'New learning in old organisations': Children's participation in a school-based nutrition project in western Kenya

The integration of learning into community development processes and how that learning can stimulate positive change pose challenges that development practitioners have met with mixed success. Who the most effective change agents are, how they can be supported, and how their efforts can be diffused in the community and scaled up are key questions in the community development literature. The authors designed and implemented an action-research project in western Kenya on traditional vegetables, recruiting pupils as co-researchers. The purpose of the research was two-fold. One goal was to explore the feasibility of increasing the intake of traditional vegetables through a school-based horticulture programme. The other was to increase pupils' competence as effective change agents by empowering them in culturally compatible ways. The results offer lessons for practitioners regarding creative means to identify and empower change agents within traditional organisations and encourage innovative creation and diffusion of knowledge.     

Knowledge,communication, development: a perspective from Latin America

Knowledge in development has been perceived as a one-way commodity that developed nations could bring ‘down to’ the level of ‘developing countries’. Sharing knowledge is generally seen as a North–South operation. This vertical approach to knowledge in development echoes the vertical approach to development in general, whereby knowledge is perceived as an ingredient of the technical assistance given by those who have it to those who do not. However, no organisation can offer social transformation or knowledge sharing if it is not itself engaged in an internal learning process that systematically questions certainties, authorities, and decision making. Learning is a complex process of acquiring knowledge, both within the organisation that facilitates social change and among the subjects of and partners in social change.     

What makes good development management?

In a previous paper published in 1996, the author gave two views of development management. One was management in the context of development as historical change. The other was the management of deliberate efforts at progress, of development tasks. This paper adds a third: a style of management with a development orientation, that is, an orientation towards progressive change. It is argued that this third view allows for a normative definition of development management. Thus a distinctive notion of what is good development management is that it should consistently promote the values of development at all levels, even if this is not the most straightforward way of getting particular development tasks done successfully.     

Conquest and Regime Change: An Evolutionary Model of the Spread of Democracy and Peace

Whereas the literature on the democratic peace tends to treat the phenomenon as a causal law, we follow Immanuel Kant in interpreting it as a macro-historical process that expanded from a small number of democracies to about 50% of all states. In order to account for this development, we introduce an agent-based model that combines a natural-selection logic with an adaptive mechanism of regime change. The latter is implemented as an empirically calibrated, contextual rule that prompts democratization as an S-shaped function of the democratic share of a state's immediate neighborhood. A similar transition rule governs regime change in the opposite direction. The computational results show that regime change and collective security are necessary to produce realistic trajectories of democratization at the systemic level.     

Trading culture for development: assessing perceptions among rural agropastoral peoples in Tanzania

Development in rural parts of Africa is strongly desired by local people. Other views expressed by local people towards outside development initiatives vary considerably. Some perceptions are negative, as development recipients view development as a destructive agent of change in the local culture. Despite the negative effects associated with development, this study documented a unanimous desire among a stratified random sample of 418 respondents for more development interventions. Two villages in south-central Tanzania were selected based upon their adjacent proximity to Ruaha National Park. Findings suggest that a capability framework is useful for exploring local perceptions to outside development assistance.     

转型九问——写在中东欧转型20年之际

2009年为东欧政局剧变20年①.由于东欧政局剧变及随后展开的转型涉及如何看待和应对全球化、市场化、民主化等重大问题,因此,以客观和理性的思维,重新检视东欧政局剧变原因,深入分析中东欧转型20年过程中的问题及其解决之道,将有助于人们拓展对人类社会发展模式及其前景等问题的认识视角.     

A recurring anarchy? The emergence of climate change as a threat to international peace and security

Robert Kaplan's 1994 article, ‘The Coming Anarchy’ was a milestone in the literature on the links between environmental change and security. The article predicted that disease, corruption, overpopulation, scarce resources and climate change would plunge West Africa into pervasive conflict. Nearly a decade and a half—and several civil wars—later this article returns to West Africa to see to what extent Kaplan's predictions have come to pass. While West Africa may not have followed exactly the trajectory that Kaplan foresaw, he did correctly predict that climate change would be recognised as a threat to international security. This paper reviews in greater detail the development of conceptualisations of environment and security that influence current discussions over the potential impacts of climate change on security, paying particular attention to the ways in which West Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.     

试析当前全球气候变化新特点及其对国际社会的影响

一、全球气候变化问题的特点 (一)全球气候变化问题的政治性 "全球气候变化问题并非一开始就是一个国际政治性问题,国际政治也并非一开始就涉及气候变化问题,气候变化问题政治化有一个过程"①.随着人类大工业的发展,气候变化给人类带来的威胁日益加重,国际社会对这一问题的关注程度也在逐步加深.     

