Artículos

In light of increasing concerns about the efficacy of environmental governance (EG) to address the global sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene era, more integrative, transversal, and far-reaching approaches, referred to here as sustainability governance (SG), are gaining ground both in governance praxis and in research. Empirical and methodological challenges emerge from this conceptual analytical cleavage between EG and SG. Through a combination of bibliometric and network analysis, the objective of this article is to explore the structure and trends in the field of EG/SG research in Chile, internationally regarded as the posterchild of Latin-American EG/SG, and derive empirical insights to feed the analytical distinction between EG and SG that informs global debates about ways forward towards an effective governance in the Anthropocene. Our results show that scientific research on EG/SG has experienced a significant increase since the 1990s. We find that while the topical range of the field is broad, including water governance, biodiversity conservation, environmental institutions, climate change and energy issues, and environmental conflicts and justice, key cross-cutting socio-economic and cultural dynamics underpinning the prevalent, yet fundamentally unsustainable, ways of life and economic model are virtually absent from the field, against their growing presence in diagnoses of “sustained unsustainability”.

This article aims to describe and analyze the production of empirical research on social and economic regulation in Brazil. The article analyzes the main subjects, research techniques and literature used in this academic work. The article is divided in two sections, in which the first describes and analyzes legal dissertations and theses produced between 1996 and 2016 and the second part analyzes academic articles published in highly scored academic law reviews (A1 and A2). The structure of each section is similar: it provides for a quantitative description of empirical legal research on regulation, followed by an analysis of the main research techniques used in this work. It then proceeds to a bibliometric analysis of this production, identifying their main subjects and their most influential literature. As a general conclusion, the article shows that empirical research on regulatory matters is very incipient. It is modest in numbers and is characterized by methodological and theoretical flaws that contribute to its lower standards.

This article explores the development of political science as an academic discipline in Ecuador between 2005 and 2019. Three main institutionalization-related dimensions are scrutinized: advancement of training at universities, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels; progression of Ecuadorian-originated publications in high-impact indexed scientific journals, (such as those included in SCOPUS, ISI-WoS) and the evolution of the local academic community. Primary data was obtained from a documentary revision of official higher education reports. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications was performed in the above indexed journals. Finally, a set of interviews was made with members of the local academic community. As a result, it seems possible to claim that after the last 15 years, political science in Ecuador is in the midst of a budding institutionalization process. To a large extent this gradual strengthening is the result of a larger availability of academic programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels and of the enhanced relevancy and coherence of the discipline and its output. However, a further consolidation of political science as an academic discipline in Ecuador is hindered by the persistent confusion between so-called “political studies” and “political science proper” and by the lingering prevalence of an identification between the two. This is also related to the unclear social and professional status political scientist enjoy in Ecuadorian society. Many questions remain unsettled regarding the full scope of the discipline’s institutionalization. Also, a thoughtful assessment of this analytical category still remains to be undertaken. Legitimate queries can be made, for instance, about what is the meaning of “politics” as such in Ecuadorian political science.

Human Rights Education (HRE) has been the object of study, investigation, struggle and resistance. In Brazil, the National HRE Plan represented an achievement in the prerogatives dissemination related to human dignity and citizenship formation for the democratic experience. In view of the multiple analytical potentialities, this paper aimed to build indicators of Brazilian scientific production on HRE in Basic Education, considering the papers published in two databases, recognized for their relevance and reach, the of Journals Platform of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). The methodology was based on bibliometric analysis, with data collect, through descriptors, on digital platforms and information recording in spread-sheet format of Excel software and subsequent elaboration of graphics with indicators. The results, which covered publications from 2004 to 2019, mostly from the CAPES database, pointed to a concentration of research in the Southeast region; the prevalence of work in female co-authorship; the greater use of indirect sources; that “human rights” was the keyword with the highest incidence; and curriculum the most recurring theme in articles about EDH in Basic Education. It is expected that the study contributes to the understanding of scientific production in the area and promotes the construction of researches that go deepen and expand the knowledge related to HRE in Basic Education.

