Inverting the impacts: Mining,conservation and sustainability claims near the Rio Tinto/QMM ilmenite mine in Southeast Madagascar

This paper traces a genealogy of land access and legitimization strategies culminating in the current convergence of mining and conservation in Southeast Madagascar, contributing to recent debates analyzing the commonalities and interdependencies between seemingly discrete types of land acquisitions. Drawing upon research carried out near the Rio Tinto/QMM ilmenite mine in 2009 (January–March), it focuses on how local Malagasy land users are incorporated into new forms of inclusion (into the neoliberal capitalist economy) and exclusion (from land-based, subsistence activities) resulting from private sector engagements in conservation and sustainability. Sustainability tropes and corporate partnerships with international conservation NGOs were found to play a part in land access, in part through the neoliberal project of commodifying, economically valuing and objectifying nature. Through a process of mimesis (of conservation NGOs) and alterity (‘othering’ land users), Rio Tinto's process of creating scarcity of biodiversity paradoxically lends support to the company's claim to be ‘saving’ biodiversity from local Malagasy people; this is described as a process of inversion, wherein actual mining impacts are abstracted and remediated as part of a broader sustainable development strategy.     

Central and East European Bank Responses to the Financial ‘Crisis’: Do Domestic Banks Perform Better in a Crisis than their Foreign-Owned Counterparts?

In the context of transition, nine out of the 10 post-communist countries that ultimately joined the European Union reluctantly privatised the bulk of their banking sectors with foreign capital. The financial crisis of 2008–2009 therefore sparked fears that foreign banks would remove their operations from their Central and East European markets because of a ‘home bias’ in lending. Such fears were predicated on the widely held beliefs that banks' loyalties lie with their home markets and that it is therefore desirable to protect domestic bank ownership to help combat an economic downturn. This essay casts doubt on the value of banking sector protectionism by comparing foreign and domestic bank behaviour in Central and Eastern Europe during the crisis. The essay finds no consistent relationship between domestic control and either limited economic vulnerability or countercyclical lending.     

Les échevins et la formulation des politiques: Note méthodologique

Sommaire. Cet article examine la question du rǒle des échevins dans la formulation des politiques municipales, tout particulièrement les aspects méthodolo-giques de la question. Dans une première section, nous démontrons que la plupart des études qui ont analysé le rǒle des échevins n'ont pas réussi à ex-pliquer l'output municipal. L'échec s'explique par le fait que ces études privi-légient à peu près exclusivement les attitudes des échevins et n'accordent que peu de place aux comportements et au contexte objectif et concret dans lequel les échevins travaillent. Dans une deuxième section nous démontrons, à partir du cas de Hull, comment une étude des conditions concrètes de travail des échevins peut nous éclairer sur la formation des politiques municipales. Cette etude des ‘ faits matériels » du monde des échevins souligne l'importance des administrateurs municipaux. Les décisions du Conseil municipal ne relevent que très peu de considérations abstraites et ces décisions sont prises dans un cadre donné, un cadre en bonne partie façonné par les administrateurs municipaux. En somme, la principale conclusion qui nous semble émerger de l'étude, c'est l'importance, pour bien saisir le rǒle de l'échevin dans la formulation des politiques, de situer ce rǒle dans sa pratique quotidienne. Abstract. This article examines the question of the role of municipal councillors in the formulation of public policy, with particular emphasis on the methodological dimension of this question. In a first section the authors show that most of the studies that have examined the role of municipal councillors have not succeeded in explaining the municipality's policy output. This failure can be explained by the fact that these studies look principally at the attitudes of the councillors and give very little attention to behaviour or to the real environment in which the councillors work. In a second section we attempt to show, based on the example of Hull, how a study of the concrete working conditions of municipal councillors can illuminate the process of policy formulation. This study of the councillors' ‘real world’ illustrates the importance of the municipal administrators. Council decisions are not taken in the abstract, they emerge from a specific context or framework and this framework is largely structured by the municipal administrators. The major conclusion that emerges from the study is the importance, in order to understand the role of municipal councillors in policy-making, of situating this role in the context of the day-to-day work of the councillors.     

Risk factors for stalking violence,persistence, and recurrence

This study used a retrospective design to investigate risk factors associated with violence during a stalking episode, persistence (increased duration of stalking) and recurrence (multiple subsequent separate stalking episodes) in 157 people (91% male, mean age 35 years) with an established history of stalking behaviour. Results showed that diverse risk factors are associated with different types of stalking outcomes. Consistent with previous research, stalking violence was more likely to occur when the victim was an ex-intimate, when explicit threats had been made and where there had been previous property damage (AUC = .74). Personality disorder, older age, criminal versatility, a prior acquaintanceship and erotomanic delusions (AUC = .75) predicted stalking recurrence. Finally, previous acquaintanceship, the presence of delusional beliefs and the absence of a history of physical or sexual violence were associated with stalking persistence. These results clearly show that effective assessment and management of stalking requires consideration of different stalking outcomes and the diversity of associated risk factors.     

Freedom to think – the value of multiple clinical narratives in women’s prisons†

Abstract

The merits of being multi-lingual are widely recognised. This paper considers the application of this metaphor to the conceptualisation of clinical work in a women’s prison. We suggest that sharing ‘languages’ from different theoretical orientations in open fora enables teams to build deep and nuanced understandings of clinical and systemic complexity, of particular value in secure settings. This discussion reflects the service model developed and used within HMP/YOI Holloway, a large women’s prison in London, which has recently been closed. We utilise a case example, with formulations and recommendations from several perspectives, to illustrate the value of maintaining a rich, inclusive discourse. We describe the benefits of such an approach to staff teams, to institutions and to those we serve, and consider the implications for organisation of services to maximise potential for change and recovery.