From extractivism towards buen vivir: mining policy as an indicator of a new development paradigm prioritising the environment

This article analyses mining policy as an indicator of a larger question: are some Third World governments starting to steer away from plunder ‘extractivism’ towards a paradigm that prioritises the environment? We begin with the cases of El Salvador and Costa Rica, which have major mining bans in place. We then present the results of our research in which we find five other countries with noteworthy mining-policy shifts: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. A sixth country, Honduras under President Zelaya, stands as a recent historical case of how sensitive such a policy change can be. A key take-away from our article is that critical development scholars and practitioners need to look more closely at the mining sector – not simply to analyse case studies of specific mining protests and resistances to extractivism, although these are of course important. Rather, there is a need to investigate policy changes that just might be indications that the era of unquestioning extractivism has ended and that at least some governments are initiating policies to incorporate environmental externalities, policies that suggest a changing development paradigm in the direction of environmental – and concomitant social and economic – ‘well-being’ as envisioned in buen vivir.     

Challenge,Conformity and Casework in Interwar England: the first women councillors in Devon

Edith Splatt and Juanita Phillips, both former suffragettes, were the first women councillors on, respectively, Exeter City Council and Devon County Council. This article explores how these two very different women approached their task, the issues they tackled, both on welfare generally and specifically on some topics high on women's post-suffrage agendas. It considers the local support on which they drew and contrasts the different reception they were accorded, their representation of their constituents' interests, and their progress on committees and in the full council. The article contributes to an understanding of the diversity of women's contributions to public service after the achievement of women's suffrage.     

Gendered experiences of dispossession: oil palm expansion in a Dayak Hibun community in West Kalimantan

This article explores the gendered experience of monocrop oil-palm expansion in a Hibun Dayak community in Sanggau District, West Kalimantan (Indonesia). It shows how the expanding corporate plantation and contract farming system has undermined the position and livelihood of indigenous women in this already patriarchal community. The shifting of land tenure from the community to the state and the practice of the ‘family head’ system of smallholder plot registration has eroded women's rights to land, and women are becoming a class of plantation labour. At the same time, as in other cases of expansion of agrarian corporate commodity production, we can discern a familiar pattern of ambivalence between, on the one hand, the attractions of regular cash income and, on the other, the loss of resource tenure and autonomy, which helps to explain the community's gendered experience of coercion, exploitation, intimidation, consent and resistance.     

Agricultural land management and flood risks Interrelations

Recent extreme weather events have resulted in an ongoing discussion on the issues of land use and compensation payments within Austrian agriculture. Building on a functional evaluation system for agricultural lands, the national project ＂agriculture and flooding＂ has as its goal to classify the flood-protection contribution and flood sensitivity of agricultural lands. This, in turn, enables the recommendation of targeted measures for potentially improving flood situations, as well as an estimate of their implementation costs. In addition to the digital soil map, other fundamental sources used for the project are the digital flood risk map, IACS （integrated administration and control system of agricultural subsidies） land-use data and soil properties. The results will contribute to an understanding of the multifunctionality of agricultural lands and the setting of priorities on a regional scale regarding packaged flood-prevention and damage-minimization.     

A Dyadic Analysis of Partner Violence and Adult Attachment

Studies of individual attachment features have linked insecure attachment to intimate partner violence (IPV), but these studies have neither taken into account couple-level factors nor evidence of high rates of dual-partner perpetration. The current study examined three forms of IPV as a function of both partners’ adult attachment characteristics in order to better understand the maintenance of relationship violence by using a dyadic statistical design. Heterosexual couples (n = 163) were recruited from the community. Results suggest that one’s own attachment avoidance and a partner’s attachment avoidance and anxiety was associated with perpetration of physical assault. Similarly, one’s own attachment avoidance and a partner’s attachment avoidance and anxiety was associated with perpetration of psychological aggression. Attachment anxiety influenced one’s own perpetration of sexual coercion and their partner’s perpetration. Thus, functional analysis of violence in terms of attachment and risk regulation may afford targeted interventions to certain types of couples.     

The Gendered and Racialised Division in the Korean Labour Market: The Case of Migrant Workers in the Catering Sector

Based on the empirical analysis of migrant women employed in the catering sector, this paper examines the gendered and racialised division in the Korean labour market. Given limited labour protection and the flexibilisation of the migrant workforce in the labour market, South Korea has been able to reduce possible economic and social costs and, at the same time, enjoy the benefits of the significant economic contribution of migrant workers. By looking at gender relations and racial discrimination in the catering sector, and inconsistent government policies, this paper underlines that migrant women are marginalised in the labour market owing to their ‘multiple vulnerability’ as women, migrants and undocumented workers.

The Impact of Online versus Offline Campaign Information on Citizens’ Knowledge,Attitudes and Political Behaviour: Comparing the German Federal Elections of 2005 and 2009

Against the background of the debate about how the internet changes democratic processes, this article assesses the impact of online versus offline campaign information on citizens’ knowledge, attitudes and political behaviour using data from two pre-/post-election surveys conducted at the German federal elections in 2005 and 2009. Our results show that sophisticated and less sophisticated citizens alike gain knowledge when using online information. Moreover, we find that people exposed to online information develop less ambivalent attitudes towards candidates and parties but do not take on more extreme issue positions. Online information is ineffective in stimulating turnout but compared to traditional news media, the internet gives smaller parties the chance to gain votes. We conclude that overall online information can enhance election campaigns. However, the amount of change should not be overstated as the effects are similar to those of offline political information and depend on the campaign context.     

Parent Perceptions of Participating in a Program for Adolescents Who Are Violent at Home

Child-to-parent abuse (CPA) is an under-addressed form of family violence and relatively few resources are available for families experiencing CPA. The Step-Up program is a CPA-specific, family-level, group format intervention program in King County, Washington. Qualitative and long-term research on CPA intervention programs is lacking, and it is unknown how parents perceive the effects of participating in Step-Up after program completion. Fifteen parents who completed Step-Up with their adolescent child participated in individual semi-structured telephone or in-person interviews. Participants were asked about their perceptions of the effects of Step-Up participation, how they and their child have used skills taught in the program, and which program features were most and least effective. Participants expressed largely positive effects of participating in Step-Up, including decreased violent behavior by their adolescents and improved parent-child relationships. Recommendations for improving Step-Up included the inclusion of follow-up sessions to further reinforce behavior change and increased program accessibility.     

关于蒙牛酸酸乳案的几点思考

2006年蒙牛乳业公司与河南安阳白公主乳业公司(以下简称"白乳业")的商标纠纷是中国知识产权界关注的一个焦点案件.随着内蒙古高级法院维持一审判决的判决公布,在中国诞生了首例法院认定的未注册驰名商标.这一判决虽然在相关产业界却引起了轩然大波,但在中国知识产权界却赢得一片叫好之声1.笔者从事商标代理多年,对本案的两审法院在认定事实和适用法律中有一些思考,愿与大家分享.