This book presents nine case studies which illustrate an approach to the interface between human ecology, political economy, and adaptive decision making, demonstrating the power of analyzing socionatural regions from a human systems ecology perspective.

This book relies on a global studies (interdisciplinary) paradigm to study the basic transitions through which Latin America has gone over the last millennium. The global studies approach relies on an understanding of the distinct transitions through which cultures of Latin America have passed as they have adapted to global economic and political forces since the Sixteenth Century. Unlike dependency or world systems theories, a global studies paradigm does not accept the idea that cultures and peoples are passive to globalization or capitalism. This work shows that Latin American institutions can only be understood as embedded in Latin American culture, which is a product of history and adaptation, and has interacted with quite distinct global systems for the last five centuries. The book presents the case that, until very recently, the economic institutions of Latin America were not capitalistic, but either mercantilist or corporatist. Only since 1985 have Latin American countries adopted capitalism and democracy, and these have not been a failure. While this book stresses political and economic analyses, it also examines the impact of corporatism (state capitalism) on ecosystems, demographics, social systems, and cultural forms. The book is a largely upbeat and positive examination of the new phenomenon of globalization in Latin America.

This revised edition offers a non-polemic and pragmatic multidisciplinary perspective called the _theory of blocked transitions_. This theory works to answer the question _Why have some societies been successful in going through transitions, while others have been _blocked in_?