5,021 results
Search Results
2. A literary approach to Afro-Sino relations: Ufrieda Ho's Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa and Ken N. Kamoche's Black Ghosts.
- Author
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Vasser, Uchenna P.
- Subjects
- *
AFRICA-China relations , *IDENTITY (Psychology) in literature , *IMMIGRANTS in literature , *OVERSEAS Chinese - Abstract
The Afro-Sino engagement supports the study of international relations beyond the framework of a West-centric narrative. Ken Kamoche's fictionalisation of African immigrants in China, and Ufrieda Ho's narration of the vicissitudes of Chinese communities in South Africa, contemplate the consequence of the Africa–Asia engagement on the human condition. While the attendant political apparatuses in the African continent and China laud the mutual benefits of engagement, Kamoche and Ho, by focusing on issues of transmigration, displacement and belonging, identity-formation, and so forth expose the acute Sinocentrism and Afrocentrism that impede the seamless establishment of migrant communities in both geopolitical spaces. The principal objectives of this essay involve a close reading of Kamoche and Ho's novels to focus on the non-state participants of the Afro-Sino relations, and to discuss the emerging transnational, migrant literature that is at once African and Chinese. Ultimately, this essay suggests the formulation of a literary subgenre to embrace the Afro-Sino literary imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Britain's New Government, New White Paper, New Aid? Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century
- Author
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Burnell, Peter
- Published
- 1998
4. A literary approach to Afro-Sino relations: Ufrieda Ho’s Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa and Ken N. Kamoche’s Black Ghosts
- Author
-
Uchenna P. Vasser
- Subjects
International relations ,05 social sciences ,Gender studies ,Development ,050601 international relations ,0506 political science ,Politics ,Political science ,Close reading ,050602 political science & public administration ,Afrocentrism ,Narrative ,China ,Migrant literature ,Sinocentrism - Abstract
The Afro-Sino engagement supports the study of international relations beyond the framework of a West-centric narrative. Ken Kamoche’s fictionalisation of African immigrants in China, and Ufrieda Ho’s narration of the vicissitudes of Chinese communities in South Africa, contemplate the consequence of the Africa–Asia engagement on the human condition. While the attendant political apparatuses in the African continent and China laud the mutual benefits of engagement, Kamoche and Ho, by focusing on issues of transmigration, displacement and belonging, identity-formation, and so forth expose the acute Sinocentrism and Afrocentrism that impede the seamless establishment of migrant communities in both geopolitical spaces. The principal objectives of this essay involve a close reading of Kamoche and Ho’s novels to focus on the non-state participants of the Afro-Sino relations, and to discuss the emerging transnational, migrant literature that is at once African and Chinese. Ultimately, this essay suggest...
- Published
- 2018
5. Review Article: Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Reviewing the Past, Assessing the Present and Predicting the Future
- Author
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Lazarus, Joel
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Britain's new government, new White Paper, new aid? Eliminating world poverty: A challenge for the 21st century
- Author
-
Peter Burnell
- Subjects
Sustainable development ,Government ,Politics ,White (horse) ,White paper ,Poverty ,Central government ,Development economics ,Economics ,Development ,International development - Abstract
The November 1997 White Paper (WP) Eliminating world poverty: a challenge for the 21st century is only the third ever substantive WP on Britain's aid policy. It offers a focus on poverty, emphasises partnerships for sustainable development and ranges over far wider issues than just aid. It makes some significant departures from previous White Papers by Labour governments, partly reflecting a changed Labour Party but also following an evolution that is taking place in international development cooperation more generally. The 1997 White Paper also displays some continuities with the past, however. Policy effectiveness will depend inter alia on circumstances external to the UK and on the Department for International Development's political effectiveness in central government. The low profile of international development in political studies in the UK could also improve if proposals to increase public awareness of global interdependence take effect.
- Published
- 1998
7. A literary approach to Afro-Sino relations: Ufrieda Ho’s Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa and Ken N. Kamoche’s Black Ghosts
- Author
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Vasser, Uchenna P., primary
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. Participation in poverty reduction strategy papers: reviewing the past, assessing the present and predicting the future
- Author
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Lazarus, Joel
- Subjects
Developing countries -- Economic aspects ,Developing countries -- Social aspects ,Poverty -- Control ,Poverty -- Social aspects ,Business, international ,International relations ,World Bank -- Social policy - Abstract
The article assesses the various accounts, which explain the disappointing outcomes thus far of civil society participation in the design and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRPS) in aid receiving countries. A bleak future for PRSP participation and argues that the project's failure may increase the crisis of legitimacy faced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the very crisis that led to the launch of the PRSP initiative is presented.
- Published
- 2008
9. Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: reviewing the past, assessing the present and predicting the future
- Author
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Joel Lazarus
- Subjects
Civil society ,Vision ,Work (electrical) ,Poverty reduction ,Development economics ,Sociology ,Development ,International monetary fund ,Legitimacy - Abstract
This article assesses the various accounts put forward to explain the disappointing outcomes thus far of ‘civil society participation’ in the design and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) in aid-receiving countries throughout the world. While donors' technical and depoliticised explanations prove particularly unhelpful, other more radical perspectives, though insightful, often lack sufficient subtlety in their analyses. The article goes on to consider and critique commentators' various visions and prescriptions for prsp participation. Finding within participation aid's classic paradox—where it can work it is not needed and where it might be needed it cannot work—the article predicts a bleak future for prsp participation and argues that the project's failure may exacerbate the crisis of legitimacy faced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, a crisis that led these organisations to launch the prsp initiative in the first place.
