Policy Spaces: Applying Lefebvrian Politics in Neo-institutional Spaces

The purpose of this paper is to explore the utility of conceptualising policy institutions as neo-institutional spaces. The goal of this paper is to promote a more collaborative policy-making process that recognises the importance of cultivating and articulating shared spatial interests between policy actors. To facilitate a more collaborative process, the paper applies the principles of Lefebvre's triad to understand the internal and external policy geographies that inform government decision-making and promote the stability or instability of policy sub-systems. The utility of the proposed approach is examined within the context of two proposed scenarios. The paper concludes that a new policy geography might be effectively used to promote the overall political viability of policy sub-systems.     

Transnational religious actors and international politics

This article generally examines the phenomenon of transnational religious actors and seeks to assess the claim that their activities can undermine state sovereignty. It starts from the premise that globalisation facilitates the growth of transnational networks of religious actors. Feeding off each other's ideas and perhaps aiding each other with funds, they are bodies whose main priority is the well-being and advance of their transnational religious community. The article focuses upon two specific transnational religious actors: the Roman Catholic Church and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It concludes by noting that, like Islamic radicals, the Catholic Church has been influential in some national contexts in helping undermine the hegemony of authoritarian governments, but that this should not be seen as a more general threat to state sovereignty.     

The hidden battle: HIV/AIDS in the household and community

The AIDS epidemic will cause significant increases in illness and death in prime‐age adults, which will manifest itself through negative social, economic and developmental impacts. The epidemics economic impacts at the household level are decreased income, increased health‐care costs, decreased productive capacity and changing expenditure patterns. Three coping strategies are observed: altering household composition; withdrawing savings or selling assets; and receiving assistance from other households. Following death, the impacts break out of the family into the community, primarily through orphaning. In the near future, the sheer number of orphans may overwhelm the capacity of existing community resources to cope. The distribution of the impacts of the AIDS epidemic falls unevenly among the genders. In Africa, women have higher infection rates and bear a disproportionate burden of the care of HIV‐positive people. Orphaned girls are more vulnerable to exploitation.     

Late Colonial Development in British West Africa: The Gonja Development Project in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1948–57

La publication de récits de vie de marginaux par des chercheurs occidentaux offre un point d'entrée intéressant dans le discours sur l'Afrique. Cet article démontre que les deux récits de vie publiés par John Chernoff, Hustling is not Stealing et Exchange is not Robbery,mettant en scène une jeune prostituée du Burkina Faso et l'ouvrage d'Adama Dramé et Arlette Senn-Borloz, Jéliya: être griot et musicien aujourd'hui, autour de la vie marginale d'un griot, tout en ravivant la soif de connaissance occidentale sur l'Afrique, offrent un contraste frappant dans la présentation de leur projet d'écriture et dans la question du pacte auctorial. Je montre que la démarche de Dramé et Senn-Borloz présente en définitive un modèle réussi de ce que l'on a appelé "l'autobiographie en collaboration," à la suite de Philippe Lejeune.     

Testing Times Ahead: Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing and the Kind of Community We Want to Be

This article reviews the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ report on Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT); and introduces two general questions provoked by the report – concerning, respectively, the nature and extent of the informational interests that are to be recognised in today's ‘information societies’ and the membership of today's ‘genetic societies’. The article also considers the role and nature of the Nuffield Council. While the Council's report identifies a range of individual and collective interests that are relevant to determining the legitimate uses of NIPT, we argue that it should put these interests into an order of importance; we sketch how this might be done; and we suggest that, failing such a prioritisation of interests, the Council should present its reflections in a way that engages public debate around a number of options rather than making firm recommendations.     

Crisis (hostage) negotiators weigh in: the skills,behaviors, and qualities that characterize an expert crisis negotiator

This research identified what skills, behaviors, and qualities experienced crisis (hostage) negotiators believe enhance or harm their success during negotiation. 188 negotiators from various countries (primarily United States) voluntarily completed an online survey in which they listed the aforementioned characteristics and reported on various aspects of their own background and behaviors. Open-response questions were coded and quantitative methods revealed what qualities were listed most frequently by negotiators. Active listening, displays of empathy, effective communication, and remaining calm and collected appear at the top of their to-do lists. Conversely, being confrontational, arguing, yelling, and interrupting were reported as behaviors to be avoided. Most negotiators attend trainings multiple times a year and read on the topic of crisis negotiation. About half follow a model during negotiations, typically the FBI’s Behavioral Change Stairway Model. Findings are discussed with relevance to future research directions and improvement of negotiator trainings.