Elizabeth Kath

A Tale of Two Waves: Latin American Migration to Australia

Latin American migrants have had an increasing presence in Australia since the 1960s and constitute a sizeable community today. Yet, despite their growing size and contributions in the Australian context, our knowledge about this migrant group (or collection of migrant groups) is still limited. The publications that do exist explore some important themes, such as the country origins and migration experiences of Latin Americans in Australia, the adaptation processes of Latin American people to life in their new country, and the formation and consolidation of diaspora(s) of peoples from this region. However, research in this area is still sparse.

Trumpets in the Mountains: Theatre and the Politics of National Culture in Cuba

understanding of the complexity of the Cuban democracy. Lack of reference to the Mexican revolution/democracy is a surprising omission. The book is essential not only for those who wish to understand the evolving Cuban democratic process but also for critics who wish to appreciate how United States democracy under a two-party system has reached a crisis point. In sum, the book achieves its aim to demonstrate the realistic situation ‘without the blinders of preconceived notions’ (232). It will prove a valuable reference for students, researchers and policy makers to understand democracy from a participatory perspective and, without doubt, makes an important contribution to the scholarship on democracy.

Soldados Nunca Mais: Child Soldiers, Football and Social Change in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas

This chapter evaluates the work of The Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Social Health (IBISS), specifically its use of sport as a vehicle for health promotion and building urban peace among youth in Rio de Janeiro. It focuses especially upon IBISS’s Soldados Nunca Mais programme, which uses football games with a twofold aim: to break down social prejudices and to encourage child soldiers1 to leave the drug trade. During the ten years since Soldados Nunca Mais was established, it has successfully supported 3,432 children to leave the drug trade, using a range of strategies among which are initiatives involving soccer. This chapter outlines the programme’s successes and limitations in relation to sport, including specific strategies it has used. It also provides a general reflection upon the role of sport for social development based on these experiences. It will be shown that in IBISS’s experience, football games alone do not have the power to build peace or momentous positive transformations to the lives of young people. The potential of football relies rather on the efforts of committed development workers and their ability to identify and innovate around the informal social spaces that football opens.

Revolutionary Health: State Capacity, Popular Participation and the Cuban Paradox

Drawing from findings in ‘state capacity’ and ‘social capital’ literatures, this article adopts a new framework for exploring the puzzle of Cubas health outcomes, which are widely recognised as being extremely positive given the countrys developing status, and the external crises it has faced in recent decades. The findings presented in this article emerge from five years of research, including nine months of fieldwork in Havana. It is argued that Cubas health outcomes are partly attributable to an unusually high level of popular participation and cooperation in the implementation of health policy. This has been achieved with the help of a longstanding government with clear health goals and enough political influence to compel the rest of the community to prioritise them. On the other hand, the degree of public negotiation or participation in health policy decision-making was found to be minimal, and this carries consequences that undermine certain aspects of health care quality in Cuba and threaten the sustainability of the public health system.