Suchergebnisse

This Survey of Latin American Studies in France was Compiled in the fall of 1967 and early 1968 with the aid of correspondents at the major universities in France, and from scholarly journals and bibliographies. The survey includes a brief discussion of the French news media's coverage of Latin America, a listing of the more important academic periodicals in the field, and a description of the universities and institutes supervising the area studies. Also, an attempt has been made to enumerate the larger research projects now in progress and to comment on general trends in all of the current research in Latin American studies in France.

Educated classes in India have long been accustomed to talk of the "common problems" of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the past, they have been content to rely almost exclusively on popular books in the English language published in Britain and the United States for information concerning those regions. Of the three continents with a sense of common identity, Latin America is physically the farthest from India and also the area that has afforded least direct contact. While these factors contributed to an attitude towards Latin America that was friendly and devoid of negative sentiments, they also resulted in a much slower awakening among the educated and elite groups of the desirability of initiating rigorous programs of study and research on contemporary Latin American institutions and developments. It was only a decade ago that a modest effort in this direction was begun in the School of International Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. The program is now attracting somewhat greater interest from students, researchers, and agencies than was anticipated by the few enthusiasts who launched it ten years ago without any prospect of financial support from educational authorities and funding agencies.

The study of Latin America in Japan prior to World War II was centered on the issue of migration, but as an area study field it is a product of Japan's economic expansion and relations with Latin America in the postwar period. After the war, a new wave of Japanese migration to Latin America was soon followed by the first government-sponsored team of social scientists who studied the living conditions of immigrants in Brazil. But the principal boost to the field was provided by the phenomenal economic growth experienced by Japan and the rapid development of trade, investment, and economic cooperation with Latin America. In 1958 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the initiative of establishing, with corporate support, the Latin American Society of Japan, whose main objectives were to gather and disseminate economic information on the region and to publish economic and business reports. As has been typical in other countries, economic ties were soon followed by an increase in university activity. In 1964, the first true area study program on Latin America was established at Sophia University; in the same year the first Japanese association of social scientists (mostly economists) working on Latin America was founded; and in the following year a Japanese association of Brazilian studies was organized. In 1967, the Research Institute for Brazilian Culture was organized at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, and the Institute of Developing Economies (which had begun its operations ten years previously as the Institute of Asian Economies) expanded its coverage to promote economic cooperation and trade with Latin America.

Latin america has suddenly become important to an increasing number of Canada's universities and colleges. Only three years ago the situation was not at all promising as D. B. L. Hamlin and Gilíes Lalande showed in their reports to the Canadian Universities Foundation, but a more favorable climate for developing programs in this area has emerged as the federal government, the Canada Council, university administrators, and individual faculty members have taken an interest in Latin America.

The pacific region contains two of the countries of the world with the highest GNP. The United States dominates the Americas; Japan comes closer every day to achieving the same position in regard to the countries of Southeast Asia. At one conference of Asian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Japan promised to raise its aid budget to the developing nations to 1 per cent of her GNP by 1975, but at the same time called upon the other countries to try to solve their problems on their own, by making adequate use of economic aid.