This collection of essays aims to contribute to our understanding of the process of regional integration currently underway in South America. Mercosur is a regional manifestation of a world-wide process of globalisation whose driving force is economic, but which is potentially much more than that. It involves a variety of political, social and cultural processes, some of them barely at an embryonic stage, though each advancing at its own rate of progress. Mercosur's neo-liberal matrix, however, has led to the economic decision-making process being taken outside the realm of politics, thus leaving large sections of the population with no mechanism to influence the integration process so that it addresses their urgent needs and demands.