Social Cohesion in Latin America:

Assembling the Pieces

A conference of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies
in partnership with CIEPLAN

Organized by
J. Samuel Valenzuela
Timothy R. Scully, CSC
and Eugenio Tironi
 Social Cohesion in Latin America:
Assembling the Pieces
Thursday, April 16

9:00–10:05 Social Cohesion as Analytical Tool

“Social Cohesion in Latin America: Its Pillars, Its Threats”
Eugenio Tironi
Chair: Timothy R. Scully, CSC
Discussant: J. Samuel Valenzuela

10:05–10:15 break

Family Morphology
10:15–11:20
“How Important is the Family for Social Cohesion?
Evidence Drawn from the ECosociAL Survey”
María Soledad Herrera Ponce
Raúl Elgueta Rosas (not in attendance)
Chair: Matthew Carnes, SJ
Discussant: Eugenio Tironi

11:25–12:30 Ethnic Identities

“Exploring Racial/Ethnic Boundary Effects on Attitudinal Stances in
Latin America”
Stanley Bailey
Chair: Scott Mainwaring
Discussant: Dianne Pinderhughes

12:30–1:40 break
 1:40–2:45 Social Networks and Civic Life
“Civil Societies in Latin America:
Density, Composition, and Consequences”
Andrés Biehl
Eduardo Valenzuela (not in attendance)
Chair: Ted Beatty
Discussant: Martín Tanaka

2:50–3:55 Religion and Religiosity

“Social, Political, and Personal Effects of Religiosity in
Latin America: A Preliminary Exploration”
J. Samuel Valenzuela
Timothy R. Scully, CSC
Nicolás Somma
Chair: Ignacio Walker


 Discussant: David Campbell

3:55–4:10 break

4:10–5:15 Mobility and Its Impact

“Inequality, Social Mobility, and Trust in Government:
Some Insights from Happiness Surveys”
Carol Graham

Mario Picón
Chair: Ted Beatty
Discussant: Robert Fishman
 Social Cohesion in Latin America:
Assembling the Pieces
Friday, April 17

9:00–10:05 Education and Its Effects, 1

“Education and Social Cohesion in Latin America”
Simon Schwartzman
Chair: Timothy R. Scully, CSC
Discussant: Tamo Chattopadhay

10:05–10:15 break

10:15–11:20 
Education and Its Effects, 2

“Social Cohesion, Inclusiveness, and Education in Latin America”
Cristián Cox
Chair: J. Samuel Valenzuela
Discussant: Ignacio Walker

11:25–12:30 Education and Its Effects, 3

“The Effects of the Level, Distribution, and Quality of Education
on Social Cohesion”
Luis Crouch
Amber Grove (not in attendance)
Martin Gustafsson (not in attendance)
Chair: Eugenio Tironi
Discussant: Cristián Cox

12:30–1:40 break
 1:40–2:45 Family Demography
“Family in Latin America: Recent Socioeconomic and
Demographic Developments”
Osvaldo Larrañaga
Irene Azocar (not in attendance)
Chair: Ted Beatty
Discussant: Amitava Dutt

2:50–3:55 Poverty and Inequality

“Poverty and Inequality in Latin America:
What Do the Surveys Tell Us?”
Juan Carlos Feres
Xavier Mancero
Chair: J. Samuel Valenzuela
Discussant: Nora Lustig

3:55–4:10 break

4:10–5:15 Concluding Discussion

Chair: Timothy R. Scully, CSC
Discussants: Eugenio Tironi
Scott Mainwaring
Simon Schwartzman
Participant Biographies
Stanley Bailey (PhD, University of California, Los Angeles) is assistant professor
of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. With research interests that
include racial and ethnic dynamics and the sociology of religion in Latin America,
he uses public opinion surveys to challenge assumptions about the nature of racial
attitudes in contemporary Brazil. His latest work is Legacies of Race: Identities,
Attitudes, and Politics in Brazil (Stanford University Press, forthcoming).

Ted Beatty (PhD, Stanford University) is the interim director of the Kellogg Institute
for International Studies and an associate professor of history at the University of
Notre Dame. His research interests include the economic and political history of
19th- and early 20th-century Mexico and the comparative study of institutions,
technology transfer, and economic development. He is the author of Institutions
and Investment: The Political Basis of Industrialization in Mexico before 1911
(Stanford University Press, 2001).

