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Research Theme 5

Environmental Sustainability, Economic Growth, Trade and Global Marketing

In recent years many parts of LA have experienced high levels of growth and development. High economical growth rates and an openness to increased international trade show promising for the possible enhancement of a future Danish and or European economical exchange with LA, but at the same time the increased attention to the environmental challenge seems to put at limit to the same possibilities. Or does it? This research theme will explore the possible future combination of Danish /European export of technology, knowledge and know how and an increased Latin American environmental sustainable growth. The project will focus on the interactions of social, political, economical and cultural factors in the development of LA economy in recent years, as well as in long term historical models.

For most of 20the century Latin America diverged from the West, by having both lower growth and larger short-run volatility. Most of the high inflations and some of the worst debt crises during the 20 th century took place in Latin America. This was partly due to the attempt to find a special Latin American economic theory known as Structuralism and Dependencia theory. The theories generated a unique Latin American policy mix that might be seen as the explanation of the relative poor economic development on the continent. Consequently, in the mid 1980s there was a shift back to mainstream theory and more liberal – or in some instances very liberal – policies. It did generate some success stories, but also some cases of more dubious outcomes. Therefore, in the first decade of the 21 st century there has been a partial revival of the old thoughts, and generally the economic thinking and policies on the continent are more in a flux than it has been for long. Thus a large number of promising research projects involving economics and political science has emerged.