The study of human rights (HR) is vital in order to enhance the development of human beings, but this field of study still needs to be better depicted and understood because violations of its core principles still frequently occur worldwide. In this study, our goal was to perform a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) to investigate the strategic themes, thematic evolution structure, and trends of HR found in the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1990 to June 2020. To do this, we included 25,542 articles in the SciMAT software for bibliometric analysis. The strategic diagram produced shows 23 themes, 12 of which are motor themes, the most important of which are discussed in this article. The thematic evolution structure presented the 21 most relevant themes of the 2011-2020 period. Our findings show that HR research is directly related to health issues, such as mental health, HIV, and reproductive health. We believe that the presented results and HR panorama presented have the potential to be used as a basis on which researchers in future works may enhance their decision making related to this field of study.

The objective of this study is to describe and analyze, from a Latin American perspective, the scientific production that belongs to Social Management in the Dimensions database, between 1989 and 2020. Using a bibliometric methodology and a quantitative-descriptive scope, it aims to fill a gap in knowledge referred to the evolution of the research topics in Social Management. Productivity indicators and mapping of bibliometric networks by co-authors and keywords are shown. Results show the multidimensional character of Social Management as an academic field. We present evidence of the growing production and concentration of publications in some countries of the Latin-American region. We also show the most productive authors, thematic categories, and journals. In this case, the country that stands out the most in terms of scientific production, number of authors and journals is Brazil.

Right to the city is a request for a renewed and transformed urban life according to Henri Lefebvre, French philosopher, and was later discussed by several other authors, like David Harvey, Elden and Purcell. The purpose of this article is to identify and describe the use of the expression, ‘right to the city’. Specifically, we aim to understand the publication trends and the use of the expression as cited by most researchers on the research front and on an intellectual basis as were found in our research. For this purpose, used bibliometric and sociometric analysis found in 809 articles on the web of science and analysis of analytical categories, thus, ‘socio-spatial formation’, ‘scalarity’, ‘abstraction’ and ‘difference’ in texts considered on the research front and intellectual basis which threw more light on this topic. The results indicate a marked increase in the number of articles in the last decade, reflecting social movements with worldwide visibility, such as the Arab Spring, Occupy, Indignados and Jornadas de 2013 and the appropriation of the concept by urban justice activists as a means of analyzing and neoliberal urbanism, as well as the institutionalization of the right to the city. They also indicate the prominence of Brazilian scientific production in periodicals of geography, law and public policies. For the analytical categories, the study shows that Lefebvre’s later propositions, which complement the discussion of Right to the City, are less used in the field, as well as authors dealing with socio-spatial formation.

Public security is a complex topic that encompasses different languages, actors and disciplines. It is interpreted from multiple paradigms and under different approaches that influence, from the most abstract stages of conceptualization and perception of insecurity, to phases of dissent about concrete proposals for its confrontation and control. Increasingly, public governance, academics, the private sector, and civil society are joining together in a network to address this issue, which has repercussions on the most fundamental human rights. This multiplicity of perspectives needs to be carefully understood and synthesized. For this reason, the present study was developed, which aims to outline the general picture of published scientific knowledge about innovation in public security. This is a descriptive study, with a quantitative approach and a bibliometric review. 261 publications were analyzed, without time, space or language filter, found in the Scopus database, based on the syntax: (“Public Security” or “Public Safety”) and Innovation. The results show that there are two strong, non-dichotomous movements being developed, concurrently, in the area of public security: the first, more disciplinary, focuses on the development of technologies and information management; the second, with a more transdisciplinary focus, deals, above all, with intelligent territorial occupation. More specifically, five thematic axes were identified in the articles: technologies, territorial occupation, law enforcement, administration and health. Another point, noticed when measuring communication flows, was the finding that international collaboration networks between researchers are still ephemeral, which may suggest a lack of maturation of learning networks.

