Patricio Aroca - Böcker

This book explores the spatial and contextual factors behind citizens' anger, frustration, and sense of abandonment, alongside the role of digital platforms in politically marginalized areas. It shifts the focus from voting geography to the geography of discontent, offering a new perspective on digital inequalities. The study addresses the complexities of "left-behind" places, recognizing that patterns of decline in developed countries differ from those in developing nations, where political and cultural dynamics play a key role.Using Chile’s Valparaíso region as a case study, the book applies its framework to a context characterized by a strong party system, robust institutions, and high Internet penetration. Chile’s recent political crisis, marked by widespread dissatisfaction, makes this analysis particularly relevant. Valparaíso, with its unique role as the host of the National Congress and as a focal point of the 2019 social uprising, serves as a microcosm for understanding the spatial dimensions of political discontent in digitally connected societies.

Dieses Buch untersucht die räumlichen und kontextuellen Faktoren hinter persönlichen Empfindungen wie Ärger, der Frustration und dem Gefühl der Vernachlässigung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern sowie die Rolle digitaler Plattformen in politisch marginalisierten Gebieten. Es verlagert den Fokus von der Geografie des Wahlverhaltens hin zur Geografie der Unzufriedenheit und bietet eine neue Perspektive auf digitale Ungleichheiten. Die Studie beleuchtet die Komplexität „zurückgelassener“ Orte und erkennt an, dass Muster des Niedergangs in Industrieländern sich von denen in Entwicklungsländern unterscheiden, wo politische und kulturelle Dynamiken eine zentrale Rolle spielen.Anhand der Region Valparaíso in Chile als Fallstudie wendet das Buch seinen Analyseansatz auf einen Kontext mit einem starken Parteiensystem, robusten Institutionen und hoher Internetdurchdringung an. Die jüngste politische Krise in Chile, geprägt von weit verbreiteter Unzufriedenheit, macht diese Analyse besonders relevant. Valparaíso, das sowohl Sitz des Nationalkongresses als auch ein zentraler Schauplatz des sozialen Aufstands von 2019 ist, dient als Mikrokosmos für das Verständnis der räumlichen Dimensionen politischer Unzufriedenheit in digital vernetzten Gesellschaften.

Presenting case studies on Brazil, Chile and Mexico, the authors examine the co-movement of regional business cycles as well as the differing responses of regional economies to external shocks due to regional characteristics such as availability of natural resources, and the degree of integration into national and global markets.

This contributed volume is the first book in English to offer a current and critical vision of regional problems and policies in the countries of Latin America. The book is in three main parts: a general overview of regional processes and trends in Latin America as a whole; country-level coverage of seven individual countries; and comparative analyses of common major problems such as migration, education, labor, poverty, decentralization, exports and foreign direct investments. Written by renowned academics and experts from the region, the book seeks to provide a better understanding of regional challenges and trends, regional disparities that exist in many Latin American countries and the increasing importance of metropolitan areas.

This contributed volume is the first book in English to offer a current and critical vision of regional problems and policies in the countries of Latin America. The book is in three main parts: a general overview of regional processes and trends in Latin America as a whole; country-level coverage of seven individual countries; and comparative analyses of common major problems such as migration, education, labor, poverty, decentralization, exports and foreign direct investments. Written by renowned academics and experts from the region, the book seeks to provide a better understanding of regional challenges and trends, regional disparities that exist in many Latin American countries and the increasing importance of metropolitan areas.

In this book, the dynamics of continuity and change in the regional economic development of Mexico and the US border states are analyzed. These studies cover the last 25 years, after the first trade agreement, between a developed and a developing country, tooks place, and where international trade and investment have been combined with a set of relevant local factors such as regional innovation, industrialization patterns, multinational corporations’ modes of operation, public investment, and national content of exports.The book offers researchers a precise identification of stylized facts that characterize the pattern of regional development in Mexico and the US Southwest as well as state-of-the-art applications contrasting hypotheses from new economic geography, endogenous and neo-Schumpeterian economic growth models, and new international trade. To graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the fields of spatial geographic economics, this book offers an excellent source for its updated review of current topics on regional development in Mexico. To policy makers, the book helps to identify policy areas to reinforce the dynamics of regional development.Whereas other books have looked at the several impacts of NAFTA on national economies, productive sectors, and societies, this book analyzes the trade agreement’s impact with a long-term view across the diversity of developments of Mexico´s regions. As well, the analysis is carried out with the perspective of prospective reforms of a renovated trade agreement between the United States and the new Mexican federal administration .The collaborators in this book are researchers who are experts at the international and national levels in the field of regional economic development. During the last 25 years they have conducted their analyses in different regions of Mexico and the United States as university researchers, advisors to state and federal governments, and as practitioners.