‘Sometimes fear gets in all your bones’: towards understanding the complexities of risk in development work

ABSTRACT

In the context of increasing risk for aid workers, a growing body of scholarship is focused on risk management in contexts of humanitarian assistance and development work. Much less attention, however, has been given to how staff and volunteers experience such risks. This paper adopts a feminist geographical approach to explore how development workers make meaning of risk in specific contexts. Adopting a qualitative approach, it draws upon 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with international (7) and local (7) staff of an international educational and sporting non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Afghanistan. After exploring differences between local and foreign staff perceptions of risk, it also offers a gendered analysis of risk for women development workers in Afghanistan. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature in ‘Aidland’ studies by revealing the complex understandings of risk and fear by both foreign and local staff in the same geographical and organisational context. For NGOs seeking to make life-saving decisions based on the calculation of risk, this paper evidences the need to also create space for the voices of local and foreign staff whose experiences of risk will be highly relational, embodied, gendered and context specific.     

Trapped between Promise and Reality in Colombia's Victims' Law: Reflections on Reparations,Development and Social Justice

Colombia's 2011 Victims' Law aims to return land to millions of internally displaced people and assist survivors in the difficult process of rebuilding their lives through individual and collective reparations. This article analyses the expectations, experiences and needs of two campesino communities involved in this process. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork using ethnographic and participatory visual methods, the article critically engages with transitional justice theory on transformative reparations, and identifies key lessons for the Colombian government to make the Victims' Law live up to its promise of transforming survivors' lives and restoring their trust in the state.     

Interlocal Agreements and Multilateral Institutions: Mitigating Coordination Problems of Self-Organized Collective Action

ABSTRACT

In the United States, competition among cities for economic development tends to be the norm. Cities are also collaborating more to improve their economic advantage. However, transaction costs inhibit various of interlocal agreements from being formed. This study examines the role of multilateral institutions in facilitating interlocal agreements for economic development. An analysis of survey data collected from city governments in eleven US metropolitan areas highlights the importance of regional institutions in moderating the effect of coordination problems on the formation of developmental joint venture agreements. The findings complement extant research on the governance mechanisms that mitigate transaction costs of collective action.     

Subaltern connections: Brazilian critical geographers,development and African decolonisation

Abstract

This article explores the relations to Africa and African decolonisation of three key figures in Brazilian critical geographies and development studies, Manuel Correia de Andrade (1922–2007), Josué de Castro (1908–1973) and Milton Santos (1926–2001). Based on an analysis of their works and unpublished archives, I argue the radical Third World perspectives these intellectuals expressed anticipated later critiques of development as a neocolonial device. Drawing upon current literature on decolonisation, international conferencing and anti-racist solidarity networks, I discuss these matters in relation to these authors’ interest in cultural diversity and internal colonialism. Crucially, they developed this sensitivity in the Brazilian Northeast, a region especially shaped by Afro–Brazilian and Indigenous cultural legacies. While supporting anti-imperialist nationalisms in the Third World, these Brazilian scholars fostered multilingual, internationalist and cosmopolitan activism and scholarship. This is revealed by the study of the transnational networks they developed during exile and the various persecutions that many of them suffered after the 1964 military coup. Finally, I argue these works can substantiate recent claims to ‘decolonise’ geography and development studies, on the condition that these fields of study take seriously their anti-imperial traditions and their ‘voices from the South’.     

