Small-scale social-environmental enterprises in the green economy: supporting grassroots innovation

To achieve a top-to-bottom growth of the “green economy”, incentives and enablers need to be identified for those micro enterprises working at the grassroots level. A three-year study of 1,300 social and environmental enterprises in developing countries reveals how they are developing new products and services for their communities, using new business models. But their scale-up is hampered by lack of access to research and technology support and gender barriers, as well as challenges with complex partnerships, progress monitoring, and financial viability. A large pool of innovative ideas remains untapped and an opportunity to build a sustainable economy is being missed.     

Interest groups in Venezuela: lessons from the failure of a ‘Model Democracy’ and the rise of a Bolivarian democracy

This article uses the Venezuelan case to shed light on the potential role of interest-group systems in discrediting liberal democracies and to identify challenges that the region's democracies are likely to confront in constructing effective and fair interest-group systems. It first analyzes the role Venezuela's interest groups played in discrediting its 40-year two-party democracy. It argues that the discrediting of a system heralded by many as the region's ‘model democracy’ cannot be understood by merely assessing how the structure of the group system excluded certain groups. The study shows that the inclusion of certain business interests in visible positions of power also helped discredit the two-party democracy. The article then compares the above system with the new group system which has emerged since 1998 as part of a new democratic system inspired by Latin America's 19th century Liberator, Simón Bolívar. This comparison reveals that the current system inverts the former system of inclusion and exclusion, even as it has retained a number of the old system's less virtuous features. The implications of the Venezuelan case for the region's democracies are elaborated in the conclusion. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human rights and the fight against terrorism in Northern Ireland

After a discussion of the United Kingdom's responsibilities under the European Convention of Human Rights and the political background to the re‐emergence in 1968–69 of terrorism and the stationing of British troops in the Province, the article analyses those human rights issues which derive from the way the fight against terrorism has been conducted over the past 20 years. The issues discussed are, deaths resulting from the actions of the security forces, complaints of ill‐treatment by the police during interrogation, the detentioning of terrorist suspects, the use of exclusion orders to deport from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland persons formerly resident in that Province, the use of juryless courts (Diplock Courts) for terrorist and other offences, and the banning of political organizations.     

Homeownership and neighborhood stability

Abstract

A major objective of many neighborhood revitalization programs is to increase homeownership. Conventional wisdom holds that this is one of the best ways to stabilize areas in decline. This article questions convention by presenting a conceptual model of how homeownership rates might affect various indicators of neighborhood stability and by determining whether there is support for this model in the literature. The article also presents an original analysis of the relationship between homeownership rates and two measures of neighborhood stability.

The literature review finds considerable support for an association between homeownership and both improved property maintenance and longer lengths of tenure. The analysis of census data similarly indicates less residential mobility and greater property value appreciation in areas with greater home‐ownership. Although initial values and citywide value changes appear to have much stronger effects on changes in property values than the tract home‐ownership rate, modest changes in homeownership rates are clearly associated with increased property values.     

Group Treatment for Aggressive Women: An Initial Evaluation

There is virtually no information or research on group treatment for women who may behave abusively to intimate partners. The Calgary Counseling Centre has offered a group treatment program for such clients, Responsible Choices for Women, over the past several years. This paper describes the group format, the demographic characteristics of the 64 women who began the group, and a comparison of those who completed treatment versus those who dropped out. The pre/mid/post-test group evaluation utilized measures of physical and non-physical partner abuse, self-esteem, depression, clinical stress, marital satisfaction, family relations, locus of control, sex roles, and assertiveness. The repeated measures analysis on data from 33 women found statistically significant improvements on non-physical abuse of partner, clinical stress, generalized contentment, self-esteem and assertiveness, using a conservative p-value of .009, given the use of multiple tests. Clinical implications of these results are described.

Competing Knowledge Systems in the Management of Fish and Forests in the Pacific Northwest

In this paper I investigate the interaction of knowledge and institutions in the context of First Nations in the Pacific Northwest of Canada who have evolved management systems for fish and forest resources over hundreds of years. These management systems are viewed as institutions that are based on and apply knowledge systems over time. In the Nisga'a and Haida nations, knowledge systems guide management regimes that govern access, rights and responsibilities, harvesting, allocation of benefits and costs, technology, education and training. For the past hundred years these institutions and knowledge systems have come into conflict with knowledge and management systems imposed first by missionaries, settlers and colonizers and later from Provincial and National governments and corporations holding tenure rights assigned by those governments. National and international regimes such as the Law of the Seas and the Exclusive Economic Zones conflict with traditional institutions and knowledge systems by privileging one level of governance and consequently one form of knowledge and devaluing others. The paper is based on research conducted in the Pacific Northwest over the past eight years, primarily through interviews with elders, decision-makers, and resource users, as well as observation of cultural and resource practices. The research investigated the impacts of conflicting knowledge systems and the attempts to resolve those conflicts. The paper raises questions about knowledge systems and institutions, about institutional interplay, and the impact of international institutions on local institutions as they come into contact and conflict.