Policy Regimes for the International Waste Trade

Among the unforeseen problems of the new industrial age has been the disposal of increasing quantities of wastes—many hazardous and toxic. Industrial chemistry has produced numerous products that, while useful, are alien to nature and resistant to biodegradation or detoxification. Growing public awareness of the possible hazards and risks involved in disposal of the residuals of industrial activities is arousing a popular demand for environmental protection. But this popular awareness depends upon public information and a degree of scientific literacy—conditions which vary widely among nations. Initial consequences are environmental regulations and restrictions respecting waste disposal in scientifically developed countries, and vulnerability among less developed countries to the export of hazardous wastes from the countries of their origin. A secondary consequence is the emergence of international waste trade as a national and international multidimensional policy problem.     

The Politics of Caste in India’s New Land Wars

ABSTRACT

In this article we introduce the special issue through framing the debate on the role of caste in India’s current land wars. We draw attention to how caste consistently mediates land transfers in present day India by pre-empting, undermining, or fuelling processes of social contestation, as well as the ways in which land claims in turn shape realigned or reimagined caste identities. Based on this, we make three main arguments. The first and most obvious one is that in contemporary conflicts over land, caste matters in evolving ways that deserve attention. Second, we argue that caste and land are recursively linked categories that are produced and reproduced in continuous interaction, even as multi-scalar political economies (re)shape them. And third, that different registers of caste are articulated by different social groups in more or less overt ways as they stake often competing claims to land.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in Danes

A total of 185 unrelated Danish males were typed for the Y-chromosome STRs DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389-I, DYS389-II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439 using the kits PowerPlex Y (Promega), ReliaGene Y-Plex 6 and ReliaGene Y-Plex 5 (Reliagene Technologies). A total of 163 different haplotypes were observed and among these, 144 haplotypes were unique. The gene diversity was 0.9985. In DYS392, a variant allele migrating as a 10.2 allele was observed. Sequencing of the allele showed a deletion upstream the repeated area.     

MODELING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DECISION-MAKING: THE CASE OF TAX ABATEMENTS

This research note examines two models of economic development policymaking. The literature on economic development and urban politics provides one image of reality regarding the factors associated with economic development policy in cities. When tested empirically, however, this model is found wanting. An alternative model is presented, identifying the complex set of factors associated with a single governmental policy, in this case, tax abatements.     

A Story of Adolescence: The Emergence of Other-Sex Relationships

Journal of Youth and Adolescence -     

La ñata contra el vidrio: urban violence and democratic governability in Argentina

The article argues that the increase in crime and urban violence in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires, can be explained as an outcome of the interaction of four factors: the new social relations established by neoliberalism; the incapacity of the state to resolve the social conflicts which have arisen from these new social relations; the failure to democratise the security forces; and the exclusion of a sector of society from the rights of effective democratic citizenship. The increase in crime and urban violence is, thus, analysed as a problem of governability.