ANALYSIS Economic Context in Latin America: Outlook and Trends for Social-Ecological Transformation R oberto K reimerman At the beginning of the 21st century, the worldwide economic structure was modified considerably as compared with the structure of the 1980s. Its evolution over recent decades has been characterized by two profound and interrelated changes: the development of a new global system of production and the growing asymmetry between economic and financial reality, with a focus on the latter. Within the global production system, geographical fragmentation of productive processes and their organization into global value chains(GVCs) determine the existence of an international division of tasks between countries according to their development status, reflecting the existing technological asymmetry be­tween them. By radically modifying the organization of national production structures and the forms of corporate trade, the dynamics of the GVC modify market conditions of competitiveness and, consequently, the manner in which national economies participate in the global economy. The first decades of the 21st century represent a historic period for Latin America, in which the governments of the countries it comprises adjusted their produc­tive structures to the new realities of the global production system dominated by a limited number of transnational enterprises based in developed countries. This participation, driven by the states and dominated by the markets, occurred in line with the role that these countries have played since colonial times, based primarily—although not exclusively—on the economy’s primary sector. Most states took advantage of the resulting economic growth to reduce levels of pover­ty and marginalization, but were unable to adequately change productive struc­tures or address increasing environmental impacts.