- Published
- 2008
10. Reforms, Structure or Institutions? Assessing the Determinants of Growth in Low-Income Countries
- Author
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Sindzingre, Alice
- Published
- 2005
11. Neoclassical and Structural Analysis of Poverty: Winning the 'Economic Kingdom' for the Poor in Southern Africa
- Author
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Bracking, Sarah
- Published
- 2004
12. Islamic Fundamentalism: Royal Asiatic Society Seminar Papers (1) R. M. Burrell
- Author
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Tapper, Richard
- Published
- 1992
13. Papers on the Political Economy of Tanzania Kwan S. Kim Robert B. Mabele Michael J. Schultheis
- Published
- 1980
14. Paper Heroes: A Review of Appropriate Technology W. Rybczynski
- Author
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Lockett, Martin
- Published
- 1981
15. The Multinational Corporation: A Radical Approach. Papers by Stephen Herbert Hymer R. B. Cohen N. Felton M. Nkosi J. van Liere
- Author
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Jenkins, Rhys
- Published
- 1982
16. Race and a decolonial turn in development studies.
- Author
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Patel, Kamna
- Subjects
RACE ,DECOLONIZATION ,ECONOMIC development ,RACIAL identity of white people ,RACISM ,SCHOLARLY method ,THEORY of knowledge - Abstract
This paper reviews and revives a longstanding conversation about race and development studies, which was prominently explored in a collection of papers on race and racism in the journal Progress in Development Studies back in 2006. This revival is timely in the context of a global call to decolonise higher education. Given the central logic of race and racism in European colonialism, and the decolonial argument that colonialism continues in the production and value of knowledge, I examine the presence and absence of race and racism in discussions of decolonising higher education and in development studies. Through a systematic review and content analysis of papers published in six major development studies journals over the past 13 years, I identify where and how race is present in current development scholarship and explore the implications of this for a decolonial turn in development studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. Questioning csr in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: the case of Aracruz Celulose sa.
- Author
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Fig, David
- Subjects
SOCIAL responsibility of business ,PAPER ,EUCALYPTUS ,BIODIVERSITY ,SOCIAL conflict ,FARMERS ,NONGOVERNMENTAL organizations - Abstract
This article is a preliminary attempt to understand the corporate social responsibility claims and impacts of Aracruz Celulose sa, Brazil's largest pulp and paper manufacturer. Aracruz locates its operations in the vulnerable biodiversity hotspot of the Atlantic Forest, having acquired 800 000 hectares of land in five states of Brazil for the planting of eucalyptus. It owns some of the largest pulp and paper mills in the country. Both its record of land acquisition and its impact on the environment have resulted in considerable social conflict with the indigenous inhabitants, former slave communities and other small farmers in the state of Espírito Santo, and with supportive activist ngos. The company's application of formal corporate social responsibility practices often flies in the face of its social and environmental impacts. This raises questions about the nature of corporate social responsibility and its claims in developing countries like Brazil and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. Connecting Cultures.
- Author
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Bainbridge, Emma
- Subjects
CONFERENCES & conventions ,HUMANITIES ,APARTHEID ,SEGREGATION - Abstract
The article focuses on an interdisciplinary conference organised by the Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in April 2004. The title of the conference, Connecting Cultures attracted an extraordinarily diverse range of papers covering subjects from Caribbean narratives to translating India, to representing terrorism, and included papers on British Asian cinema and television, narrative and memory in South Africa, post-apartheid prose writing and culture contact in Border Zones. The paper of Terence Ranger, a speaker at the conference, considers a mode of translation as he explores the dynamics of the postcolonial interactions that exist in the system of Zimbabwe asylum appeals. He assesses the usefulness of examining asylum narratives both with the grain and against the grain to debate issues surrounding postcolonial assumptions both in Zimbabwe and in Britain. The papers that follow expand on various themes of the conference, commencing with a group of papers that discuss narrative and memory in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
19. The Multinational Corporation: A Radical Approach. Papers by Stephen Herbert Hymer Robert B. Cohen
- Published
- 1981
20. Papers in Geography Bedford College
- Published
- 1980
21. Neo-mercantilist Capitalism and Post-2008 Cleavages in Economic Decision-making Power in Brazil
- Author
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KRÖGER, MARKUS
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. Examining Qatari humanitarian diplomacy: key features, challenges and prospects.