With the creation of the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data (LGPD) in 2018 and effective from August 2020, privacy in Brazil has begun to be regulated. Organizations operating in Brazil, national and international, in order to avoid regulatory sanctions and drive customer growth, need to adopt best practices to develop and maintain an effective privacy and data protection management program and thus avoid the anticipated penalties and fines. The topic is very current in Brazil as it deals mainly with privacy issues and the use of personal data for specific purposes. Today, data protection is a fundamental right of the citizen. Given the impact and importance of the new law in Brazil, this article seeks to analyze academic publications to present a current overview. The methodology applied was a bibliometric analysis, evaluating the scientific productions present in the Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO and Portal de Periodicos Capes databases. The key words used were “LGPD”, “LGPDP” and “Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados” and the main search criteria was to consider peer-reviewed publications. The results obtained showed that despite being recent, the theme is already highlighted in the academic literature, with 91 publications from 235 authors identified in 61 scientific journals, addressing mainly the areas of law, technology and health.

The study of human rights (HR) is vital in order to enhance the development of human beings, but this field of study still needs to be better depicted and understood because violations of its core principles still frequently occur worldwide. In this study, our goal was to perform a bib-liometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) to investigate the strategic themes, thematic evolution structure, and trends of HR found in the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1990 to June 2020. To do this, we included 25,542 articles in the SciMAT software for bibliometric analysis. The strategic diagram produced shows 23 themes, 12 of which are motor themes, the most important of which are discussed in this article. The thematic evolution structure presented the 21 most relevant themes of the 2011–2020 period. Our findings show that HR research is directly related to health issues, such as mental health, HIV, and reproductive health. We believe that the presented results and HR panorama presented have the potential to be used as a basis on which researchers in future works may enhance their decision making related to this field of study.

Objective Perform a biometrical analysis of female leadership in medicine, in order to know the actual perspective and guide future research. Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive bibliometric analysis of the literature available in MEDLINE was performed in relation to the leadership of female physicians from 1973 to 2019, through MEDLINE database, using GoPubmed and FABUMED. The following strategy was deployed: (“Leadership”[Mesh]) AND “Physicians, Women”[Mesh] (1973:2019[dp]). Original articles, journal articles, essays, scientific reports and reviews were included to analyze all related indexed literature. To obtain the impact factor (FI), the Journal Citation Reports (7) 2017/2018 of the journals found was used to estimate the quality of each one of them. Results A total of 310 references were found in 139 published journals, 71.2% were original articles; the remaining 22% were reviews. There was a 11.9% increase in publications from 1996 to 2019. The journals with the highest rate of publications were: Academic Medicine and J Womens Health (Larchmt) with 7.7% and 7.1%. Countries with the highest number of publications were United States with 66 (56%), and United Kingdom with 10 (8.6%). Latin America has four publications, while Colombia has none. Conclusion Female leadership in the medical field and the publications regarding this subject have increased in the last decades, mainly in developed countries. Latin America has to make significant efforts to produce more publications in journals with high impact factor, in order to close the gender gap in the medical field.

In 1972, the first coastal zone management law in the world was approved in the United States. Fifty years later, its influence on other national and international legislation is clear, but how this law has influenced the scientific community is not yet determined. Through a scientometric analysis based on the Web of Science and Scopus databases, over 11,340 bibliographic references were consolidated and refined to extract those directly related to legal aspects of coastal management. A final set of 135 scientific documents published between the years 1974 and 2022 were analyzed with the tool Core of Science®. As a result, the Tree of Science was obtained, which identifies the precursory (roots), axis (trunk), and promising (leaves) documents related to coastal regulation. Another output was a compilation of the scientific production over the last 50 years as documented in both databases, allowing us to extract the countries, journals, and authors who were most productive in advancing research on the legal issues of ICZM. Moreover, co-authorship networks were identified based on the most active geographical regions and authors. In the end, a brief reflection is provided about the influence that a legal instrument can have on the scientific community and vice versa.

