United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

About: United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean is a government organization based out in Santiago, Chile. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Latin Americans & Port (computer networking). The organization has 198 authors who have published 247 publications receiving 3700 citations.

Science for the Twenty‐First Century: From Social Contract to the Scientific Core

Abstract: The article addresses the need, posed by the challenges of sustainable development and the changing context at the beginning of the 21st century, for changes in the method and practice of science. The major challenges for a “sustainability science” arise from increasing complexification at the ontological, epistemological and political levels, calling for an integrated science going far beyond an interdisciplinary style of research. The requirement is for the development, adoption, and dissemination of a truly complex-systems scientific research model. Complex socio-ecological systems share a number of fundamental properties that require changes in scientific methods, criteria of truth and quality, and conceptual frameworks. These properties include non-linearity, plurality of perspectives, emergence of properties, self-organization, multiplicity of scales, and irreducible uncertainty. Some implications of the analysis are pointed out, in the form of practical recommendations. The authors argue for the involvement of both natural and social scientists in the investigation of the necessary steps to develop a sustainability science.

Electronic Government (E-Government) and Development

Abstract: E-government denotes the strategic, co-ordinated use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in public administration and political decision-making. The benefits it is expected to deliver are greater efficiency of the institutions concerned, improvements in public services, and political participation and transparency. But fast results can only be expected where a sound institutional base and good technical and infrastructural facilities already exist. In the foreseeable future, the introduction of e-government will mainly be confined to the industrialised and more advanced developing countries. However, potential uses are also opening up for the poorer countries. In many cases, the obstacles to reform are not so much financial and infrastructural difficulties as political blockades. Development cooperation can use e-government as a means of supporting partner countries in devising and implementing political and administrative reforms and in improving market-oriented frameworks. Beyond the imm...

Segregación Residencial en la Ciudad Latinoamericana

Abstract: Pese a la emergente presencia de la segregacion residencial socioeconomica (SRS) en los debates academicos y en las agendas publicas, la evidencia en America Latina y el Caribe sobre su magnitud e intensidad, sus tendencias, sus mecanismos de reproduccion y sus consecuencias es escasa, fragmentaria y poco comparable entre paises (e incluso en terminos diacronicos para cada pais). Al respecto, este trabajo procura ofrecer alguna evidencia empirica sobre la SRS con especial referencia a la situacion de America Latina y el Caribe, buscando aportar en cuatro sentidos: (a) avanzar en la medicion de la SRS en los paises de la region; (b) profundizar en el examen de sus determinantes directos, en particular en los patrones de migracion intrametropolitana; (c) reflexionar sobre las disparidades de comportamiento y condiciones de vida entre zonas ricas y pobres, como primer antecedente para el examen de las consecuencias de la SRS; (d) revisar opciones de politica relativas a la SRS a nivel internacional.