- Author
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Elkahlout, Ghassan and Hedaya, Mona
- Subjects
- *
HUMANITARIANISM , *LITERATURE reviews , *DIPLOMATIC privileges & immunities , *NONGOVERNMENTAL organizations , *BASIC needs , *HUMANITARIAN assistance - Abstract
AbstractIn recent years, Qatar has emerged as a key actor in humanitarian diplomacy (HD), which has received limited academic attention. This paper provides an analysis of Qatar’s engagement with HD, drawing on a literature review and extensive interviews with officials and humanitarian workers in Qatar, observations of state activities and humanitarian agencies, and personal interviews with international humanitarian aid workers. The study reveals Qatar’s unique strategy, characterised by its diplomatic stance and the integrated efforts of its governmental and non-governmental sectors, as foundational to its HD efforts. The study also reports challenges hindering those efforts, namely the impacts of the political tensions, the lack of diplomatic immunity for humanitarian workers, and a scarcity of specialised expertise in HD. These are explored in terms of their implications for the effectiveness of Qatar’s efforts, emphasising the critical need for enhanced supportive frameworks, targeted capacity-building initiatives, and well-defined protocols for HD engagement. To add to the dialogue on HD, this paper reflects on Qatar’s engagement in HD, suggesting that smaller nations can meaningfully contribute when leveraging their strengths and international relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
23. Digital Mapuche activism between decolonisation and digital warfare.
- Author
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Garbe, Sebastian
- Subjects
- *
MAPUCHE (South American people) , *POLITICAL persecution , *POLITICAL debates , *DECOLONIZATION , *ACTIVISM , *MILITARY science - Abstract
AbstractThe resistance of Mapuche organisations and communities against state repression and continued forms of coloniality in contemporary Chile is one of today’s most visible and active Indigenous movements in Latin America. A key factor of this increased visibility is digital Mapuche activism, in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been adopted by Mapuche organisations and communities since the late 1990s. This paper will discuss digital Mapuche activism as part of the ongoing academic debates on social and Indigenous movements and the digitalisation of their political mobilisation towards decolonisation. The paper will introduce some key players and noteworthy characteristics of digital Mapuche activism before discussing its contemporary developments. These include the struggle over representation, the transformation of (traditional) community roles within Mapuche society, and the language of digital Mapuche activism. The last part of the paper showcases two episodes of digital warfare against this new type of Mapuche resistance. Consequently, whilst digital Mapuche activism has become a powerful tool for decolonisation, it is increasingly contested through digital repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
24. Southern agency in global norms creation: Bangladesh in the SDGs formulation process.
- Author
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Ashraf, ASM Ali and Rashid, Syeda Rozana
- Subjects
- *
SUSTAINABLE development , *POVERTY reduction - Abstract
This paper examines which institutions, ideas, and interests have shaped the position of Bangladesh in creating the norms of the United Nations (UN)'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bangladesh's contribution to the SDGs norms creation process is examined in two distinct stages: drafting a position paper (June 2012–June 2013) and participating in UN Open Working Group (OWG) negotiations (March 2013–July 2014). Findings reveal how a small cohort of policy entrepreneurs played a key role in both stages. They gave prominence to ideas such as poverty alleviation, global inequality, and migrants' rights in structuring the SDGs agenda. In the final round of OWG negotiations, Bangladeshi delegates calculated that active participation in the norms creation process would best serve the interests of the Global South by challenging the Global North which wanted to impose its interests. This paper offers an important insight into the norms literature by showing convergence and divergence of interests and agendas of global and local actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
25. Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries: Have We Reached a Policy 'Tipping Point'?
- Author
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Sumner, Andrew
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
26. G-group legitimacy in global governance: rightful membership of rising powers?
- Author
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Blom, Jasper
- Subjects
INTERNATIONAL organization ,POLICY sciences ,POWER (Social sciences) ,EMERGING markets ,GROUP of Seven countries ,GROUP of Twenty countries ,INTERNATIONAL relations - Abstract
The shift in global policymaking from the Group of Seven (G7) to the Group of Twenty (G20) is widely seen to reflect the rise to power of emerging markets in the South. It begs the question, though, whether the G20 has the right membership to legitimately govern the global economy. This paper applies a novel framework linking rightful membership to global governance institutions' roles to address this question. A longitudinal analysis of (1) financial and economic indicators of G-group members; (2) their global ranking on these indicators; and (3) the position of G-group members in technical forums of financial governance demonstrates that the shift to the G20 was necessary to maintain rightful membership given the declining share of G7 members in the global economy. However, rightful membership as a source of legitimacy varies across G-group roles and diffuses across roles and across global governance institutions. These new insights demonstrate the added value of conceptualising rightful membership in relation to different roles of global governance institutions. The analytical framework proposed in this paper allows for better insights into the legitimation strategies and public legitimacy perceptions of global governance institutions, and points to interesting new hypotheses with respect to the legitimacy of global governance institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. Contested food, conflicting policies: health and development in tribal communities in India.
