Empowerment for development: Taking participatory appraisal further in rural South Africa

This paper examines the potential for Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques to contribute to community development and empowerment in a deprived rural community in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. A series of participatory workshops was undertaken in which various new techniques were used to identify people-environment relationships and, in particular, the community perception of the value and problems relating to the river and riparian zone. The workshops led to the community taking positive action to address the problems identified. The study indicates the value and role of participatory research among disempowered communities in rural Africa.     

A justice philosophy of public relations management

ABSTRACT

From a justice perspective, strategic publics may be viewed as victims who have been harmed by the organisation and now seek reparation. Long-term relationships are only formed with organisations that treat strategic publics fairly. For public relations to be viewed as just, it must incorporate all three dimensions of justice theory, viz: distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. When all three dimensions are incorporated, public relations stands a better chance of the organisation being viewed as just and trustworthy by strategic publics. Only when strategic publics experience the relationship with the organisation as trusting and dignifying will they be able to feel committed to the organisation and its decisions; feel attached to the long-term relationship; and be less hostile when outcomes of strategic decisions are unfavourable.

Justice theory provides public relations with a philosophy of how to conduct themselves with strategic publics that influence the goal attainment of organisations.     

'New Africa', globalisation and the confines of elite reformism: 'Getting the rhetoric right', getting the strategy wrong

The launch in July 2001 of the New Africa Initiative was a culmination of events over the last two years involving the emergence of a group of African leaders who have increasingly played a prominent role in negotiations between Africa and the developed world. This 'New Africa', initially comprising Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa but now more diffuse, has been welcomed at a great number of elite gathering points by the North. This article investigates what is 'new', if anything, about the positions being advanced by this group. The article contends that a hearing is being granted to the New Africa representatives precisely because the message communicated fits the neo liberal discourse. While appreciating elements of New Africa's agenda, it is feared that there is no obvious strategy to be found in the New Africa Initiative inequalities of the global political economy.     

From Peacekeeping to Stabilisation: Interorganisational Co-operation,Challenges and the Law

ABSTRACT

Global complexity and limitations in the United Nation's legal framework necessitates collaboration with regional organisations, creating tension between the legal frameworks guiding peacekeeping, the use of force, and intervention practices within the increasing complexity of peace enforcement and stabilisation missions with a Protection of Civilians mandate. With the UNs lack of impetus in clarifying stabilisation as a concept, the use of force required for stabilisation cannot be justified, necessitating the use of regional organisations' more flexible legal frameworks. The continued complexity of contemporary peace and security requires a reassessment of peacekeeping doctrine that, if left unaddressed, risk condemnation for illegal ‘peacekeeping'.     

Mobsters are human too: Behavioural science and organized crime investigation

The paper describes the organized criminal, and the fight against organized crime from a behavioural point of viiew. The author considers the organized criminal a crime-entrepreneur who has to operate in an enduring violent entrepreneurial landscape in which he has to cope with the problem of social information management. The article described how the police can add a social psychological approach to the traditional investgative methods. I provides some experience obtained in the Netherlands in which the psychologist assisted the crime squad during the investigation, trial preparation and trial. It argues in favour of a more analytical, hypothesis testing method in whch the behavioural scientist is integrated in the operational organized crimesquad instead of acting as an outside consultant.     

Balancing financial threats and legal interests in money-laundering policy

The fight against money laundering has been energetically introduced and developed into a global enforcement regime. Various economic and financial justifications have been put forward, which are not self-evident. The simple and basic foundation is that ill-gotten profits should not remain in the possession of the criminal. Nevertheless, the cause of fighting money laundering is loaded with arguments about the staggering size and the undermining effects of the crime-money, for which there is no empirical evidence. The arguments concerning the integrity of the financial system, usually taken at face value, proves to be less than coherent. Nevertheless, these (globally) politically accepted arguments prove to be effective in overruling a more careful balancing of legal interests and foundations, like the all-encompassing breadth of the money-laundering approach. This approach is compared with the computer crime legislation, in which restraint was balanced with the requirement to update the legal tools to an adequate level of effectiveness in an electronic criminal environment. This clarity contrasts strongly with the rhetoric of the money-laundering policy, in which we find neither restraint nor clarity.