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.     

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.     

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.     

Agricultural innovation and political change in north India: The Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh

This article examines the basis of the success of the Lok Dal in electoral politics in Uttar Pradesh in relation to a wide range of indicators of agricultural innovation and change. It argues that the Lok Dal, through its political practice and electoral strategy, was able to create and sustain an electoral following across the state which subsumed many potentially divisive identities and interests and that the party is better understood as one which created and articulated new aspirations and interests rather than one simply mobilising traditional identities. It goes on to examine how events after the mid‐1980s produced circumstances which inhibited the further consolidation of the Lok Dal and led to major changes in the party political system in Uttar Pradesh.     

Road User Fees Instead of Fuel Taxes: The Quest for Political Acceptability

In light of recent regulatory changes in federal fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, the consensus forecast is that motor fuel taxes will not be an adequate source of dedicated funding for roadway maintenance and construction. This article accepts the notion that mileage fees are a promising replacement for the fuel tax and considers steps that might be taken to enhance the political acceptability of such a reform. The authors argue that simple, low‐tech ways of implementing mileage fees are possible in the near term and should be complemented by a well‐developed audit mechanism. Current trends in the automotive and auto insurance industries as well as social media are likely to reduce opposition to more technologically advanced mileage taxes in the long run.