- Author
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Vandana and Bhattacharya, Rajesh
- Subjects
TRIBES ,POLITICAL ecology ,MALNUTRITION ,FOOD security ,MEDICAL care ,FOOD consumption ,AGRICULTURE - Abstract
This paper explores the deep connections between experiences of health and changes in the local ecology, farming, and food consumption practices among tribal people in Odisha, a state in India. The role of governmental and market actors in initiating and reinforcing these changes is analysed in a political ecology framework using a relational understanding of 'place'. It allows us to think of changing health outcomes and perceptions in communities as they simultaneously experience changes in access to forest resources and farming practices, and consequent dietary changes. Our paper suggests that with the creation of new social and power relations and ecological materialities, nutritional insecurities are produced or sustained, even as access to formal healthcare improves. We show how the plethora of development policies often work against each other and accentuate health vulnerabilities, even as they seek to create incomes and ensure food availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
28. Return migration and the challenges of diasporic reintegration in Nigeria.
- Author
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Nwozor, Agaptus, Oshewolo, Segun, Olanrewaju, John S., Bosede Ake, Modupe, and Okidu, Onjefu
- Subjects
NIGERIAN economy, 1970- ,RETURN migration ,AFRICAN diaspora ,REMITTANCES ,IMMIGRANTS ,EXPERTISE ,ABILITY ,ECONOMIC development - Abstract
Nigeria is among the countries in Africa with the largest emigrant population as well as an impressive pool of annual remittances. Despite the importance of remittances in the matrix of national development, they are no substitute for the expertise and skills needed to drive the various sectors of the economy. Thus, since 1999, successive Nigerian governments have emphasised return migration as an important strategy to mainstream its diaspora into national development. In this vein, diverse policy efforts have been initiated to ensure its actualisation. The paper interrogates the continued currency and feasibility of return migration in the face of transnationalism and diasporic integration dilemmas. The paper uses qualitative data generated from primary and secondary sources to critically examine Nigeria's migration architecture. It finds that return migration is fraught with several integration dilemmas for returnees as they are confronted with adjustment crises on return. The paper contends that the transnational character of the Nigerian diaspora necessitates the adoption of policy options that recognise the universality of their contributions and thus do not require their relocation to the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
29. Climate security in Southeast Asia: navigating concepts, approaches and practices.
- Author
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Caballero-Anthony, Mely
- Subjects
- *
CLIMATE change mitigation , *CLIMATE change , *BASIC needs - Abstract
AbstractClimate security is gaining significant traction in global discourses on how to respond urgently to the challenges brought on by climate change. In Southeast Asia, however, the term ‘climate security’ raises concerns about the unintended consequences of securitisation to frame the complex and cross-cutting impact of climate change. This paper examines these concerns against the evolving discourses on climate security. It argues that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN’s) reservations about invoking the language of security on climate change are underpinned by concerns about sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs. The paper also argues that ASEAN’s hesitance to adopt ‘climate security’ downplays the critical need to build regional capacity for anticipatory climate action, including the ability to respond to potential climate-induced conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
30. Deleuze & Guattari on protest weakness in Iraq.
- Author
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Robin-D'Cruz, Benedict
- Subjects
- *
PUBLIC demonstrations , *SOCIAL movements , *POLITICAL systems - Abstract
Diverse forms of protest in contemporary Iraq have not altered the country's political system and in some respects have reinforced it. This paper argues that the existing literature has not fully explained this protest weakness, due in part to a division between an agency-focused protest literature emphasising discourse, symbolic politics, and the micro-politics of protests, where less attention has been paid to the material and structural elements; and a literature focused on the political system which has typically adopted more macro and structural models. By contrast, this paper uses concepts from Deleuze and Guattari to explore empirical case studies of the encounter between protests and political power in Iraq. It finds the notion of social assemblage useful for drawing the expressive and the material, the micro and the macro, back together on the same ontological plane. Deleuze and Guattari's distinction between the behaviours of rhizomatic (decentred) and arborescent (hierarchic) structures can also clarify a key source of protest weakness in Iraq as the rhizomatic tendencies of the country's political system. This refers primarily to the tendency for destabilisations of the system engendered by protests to function as a mechanism for the expansion of its political power over new social territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
31. Sanitation is political: understanding stakeholders' incentives in funding sanitation for the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
- Author
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Zaqout, Mariam, Fayad, Mariam, Barrington, Dani J., Mdee, Anna, and Evans, Barbara E.
- Subjects
- *
ECONOMICS , *WATER supply , *SANITATION , *INTERNATIONAL economic assistance - Abstract
The Gaza Strip is dependent on external aid to deliver basic services, including water and sanitation. Such services are not sustainable due to the Israeli occupation and the limited financial and technical capacities of service providers and the state. This paper examines the incentives of stakeholders in delivering sanitation services in the Gaza Strip through a qualitative institutional economics analysis of literature supplemented with qualitative key informant interviews. External aid is crucial to deliver basic services in the Gaza Strip. However, this has created a dependency that undermines the sustainability of sanitation services. Donor agencies often prioritise capital expenditure on visible infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment, without addressing its long and short-term operational needs; hence the Gaza Strip's needs are continually addressed as an emergency response. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas de facto governments lack sovereignty over the Gaza Strip and Palestine. Therefore, they also lack the capacity and incentives to create an enabling environment for delivering safely managed sanitation. This paper contributes to development policy literature, the politics of infrastructure and wider politics of settler colonialism and siege basic services such as water and sanitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
32. The role of the opposition in autocratisation: the case of Turkey.
- Author
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Korkmaz, Seren Selvin
- Abstract
AbstractThis paper explores the role of opposition parties within the context of global democratic erosion, with a focus on Turkey. It investigates the multifaceted role of opposition actors in the process of autocratisation, challenging conventional portrayals of them as mere victims or resilient forces. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), spanning the critical period of 2002–2022 under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), this research uncovers how opposition strategies have evolved in response to changing political dynamics. The paper introduces two new concepts, rigid opposition and flexible opposition, to elucidate the adaptive nature of opposition strategies in the face of autocratisation. It underscores the transition of the CHP from a rigid stance, characterised by identity-based polarisation, to a more flexible approach, involving strategic alliances and inclusive discourse. This transformation is not a binary success–failure paradigm but rather a complex adaptation with inherent risks. While flexibility is crucial to limit autocratisation, its potential pitfalls carry the risks of contributing to autocratisation and the dilution of party identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
33. Political healing and Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine: a critical engagement with contemporary international relations.
