Brings together research on the social history of Central America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Rosemary J. Coombe Books
Rosemary J. Coombe examines the cultural, political, and social implications of intellectual property laws, exploring how these laws shape cultural politics in consumer societies. Her work focuses on how culture is increasingly utilized as a resource under conditions of economic neoliberalism. She analyzes international legal and policy norms and their local implementation through indigenous movements and NGOs in Southeast Asia and South America. Coombe investigates legal instruments for protecting cultural diversity and traditional knowledge through the lens of human rights norms and practices, addressing questions of how and why cultural claims have been revitalized in the information economy and to what extent appeals for the protection of cultural traditions can serve progressive ends.