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Food‐borne disease caused by bacteria is acknowledged to be very widespread in Africa, Asia and Latin America but even in advanced areas of the world this is now giving rise to acute concern. The most common causes of this are examined here with special reference to England and Wales, the extreme seriousness of the problem is underlined and various precautionary measures at both producer and consumer levels are recommended for its alleviation.

The chapter identifies key components of the new patterns of farming and rural livelihoods emerging in Latin America in the twenty-first century. By the beginning of the millennium, most rural areas of Latin America had become integrated into global agricultural commodity networks that curtail the opportunities for small-scale, family-based farming and result in two predominant types of production, the corporate large-scale enterprise suited to oils seeds and their derivatives, cattle or vegetables for processing and the smaller commercially oriented farm producing market garden products, fruits and wine. Both types of farms often form part of commodity networks organized by domestic intermediaries, large-scale supermarket chains, such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, and foreign food marketers. In addition to the multiplication of external commercial linkages, high levels of urbanization have increasingly blurred the distinction between the rural and the urban. Off-farm work, including international labor migration, is now an important source of rural livelihoods. This context means that research needs to address the multiple interfaces that now connect the different types of rural inhabitants with a wide range of external actors.

The overall aim of this chapter is to investigate whether the notion of cultural value can have utility as a context for urban and regional development strategies. It does this by proposing a conceptualisation of ‘cultural assets’ that encompasses both tangible and intangible resources, as well as resources existing and yet to be created. The purpose of the conceptualisation is to establish a framework within which we can better understand how cultural value might be activated or generated in urban and regional areas and so become a context for developmental strategies. Importantly, this paper also sets out to provide further insight into the notion of cultural value itself, particularly in relation to matters of definition, and the notion's utility in other areas of theory and practice.

In 1995, Mexico again slid into economic and social crisis without full recovery from the crisis of 1982. When the Mexican peso plunged in value right before Christmas 1994, many segments of the society that were affected had not regained the purchasing power of 1980. The broad outline of the Mexican government's program for responding to the most recent crisis is parallel to the prescriptions offered in the 1980s; indeed, the response represents prevailing mainstream neo‐liberal economic thinking — stabilization, structural adjustment, privatization, and so on. However, lacking a well developed social welfare system, the burdens of adaptation to adverse economic conditions fall primarily on women in households in the struggle to preserve individual well‐being. This paper, then, joins a growing body of work attempting to analyze the connection between micro‐level household conditions, including gender relations, and gendered macro‐level processes, such as ongoing economic liberalization in Mexico.

Uses a data set from Guadalajara, Mexico, to investigate the determinants of the wage structure of manual employees in the urban sector of a developing economy. Focuses particular attention on whether there is a significant difference in remuneration between permanent and casual employees after allowing for the different human capital and other characteristics of the two groups. Finds that, once a correction has also been made for selectivity bias, a substantial wage gap in favour of permanent employees exists. Also confirms and estimates wage differentials associated with educational background and union membership. However, finds no support for the idea that a large multinational will pay wages above the expected level for a given type of worker.

Understanding of the factors that contribute to policies diverging from neoliberal norms and accounting for situations when social movement activists prevail over the interests of more powerful opponents requires an analytical framework specifying the dimensions of interest. The case of Brazil’s pharmaceutical policies, especially those dealing with HIV/AIDS, is considered.

To understand the space and limits for progressive agency amidst contemporary globalization, previous articulations of dependent development and global capitalism require conceptual space with insights from social movement theory and normative framing.

Control over technology, political alliances, and normative appeals have changed since the concept of dependent development to today’s contemporary neoliberal globalization for understanding cases of progressive agency. Technology is based more on intangible knowledge, activism across the state-society boundary is more likely, and human rights has become the dominant idiom for naming and shaming more powerful opponents.

The analytic framework developed informs our understanding of pharmaceutical autonomy – the ability of a country to provide for the prescription drug needs of its population – in the case of Brazil. Further research of other situations requires the application of the framework to determine its merits.

A focus on technology, alliances, and norms provides a useful starting point for exploring situations of development autonomy that prevails over the interests of corporate power.