Development jujitsu: Looking on the bright side

Whatever one concludes with respect to whether global standards of living are getting better or worse, it is undeniable that people everywhere are becoming more closely integrated into and dependent upon a global economic system over which they have no control. This is a consequence not of policy failures but of policy decisions. The richer, more powerful countries have always sought access to the poorer ones mainly in order to exploit them, and such exploitation has always been undertaken in the name of noble cause—in centuries past, most commonly saving souls, in the late twentieth century, development. That would not cease to be the case if people of selfless good will disassociated themselves from the official enterprise of development assistance. The challenge, then, for those who would turn the tables and promote the empowerment of poor communities is to take advantage of the cover story. If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, the tribute must at least be invested well. Jan Knippers Black is a professor of international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Previously she has been Research Professor of Public Administration at the University of New Mexico and Senior Research Scientist and Chairman of the Latin American Research Team in the Foreign Area Studies Division of American University. Her recent publications include:Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise, 2nd ed. rev. (1991);Development in Theory and Practice; Bridging the Gap (1991); andDevelopment on a Human Scale (forthcoming). She has also published more than 100 chapters and articles in reference books and anthologies, journals, magazines, and newspapers.     

The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.     

Law and order as a development issue: Land conflicts and the creation of social order in Southern Malawi

Registration of individual title to land in order to create legal security has been the central concern in the rich literature on land and law in Africa. The problem of legal insecurity is approached here from a different angle which has received relatively less attention: dispute settlement. The article results from the observation of land disputes in local political arenas. It portrays a local legal cultural universe in which legal insecurity arises especially from legal situations stressing group consensus. It appears that people who are accused of witchcraft and groups which are said not to belong are particularly vulnerable in such a legal culture. The conclusion argues that this case material reveals connections between law, land and the creation of social order which may throw light on many other situations. It pleads for more attention to be paid to the development of jurisprudence in attempts to create legal security.