Revista de Sociologia e Política
Print version ISSN 0104-4478
MINELLA, Ary Cesar. The structure of class representation for the Latin American financial entrepreneurial sector: trans-associative networks during the year 2006.Translated byMeryl Adelman. Rev. Sociol. Polit. [online]. 2007, vol.3Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0104-4478.
This paper analyzes the structure of class representation in the financial entrepreneurial sector in Latin América. Our goal is to identify the connections established between bank associations through the common presence of conglomerates or financial groups that act simultaneously in the directorship of several entities in different countries, taking the year 2006 as our reference. We work with a hypothesis on the building of trans-associative networks. For our purposes, we studied 24 associations in 17 different countries, providing a total of 229 positions. Data was collected from the websites of the entities and through e-mail and telephone contacts. We adopted the methodology of Social Network Analysis and a part of our results were compared with data available for the year 2000. Among other things, we were able to confirm: a) a high number of connections between associations; b) centrality within the network of 10 conglomerates or financial groups that act within banking associations in three or more countries; among them, Citibank and the Spanish banks Santander and Bilbao Vizcaya stand out; d) the associations that present highest degrees of connection are located in Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Costa Rica, México, Nicarágua, Panamá, Paraguai and Peru. We conclude that a large portion of the structure of class representation among the financial entrepreneurial sector in Latin América has been "transnationalized". This reinforces our hypothesis on the building of trans-associative networks, from which we go on to discuss the scope and meaning of this network as illuminated by international literature on the issue.
Keywords : finance sector entrepreneurs; trans-associative networks; bankers´ associations; class structure; financial groups and conglomerates; structural analysis; social networks analysis.