文明自信的中国理念及其世界历史意义——论习近平关于文明交流互鉴的理念

当今世界,人类文明发展面临的风险与希望、挑战与愿景正呈现出前所未有的内在张力与外在表现,深刻揭示人类文明的本质及其互动与发展特征,成为当下必须直面的具有根本性、战略性、紧迫性的重大时代课题。党的十八大以来,立足于中国道路实现史诗般崛起的现实成就与文明品质,习近平深刻把握人类文明演进的基本规律,以文明交流互鉴为主题展开一系列重要论述,系统地阐发了“多彩、平等、包容”的文明本质论、“交流、互鉴、共存”的文明关系论和“共商、共建、共享”的文明发展论,从而为在21世纪推动构建人类命运共同体、实现人类历史进步与和平发展,提供了具有世界历史意义的文明自信理念。     

中国马克思主义工会理论的百年演进与成果

中国的马克思主义工会理论是在近代中国的社会条件下，在马克思主义传入中国的影响下，在 中国共产党和党领导的工会与工人阶级进行的伟大斗争实践中产生、形成和发展的。它百年的演进及其成果， 既是马克思主义理论包括其中的工运理论中国化的过程和成果，也是党和党所领导的工会、工人阶级进行伟大 探索和奋斗的过程和成果。这一理论成果极大地丰富和发展了马克主义理论包括工运理论的宝库，为工会和工 人阶级提供了新的理论武装。这一探索和奋斗还将继续进行下去，中国马克思主义工会理论必将在创新中走向 更高阶段，并以其强大的理论力量，照耀着新时代的工运在中国大地上演出生动活泼的景象。     

推进共同富裕取得实质性进展的路径探析

“共同富裕”思想贯穿于中国共产党的百年奋斗历程,实现共同富裕是中国共产党自成立之日起持续不断的奋斗方向。本研究以共同富裕的理论与实践探索为基础,立足历史、现实与时代,旨在把握实现共同富裕的价值意蕴,探讨在中国特色社会主义新时代实现共同富裕的可行路径。为实现共同富裕,党和国家接续奋斗、砥砺前行,团结带领人民积极探索、开拓实践,在理论、制度、政策方面取得了丰硕成果。步入新时代,我们已向着实现第二个百年奋斗目标迈进,实现共同富裕的时代意义和战略意义愈加凸显。研究认为,为在新时代新征程上实现共同富裕,必须做好战略决策:坚持中国共产党的领导是前提,解决相对贫困问题是关键,扎实推动高质量发展是核心,建设高质量教育体系是保障。     

A land full of opportunities? Agrarian frontiers,policy narratives and the political economy of peace in Colombia

Abstract

In many post-war countries, the relative security brought to rural areas is construed by government officials and business actors as an opportunity for development. This is particularly true for marginal areas, where opportunities for economic development had previously been hindered by the threat of violence. This provides a favourable context for the construction of commodity frontiers. Through the case of Colombia, I show that one of the main challenges faced by frontier policy narratives amounts to differentiating wartime dispossession from peacetime legitimate accumulation. This poses intractable challenges to policymakers and business actors, as it fuels the contradictions between peace consolidation and post-war development.     

以人的全面发展为导向建设服务型政府意义解析

人民满意已成为我国服务型政府建设的根本目标,建设人民满意的服务型政府必须坚持以人的全面发展为根本的价值导向。人的全面发展理论契合了人民满意的服务型政府实践之需,我国服务型政府建设以人的全面发展理论为指导,增强了马克思主义的理论支撑,彰显了强烈的人学意蕴,并且使其有了新的价值指导和新的评价标准。     

新发展格局与“发展型法治”的构建

在我国开启现代化国家建设的新发展阶段,构建"双循环"的新发展格局不仅需要经济上的谋划,也需要相关法律制度的有力推动。其中,经济法作为典型的"发展促进法",对"双循环"的四大环节及其赖以存续的现代化经济体系,均具有重要影响。通过审视经济法对"双循环"的促进和保障,有助于揭示"新发展格局—新发展理念—发展型法治"的内在关联,以及更为具体的"问题—价值—制度"之间的逻辑联系,由此可以说明构建与新发展格局相应的"发展型法治"的必要性和可行性,以及在制度建设方面应兼顾的"安全与发展"价值,从而不断推进发展导向型的良法善治,这尤其有助于推进我国整体法治的完善,丰富法治理论和经济法的相关理论,推动新兴的"发展法学"的构建。