- Author
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Shimizu, Kosuke and Noro, Sei
- Subjects
- *
INTERNATIONAL relations , *BUDDHIST medicine , *MAHAYANA Buddhism , *SUBJECTIVITY , *PHILOSOPHY of time , *IMPERIALISM - Abstract
This paper introduces Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine into the contemporary international relations (IR) literature. In this paper, we will elucidate the perception towards subjectivity and relationality based upon the non-binary relationality of Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine, and strive to provide a refreshing understanding of the world. In order to achieve this goal, we start this article by focussing upon the way in which the essentialised subjectivity became the norm of contemporary IR even in non-Western regions. Second, we will provide a general introduction to Mahāyāna Buddhism. Here, we will explain the fluid subjectivity of this particular philosophical tradition, particularly its assumptions of subjectivity, relationality and temporality. Third, we will shift our focus to a practical application of this line of thought, Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine. We argue that Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine is extremely suggestive to contemporary colonial/postcolonial relations in the sense that it provides a practical way to cure those who are suffering from fear and anxiety generated by the assumptions of autonomy and independence. Last, we will return to the discourses of IR, in particular a recent discussion on temporality, relationality and ethics, to consider the possible contributions of Mahāyāna Buddhist medicine to IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
34. Young people's everyday pathways into drug harms in Shan State, Myanmar.
- Author
-
Meehan, Patrick, Sadan, Mandy, Aung Hla, Sai, Kham Phu, Sai, and Muai Oo, Nang
- Subjects
YOUTH & drugs ,DRUG abuse ,DRUG control ,DRUG traffic ,YOUTHS' attitudes - Abstract
In recent decades, youth drug use has become a cause of increasing concern across Asia and has inspired hardening drug control measures. However, consistently missing from drug narratives is a deeper engagement with young people themselves on why they use drugs and an understanding of the social, political, economic and cultural forces that shape their interactions with drugs. By engaging with the lived experiences of young people in the Myanmar city of Taunggyi, this paper offers new insights into the everyday pathways and practices through which systemic risk factors – poverty, large-scale local drug production and poor welfare provision – materialise into drug harms. This paper draws attention to three factors that shape these pathways: first, the role that drug-selling and drug consumption plays in the coping strategies that people deploy in an environment of economic hardship; second, the intersections between drug use and gendered conceptions of youth; and, third, the everyday institutional practices of local authorities. Exploring young people's testimonies offers a grounded perspective for considering what can be done to reduce drug harms in a context where the structural determinants of drug risks are deeply entrenched and, in the context of post-coup Myanmar, likely to worsen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
35. Illiberalism and post-conflict settlements with jihadists: a Malian case study.
- Author
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Thurston, Alexander
- Subjects
JIHAD ,SECULARISM ,LIBERALISM - Abstract
This paper draws on recent research in peace studies in order to analyse peacebuilding efforts with jihadists in central Mali. The paper explores two main streams of data: first, an exchange of messages between a Malian jihadist leader, Amadou Kouffa, and a Malian Muslim cleric; and, second, survey data on Malians' attitudes towards politics and Islamic law. The paper also discusses what is known about a pattern of fragile, temporary, localised ceasefires with Malian jihadists. These different data sources highlight the poor fit between Western liberal peacemaking frameworks and some local conflict realities and aspirations, even amid a supposed 'local turn' in peacebuilding. Whereas liberal frameworks tend to assume that democracy, human rights, reconciliation, and secularism should be part of any peace settlement, some Malian elites and citizens appear open to illiberal solutions. These findings indicate substantial conceptual and practical challenges for the incorporation of local voices into peacebuilding agendas. The findings also add to an emerging literature on 'illiberal peace', which so far has focused mostly on top-down authoritarian models rather than civil society-driven illiberal compromise efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
36. The Status: A Day in the Life of a Contemporary Iranian Writer
- Author
-
Fassih, Esmail
- Published
- 1987
37. Why does segregation prevent conflict in some regions but not others? Interrogating social distance amid ethnic conflicts in Jos, Nigeria.
