CLASPO

About CLASPO

The Center for Latin American Social Policy (CLASPO) hopes to strengthen social policy research on Latin America in order to foster the use of effective community development policies. To attain this goal, CLASPO will:

• Train young researchers in the design and evaluation of social policy
  
  
• Promote mechanisms of collaboration and exchange of ideas between diverse actors involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of social policy.
  

CLASPO encourages the exchange of ideas at a variety of levels:

• At the country level, it will bring together government officials, researchers, academics, and the leaders of NGOs involved in the generation of community development initiatives. Special efforts will be made to promote exchanges between specialists in the major Latin American metropolitan areas and poor provincial regions.
  
  
• At the regional level, CLASPO will promote dialogue between researchers from different Latin American countries. It will serve as a forum for the cross-national exchange of ideas wherein specialists can analyze successful as well as failed social initiatives.
  
  
• At the inter-regional level, it will bring together the aforementioned social policy specialists from Latin America with UT researchers, including faculty and students affiliated with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), the Population Research Center, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Urban Issues Program, and the Departments of Government, Anthropology, and Sociology. We intend to involve scholars who work on U.S. as well as Latin American social policy, thereby encouraging the exchange of different perspectives and national experiences.
  

We are tremendously excited about the creation of the Center for Latin American Social Policy (CLASPO) since we feel that this initiative will strengthen the cooperation among all of us who work for the improvement of social conditions in Latin America. We would like to count on your support during the long journey ahead.

Staff

Robert H. Wilson
Director

The Center for Latin American Social Policy, CLASPO, welcomes its new drector, Prof. Robert H. Wilson. Dr. Wilson, Mike Hogg Professor in Urban Policy, received his Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to the LBJ School in 1979, he taught three and one-half years in an urban and regional planning program at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil.

He was Assistant Dean at the LBJ School from 1980 through 1983, where he served as coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Public Policy (1991-1994) and as director of the Urban Issues Program (1995-2003). He also served as director of the Brazil Center of LLILAS (2000-2002).

Wilson was inducted into the National Order of the Southern Cross by decree of the President of Brazil (2002). At the LBJ School, he teaches courses in the quantitative methods sequence and on the economics of urban and regional policy, and seminars on governance and policy issues in developing countries.

Wilson's current research interests include decentralization and subnational policymaking, urban policy and metropolitan governance, public policy in Brazil, and the participation of community groups in the public policy process. His publications include Public Policy and Community: Activism and Governance in Texas; States and the Economy: Policymaking and Decentralization; and Local Initiatives in Growth Management and Open Space Preservation.

Dr. Wilson has published nine books including Inventing New Governance: Intergovernmental Relations and Rural Development; States and the Economy: Policymaking and Decentralization; The Political Economy of Brazil: Public Policies in an Era of Transition; and Telecommunications Policy and Economic Development: The New State Role.

We would like to thank our former director, Prof. Bryan Roberts, for his dedication and commitment to CLASPO's work. Despite having finished his tenure as director in 2005, he continues to support the center's activities with enthusiasm.

Paloma Díaz
Program Coordinator

Paloma Díaz received a master's degree in International Education and Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in Social Work from Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. She has worked as Public Events Coordinator for the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University. She has also served as an analyst and researcher at the General Secretariat Ministry and as Benefits Director of the National Women's Institute (SERNAM). In addition, she has worked as social worker, consultant, and teacher for diverse NGOs in Chile and the U.S. Paloma Diaz who also coordinates the Mexican Center and the  Ford International Fellowship at UT Austin, has worked in CLASPO since its creation in 2001.