Community filmmaking as research: (re)considering knowledge production through the camera's lens

In southern Chile, Mapuche Indigenous communities are using video and digital filmmaking to collectively reflect on and communicate knowledge. This article shares their experience, arguing that with the increasing accessibility of information and communication technologies, we should be rethinking and broadening the acceptable ways to generate and convey knowledge about development. Acknowledging the diverse ways of knowing and communicating knowledge, this article suggests that video can be a powerful tool for self-representative knowledge-sharing by Indigenous communities. Only by expanding our debates beyond written media can we engage equitably with a plurality of knowledge-holders to resolve development challenges.     

从民事诉讼法修改谈电子书证识别与保全

电子书证是指以电子技术形成的,以其记载或表达的思想内容对案件事实起证明作用的证据形式.它与电子证据、传统书证既有区别,又有联系.电子书证存在原件和复制件之分,为确保其原始性,实现电子书证的完整、安全和可读,必须在保存和管理电子书证时采取相应的技术性措施.对电子书证原始性的证明不应仅限于技术性手段,也应包括行政性和私人性的手段.     

Employment Effects of FDI in Mexico's Non-Maquiladora Manufacturing

This paper analyses whether foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed to employment generation in Mexico's non-maquiladora manufacturing sector. Drawing on highly disaggregated FDI and employment data, we estimate dynamic labour demand functions for blue and white collar workers, including FDI as well as its interaction with major industry characteristics. FDI has a significantly positive, though quantitatively modest impact on manufacturing employment in Mexico. This applies to both white collar and blue collar employment. The employment enhancing effects of FDI are larger in export oriented industries. In more capital-intensive industries, the employment effect of FDI remains positive for blue collar workers but not white collar ones.     

People,personal projects and the challenging of social structures: a contribution to the reflection on the challenges of teaching development studies

Abstract

This article makes a critique of using Post-Development as a tool in teaching an introductory course in development studies. Such a debate was initiated by Harcourt in a previous issue of Third World Quarterly as she reflected on her teaching experience in a European Institution. Harcourt concludes that the lack of engagement of some of the students in the course reflects the unwillingness of privileged middle-class pupils to challenge western lifestyles. I draw on a critical realist meta-theory about the process of learning in higher education to challenge the ontological support of that conclusion and invite her to reconsider her teaching strategy.     

Overlapping games and cross‐cutting coalitions in the European Union

Despite hopes of theoretical convergence between the disciplines of comparative politics and international relations, the integration of explanations of the European policy‐making process and of the process of European integration is yet to be accomplished. This article looks at how decision‐making crises could be the focal points with which to explore the no‐man's land where comparative politics and international relations could meet each other. The article will highlight the structural ambivalence of the EU policy process and the collision of functional areas and territorial politics over multidimensional decisions. It will also show that the interplay of overlapping policy games, cross‐cutting coalitions and poor coordination mechanisms at all levels can go a long way to explaining the oscillations between path‐dependency and policy instability.     

Measuring Quality of Life in Spanish Municipalities

Abstract

Measuring quality of life in municipalities entails two empirical challenges. First, collecting a set of relevant indicators that can be compared across the municipalities in the sample. Secondly, using an appropriate aggregating tool in order to construct a synthetic index. This paper measures quality of life for the largest 237 Spanish municipalities using Value Efficiency Analysis (VEA) to derive comparative scores by combining the information contained in 19 partial indicators. VEA is a refinement of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) that imposes some consistency in the weights of the indicators used to construct the aggregate index. The indicators cover aspects related to consumption, social services, housing, transport, environment, labour market, health, culture and leisure, education and security. The results show that the Northern and Central regions in Spain attain the highest levels of quality of life, while the Southern regions report low living conditions. Education is the variable that requires the largest improvement in low performing municipalities, followed by health and culture facilities, pollution and crime. Population density, growth and ageing seem to relate positively to quality of life.     

Temporary Restraining Orders in the Netherlands: A Qualitative Examination of Perpetrator and Victim Views

In 2009, the Netherlands introduced a 10-day temporary restraining order (TRO) intended for adult perpetrators of domestic violence to defuse dangerous situations and to reduce recidivism by combining a legal action with social services. For this study, 18 victims and 10 perpetrators were interviewed about their experiences with the TRO, related professional help, and the influence the TRO had had on their lives. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and subsequently qualitatively analyzed. Most of the victims were positive about the TRO period. Perpetrators were less positive. The vast majority of respondents accepted help during the TRO and were positive about the professionals’ attitudes, but not necessarily about the type of help. Most respondents reported an increase in their wellbeing, new insights, and no or less serious re-assaults by the perpetrator. The results suggest that, in the short term, TROs have a mainly positive effect on both victims and perpetrators.     

從《項目融資業務指引》框架內看項目融資及其風險防範

項目融資是第一次石油危機之後在國際金融市場大規模發展起來的一種新型借貸方式,80年代中期被引入中國。從國內外的實踐來看,該融資方式一般應用于現金流量穩定的發電、道路、鐵路、機場、橋梁等大型基建項目,目前應用領域仍呈擴大趨勢。項目融資在中國的發展歷史很短但發展很迅速,多以能源和交通等領域的項目為試點並獲得成功。項目融資為解決我國大型基礎設施項目資金問題做出了重要貢獻。但由於項目融資時間長、規模大、參與方多、結構複雜,導致風險極大。因此,如何識別風險,評估風險,進行風險管理,是影響項目融資成敗的重要因素。     

The enhancement effect of social and employment integration on the delay of recidivism of released offenders trained with the R & R programme

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the extent to which social and employment integration enhances the efficacy of social–cognitive training carried out in prison through a Spanish adaptation of the Reasoning & Rehabilitation (R & R) programme. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare a group of inmates who received only social–cognitive training with a group of inmates who also received social and employment integration and with a comparison group who received neither of these interventions. The total sample was composed of 117 repeat offenders, serving sentence for property offences, drug dealing and offences against the person. The results obtained through a Kaplan–Meier survival analysis after a 6-year follow-up indicate that both intervention groups are significantly different from the comparison group. The group that received social and employment integration had the highest level of delayed recidivism, but the difference with the group that only received social–cognitive training was not statistically significant. The results are discussed in relation to the Good Lives Model and to the Risk–Needs–Responsivity Model of offender rehabilitation.