Report on Recent Research Themes in Latin American Development Geography

Abstract

Latin American development geography is a diverse field of study concerned with both social and economic development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. The field also extends beyond the social and the economic to include political concerns and environmental impacts. In this report on the field, I devote most of the space to brief annotations of recent works that serve to represent the range of perspectives, themes, and analysis now prominent in the field. As is typical in sub-fields of geography, many authors that are important to Latin American development geography are outside the discipline of geography. And as the descriptions of recent works will show, the major division in the field is between economists and broadly-defined political economists, in cluding geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists. The work of most economists tends to focus mainly on modeling economic performance indicators as a way of judging development progress in the region. In contrast, the broadly-defined political economists use more qualitative methods and focus greater attention on social groups such as families, formal and informal workers, peasants, children, and women.