Andrés Biehl (Lic., Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is an assistant professor

of sociology and junior lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
He has served as technical advisor to Chile’s Presidential Committee on Social
Equity and as associate researcher at CIEPLAN (Corporación de Estudios para
Latinoamérica). He is a coauthor of Vínculos Creencias e Ilusiones: La Cohesion
Social de los Latinoamericanos (Uqbar, 2008).

David Campbell (PhD, Harvard University) is the John Cardinal O’Hara, CSC,
Associate Professor of Political Science and the director of the Rooney Center
for the Study of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. Currently
collaborating with Robert Putnam on a study of religion’s changing role in American
civic life, he is the author of Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape
Our Civic Life (Princeton University Press, 2008).

Matthew Carnes, SJ (PhD, Stanford University), an assistant professor of

government at Georgetown University, is currently a Kellogg Institute visiting
fellow. His project, “The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America,” seeks to
provide a political explanation for how labor regulation resisted the liberal economic
reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.
Tamo Chattopadhay (EdD, Teacher’s College, Columbia University; MBA,
City University of New York) is a fellow at the Institute for Educational Initiatives,
University of Notre Dame, where he teaches about education and development in
a global era. His research interests include adolescent socialization and educational
innovation in the context of poverty. Formerly a vice president at JP Morgan, he has
taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and
consults with multilateral agencies on international education policy and practice.

Luis Crouch (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a senior economist and

research vice president in RTI’s International Development Group. Specializing in
social sector finance, policy reform, and political economy, he is currently focused
on education, where his interests include educational economics and planning,
educational statistics, research and information use, and the presentation of
research results for policy debate. His experience in more than 15 countries in the
developing world includes recent work in Peru.

Amitava Dutt (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is professor of

economics at the University of Notre Dame and a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow.
With research interests that include growth and income distribution, development,
trade, political economy, and macroeconomics, he has published dozens of works.
Most recently, he served as coeditor of the International Handbook of Development
Economics (2 vol., Edward Elgar, 2008).

Juan Carlos Feres (Lic., University of Chile), an expert in social statistics and
poverty, is head of the Statistics and Social Indicators Unit of the UN’s Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). He coordinates
ECLAC’s annual Social Panorama of Latin America; an interinstitutional program
to improve surveys of living conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
the Network of Institutions and Experts for the Development of Social Statistics
in Latin America.

Robert M. Fishman (PhD, Yale University), professor of sociology at the

University of Notre Dame and a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow, is a comparative
sociologist who works primarily on democracy, consequences of inequality, and
interconnections between politics and culture. His many publications include
Democracy’s Voices: Social Ties and the Quality of Public Life in Spain (Cornell
University Press, 2004) Fishman’s current research focuses on ways in which
democratization scenarios shape enduring patterns of democratic practice.
Carol Graham (DPhil, Oxford University) is senior fellow and Charles Robinson
Chair at the Brookings Institution and College Park Professor in the School of
Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Widely published, she is the author
most recently of Happiness: A Cross-Country Exploration of One of Economics’
Oldest—and Newest—Questions (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Formerly
a vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings, she has served
in advisory and consulting positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, the
World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

María Soledad Herrera Ponce (PhD, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) is

a professor of sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her areas of
research include gerontology, intergenerational relationships, and globalization. At
Chile’s Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, she has researched
a number of projects, including “Family Cohesion, Intergenerational Solidarity and
Conflict: Impact on the Well-being of the Elderly Adult” (2009).

Osvaldo Larrañaga (PhD, University of Pennsylvania), a program officer for the

United Nations Development Programme and an associate professor of economics
at the University of Chile, works on social policy, poverty, and income distribution.
Widely published, he contributed a chapter to J. Samuel Valenzuela, Eugenio Tironi,
and Timothy R. Scully, eds., El Eslabón Perdido: Familia, modernización y bienestar
en Chile (Taurus, 2006). Larrañaga has been a consultant to government ministries
and national and international agencies such as ECLAC (Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean), the World Bank, and the Inter-American
Development Bank.

Nora Lustig (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is the Shapiro Visiting

Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School
of International Affairs and a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Formerly, she was director of the Poverty Group at the United Nations
Development Programme, president of the Universidad de las Americas–Puebla,
and chief of the Poverty and Inequality Unit at the Inter-American Development
Bank, as well as senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor of
economics at El Colegio de Mexico. Her many publications include the prize-
winning Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy (Brookings, 1992).