Returnees for change? Afghan return migrants' identification with the conflict and their potential to be agents of change

This article interrogates the assumptions that returned migrants can be agents of change in development and peace-building in the country of origin. In current political and academic debates, it remains under-defined which category of returnees can contribute to what kind of change. This article identifies four ways in which voluntary and involuntary returnees relate to the conflict after return: physically, institutionally, psychologically and with regard to the future. It finds that the only returnees who could potentially live up to the expectations raised in the migration-development-peace-building debate, are voluntary returnees, while involuntary returnees were in no way potential contributors to Afghan peace-building and development. It concludes that, first, the human dimension of returnees' involvement is the most important potential contribution to change. Second, while the international community sees repatriation as the ultimate proof of peace that represents the restoring of normalcy, it is rather continued transnational mobility that could be the basis for Afghan migrants to contribute to change in Afghanistan.     

Platforms for institutional change: assessing the potential of livelihood enhancement groups as community entry points in Zambia

To address the livelihood problems faced by the poor and vulnerable in Northern Province of Zambia, a novel collective action approach called livelihoods enhancement groups (LEGs) was used as a platform for facilitating research on development initiatives to generate change. Using focus group discussions and key informant interviews, this article assesses the potential of using the LEGs approach in generating change. The livelihood changes observed arose with the LEG as a platform through which different knowledge nodes interacted. Livelihood areas that LEGs affected included crop production, livestock production, nutrition, and access to credit.     

Women on Wheels: empowering women through an innovative training and employment programme

Significant victories have been won due to the development sector’s engagement with gender inequality as a political project, but regressive shifts have also led to development being conceptualised as a managerial issue rather than as a process of social change. This article uses empirical research conducted in New Delhi, India with an organisation that trains and employs poor urban women as commercial drivers to discuss how an obsession with “cost effectiveness” and “scale” can delegitimise the valuable work of some organisations. This article encourages re-engagement with gender equality as a complicated social issue rather than as a technical-rational management project.     

俄罗斯实用主义气候政策探析

气候变化议题在今天的全球治理中居于核心地位。俄罗斯的气候政策对于全球气候变化合作的开展有着非常重要的影响。"气候实用主义"是当前俄罗斯气候政策选择的核心。本文分析了近年来俄罗斯"气候实用主义"的内涵特征、政策特点、选择动因以及造成的影响。本文指出价值观、经济发展模式以及国际体系中的地位是决定俄罗斯实用主义气候政策选择的三个关键变量。这些变量通过观念、利益和身份的路径影响了俄罗斯气候政策的理念框架、国内偏好以及国际合作参与。对于气候变化起源的"怀疑论"、对碳氢能源企业的重点保护,通过气候政策对内增强治理合法性,吸引投资和技术以缓解美欧制裁是当前俄政府实用主义气候政策的突出特点。俄罗斯的这种气候政策为国际气候变化合作的加强提供了新动力,也为中俄区域合作开辟了新领域。但却难以弥合俄罗斯与美欧在气候变化问题上的根本分歧,也不会对俄罗斯依赖能源经济的发展模式造成实质影响。     

The digital divide and development communication theory

Abstract

Recent theories about a global information society and the digital divide are rooted in older theories about mass media and development. A comparison between these theories shows that the main premises are still there: development is equated with economic growth, there is an enormous belief in the capacities of communication technologies to change a society, the Western model is promoted as being universally applicable and the only unavoidable way forward. Thus the idea that closing the communication gap will also close the development divide is still alive. On the contrary, history shows that the communication gap and the digital divide are consequences of a more general development divide.     

The Rise of the Social Development Model: Institutional Construction of International Technology Organizations, 1856–1993

This study identifies an important thematic change among international technology organizations (ITOs). Within the general expansion of the ITO population, the social development model has risen rapidly over time in comparison with the industrial and professional models. Rationalistic political theories, which tend to treat international organizations as negotiated arrangements among nation-states or interest groups, locate organizational changes in the power capabilities and interest calculation of such actors. These theories do not explain this historical change among ITOs. Building upon the constructivist approach and sociology's institutionalism, this study emphasizes ITOs as constructed by world cultural norms. I propose that the rise of a liberal and rationalized world regime of development in the post–World War II era affected the popularity of different ITO models by supplying a new norm for technology. Data were collected for the population of ITOs established between 1856 and 1993, and the impact of the main forces on the rise of the social development model was formally tested with event-history methods. The study demonstrates the importance of world cultural norms in shaping the evolving field of ITOs.     