Migratory species are protected under international legislation; their seasonal movements across international borders may therefore present opportunities for understanding how global conservation policies translate to local-level actions across different socio-ecological contexts. Moreover, local-level management of migratory species can reveal how culture and governance affects progress towards achieving global targets. Here, we investigate potential misalignment in the two-way relationship between global-level conservation policies (i.e. hunting bans and quotas) and local-level norms, values and actions (i.e. legal and illegal hunting) in the context of waterfowl hunting in northern Kazakhstan as a case-study. Northern Kazakhstan is globally important for waterfowl and a key staging area for arctic-breeding species. Hunting is managed through licences, quotas and seasonal bans under UN-AEWA intergovernmental agreements. To better understand the local socio-ecological context of waterfowl hunting, we take a mixed-methods approach using socio-ecological surveys, informal discussions and population modelling of a focal migratory goose species to: (a) investigate motivations for hunting in relation to socio-economic factors; (b) assess knowledge of species’ protection status; and (c) predict the population size of Lesser White-fronted Geese (LWfG; Anser erythropus; IUCN Vulnerable) under different scenarios of survival rates and hunting offtake, to understand how goose population demographics interact with the local socio-ecological context. Model results showed no evidence that waterfowl hunting is motivated by financial gain; social and cultural importance were stronger factors. The majority of hunters are knowledgeable about species’ protection status; however, 11% did not know LWfG are protected, highlighting a key area for increased stakeholder engagement. Simulations of LWfG population growth over a 20-year period showed LWfG are highly vulnerable to hunting pressure even when survival rates are high. This potential impact of hunting highlights the need for effective regulation along the entire flyway; our survey results show that hunters were generally compliant with newly introduced hunting regulations, showing that effective regulation is possible on a local level. Synthesis and applications. Here, we investigate how global conservation policy and local norms interact to affect the management of a threatened migratory species, which is particularly important for the protection and sustainable management of wildlife that crosses international borders where local contexts may differ. Our study highlights that to be effective and sustainable in the long-term, global conservation policies must fully integrate local socio-economic, cultural, governance and environmental contexts, to ensure interventions are equitable across entire species’ ranges. This approach is relevant and adaptable for different contexts involving the conservation of wide-ranging and migratory species, including the 255 migratory waterfowl covered by UN-AEWA (United Nations Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds).

