those in applied research - acted as intermediaries between science and society. The Commission's work made it possible to set up a communication network, including river and rail, both during and after the surveys, as new frontiers were being opened and settled.

Entrepreneurship and nation building: proprietary medical schools and development in the Caribbean, 1976-1990

Since the mid-1970s proprietary medical schools have spread throughout the Windward & Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. In some cases, these transnational educational corporations have made commitments to enhance education and health care resources of host countries. In all cases, the presence of hundreds of students and faculty, and the associated local spending, represents significant additional foreign exchange and employment. This dissertation seeks to learn how proprietary medical schools have affected development in Eastern Caribbean microstates, to assess what role, if any, they might play in local development, and to discern their implications for the complex array of regional agreements comprising the fourteen-nation Caribbean Community and its associated educational regime - whose institutional pinnacle is the University of the West Indies - to which all host microstates subscribe. The central focus of this study is Grenada and St. George's University School of Medicine. St. George's is the oldest such establishment, and is the archetype for all that followed in the region, Using an historical approach rooted in international political economy, public policy and area studies, this dissertation utilizes unpublished and recently declassified documents, newspapers, personal interviews, and other primary sources to reconstruct the complex relationship of school and state through four distinct political periods. At every stage of the analysis, regional events and implications were also considered. The study concludes that the incentive to allow proprietary medical schools was rooted in historic insecurities deriving from unequal power relations among member states of the educational regime, combined with ongoing perceptions of distributive bias. Host states viewed proprietary medical schools as an opportunity to augment both capital and human resources, and therefore acted alone, despite implicit norms against such independent action. The Grenadian case demonstrated that proprietary medical schools could, given sufficient encouragement, provide host microstates with certain developmental benefits affecting educational development, health care, and economy. However, the extent that these benefits are realized was found to be largely dependant on entrepreneurial awareness within the political leadership, institutionalization of collaborative/coordinating mechanisms, quality of medical school management.(AU)

O financiamento do processo de desenvolvimento / The financing of the development process

Modelo de desenvolvimento do pós-guerra. Implicaçöes sociais e ambientais. Perspectiva histórica da crise fiscal da atualidade. Política ambiental brasileira. Atuais restriçöes financeiras que inibem uma política de desenvolvimento sustentável. Mudanças estruturais e tecnológicas resultantes da inserçäo da variável ambiental nas estratégias de desenvolvimento. Discussäo sobre formas adicionais de financiamento das políticas ambientais brasileiras.

Salud y seguridad social: crisis, ajustes y grupos vulnerables / Health and social security: crisis, adjustments and vulnerable groups

Se estudia la tendencia de la seguridad social y de los indicadores de salud durante 1940-1980, vinculándolos con la evolución económica y social de México. Para el período 1980-1988, se analizan las causas y las consecuencias, así como el impacto en los grupos económica y socialmente más desprotegidos, de la crisis y de las medidas adoptadas por el Estado para hacerle frente. Asimismo se describen y analizan las acciones emprendidas en materia de seguridad social y de protección a la salud. El contenido temático de la obra es: Presentación. I) Antecedentes 1940-1980: 1. antecedentes; 2. la salud y la seguridad social como consecuencias del entorno; 3. indicadores del nivel de salud alcanzado; y, 4. formación institucional. II) Las medidas sectoriales en el curso de la crisis y los ajustes 1980-1988: 1. introducción; 2. condicionamiento de la salud y la seguridad social por el entorno económico ; 3. políticas instrumentadas e indicadores más generales que muestran los avances y limitaciones en el sector; 4. impacto sobre los niveles de salud y seguridad social alcanzados; 5. relaciones directas entre las medidas generales del ajuste y la población asegurada; y, 6. el marco general del ajuste y la población no asegurada. III) Las propuestas hacia los grupos más vulnerables: 1. introducción; 2. problemática para alcanzar el derecho a la salud; 3. las reformas comienzan hacia los grupos más vulnerables; 4. las reformas y sus precondiciones; 5. reformas; 6. extensión del acceso a los servicios de salud a todos los mexicanos; 7. creación de una Cartilla Nacional de Salud; 8. apoyarse más en la descentralización; 9. medidas coordinadas intersectoriales: sensibilización y capacitación de la población; 10. enunciado de los programas más importantes; 11. programa materno infantil para población abierta; y, 12. programa sobre las enfermedades crónico-degenerativas. IV) Síntesis de las propuestas sobre seguridad social y salud. Anexos: cuadros estadísticos complementarios y mapas sobre la desigualdad regional

O Rio onde o sol näo brilha: acumulaçäo e pobreza na transiçäo para o capitalismo / The Rio where the sun never shines: accumulation and poverty during the transition to capitalism

Problematiza a contradiçäo acumulaçäo/pobreza numa época em que a transiçäo para o capitalismo no Brasil, especialmente no Rio de Janeiro, reproduziu em novas bases as distorçöes herdadas à empresa mercantil colonial. A urbanizaçäo e a industrializaçäo do antigo Distrito Federal excluíram dos benefícios da civilizaçäo as classes trabalhadoras, causando-lhes prejuízos sérios nas condiçöes de trabalho, na moradia, no saneamento, nos transportes, na alimentaçäo e na saúde. Reesume análises resultantes do projeto "Assistência médica no Rio de Janeiro: uma contribuiçäo para a sua história no período 1870-1945".(AU)

Política de saúde, campanhas sanitárias e desenvolvimento capitalista na era de Vargas

Analisa tres conjunturas sanitarias na etapa historica compreendida entre os anos 1930-1945: a conjuntura das reformas institucionais (1930-1934); a conjuntura em que se explicitam as politicas sociais (1935-1941); e a conjuntura em que os acontecimentos internacionais provocam e alimentam transformacoes no Estado brasileiro, e burocratizam as campanhas sanitarias (1941-1945).(AU)