Why can't development be managed more like a funeral? Challenging participatory practices

The adoption of techniques to elicit community participation in development practice is an important step forward. The question remains whether this is sufficient for development outcomes that accord with the aspirations of ‘participants’. Community perceptions are somewhat different, as our own conclusions demonstrate. We have developed a ‘methodology of inclusiveness’, based on community institutions which embed collective social action in everyday life. We use the analogy of funerals as collective action in which activities are planned, roles are demarcated, responsibilities are assigned, and desired outcomes are realised. We ask the question: why can't development be managed more like a funeral?     

The problem of gender quotas: women's representatives on Timor-Leste's suku councils

This article examines the experiences of women occupying reserved seats on the suku councils of Timor-Leste (each of which represents a number of small villages). The limited political participation of these women is often ascribed to patriarchal ideas within rural areas, and the need for capacity development. This article argues, however, that there are further structural issues at play, whereby the interaction between traditional and modern governance makes it difficult for women occupying reserved seats to make their mark. While gender quotas can be a useful tool to encourage women's political participation, these structural issues need to be recognised and addressed in order to truly empower women.     

Good intentions are not enough: French NGO efforts at democracy building in Cameroon

NGOs have traditionally had little scope to bring about political reform in developing countries. This was certainly true of French development NGOs (NGDOs) operating in Cameroon during the early post-colonial decades. This situation changed in 2002 when French NGDOs, with support from the French state and Cameroonian civil society, initiated a multi-actor consultative programme (the PCPA), aiming to build democracy in Cameroon. This article traces the origins of the PCPA, assesses its achievements, and explains why the programme failed. It then identifies key lessons and asks whether the PCPA represents a useful model for French NGOs and donor states.     

伪满洲国的中央银行制度

本文从伪满中央银行的产生、性质、职能角度研究伪满洲国的中央银行制度。伪满中央银行是在日本操纵下继承四行号业务基础上设立的,所谓"圆活金融、稳定币值、统治金融"不过是日本扩大对伪满洲国侵略与掠夺的手段与工具,其本质是实现日本的利益最大化。基于上述原因,伪满中央银行作为发币行和政府的银行之职能畸形膨胀,却无法承担集中存款准备、充当最后贷款人以及组织商业银行清算等"银行的银行"职能。     

Sex offender punishment and the persistence of penal harm in the U.S

The U.S. has dramatically revised its approach to punishment in the last several decades. In particular, people convicted of sex crimes have experienced a remarkable expansion in social control through a wide-range of post-conviction interventions. While this expansion may be largely explained by general punishment trends, there appear to be unique factors that have prevented other penal reforms from similarly modulating sex offender punishment. In part, this continuation of a “penal harm” approach to sex offenders relates to the past under-valuing of sexual victimization. In the “bad old days,” the law and its agents sent mixed messages about sexual violence and sexual offending. Some sexual offending was mere nuisance, some was treatable, and a fraction “deserved” punishment equivalent to other serious criminal offending. In contrast, today's sex offender punishment schemes rarely distinguish formally among gradations of harm or dangerousness. After examining incarceration trends, this article explores the historical context of the current broad brush approach and reviews the unintended consequences. Altogether, this article reinforces the need to return to differentiation among sex offenders, but differentiation based on science and on the experience-based, guided discretion of experts in law enforcement, corrections, and treatment.     

Bioinformatics and genetic privacy: The impact of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010

Bioinformatics refers to the practise of creation and management of genetic data using computational and statistical techniques. In Malaysia, data obtained from genomic studies, particularly for the purpose of disease identification produces a tremendous amount of information related to molecular biology. These data are created from DNA samples obtained from diagnostic and research purposes in genomic research institutes in Malaysia. As these data are processed, stored, managed and profiled using computer applications, an issue arises as to whether the principles of personal data privacy would be applicable to these activities. This paper commences with an illustration of the salient features of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010. The second part analyses the impact of the newly passed Personal Data Protection Act 2010 on the collection of DNA sample, the processing of data obtained from it and the profiling of such data. The third part of the paper considers whether the various personal data protection principles are applicable to the act of DNA profiling and the creation of bioinformatics.     

李阳家暴事件的法律思考

家庭暴力这一带有普遍性的丑恶现象,是一个全球性的社会问题。家庭暴力侵害着妇女的身心健康、破坏家庭和睦、危害社会稳定,为社会所不容。本文将从李阳家庭暴力事件入手,分析我国家暴立法和执法中的不足,简要分析我国与其他国家在处理家暴问题上存在的差距,就如何预防和制止家庭暴力作简单的探讨,呼吁全社会对家庭暴力问题的共同关注和协助,共同来预防和消除家庭暴力。     

网络社群的组织特征及其社会影响

网络社会群体具有互动过程的超时空性与开放性、行动空间再生产中的虚拟性、社会关系的平等性与自主性、秩序建构中的扁平化与多中心性、社群交往纽带的网缘化、群体成员的异质性较高和群体边界模糊等社会组织特征.其社会影响力主要表现为在互动基础上传播信息、提供工具性支持和情感性帮助、以弱关系为基础进行强社会动员、以舆论聚焦为基础开展...     

The Future of Consumer Web Data: A European/US Perspective

The article considers the subject of clickstream data from aEuropean/US perspective, taking into account the Data ProtectionFramework (Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC; Directive onPrivacy and Electronic Communications 2002/58/EC) and the USlegal framework and in particular, the Wiretap Act U.S.C. 2701(2004) and related statutes. It examines the extent to whichclickstream data is considered "personal data" within the DataProtection Directive and the implications to consumers and businesses.     

Reversing the ‘Tragedy’ of the Commons? Sustainable Management and the Commons Act 2006

The Commons Act 2006 is the first statute since the Commons Registration Act 1965 to address the problems associated with the management of common land in England and Wales. A key focus for the 2006 Act is the introduction of mechanisms for the sustainable management of common land, including self‐regulatory commons councils. This article examines the ‘sustainable’ management of common land in historical and contemporary perspective. It sets the 2006 Act, and the sustainable management of common land, in the wider context of the ongoing debate triggered by Hardin's ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ and subsequent institutional and post‐institutional scholarship on common pool resource management. It uses historical and qualitative research data drawn from three case studies to demonstrate the irrelevance of Hardin's thesis in an English context, and identifies the Commons Registration Act of 1965 as the true ‘tragedy’ of the English and Welsh commons. The case studies also illustrate the challenges posed by the introduction of legal mechanisms to promote the ecologically sustainable management of the modern commons, and inform the critique of the Commons Act 2006 developed in the article.