Addressing sustainability in small-scale gold mining (SSGM) can be controversial. In Brazil there is a heated debate over the sustainable approach in SSGM operations, especially in the Amazon biome where biodiversity conservation and indigenous peoples’ rights raise global concern. Opposing opinions about what should be “sustained” emerge from two extreme perspectives: ensuring the perpetuation of small-scale gold mining to guarantee incomes and productivity, and considering this activity as one of the major threats to Amazonian ecosystems. It is important to understand if, in the Brazilian Amazon, this debate is condemned to remain as “SSGM versus sustainability” or if it could be transformed into “SSGM and sustainability”, meaning that SSGM might embrace an understanding of sustainability that is more balanced between economic and environmental component. Therefore, this study aims at addressing the perceptions of small-scale miners (garimpeiros) themselves regarding sustainability. The research unfolds the dynamic between state impositions of environmental regulations and garimpeiros’ response by showing: i) the problematics over environmental licensing and the role of cooperatives in helping with its legal aspects, and generally promoting environmental sustainability; ii) the controversial relationship between garimpeiros and environmental law enforcement agencies; iii) how miners understand the impact of deforestation; and finally, iv) how they explore sustainability pathways with landscape impact-mitigation practices. The results show that garimpeiros’ actions point to the prolongation of their SSGM activity. Nevertheless, it is possible to see seeds of transformation towards more sustainable practices reinforced by associations, the adoption of cleaner technology and initiatives of rehabilitation of mined-out landscapes. Still, SSGM associations mostly employ the notion of sustainability as a palliative to allow their economic growth at the expense of the natural environment. This practice fuels the polarized debate over sustainability in the Amazon and exposes the extreme divergence of positions among all the actors in the arena. Moreover, the notion of sustainability is so malleable that there is a risk that scholars, institutions, and miners might interpret it in different, idiosyncratic ways to serve their particular political values, interests, desires, and visions of the future.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the socioeconomic, demographic and health management factors associated with bariatric surgery rates performed by the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) in the federative units in Brazil. METHODS: Description and analysis of bariatric surgeries rates (per 100,000 inhabitants) performed by SUS in adults from 18 to 65 years old, in the 27 federative units of Brazil, between 2008 and 2018; thus, the econometric methodology of count panel with negative binomial distribution (population-averaged, fixed effects and random effects) was used. Socioeconomic and demographic factors were also investigated, considering the real gross domestic product per capita, the average years of study of adults and life expectancy at birth, and those of health management, given the primary health care coverage, the rate of digestive system surgeons and the rate of hospitals accredited in high complexity care to patients with obesity in the SUS. RESULTS: In regional terms, the performance of public bariatric surgeries in Brazil over the period analyzed suffered a great disparity; the procedures happen mostly in the South and Southeast regions, and scarcely in the North region. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between the rate of bariatric surgeries and life expectancy, the rate of digestive system surgeons and the rate of hospitals accredited in high complexity care; however, the average number of years of adult study and coverage of primary health care is a negative association regarding real gross domestic product per capita. CONCLUSION: In the period analyzed, the investigated factors explained the rate of bariatric surgeries. Therefore, to train specialized health professionals, the accreditation of hospitals according to the legal framework, preventive actions of primary care, and socioeconomic and demographic factors, conditioning for the offer of surgical treatment by the SUS were crucial. Thus, these are all relevant factors for the formulation of public policies in this area.

Technological innovation and digitization have posed a challenge to the financial sector globally. Fintech is the term used to designate the application of new technologies to financial services. The aim of the study is to analyse this research subject worldwide during the period 1975–2019. To this end, bibliometric techniques were applied to 2012 articles, obtaining findings of the productivity of scientific research, of the main thematic axes and their evolution. Scientific activity increased, mainly in the past decade, with 45% of publications. The main thematic areas were Business, Management and Accounting, Engineering, Social Sciences and Computer Science. Seven research lines were identified, aimed at analysing the aspects financial, economic, technology transfer, investment, innovation, partnerships and institutions and commercial. Future research lines should develop analyses on banking, financial services trade, territorial development, legal, management, research methodologies and the sustainability of financial technologies. It was verified that there is a growing and dynamic interest in scientific activity on financial technologies at an international level. The findings obtained are a complement to the knowledge of financial technologies and allow the relationship between science and technology to be established, and to inform the decision-making process.

Judicial delays have been the subject of debate in the Brazilian academic community. Among the solutions discussed, jurimetrics has gained ground in seeking quantitative standards in court decisions. However, despite the relevance of this methodology, in Brazil, few researches have been conducted towards its dissemination. Therefore, the present study employs bibliometric techniques on national scientific production, articles, related to the term “jurimetry”, from 2002 to 2019, made available on the Google Scholar search tool, presenting an information panel on the characteristics found in these publications. The results show that in the period surveyed, the number of publications on the subject showed an average annual growth of 18.92%; the collaboration index indicates that there are, on average, 2.32 authors per article, some of which stand out for the number of publications, including Daniel F. N. Menezes (four) and Filipe J. Zabala (three) and, in turn, the most cited authors are Lee Loevinger (eleven citations), Filipe J. Zabala and Fabiano F. Silveira (both with six citations); the magazine that has published the most on the subject is the Revista da Faculdade de Direito of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, with a single magazine publishing four articles, seven magazines publishing two articles and 66 magazines publishing a single article; and finally, as for the keywords associated with the term, the words “adoption”, “civil procedure”, “invalid act”, “illegal act”, “partial dissolution”, and “successive incidence” stand out, suggesting Civil Law as an area of law more aligned to the use of jurimetry.

