The Secret of West Indian Success

For nearly a century, black immigrants from the West Indies have enjoyed greater economic success than African Americans. Several explanations have been proposed for this trend, but until now, none of these explanations have been subjected to systematic scrutiny. Recent efforts to adjudicate among them indicate that West Indian success can be attributed entirely to the “selectivity of migration”. This phrase refers to the tendency of people who migrate to be more talented and determined than the compatriots they leave behind. One implication of this discovery is that sympathetic observers should stop exhorting African Americans to behave more like West Indians. Such pleas are inappropriate because West Indian success is a consequence of choosing to move, not a consequence of Caribbean birth. A second implication is that persons of West Indian background remain vulnerable to racism. The new findings provide no evidence that positive selection protects West Indians from the negative stereotypes that Americans associate with black skin.

“一带一路”倡议下中国与大加勒比地区的合作

中国与拉丁美洲关系源远流长,尤其是与加勒比国家。自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来,与大加勒比地区的政治、经济、文化关系日益密切。第一个与新中国建立外交关系的拉美国家是古巴,而巴拿马、萨尔瓦多与多米尼加则成为中国最新建交国成员。经过了70年发展历程,双边关系新纪元正在开启,特别是在“一带一路”倡议下。基于正在逐步兴起的“优势共享”理念,这个新时代亦开创了一个前所未有的新合作模式。中国与大加勒比地区关系发展所取得的经验能够展现一个新的协同合作方式。本文立足于大加勒比各经济体在同中国构建相互融合模式中发掘的机遇,并着眼于两个具体案例:“一带一路”倡议下的古巴和多米尼加,并以“双赢”原则为基础,对在特定领域深化同中国的关系提出建议,主要包括交通、电信、工业、贸易、能源、旅游、建筑业、金融、卫生和教育等领域。     

Hegel,Haiti and revolution: the post-colonial moment

Abstract

Susan Buck-Morss’s argument that the Haitian Revolution embodied the most universal aspect of the French Revolution, namely the quest for universal freedom, relies on the supposed references to Haiti in the master–slave dialogue in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. The revolution’s lodgement at the core of this foundational text of Enlightenment universalism is, for her, about as convincing a demonstration as one can have of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution. Marxists have opposed her venture, and demonstrated their hostility to post-colonial thinking, principally by claiming that the master–slave is an expression of European class conflict. This paper agrees with Buck-Morss that the Haitian Revolution critically affirmed the principle of universal freedom and, indeed, pushed the revolution in France and Europe in a radical direction. A better affirmation of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution than the thoughts of Hegel is possible. The latter do not actually provide such affirmation, because racism, Eurocentrism and a hostility to political radicalism are fundamental aspects of Hegel’s thought. The alternative affirmation can be found in Marxist analysis. This paper outlines such an analysis, and concludes that post-colonialism of Buck-Morss’s sort is no substitute for the perspective provided by historical materialism.     

Beliefs,values, and traditions: re-thinking sustainable development using the Hñähñu example

Historically humans have used their territorial resources to meet their reproductive needs. In doing so, they have developed informal institutions through their systems of beliefs and values that have determined the sustainability of the resources they use from their environment. In this sense, this article evaluates the artisanship of the Hñähñu indigenous group as a case study that potentially help us to re-conceptualise sustainable development.     

Agricultural research organisations’ role in the emergence of agricultural innovation systems

Poor farmers seldom benefit from new agricultural technologies. In response, research and extension approaches based on agricultural innovation systems are popular. Often agricultural research organisations are the network brokers, facilitating the emergence of the innovation system. Based on an analysis of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative in Mexico, this viewpoint suggests that such organisations are more often suitable network brokers when the objective is the development and scaling out of a technology by itself. When the objectives are multi-faceted and include extension and education, other actors are better placed to be the network broker.     

A cooperative Peru: Is centralisation of cooperatives better for local development?

Research shows that some agricultural cooperatives implement development projects in their local communities. What remains to be explained is why certain cooperatives pursue local development while others do not. Through a comparison of coffee cooperatives in two regions of Peru, this study examines the implications of a regional cooperative for local development. The creation of a regional cooperative leads to a concentration of resources and a decrease in the need and ability of local cooperatives to pursue independent development projects. At the same time, it allows for more equal access to those resources and to the benefits of cooperative-led development projects.     

The marginalisation of participation “as an end” development: an Ecuadorean case study

The evolution of participatory practices clearly evidences movement away from local participatory projects implemented with the use of participatory methodologies such as participatory rural appraisal, and towards citizen participation in government activities. This trend reflects development discourse concerning participation, and in particular responds to the critique aimed at local participatory development. Using case study data from Ecuador, the article discusses the previously overlooked effects of this phenomenon, namely a uniformity of participatory development practice and a lack of opportunities for people to engage in development activities that provide participation “as an end” benefits such as empowerment and confidence-building.     

Globalisation and Latin American and Caribbean Organised Crime

The longstanding institutional weaknesses of most states in Latin America and the Caribbean, in combination with the existence of a highly lucrative underground drug trade in the Western hemisphere, make the countries in that corner of the world system not only especially prone to indigenous organised crime, but also attractive targets for transnational criminal enterprises. In most of the region, the dynamics of globalisation over the last two decades have resulted in almost ideal conditions for the rapid penetration and spread of transnational organised crime. Thus, as well as considering the overall situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, this article will particularly consider the scope and impact of the post-Cold War wave of Russian transnational organised crime to illustrate this phenomenon.     

‘Resistance as creation’: a new sociability in Argentina

While everyday forms of resistance are not new in Argentina, the spontaneity that characterised the insurrection on 19 and 20 December 2001 was unprecedented. It showed how the absence of leadership, co-ordination, and promise might open the doors to powerful forms of mobilisation and radical practices in direct democracy. The author suggests that in challenging capitalism and the social paradigms that it generates, the values and practices of counter-power, self-affirmation, collectivity, and multiplicity can all play a vital role in the success and survival of radical democracy. The article is largely inspired by the works of Colectivo Situaciones, an autonomous research collective in Buenos Aires, and draws on the example of the Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados (MTD) Solano. This movement of unemployed workers struggles against capitalist and state violence by practising a constantly renewed spiral of rebellion and creativity. From the perspective of a participant observer the article considers their successes, challenges, and limitations in developing radical democratic thought and practice.     

Participatory action research into donor–recipient relations: a case study

This article describes the exploratory and preparatory phase of a research project designed to use co-operative enquiry as a method for transformative and participatory action research into relations between donors and recipients in two developing countries, Bolivia and Bangladesh. It describes the origins of the idea, the conceptual challenges that the authors faced in seeking funding, and what they learned from this first phase. The authors analyse why the researchers, as well as the potential subjects of the research, were uncomfortable with the proposed methodology, including the challenges arising from their own positions and the highly sensitive nature of the topic. They explain why they decided to abandon the project, and they reach some tentative conclusions concerning the options for participatory action learning and research in development practice.