- Author
-
Eke, Surulola
- Subjects
ETHNIC conflict ,SEGREGATION ,CONFLICT management ,ETHNIC relations ,NEIGHBORHOODS - Abstract
This paper revisits the longstanding question of why segregation douses ethnic tensions in some places but exacerbates them in others. Anchored on the concept of social distance and drawing on empirical evidence from Jos, Nigeria's hotbed of ethnoterritorial conflict, this article provides a nuanced analysis of why segregation mediates both the emergence and the prevention of ethnic conflict. In the examined case study, the role of social distance in conflict mitigation varies according to neighbourhood type. Animosity was already deep-seated across the region when social distancing – the effect of partition and segregation – was cemented following the outbreak of conflict in some communities in 2001. Yet the conflict spread to some ethnically unmixed neighbourhoods but not others. In conflict-affected areas, social distance did not avert future conflicts compared to neighbourhoods where the initial conflict was avoided. However, past conflict is not a predictor of future outbreaks in socially distanced neighbourhoods given that in the areas that avoided future conflicts, social distance occurred simultaneously with extensive informal bi-communal leadership engagements. Therefore, the paper shows that even imperfect unmixing can dampen violence when combined with observable leadership engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
38. Tunisia's migration politics throughout the 2011 revolution: revisiting the democratisation–migrant rights nexus.
- Author
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Natter, Katharina
- Subjects
IMMIGRATION policy ,IMMIGRANTS' rights ,DEMOCRATIZATION ,TUNISIAN Revolution, 2010-2011 ,REGIME change ,LEGITIMACY of governments - Abstract
How does democratisation affect the politics of migration? This paper analyses Tunisian immigration and emigration politics in the decade before and after the 2011 revolution, drawing on 57 interviews with Tunisian high-level civil servants, as well as representatives of civil society and international organisations. It shows that the democratisation of policy processes and the expansion of citizens' political freedoms did not result in pro-migrant rights reforms, but instead led to the continuation of restrictive migration policies inherited from Tunisia's authoritarian past. The paper explains this by dissecting the ambiguous effects of democratisation on political legitimisation, as well as on inter-institutional and transnational dynamics of migration policymaking. It demonstrates that despite the unprecedented dynamism of Tunisian civil society and efforts of various institutional actors to reform Tunisia's security-driven migration policy, there were both domestic and international forces that put brakes on migration reform. By focussing on the intricacies of Tunisian migration policymaking, this analysis allows to advance theory-building on the link between political regimes and migration politics, to revisit regime transformations from the inside and to overcome the still-dominant Eurocentrism in scholarly debates on North African migration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
39. Forging alliances: political competition and industrial policy in democratic Brazil.
- Author
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de Gaspi, Renato H.
- Subjects
- *
INDUSTRIAL policy , *POLITICAL competition , *PRESSURE groups , *POLICY sciences , *ECONOMIC development - Abstract
Most of the literature on the politics of industrial policy describes a policy realm that is dominated by business–state relations. This paper goes beyond this and proposes that, in democratic settings, political competition and civil society actors also play a vital role in industrial policy. Through a lens focused on Brazil during the 2000s, the study delves into the dynamics between the election of a centre-left party and the subsequent industrial policy, highlighting the interplay of democratic mandates, entrenched economic interests, and supportive developmental alliances. Notably, the continuation of a centre-left coalition and consistent institutional frameworks witnessed considerable shifts in industrial policy outcomes, which allows for an in-depth evaluation of interest group influence on policy formation and implementation. By triangulating data from 23 interviews with actors in the industrial policy process, data from the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), and an analysis of industrial policy plans, this paper posits that the prevalence of economic issues in the electoral debate and the participation of societal actors in the policymaking process are enablers of innovation-focused industrial policies; this allows governments to countervail the power of incumbent sectors and undertake policies that are not favoured by the prevailing business interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
40. Embodied healing and justice in wounded territories: reflections from feminist and decolonial research-activism in Guatemala.
- Author
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Walsh, Aisling
- Subjects
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FEMINISTS , *ACTIVISM , *HEALING , *JUSTICE , *VIOLENCE - Abstract
Cuerpo-territorio (the body-territory) is a concept used by Indigenous feminist activists from Iximulew (Guatemala) to frame their struggles for justice, an end to gendered violence and against extraction in their territories. This paper draws on this concept to explore the legacy of colonial and conflict-related woundings in Guatemala, particularly sexualised and racialised violence. I focus on the primarily Ladinx, urban, largely middle-class population who work and study at the Centre for Training, Healing and Transpersonal Transformation – Q'anil, Guatemala. By centring my enquiry on the reflections of staff and participants from Guatemala and Latin America, through observations and interviews completed as part of my PhD, research this paper explores how attending to the racialised and sexualised wounds of the cuerpo supports individual and collective healing. I argue that Q'anil's processes, which focus on interrogating desire, reconnecting with the body and recovering the erotic as creative life force, can contribute to healing our broken relationship with the territorio. I -situate this work within the turn towards a vitalist politics and ask how we might expand our understanding of justice in territories wounded by conflict and (neo)colonialism beyond legal frameworks to envision justice from the cuerpo-territorio? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
41. Of glass, skills and life: trade consciousness among Firozabad's glass workers.
- Author
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Kaba, Arnaud
- Subjects
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TRAINING of glassworkers , *GLASS industry , *EMPLOYEE training , *SKILLED labor training , *CASTE , *CLASS consciousness - Abstract
In Firozabad—a city in North India which specialises in glass production and is famous for being the centre of manufacturing for the billions of glass bangles worn by South Asian women—the Sheeshgarh caste used to master the most valuable skills. The transmission of these skills to other castes was a central stake, which highlights the relations between labour and capital, between dominants castes, between Muslims and Hindus. Therefore, this paper proposes the notion of trade consciousness to analyse the processes which shaped caste, gender and class relations around the common consciousness to be part of the same activity, the same community of practices. The paper then argues that understanding the way skills are introduced, transmitted and reproduced through master/apprentice relations, the everyday conviviality in the shopfloor, or in the mohallā, constitutes a crucial thread to understand the social transformation in Firozabad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
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42. Professionalism as a soft skill: the social construction of worker identity in India's new services economy.