Scott Mainwaring (PhD, Stanford University) is the Eugene P. and Helen Conley
Professor of Political Science and director (on leave) of the Kellogg Institute at
the University of Notre Dame. Among his many published works are The Crisis
of Democratic Representation in the Andes (coedited, Stanford University Press,
2006) and Democratic Governance in Latin America (coauthored, Stanford
University Press, forthcoming).
Xavier Mancero (MA, Georgetown University) has been a statistician in the
Statistics Division of the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) since 2001. His main area of concentration is the measurement
and analysis of poverty, inequality, and other indicators of living conditions.

Mario Picón, a PhD candidate in public policy at the University of Maryland, is an

economist specializing in international development. With a decade of experience
in program design, monitoring, and evaluation in the developing world, his research
interests include social development, governance, and delivery of services to
the poor. Currently a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution, he has
worked for the Inter-American Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture
Organization, and a variety of NGOs.

Dianne Pinderhughes (PhD, University of Chicago) is professor of Africana

studies and political science at the University of Notre Dame and a Kellogg Institute
faculty fellow. With research interests that include issues of inequality with a focus
on racial and ethnic political participation, she brings a comparative perspective
to the development of race and civil society in the Americas. Her publications
include Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory
(University of Illinois Press, 1987).

Simon Schwartzman (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a senior

researcher at the Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade in Rio de Janeiro
whose current work focuses on the sociological and political dimensions of the
production of knowledge in science, technology, and education. Previously, he
served as the president of Brazil’s National Statistical Office (Fundação IBGE)
and was the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at
Harvard University. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he is
a coauthor of Vínculos, creencias e ilusiones: La cohesión social de los
latinoamericanos (Uqbar, 2008).

Timothy R. Scully, CSC (PhD, University of California, Berkeley), is professor

of political science at the University of Notre Dame, director of the Institute for
Educational Initiatives, and a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow. His research and
graduate teaching focuses on comparative political institutions, especially political
parties in Latin America. The author of numerous books and articles, he coauthored
Vínculos, creencias e ilusiones: La cohesión social de los latinoamericanos (Uqbar,
2008) and coedited El eslabón perdido: Familia, modernización y bienestar en Chile
(Taurus, 2006).
Nicolás Somma, a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Notre Dame, is
an assistant professor of sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
His research focuses on social movements, political sociology, and comparative,
historical sociology. The author of several journal articles and book chapters,
he is a coauthor of Vínculos, creencias e ilusiones: La cohesión social de los
latinoamericanos (Uqbar, 2008).

Martín Tanaka (PhD, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales), a senior

researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP), also teaches at Pontificia
Universidad Católica del Perú. Currently a Kellogg Institute visiting fellow, Tanaka is
exploring what kinds of governments emerge from the collapse of party systems in
the Andes as well as reforms that could encourage democratic consolidation and
empower excluded sectors. Among his many publications is a chapter in The Third
Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks (Cambridge
University Press, 2005), edited by Frances Hagopian and Scott Mainwaring.

Eugenio Tironi (PhD, École Supérieure des Sciences Sociales) is president of

CIEPLAN (Corporación de Estudios para Latinoamérica), where he is also a
researcher, and is a former Kellogg Institute visiting fellow. In addition, he is
professor of sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, professor of
strategic communication at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and a member of the
Council of Advisors at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, all in Chile. Tironi is author
or coauthor of 20 books, including the recent Palabras Sueltas (Mercurio-Aguilar,
2008) and El eslabón perdido: Familia, modernización y bienestar en Chile
(codedited, Taurus, 2006).

J. Samuel Valenzuela (PhD, Columbia University) is professor of sociology at the

University of Notre Dame and a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow. Among many other
works, he is the author of La expansión del sufragio en Chile (IDES, 1985), coeditor
and author of El eslabón perdido: Familia, modernización y bienestar en Chile
(Taurus, 2006), and coauthor of Vínculos, creencias e ilusiones: La cohesión social
de los latinoamericanos (Uqbar, 2008).

Ignacio Walker (PhD, Princeton University), a former Kellogg Institute visiting

fellow, is a researcher at CIEPLAN (Corporación de Estudios para Latinoamérica),
where he served as president (2006–07). A lawyer and professor, he has taught at
the Catholic University of Chile, the University of Chile, and Stanford and Princeton
universities and was a human rights lawyer at the Vicariate of Solidarity in
Santiago. Walker has served as Chile’s minister of foreign affairs and as a member
of the Chilean Parliament. Among his many books and articles is El Futuro de la
Democracia Cristiana (Ediciones B/Grupo Z, 1999).