Ann Matear

English language learning and education policy in Chile: can English really open doors for all?

To date, knowledge of English in Latin America has reflected existing political and economic power structures. It has remained the preserve of the elite with access to private schooling, and as such it demarcates and divides social groups by reinforcing an unequal distribution of wealth, resources, and knowledge. However, the number of people learning English as a foreign language is growing across the region. This article analyses the “English Opens Doors Programme” in Chile, which aims to improve national economic competitiveness and promote equitable access to English language learning in all publicly funded schools. The article examines this initiative within the context of Chilean education policy since 1990, thereby acknowledging the influence of different stakeholders in this process, and the tensions between education for economic growth and education for social justice in a highly segmented and marketised system.

Dictatorship, democracy and corruption in Chile

The study of corruption in Chile suffers from the lack of a pre-existing body of academic research on which to draw for historical or contemporary analysis. This situation may be partially explained by several factors. Firstly, academic research tends to be reactive rather than proactive, in the sense that issues rarely become researched until they are either topical, or perceived to be problematic and significant. The configuration of historical circumstances in Chile has meant that corruption has been perceived to be considerably less widespread and less overt than in other parts of Latin America. For reasons which will be examined below, Chile is quite clearly not in the same league as Brazil, México or Venezuela in terms of corruption in the political system, and therefore the body of existing research has tended to focus on those cases where corruption is evident and more easily observable. Secondly, the lack of research material may also be partially explained by the nature of corruption in Chile. It undoubtably exists, but it has been characteristically low-key, assuming its own particular characteristics which have become known as “corrupción a la chilena”. Low-intensity corruption is undoubtedly more difficult to categorise, define and measure in comparison with flagrant abuses by individuals, sectors of society or ruling parties, and this may also be a contributory factor. A third factor may be that such low-intensity activities may become such an integral part of the political culture that they become accepted ways of the business of politics and therefore fail to even raise objections from public opinion. Only when the political environment changes do these issues become perceived as unacceptable. However, what is beyond dispute is that corruption has and does exist in Chile but it is influenced by the political culture of a particular period and by the political and social context.

Desde la Protesta a la Propuesta: Gender politics in transition in Chile

Throughout the 1980s, the major political debates on Latin America revolved around the transitions from military to civilian regimes and the nature of the emerging democracies. The ‘women question’ occupied a prominent position in those debates because of the central role which women had played in the opposition movements and Latin American feminists’ analyses of gender oppression within a global context of political repression. These debates have been considerably less vociferous in recent years. The silence may represent a much‐needed period of reflection on the movements future role, but it is unnervingly reminiscent of the withdrawal from politics which followed the enfranchisement campaigns once the right to vote had been won. Was the return to democracy an end in itself? I believe it was not, but the transitions have thrown up new challenges for social movements in general and the womens movement in particular. Chile was one of the last countries in Latin America to return to civilian government. ...

Gender relations, authoritarianism and democratization in Chile

This article takes Chile as a case study to examine how the womens movement, the non‐governmental sector and the state have worked together to design policies for the prevention of domestic violence, and to transform the culture of authoritarianism which remains an integral part of gender relations within the state and in society. It conceptualizes the linkages between gender relations, authoritarianism and violence, examines how violence against women became a prominent issue during the transition to democracy, and shows that womens organizations have made significant advances in Chile as elsewhere in Latin America, by framing legislation on violence against women within the context of womens human rights. The study indicates that collaboration between the state, womens organizations and the police force can provide a window of opportunity to promote a democratic culture within the state and society.

From Left to Right: The Changing Identity of the Chilean Political Class

This article examines the changing role of important sections of the Chilean political elites, from a Keynesian and Marxist cultural political and economic ethos, to a post-modernist set of values profoundly influenced by the ideas of free markets and state withdrawal, as proposed by Hayek and Friedman. From strong support for, and identification with, the role of the state as agent of change, social justice and social mobility, significant sections of the Chilean political class have come to accept the globalisation of the world economy and its determination of internal politics. Values such as solidarity and equalitarianism have given way to individualism and selfishness. Whether these changes reflect genuine commitment or tactical adaptation remains to be seen, but they are likely anyway to undermine the legitimacy of the democratic regime which replaced the 16 year dictatorship of the military under General Augusto Pinochet. The lack of real alternative societal models does not augur well for the frag...

