People,power, change: three pillars of a food sovereignty research praxis

ABSTRACT

This article is situated within nascent debates on the role of academics within food sovereignty movements. Drawing on insights from a collective autoethnography, we report on our experiences conducting three food sovereignty research projects in different contexts and at different scales. We suggest that that the principles and practices of food sovereignty translate into a food sovereignty research praxis. This consists of three pillars focusing on people (humanizing research relationships), power (equalizing power relations) and change (pursuing transformative orientations). This article discusses these pillars and analyzes the extent to which we were able to embody them within our projects.     

Intergenerational Interactions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine interactions between elder volunteers and children in a campus-based child care center, using the revised Interaction Analysis Instrument (Newman & Onawola, 1989). Findings from video-taped interactions suggested that intergenerational interactions may be systematically related to the nature of specific program activities. Thus it may be important for program coordinators to consider the kind of intergenerational interactions they want to facilitate when choosing among various intergenerational activities. Additional recommendations are offered to child-care and elder-care organizers who are interested in developing intergenerational programs.     

Elder-Child Interaction Analysis

Abstract

This study reports on the interactions of 60 children and 12 older adults in a school-based mentoring program, as well as four teachers' perceptions of the relationship between such interactions and the children's subsequent classroom behavior. Dyadic interactions were assessed using the Elder-Child Interaction Analysis instrument (Newman & Onawola, 1989). The authors concluded from recorded observations that, overall, the elders and the children had interacted with each other in a positive and constructive manner. The teachers interviewed perceived that the mentoring interactions were followed by an increase in students' self-management skills, interest in school work, and by improved peer relationships.     

Is there a global environmental justice movement?

One of the causes of the increasing number of ecological distribution conflicts around the world is the changing metabolism of the economy in terms of growing flows of energy and materials. There are conflicts on resource extraction, transport and waste disposal. Therefore, there are many local complaints, as shown in the Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJatlas) and other inventories. And not only complaints; there are also many successful examples of stopping projects and developing alternatives, testifying to the existence of a rural and urban global movement for environmental justice. Moreover, since the 1980s and 1990s, this movement has developed a set of concepts and campaign slogans to describe and intervene in such conflicts. They include environmental racism, popular epidemiology, the environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous, biopiracy, tree plantations are not forests, the ecological debt, climate justice, food sovereignty, land grabbing and water justice, among other concepts. These terms were born from socio-environmental activism, but sometimes they have also been taken up by academic political ecologists and ecological economists who, for their part, have contributed other concepts to the global environmental justice movement, such as ‘ecologically unequal exchange’ or the ‘ecological footprint’.     

Decentralisation,socio-territoriality and the exercise of indigenous self-governance in Bolivia

This article analyses the ‘indigenous autonomy’ being constructed in two dozen Bolivian municipalities and territories, in accordance with the 2009 Constitution. It finds that Bolivia’s 1994 decentralisation reforms, which created the country’s system of municipalities, are central to understanding the contemporary implementation of indigenous autonomy. Some indigenous people view as favourable the representative and material gains achieved by municipalisation, which helps explain why more majority-indigenous communities have not yet chosen the new option of indigenous autonomy. However, the new legal framework also limits indigenous self-governance, because territorial delimitations of the country’s municipalities are generally inconsistent with indigenous peoples’ ancestral territories. The new institutions of self-governance are legally obligated to include discrete legislative, executive and administrative functions, reflecting not indigenous norms but a municipal structure of liberal design. This study illustrates the way that indigenous self-determination may encounter obstacles where indigenous territorial jurisdictions must coincide with contemporary boundaries of colonial origins, rather than with pre-colonial territories.     

论当代中国马克思主义政治经济学的新境界

政治经济学与经济学的主要区别在于是否研究生产关系。马克思主义政治经济学用唯物主义的自然史的方法论述经济关系。当代中国马克思主义政治经济学有如下新境界：准确把握中国社会主要矛盾的变化,准确把握中国经济新常态,创新宏观调控思路和方式等。历史发展没有止境,当代中国马克思主义政治经济学新境界的开拓也没有止境。而要不断开拓当代中国马克思主义政治经济学的新境界,需要有科学的方法论和正确的思考方式,既着眼当前又立足长远,做到“六个坚持”,具有批判精神,尤其是必须深入学习马克思主义政治经济学的基本原理和习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想。     

Public sector innovation,e-government,and anticorruption in China and India: Insights from civil servants

Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e-government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in-depth interviews with 44 mid- or senior-level officials in the public sector in these two countries. The first study of its kind, our research shows that civil servants in both countries overall think positively about transparency and technology in reducing corruption. However, to what extent these innovative measures will be effective is conditional on various factors, such as political willingness, income inequality, and infrastructure readiness. What is worth noting is that the Chinese respondents were more positive regarding the role of transparency, whereas the Indian respondents were more positive about the role of technology, which may reflect the different facilitators of corruption and the constraints of anticorruption in China and India.     

中日第三方市场合作的挑战与对策

作为一种创新的国际合作模式,中日第三方市场合作未来发展前景广阔,给中日双方带来巨大机遇,但推动第三方市场合作仍面临诸多挑战:两国在参与第三方市场合作项目中存在竞争惯性思维;中日第三方市场合作须应对地缘政治博弈的挑战;日本国内政治对中日第三方市场合作的"负向外溢效应";中日关于第三方市场合作项目的标准与规则的分歧;面临第三方不稳定因素的影响.为此,需要中日两国发挥各自优势,携手寻求在第三方市场的合作机会;明确两国合作的方向和目标,避免域外因素干扰,推动RCEP早日签署生效;增进中日政治互信,使中日政经关系形成相互促进的良性循环;建立长效支持促进机制,推动双方共同制定国际标准;做好第三方市场风险管控预防工作.     

论不追究刑事责任

我国《刑法》和《刑事诉讼法》用三个不同的概念对不追究刑事责任作了规定。《刑事诉讼法》第16条所规定的不追究刑事责任可分为三种情形,但《刑法》第201条第4款中规定的不予追究刑事责任并未归属其中。现行刑事立法在不追究刑事责任的规定中概念不统一,《刑法》在规定不追究刑事责任方面不当缺位,已有的规定也较为粗糙,《刑事诉讼法》缺乏特赦令执行的程序规定,我们有必要完善不追究刑事责任的刑事立法规定。     

论人类共同继承财产理论的新发展——基于“一带一路”倡议的促动

伴随人类科技与文明的高速发展,人类共同继承财产理论中关于资源的所有权归属和实体财富的分配等要素已无法满足现代国际社会的发展需求。“一带一路”倡议在尊重《联合国宪章》的宗旨与和平共处五项原则的前提下,从国际关系的变迁、客体类型的扩大和法律规范的转型三个方面促动了人类共同继承财产理论的深化发展。在此基础上,加强“一带一路”倡议与现行国际法理论的互动研究,以期推动形成一项以人类命运共同体思想为核心的拟议国际法原则。