080528RT

This appreciation of the work of Rosemary Thorp in the academic fields of economic history, macroeconomics, group behaviour, economic thought, area studies: Peru, Colombia, Chile, Latin America Note to readers ~ Please add to these paragraphs. Material which is un-referenced (not backed by citations) and opinion may be recorded in the discussion space (click on tab). Please observe the usual courtesies. has been written in the first instance for Minkanews the emailed news-sheet which goes out weekly to a readership which is estimated at about 10,000 worldwide. Its original core distribution was the Peruvian diaspora (especially in the UK and Ireland) and Peru.
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Endnote 1 Included for reference
Minkanews this week reports on three events of interest to its readers: 
On Wednesday 28 May (17:00 - 18:30) a meeting with the title “Rosemary Thorp and The Study of Peru and Latin American Economics” was jointly organised by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Peruvian Embassy to mark the retirement of Rosemary Thorp from teaching at Oxford University. The meeting (which actually took place in the Lecture Theatre of the Institute for Legal Studies) heard individual appreciations of Rosemary’s work from a panel comprising H.E. Mr Ricardo V Luna - Ambassador of Peru, Victor Bulmer-Thomas - from the Institute ISA , Adolfo Figueroa - Catholic University of Peru . The work of Rosemary Thorp (RT) traverses the academic fields of economic history, macroeconomics, group behaviour, economic thought, and area studies: Peru, Colombia, Chile, Latin America. For undergraduate students her best known works are (1) with Geoffrey Bertram - Perú : 1890-1977 : Growth and policy in an open economy (Crecimiento y políticas en una economía abierta) Macmillan 1978 and (2) Progress, poverty and exclusion : an economic history of Latin America in the 20th century (1998). Both have become basic texts for their respective fields. A fuller list is available in OJPS – see below. RT is credited with moving the treatment of Peruvian economic history from the classical discursive (Romero), Anglo-economic (Platt) and later dependentista to the data-based (cleometric) and that emphasising institutional analysis. Later works show a more eclectic reach including behaviour of groups and an interest in ideas, ideology and policy. Though teaching may be winding down there is hope the RT’s vital contribution to authorship will continue – perhaps in the critical fields of Peru’s resource- dependence and institutional development. 
Read more in the pages of the Opentext Journal of Peruvian Studies (OJPS). See link below. http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/080528RT
On Saturday 31 May the first public performance took place presented by the cultural association Somos Peru UK - somos signifies ‘we are’ in English - at the Waterloo Action Centre, Bayliss Road . As intended the cultural performances provided vital educational material. Somos Peru UK will be a powerful addition to existing groups having an input into communities-education. A cultural association of necessity, if it is to be successful, has to be a masterpiece of collaboration and Somos Peru UK has achieved a ‘choreography of volunteers’ in a production which was art and education combined. The performance was also inclusive of several other long-established actors, musicians, artists and poets. Amongst the audience were members of further successful groups, conjuntos and associations. A opportunity to archive a more detailed summary of Saturday’s significant event will be made available at http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/080604SPUK . If you were an organiser, participant or member of the audience you can input material directly in Spanish or English.
The June 2008 edition of the publication Geographical magazine carried an article on Kew Botanical’s link with a Huarango forestation project south of Lima. See also http://www.kew.org/kewmagazine/winter07/cactus-writing-Peru.pdf .
Amongst other factors, what marks these three events is the extent of collaboration – formal and informal - involved. Rosemary Thorp for many years has worked with colleagues in Peru, mainly from the Catolica (PUCP) University in Lima - which lists over twenty works ranging from short prologues to complete books , mainly in the fields of economic history . In the Huarango forestation project and the ‘Cactus story’, specialists from Kew and from Cambridge have worked with local counterparts in the Ica valley. All three events celebrate an ‘advancement of knowledge’ UK-Peru.
Read more in Minkapedia and the Opentext Journal of Peruvian Studies http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/080528RT, http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/080604SPUK http://www.kew.org/kewmagazine/winter07/cactus-writing-Peru.pdf .
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Category:Journal of Peruvian StudiesCategory:Minkapedia