Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The vastness of Fernando Fajnzylber's work clearly places him among the most important Latin American thinkers. Rather than highlighting the many documents he wrote or the many projects he participated in, it is indispensable to note that what is outstanding in Fajnzylber's work is not only its importance as a critical vision of the development conditions in Latin America, but also the influence his ideas had on the development of policy strategies for the region. Born into a family of Jewish immigrants in Santiago de Chile in 1940, Fernando Fajnzylber studied economic sciences in Chile. His work is without doubt a detailed analysis of the economic conditions in developing countries in Latin America. It is nevertheless important to acknowledge his influence on the development of sociology in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to his contributions toward an explanation of the social and political problems in Latin America that showed the conditions of inequity of the poorest populations in the region based on the economic formulae Fajnzylber developed to reach economic growth. Fajnzylber's work was mainly based on case studies and comparative studies between countries or sectors and/or productive branches. Fajnzylber's research was typically based on empirical work, the generation of studies that could provide “first-hand” information, which allowed him to master a method ... log in or subscribe to read full text