The Fruit Export Sector and Global Supply Chain

We have seen how the fruit sector evolved as a result of a combination of factors, but coalesced during the late 1970s in the context of the neo-liberal economic and political reforms. These reforms not only created a commercialised farming sector which could lock into the export market, but also created a large, landless, rural labour force which could be drawn in as seasonal workers to meet the labour requirements of the producers and exporters. This chapter provides an overview of the structure of the emergent fruit export sector, in order to provide the context in which fruit employment takes place. The chapter concentrates on the period of the 1980s and early 1990s, once fruit exports had become established. It explores the structure of fruit production and exports, which has formed the basis of Chile’s integration into the world fruit market, describing the internal supply chain from producer to the point of export. We then examine Chile’s position within the world fruit export market, and how it connects to the global supply chain for fruit. We explore how the relatively fragmented production process is linked to a more concentrated high tech export ‘funnel’ facilitated by international accumulation and dominated by large multinational firms. These interconnected levels are considered in the context of the constraints inherent within agricultural production, as discussed in chapter 2, which limit the extension of the industrial processes within agriculture, despite monocultivation and the dominance of agribusiness. The fragmented production process, provides the context for employment of the temporeras, which we then examine in more detail in the next chapter.1

Female Fruit Employment — Las Temporeras

The transformation in the rural sector as a result of the expansion in agribusiness and the structure and operation of fruit export production together provide the context for temporary female fruit employment, and help us to understand the nature of women’s insertion into the sector. Fragmentation in the production process is mirrored in fruit employment, and atomisation is most pronounced in the seasonal employment generated in both production and packing for export. This is reflected in a number of ways. Clearly, the cyclical nature of production determines the seasonality of employment itself, but employment is also very insecure within the season, and the temporary labour force itself very heterogeneous. The gender dimension is important in analysing the fragmentation and atomisation of seasonal employment, with women concentrated in some of the most insecure jobs whilst at the same time undertaking the most important tasks for attaining high quality fruit to meet export standards.

Case Study: Rural Fruit Workers in the North

The heterogeneity of the temporeras is partly explained by the fragmented nature of the production process, and the partial nature of their integration into fruit work as seasonal workers. It is also a result of the diverse situations from which the seasonal workforce is drawn, ranging from small traditional campesina households to urban workers migrating from large cities during the season on a daily basis. This reflects the uneven nature of rural ‘modernisation’ as agribusiness has extended across the fruit growing regions, with contradictory effects on the women drawn into the sector. However, given their heterogeneity, the specific experiences of women working in fruit exports can vary markedly according to the diverse contexts of their personal situations. In this and the next chapter we explore two case studies which illustrate the different contexts from which women are drawn into fruit work, and the different experiences women have of undertaking this work, both within the same region and across different regions. These case studies help to depict the heterogeneity of the temporeras.

Global Policies for Temporary Workers in Agribusiness — Conclusion

The global dimension to the expansion of Chilean fruit is an aspect we have explored in relation to production and exports, but which also has potentially important implications for the temporeras themselves. Whilst the temporeras are a heterogeneous, marginalised group of workers, they are at the same time integrated into a global market. Despite fragmentation at the point of production, within Chile there is increasing concentration in the export sector. At the retail end within many developed countries to which they export, there is also a tendency to increased control along the supply chain by large supermarkets. This is a phenomenon which has taken place in the agro-food system generally as globalisation has proceeded (Ward and Almas 1997). Since the mid-1990s in many northern countries there has been an increased consumer awareness of the problems of poor labour conditions among export workers in developing countries. An anomaly of globalisation is that, whereas national democratic governments such as Concertacion in Chile have failed to act in the interest of seasonal agricultural workers, foreign multiples are increasingly moving towards introducing codes of conduct to protect labour standards among their ‘third world’ suppliers.

State Policy and the Temporeras in the Transition to Democracy

The expansion of the fruit export sector and with it temporary female employment really took off under the neo-liberal military regime. The state at this time played a minimal role in terms of promotion of the fruit export sector, and the privately owned parceleros and larger export companies provided the momentum for its expansion. During the period of dictatorship, the state took an ideological stance that promoted the role of women as home-maker, wife and mother. However, as we saw in chapter 3, a paradox of the neo-liberal period was that the military’s economic policies had the contrary effect of increasing female employment. This was seen most clearly in the case of the temporeras, whose entry into the seasonal fruit labour force as waged workers was a direct consequence of the government’s policy of agrarian counter-reform, combined with deregulation of labour markets. However, the military government, in line with its ideological and political stance, provided no support for these workers. They had to fend for themselves as isolated and unorganised individuals, reinforcing their heterogeneity and atomisation. When military rule ended in 1990, the new government took a somewhat different stance. The democratically elected government continued to promote the neoliberal economic model, within which the fruit export sector was central. But this was combined with a policy of promoting greater social equity, and promoting the interests of marginalised groups, particularly women.