This paper intends to check in what extent the articles published in the legal area journals have and make explicit methodological criteria recommended by the ABNT (Associaçao Brasileira de Normas Técnicas). We used an descriptive and exploratory study and bibliometric systematic review approach. We found that from the 241 published papers in legal paper journals, 37% of them do not presente the objective in the review, 61% do not make explicit the method and/or the methodology used to develop the research; and, at last, 61% do not presente the result and/or the conclusion. If, on the one hand, the recurring absence of these founding elements of research, in any area, tends to weaken and project itself as an obstacle to legal publications with scientific intentions, on the other, it makes visible the need for refinement of research in the legal area.

Sustainable agrifood global value chains depend on chain governance by the lead firm and transaction governance. However, the link between them is still unclear. We therefore investigated the scientific field on “governance in agrifood global value chain” over 15 years in the Scopus and Web of Science databases through two analyses: a descriptive bibliometric and a keywords co-occurrence analysis. Our descriptive results show that the research on the theme has increased over the years, with a concentration of the papers published in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with emphasis on Wageningen University. The network graph showed a multidisciplinary theoreticomplcal field and four axes: chain governance; transaction governance; horizontal relationships; political and structural elements. The chain and the transaction governance are indirectly linked by the concept of upgrading, compromising sustainability’s holistic view. Although the sustainability of the chain depends on both levels of governance, this bibliometric study showed that there is a gap to be filled in this topic. We propose a study in the light of both concepts, considering upgrading, vertical and horizontal relationships, as well as public policies.

Considering the Law on Access to Information (LAI) as a legal framework for the institutionalization of transparency in the public sphere and a tool that facilitates the democratization of access to information, it is inevitable to reflect on how scientific research on this relevant issue is developed. The present work aims to present a panorama of the scientific production on LAI, based on the consequent narrowing of relations between government and society through the advent of the Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The methodology developed in this research was based on a bibliometric survey through online portal search of ANPAD, Spell and SciELO databases, from 2011 to 2018. As a conclusion, a large variance was observed in the number of publications during even after nearly seven years of enactment of the law; however, the number of citations is relevant, which shows a certain growth in the search for the topic, even if certain researches are not published in such bases used in this work.

This article breaks ground explaining the benefits of using legal and socio-legal research in legal pedagogy. It offers a critical review of research quality assessment systems currently in use in the social sciences, taking criminological research as a case to illustrate the analysis. Among its findings, it reveals that the quantitative, bibliometric, and formal model adopted by Colombia’s Ministry of Science to rank the quality of journal articles in social sciences, based mainly on SCOPUS and WOS indexes, does not necessarily lead to top quality research. Instead, it damages sovereignty, restricts the freedom to research, reaffirms cultural colonialism, and negatively affects the potential benefits of using research as an input in legal pedagogy. It concludes suggesting a more open and pluralistic research quality assessment system for social sciences.

Sustainable supply chain management is one of the greatest challenges for the competitive, environmental and social performance of the industry, finding in the technological applications of Industry 4.0 mechanisms that drive its development. This study recognizes the aspects that determine the application of Industry 4.0, for the sustainability of the supply chain at multiple levels. To do so, the study conducts a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review, based on 249 academic papers, which are thematically analyzed and categorized in terms of barriers, limitations, and benefits, applying the PRISMA systematic research protocol. The results suggest that environmental, economic and social concerns, as well as operational, technological, competitive, environmental and social benefits, together with drivers such as digital infrastructure financing, public and private support structures and the existence of a legal and political framework and government intervention allow the creation and sustained operation of sustainable supply chains. However, inefficient organizational culture and policies, manifested in the lack of awareness of employees and actors in the chain, the low level of transparency, security and cooperation in the use of data, high research and development costs, limited organizational resources, inadequate public policies and lack of financial support are aspects that inhibit their proper implementation.