An alternative to the field theory interpretation of cooperative dyadic behavior

Of major concern herein is the possibility that the purported empirical suport for Model II of field theory is supirous. Model II focuses on only the variation in behavior within dyadic sets and is empirically supported when this behavior is some function of target magnitude. It is shown, however, that other linkage mechanicms also assume the variation in behavior within dyadic sets is a function of target magnitude. Thus, it is logically possible that the empirical patterns interpreted as proof of Model II's validity actually are the product of other general models. Such a general model, which focuses on the behavior best explained by Model II, is advanced and tested using the DON data. This general model is empiricaly supported and is more attractive than Model II because it explains variation not only within dyadic sets, but also across dyadic sets. There is thus serious question as to the degree of empirical support for Model II.     

African rural labour and the World Bank: An alternative perspective

In the context of economic and technological change in the late twentieth century, the World Bank's World Development Report 1995 combines the themes of labour and the global market, celebrating the triumph of the market in efficient labour-allocation worldwide. The World Bank's emphasis on boosting Africa's agricultural export capacity ignores the prevailing hostile conditions which African products encounter on the world market, and the current tendency towards agricultural labour displacement. `Labour flight', particularly of youth, signals African farmers' own disenchantment with farming under present liberalised market conditions. The narrowness of the W orld Bank's policy vision for Africa avoids the social and political implications of rural labour displacement as well as the need for human-capital investment in rural areas. This article argues that the alternative to human-capital investment now may be war and expensive disaster-relief for decades to come.     

Back to prehistory: the quest for an alternative IR founding myth

Abstract

Searching for an alternative founding myth for international relations (IR) entails going back long before the 1648 Westphalian milestone. Drawing from a world historical approach, this article makes the case for investigating the origins of the subject matter of IR in the pre-state era: its founding moment may be traced back to a first encounter between two distinct bands of nomadic Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers in the Palaeolithic period. As the outcome of this interaction was not predetermined, four scenarios are considered: absence of relations by retreat and isolation; conflict triggered by self-preservation (birth of war); cooperation, barter or other types of exchange; and merging together. Following the initial engagement, intergroup relations became much more intertwined. Once the stranger was no longer unknown, the original distinction between Us and Them began to fade away. The ensuing relationship shaped their co-constructed social reality, in a long process of extending trust beyond the family circle.     

Changing families and communities: an LGBT contribution to an alternative development path

Until now, most discussions on the place of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) people in global civil society have focused on their access to citizenship, rather than their socio-economic rights and role in development processes. This article argues that an alternative vision of development should challenge heteronormative family structures; build alternative, queer communities; wage activist, sexually emancipatory campaigns on concrete social issues (as the Treatment Action Campaign has done on HIV and AIDS in South Africa); and rethink existing models of democratic participation. The author emphasises the paradoxes of LGBT organisation in the context of neo-liberalism and globalisation, with an eye toward queering, or challenging heteronormativity in, global social-justice movements.     

Responses to Financial Crises: An Evolutionary Perspective

As the world currently faces the ever-deepening sub-prime crisis, we are reminded that the process of globalisation can cause significant disruptions in global markets and political systems. This article focuses on the evolution of financial crisis responses to gain a better understanding of the dynamics affecting current responses. By using a focused comparison of case studies it argues that the development of crisis response and the dominance of the current multilateral actors is a result of an evolutionary process. This process privileges learning and innovation within a complex political economic system. The crises of each era, born of many of the same problems, generate a variety of responding actors, a few of which are adopted. These actors help to address the immediate problems and even work well for a while. Eventually, they are overwhelmed by the tendency of financial interactions to grow. Another set of crises generates another round of actors and mechanisms. As time goes on, crisis response requires more formal institutions that can deal with more complex systems. The article concludes that response actors are becoming more public, multilateral and global in scope. Understanding this pattern of response should help to shed light on the potential for reform of the financial architecture and help to explain the dominance of multilateralism as a crisis response.     

折射中国外交的佳作——介绍《难忘英伦》一书

在纪念改革开放30周年之际,东方出版中心隆重推出有关8位驻外大使外交经历的系列力作,从改革开放与中国外交这一宏大的历史视角,印证了中国与世界关系所发生的历史性变化,引起社会的广泛关注。在这套系列丛书中,马振岗大使所著的《难忘英伦》,给读者们留下了深刻的印象。     

从努尔西到努尔库运动--土耳其文化伊斯兰概说

文化伊斯兰是土耳其伊斯兰复兴运动的一支重要力量,其创始人是土耳其著名宗教学者赛义德·努尔西.文化伊斯兰有许多派别,它们的共同点是重视文化教育,主张宗教与政治互不干涉,反对宗教政治化.其中最有影响力的派别是新努尔库运动,它的各项主张和社会活动均显示出土耳其伊斯兰复兴运动中截然不同于政治伊斯兰的另一种发展趋势,为了解土耳其政教关系提供了新的视角.与政治伊斯兰相比,文化伊斯兰的政治色彩较淡,其宗教观点和社会主张都不太激进,与官方也保持了较融洽的关系,因此仍然存在发展的空间,对土耳其社会的影响会进一步扩大.     

Toward purposeful individual capacity strengthening: alternative considerations for Western NGOs

The international donor community continues to emphasise country-led development strategies designed to equitably engage public and civil society agents in managing development assistance. Similarly donors who fund Western NGOs to implement development programmes on their behalf in recipient countries are increasingly pushing for cost-effective programme implementation that actively engages local actors. This article proposes an alternative theoretically grounded model for individual capacity strengthening to responsive and mission-driven Western NGOs that claim to be committed to ideals of capacity strengthening and indigenisation of programme leadership.     

Empowering families as an alternative to foster care for street children in Brazil

Although the emphasis in current thinking about work with street children has changed from aid-dependency towards youth protagonism, many organisations ignore the role of the children's families in their interventions. In so doing, they reproduce obsolete welfare traditions and also violate rights guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and national legislation. This article illustrates the importance of child–family ties for both children and families, and argues that interventions that lack the involvement of parents and families serve to reproduce images of failed families and inadequate mothers. The author presents an alternative approach from Brazil which respects the rights and needs of children and families through family empowerment.     

Self-settled Refugees in Uganda: An Alternative Approach to Displacement?

This paper investigates the complex security and economic dynamicsthat influence the lives and opportunities of self-settled refugeesliving in Uganda. It focuses on the opportunities and problemsfaced by self-settled refugees, and questions the assumptionthat Uganda's current local settlement policy is best suitedto the country's social, economic and political realities. Itsuggests that far from being passive victims, self-settled refugeesare taking control of their lives without any additional externalassistance and are planning for the day they can return to theirhomeland. Consequently, the paper argues that there is reasonto believe that local integration is likely to succeed whereother models have failed.