- Author
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Ray, Aditya
- Subjects
- *
PROFESSIONALISM , *SERVICE economy , *ATTITUDES toward work , *INTERNATIONAL business enterprises , *SOFT skills , *SOCIAL constructionism - Abstract
Once a popular buzzword for multinational corporations, 'professionalism' has now become a common catchphrase in India's emerging services economy. Today, youth aspiring to join entry-level services roles such as those in call centres, retail, and coffee shops undergo intense and regimented trainings to become 'professional', learning to regulate their bodies, behaviours, language, and overall identities, to fit into diverse and fast-paced 'servicescapes'. Whereas literature exploring notions of professionalism in India's growing services sectors has emphasised their corporate-western and disciplinary-ideological dimensions, more recent scholarship has begun to document how workers themselves perceive, experience and shape these notions. Drawing from this scholarship and ethnographic research conducted in a skills training centre in Pune city in western India, this paper explores how professionalism has increasingly become entwined with the discourse of 'soft skills' even at the margins of India's new services economy, and how it is being transmitted, questioned, and (re-)interpreted. The paper thus offers a grounded social constructivist view of professionalism, as not something that is simply imposed unimpeded upon passive neoliberal subjects by a powerful state and corporate actors, but rather as continually inflected by those who profess, teach and embody it, in line with local lived realities, experiences, values and belief systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
43. Skills in 'unskilled' work: a case of waste work in Central India.
- Author
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Rajendra, Advaita
- Subjects
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WASTE management , *SKILLED labor , *UNSKILLED labor , *SANITATION workers , *SOCIAL stigma , *SITUATED learning theory - Abstract
Drawing on Lave's theorisation of situated learning, this article engages with skills in the so-called 'unskilled' domain of waste work. Waste work involves handling diverse material discards, from household vegetable peelings, metal and plastic scraps, to human and animal faecal material and corpses. In India, forms of waste work are toxic, historically stigmatised, burdened on Dalit and Adivasi bodies, and officially categorised as 'unskilled' work. Based on fieldwork in a town in central India, the paper draws attention to skills in waste work, documenting social practices that involve processes of learning and acquiring skills. Analysing institutions that mediate skill acquisition in waste work, the paper argues that 'skilled' work is politically and socially constructed and materially contingent. The article destabilises reified notions of how work gets classified as '(un)skilled'. Further, the paper reflects on the conflicts and paradoxes that a conversation on skills in waste work throws up: valuing and recognising different forms of waste work while also pointing to their toxicities and struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
44. Crafting new service workers: skill training, migration and employment in Bengaluru, India.
- Author
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Upadhya, Carol and RoyChowdhury, Supriya
- Subjects
- *
YOUTH employment , *EMPLOYEE training facilities , *SERVICE economy , *SERVICE industries , *UNEMPLOYED youth - Abstract
The paper documents the role of skill training centres in Bengaluru, India, in the production of a peripatetic and precarious workforce for India's new service economy. It describes how semi-educated youth from disadvantaged rural backgrounds are recruited for short-term training courses, which are promoted as a route to economic mobility, but are then placed in undesirable low-end and low-paid urban service jobs. Because the employment offered rarely matches their expectations or aspirations, graduates of training programmes often quit within a few weeks, returning to their home villages or searching for other job opportunities. The findings of the study suggest that skill training centres, rather than fulfilling their expressed goals of lifting rural youth out of poverty, contribute to the creation of a footloose and insecure workforce – thus catering to the requirements of organised service industries rather than the needs of unemployed youth. The paper contributes to current debates on youth unemployment, skill development, and labour precarity in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
45. Power and networks in the shaping of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
- Author
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Vicedom, Stefan and Wynberg, Rachel
- Subjects
- *
GREEN Revolution , *GOVERNMENT policy , *AGRICULTURE - Abstract
AGRA (formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) was founded in 2006 by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation to initiate agricultural transformation in Africa. Although critics have argued that AGRA’s approach insufficiently addresses the needs of African smallholder farmers, there has been little analysis of the broader politics and networks that shape AGRA, a gap this paper aims to fill. Using a network analysis and key informant interviews, we identify the actors that constitute AGRA’s network, and describe related power constellations. Our paper illustrates that AGRA’s network is dominated by foundations, intergovernmental organisations and corporations, with decision-making located within Global North institutions. We reveal that the alliance displays characteristics of an ideological advocacy network and conclude that it can be considered a neoliberal food regime. We suggest better control mechanisms to hold accountable organisations without a political mandate, and to increase the transparency of their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