澜湄水资源安全与合作:流域发展导向的分析视角

进入21世纪,澜湄流域的人口增长、经济快速发展和城镇化,增加了各国用水需求,而各国对水资源的非协调性开发以及气候变化影响下的极端天气频发,导致水安全问题凸显,流域可持续发展面临压力。当前,澜湄流域水安全处于中等脆弱状态,但已建、在建和计划建设项目的累积影响将进一步加剧水资源脆弱性。为保障水安全,湄公河国家迫切期望加强彼此之间及与上游的中国在水资源问题上的磋商、协调和合作,其共同水安全需求从低到高可分为四个层次:防洪安全、供水安全、生态安全及水—粮食—能源协同安全。这四种安全需求是同时存在的,但在流域国家社会经济发展所处的不同阶段,亦有不同侧重。澜湄水安全合作既要满足流域各国水安全需求,又不能脱离流域的整体发展,因此应正确把握安全与发展的辩证关系,分阶段、有步骤地推进和深化:尽早建立风险防控协调机制,开展流域国家联合勘察和应对气候变化协同研究;2030年左右建立供水安全和生态安全合作机制;到21世纪中叶开展全流域水资源综合管理,实现水—粮食—能源协同安全。     

Punctuated equilibrium in the energy regime complex

The concept of a regime complex has proved fruitful to a burgeoning literature in international relations, but it has also opened up new questions about how and why they develop over time. This article describes the history of the energy regime complex as it has changed over the past 40 years, and interprets this history in light of an interpretive framework of the sources of institutional change. One of its principal contributions is to highlight what Stephen Krasner referred to as a pattern of “punctuated equilibrium” reflecting both periods of stasis and periods of innovation, as opposed to a gradual process of change. We show that the timing of innovation depends on dissatisfaction and shocks and that the nature of innovation—that is, whether it is path-dependent or de novo—depends on interest homogeneity among major actors. This paper is the first to demonstrate the empirical applicability of the punctuated equilibrium concept to international regime complexes, and contributes to the eventual development of a dynamic theory of change in regime complexes.     

浅析近来朝鲜经济发展理论与政策出现的新变化及其走势

朝鲜随着国内、国际政治及经济形势的变化 ,从 2 0世纪 90年代末期开始对经济发展理论及政策进行了一些调整 ,为经济的恢复和发展注入新的活力。但一直反对使用“改革”、“开放”的字样。从长远看 ,由于自身条件和外部环境的限制 ,朝鲜经济政策的调整步伐不会太快 ,小心、谨慎 ,稳中求变、变中促稳将是其长期遵循的原则。     

'I Find Myself as Someone Who is in the Forest': Urban Refugees as Agents of Social Change in Kampala, Uganda

An in-depth investigation of the Kampala Urban Refugee Children'sEducation Centre (KURCEC), a refugee-initiated community-basedorganization in Uganda, allows for detailed exploration of thelivelihood strategies employed by urban refugees in the sphereof education and of the ways in which these strategies can promoteself-reliance and individual and community development in urbansituations. Urban refugees' development of KURCEC challengesperceived notions of refugees as burdens or as passive recipientsin a system that fosters dependency and shows that they areagents of social change within their own and their host communities.The focus on what works in the midst of crisis, desperation,and uncertainty is a deliberate attempt to promote researchand policy-setting that is forward-looking and productive ratherthan reactionary and regressive in the context of new developmentsin policy and practice relating to urban refugees worldwide.     

Gender and development: a SAFE recipe

It is argued that an alternative strategy to women's involvement in development is the development of a whole "new dish, prepared, baked, and distributed equally" rather than acquisition of a "bigger piece of the pie." The issues of gender and development (GAD) involve women gaining power and control of the decision making processes. Past development has been too much of a "fixed menu" approach. Feminist development involves the satisfaction of the strategic needs of women, an agenda-setting direction, flexibility, and empowerment (SAFE). Strategic gender needs were conceptualized first by Maxine Malyneaux. Within women's defined roles, there are needs for access to adequate and clean water supplies, nutrition, health care, and income. Women in development (WID) approaches are strong in serving practical needs. The SAFE approach combines both the strategic and practical needs of women. Some argue that a focus on strategic and/or practical needs should be conceptualized in terms of changing women's position within a structurally unequal set of social relations. Some emphasize autonomy. The basic concepts of strategic needs is viewed as including the change in women's status and movement toward autonomy. Aid agencies and development groups have been mainstreaming WID and GAD over the past decade by integrating women and women's needs into administration, decision making, and the project cycle. Gender issues could be built into existing development paradigms or could change the existing development agenda with a gender perspective. It is argued that an agenda-setting approach is needed in order to assure that the strategic needs of women are incorporated. Flexibility and adaptation of approaches means that WID and GAD can be adjusted to all cultures. It is cited by Buvinic and Moser that welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency, and empowerment are five ethical policy approaches. The policy approach of SAFE is that of empowerment or the knowledge and exercise of influence, power, and leadership in some or all social relations.