Contesting Women's Rights: Charting the Emergence of a Transnational Conservative Counter-network

In recent years it has been claimed by human rights advocates that an “unholy alliance” has emerged internationally to counter the equality claims of the transnational women's rights movement. Using the literature on transnational social movements and counter-movements, this article assesses the interaction between what are conceived of as state and non-state-based conservative patriarchal actors with the transnational women's movement at a series of UN conferences throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. It suggests that a transnational counter-network has indeed emerged and outlines the prevailing political opportunity structures that have made its mobilisation possible. It also outlines the alternative frames which the counter-network has used in presenting its arguments. The paper indicates that accounts of domestic-level counter-movements hold some explanatory power for studying the emergence of such a movement at the transnational level, but it also suggests that the literature needs to be supplemented with an analysis of the crucial role played by governments as allies or even as network members in influencing this process.     

Direct PCR Improves the Recovery of DNA from Various Substrates

This study reports on the comparison of a standard extraction process with the direct PCR approach of processing low-level DNA swabs typical in forensic investigations. Varying concentrations of control DNA were deposited onto three commonly encountered substrates, brass, plastic, and glass, left to dry, and swabbed using premoistened DNA-free nylon FLOQswabs^™. Swabs (n = 90) were either processed using the DNA IQ^™ kit or, for direct PCR, swab fibers (~2 mm²) were added directly to the PCR with no prior extraction. A significant increase in the height of the alleles (p < 0.005) was observed when using the direct PCR approach over the extraction methodology when controlling for surface type and mass of DNA deposited. The findings indicate the potential use of direct PCR for increasing the PCR product obtained from low-template DNA samples in addition to minimizing contamination and saving resources.     

The Use of Predictive Modelling in Impact Assessment: Implications for Environmental Legislation and Regulation

Predictive modelling is now an indispensable tool in the identification of social, economic and environmental impacts and risks. This article appraises its use in the assessment of environmental impacts on the Gordon River of Basslink, the Bass Strait power cable that will plug Tasmania into the National Electricity Market. This study follows a proponent's knowledge claims derived from predictive modelling from their origin in researchers' reports to their legitimation as regulatory outcomes. By tracing two modelling comparisons, it will be shown that conclusions on the extent of environmental impacts on the Gordon River changed during the impact assessment process from being considered significant to insignificant and, consequently, how an invocation of environmental regulatory legislation was avoided.     

Myth and reality: The causes and persistence of poverty

Policies directed at alleviating poverty rest on a set of assumptions regarding the demographic composition of the poor and the psychological dispositions of poor individuals. Evidence from a long-term study of a representative sample of low-income individuals shows that poverty is very widespread but not usually very persistent, and that the characteristics of the persistently poor do not conform to the conventional wisdom. Furthermore, the economic status of the poor does not appear to have been caused by psychological dispositions. Intergenerational data from the same study show generally weak links between the poverty or welfare status of parents and that of their children. Public policies for dealing with poverty can be properly devised without attempting to resocialize poor people and without undue concern that poverty programs will generate dependency among the majority of those they help.     

Communicating on the edge of chaos: a transformation and change management perspective

SUMMARY

‘What is chaos, that we should be mindful of it?’ (Josepth Ford).

Chaos will always be a mystery. Perhaps the ultimate, allencompassing mystery. To paraphrase Churchill's famous remark, it is a paradox hidden inside a puzzle shrouded by an enigma. It is visible proof of existence and uniqueness without predictability.

In the Greco-Roman tradition philosophers used logic and introspection to impose mental order on the universe. Newton, Francis Bacon and the scientists of the Renaissance chose a different path when attempting to find truth and understanding nature. In the twentieth century Einstein, Bohr and others (with quantum physics and mechanics) changed the path again, making reality even more subtle and complicated. Then, in the past twenty years, along came chaos theory. This theory, and the ways that natural processes move between order and disorder, brings us closer to understanding the planetary orbits, the shape of clouds, that phenomena never repeat themselves exactly, and even the complexity of changing and learning organisations. It is the insights and extensions of chaos theory that could carry us technologically, philosophically, socially and individually into the Age of Aquarius and possibly through our own African Renaissance.

Most managers are naturally susceptible to wishful thinking. They believe what they want to believe in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary. They try to forcefully manage and control to create balance and order in the workplace. The time has arrived for South African business leaders, managers and corporate communicators to buy into the notion that a butterfly stirring the air in Johannesburg can create a twister in New York!

This article describes chaos theory and examines how it can be utilised to provide insights into managing and communicating during times of change in chaotic organisations.