46. Instrumentalising the army before elections in Turkey.
- Author
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Zengin, Huseyin
- Subjects
- *
CIVIL-military relations , *TERRORISM , *ELECTIONS - Abstract
This paper argues that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has instrumentalised the Turkish army by conducting military operations in the run-up to elections. Although ending military tutelage has been interpreted in other countries as a sign of the professionalisation of the army, in Turkey it has done the opposite: the civilianisation discourse and civilian hegemony over military institutions have led to the instrumentalisation of the army. I demonstrate that the number of military operations significantly increased in the lead-up to elections, which strongly indicates the extent of instrumentalisation. Previous studies have primarily focused on the army’s praetorian role, neglecting the instrumentalisation process in which the military is engaged. This paper analyses the operational aspect of the army and introduces the concept of instrumentalisation. I contend that the cessation of military tutelage in Turkey has resulted in the securitisation of both society and politics. The failed coup in 2016, the double elections of 2015, and the heightened interest in the defence sector during election periods provide strong grounds for examining the instrumentalisation hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
47. Imperial wars and the violence of hunger: remembering and forgetting the Great Persian Famine 1917–1919.
- Author
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Edalati, Zahra and Imani, Majid
- Subjects
- *
FAMINES , *MEMORIALIZATION , *WORLD War I ,IRANIAN Revolution, 1979 - Abstract
The Great Persian Famine of 1917–1919 is one of the greatest calamities in the history of Iran. While some scholarly work has explored the causes and dynamics of the famine, less attention has been paid to its memorialisation. This paper aims to understand how the Great Persian Famine is remembered – or not – in public and personal spheres in Iran. Discussing the historical events that have been silenced, neglected or publicly recognised and commemorated before and after the Islamic Revolution, the paper focusses on the processes that hinder public and private memorialising of hunger violence. Drawing on existing literature, personal diaries, artistic representations, and interviews with persons whose parents or grandparents experienced the Great Persian Famine, we discuss why it has not figured prominently in the national historiography or commemorative practices, except during a brief period (2008–2013) when it found its way into the prevailing political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
48. Negotiating caste-subaltern imaginations of the 1943 Bengal famine: methodological underpinnings of a creative-collaborative practice.
- Author
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Ranjan, Ram Krishna
- Subjects
- *
BENGAL Famine, 1943 , *CASTE , *SUBALTERN , *DALITS - Abstract
The Bengal famine of 1943 is one of the most catastrophic and violent outcomes of British colonial rule in India. Recently, there has been a surge in understanding the famine from an anti-colonial perspective. However, the relation between the impact of the famine and caste-based subalternities has not received adequate attention. The immediate concerns that arise with the task of filling this gap are ethical-methodological and narrative: even from the lens of caste-subaltern consciousness, how does one arrive at and share stories of the famine, and can they ever be 'recovered' and 'represented'? This paper narrates the story of fieldwork-filming, carried out as part of ongoing research in artistic practice, which attempts to understand and engage with caste-subaltern (especially Dalit) experiences of the Bengal famine of 1943 and to explore methodologically how these experiences can be creatively and collaboratively imagined and negotiated. The paper proposes that there is a need to shift away from 'recovery' and 'representation' of the 'authentic' caste-subaltern experiences of the famine and towards negotiated imagination. To illustrate and make a case for this shift, this paper provides a detailed description and analysis of methodological processes and their implications that emerged during the fieldwork-filming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
49. China reshaping green value chain initiatives: between global and Southern standards.
- Author
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Fabiano, Flavia and Daviron, Benoit
- Subjects
- *
VALUE chains , *SUSTAINABILITY , *INTERNATIONAL economic relations , *TRANSNATIONALISM ,DEVELOPING countries - Abstract
The paper contributes to the growing debate about how China drives change in institutions and norms of global governance. It analyses the case study of China's approach to transnational voluntary sustainability standards as concrete tools of Western-sponsored green value chain initiatives, between integration and contestation. Engaging international political economy scholarship, the paper shows that China participates in such initiatives by reshaping their focus away from contested market-based approaches to more internationally consensual state-led ones. This stance indicates that China's reshaping of international norms and institutions conveys claims made by Global South alliances. These alliances are increasingly important for China, not only politically and militarily but also economically and for the success of key initiatives, like the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. Legitimacy-seeking: China's statements and actions on combating climate change.
- Author
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Lian, Chenchao and Li, Jinhong
- Subjects
- *
CLIMATE change mitigation , *ENVIRONMENTAL policy , *INTERNATIONAL relations - Abstract
This paper proposes a conceptual and analytical framework of states' legitimacy-seeking to comprehensively investigate the motivation behind China's climate and environment policy. While previous research has largely overlooked political factors that underlie China's climate policy, this paper argues that these factors are crucial in understanding China's policy changes, which are evident at both domestic and international levels. By examining sources such as government documents, leaders' speeches and authoritative literature, this study contends that China's climate change initiatives are part of a broader effort to enhance domestic and international legitimacy. The issue of climate change has become highly politicised in China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, and it serves as a crucial test of the ruling party and the state's capacity to govern effectively. As such, legitimacy-seeking is the key driver that links China's domestic measures and international commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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