Women's Participation and Representation in Politics: Perspectives from Ghana

This article discusses empirical findings on issues affecting women's effective participation in politics and the public sector of Ghana. It argues that women's involvement in public life and politics has steadily declined contrary to hopeful reportage that global empowerment campaigns have increased women's political participation across Africa. The article suggests that given the deep-rooted socio-cultural hindrances women face, affirmative action policies need to be revisited to complement women's agency in contesting for, winning, and participating in politics and public service more effectively.     

A Post-development Hoax? (Re)-examining the Past,Present and Future of Development Studies

Because of the absence of evidence to show for its utility, the notion of ‘development’ has been fraught with many debates over the years. This paper is concerned with re-examining the future of development studies, based on its past and present trajectories. The argument here is that development may be useful if its norms and practices become context-specific and are made to benefit its purported beneficiaries. The chronology spans the period after World War II to the present day, and thus covers theories that envision alternatives. While this chronology is overlapping, we hope to show that development studies has been marked by both continuities and discontinuities.     

Analysis of the Optimum Currency Area for ASEAN and ASEAN＋3

This paper performs an analysis of the optimum currency area （OCA） for ASEAN （Association of Southeast Asian Nations） and ASEAN＋3 for the period of 2003-2012. The applied method is based on the model developed by Bayoumi and Eichengreen for the European countries. Regarding the two groups of study, the document contents the integration roots as well as some theories and empirical data about the currency areas. The obtained results based on the OCA indexes showed that nearly half of the country members have moved symmetrically, although the effect of the four independent variables was found different in each case. In conclusion, the monetary convergence is significantly influenced by the output disturbances and the trade linkages in both regions; while the size of the economy only becomes significant in ASEAN＋3 and the synchronic advantage is not contributing and even insignificant for ASEAN＋3.     

POSTAL 2 plays in US court - Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association

In an unprecedented legal development, the case of violence in video games has now reached the highest American court. The US Supreme Court is set to decide whether states can restrict minors from buying violent video games in the case of Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The decision could have serious implications on the future of First Amendment rights and children’s ’welfare. To resolve Schwarzenegger, the Justices will need to decide how much First Amendment protection should be extended to violent video games and whether minors have a greater constitutional right to violence than they do to obscenity.     

New challenges for copyright protection - Co-Reach in IPR in New Media Workshop II

The Co-Reach IPR in New Media organised a workshop on ISP Liability in London on December 7, 2010 and an EU-China Copyright Policy meeting in Vienna from December 9-12, 2010. The Workshops come at the crucial time when new regulations are being crafted to tighten copyright protection in cyberspace.