The everyday peace project: an innovative approach to peace pedagogy

A critical task for peace pedagogy is to challenge views of peace as primarily responses to declared war. Crisis-based politics tend to focus on exceptional situations and fail to capture the entire spectrum of violence. Premised on the idea that peace cannot be understood in isolation of larger structural problems, this paper proposes the concept of ‘everyday peace’ as a framework for peace education. Drawing from a pedagogical initiative, we examine how students engage with the concept of everyday peace and present our findings in three related domains: (1) definition of everyday peace, (2) application of everyday peace principles and (3) role of collaboration in everyday peace approaches. Our analysis underscored two important themes in participants’ definitions of everyday peace: (1) peace as a value-based praxis and (2) individual-level and systemic components of everyday peace. Applying these principles to a violent event in the local community, participant responses emphasized compassion, cultures of peace and the need to draw reflexive, meaningful connections between local and global contexts. The participants also outlined the synergistic role of collaboration in everyday peacebuilding. We discuss our findings in relation to extant research and consider implications of an everyday peace framework for holistic peace education.     

Rural informalities and forest squatters in the reserved forests of Assam,India

It has now been well established that forests in South Asia are postcolonial political zones. In Assam, in northeast India this was accomplished through the colonial project of converting jungles into Reserved Forests. Using the politics of dokhol (“to grab or occupy by force”) as an entry point, this article examines the comparative epistemologies of squatting and informality in urban and rural contexts. My intent is to unpack the everyday practice, maintenance, and sustenance of dokhol within the reserved forests of Bodo Territorial Autonomous District. This entails an extension of existing scholarship on formal-informal dichotomies in relation to rural squatters, in particular those on forestland. I do so by combining an ethnographic study of dokhol by rural squatters with three influential strands of critical scholarship on urban squatting, namely Partha Chatterjee’s “political society,” Asaf Bayat’s “quiet encroachment,” and Ananya Roy’s take on planning and deregulation. This article advances the case of rural informalities and opens a dialogue between the two forms of informalities – rural and urban, especially in the context of South Asia.     

Can financial development enhance transparency?

A substantial strand of literature unambiguously established the importance of financial development for economic growth. Relatively less attention has been paid to the impact that financial development of a country can have on important development outcomes like transparency. As established by existing research, strong financial institutions in a country would imply an improved and transparent banking system, better corporate governance, ease of accessing credit, greater availability of information and best practices in investment protection. All these should theoretically promise a more transparent economic system. Our empirical findings confirm this. Using several estimation strategies, our results confirm that greater financial development enhances transparency.     

Allele frequency of six STR loci among three predominant population groups of eastern India

Allele frequencies for the six STR loci HumTHO1, TPOX, CSF1PO, vWA, FESFPS and F13AO1 were obtained from 94-120 unrelated individuals belonging to three important population groups of eastern India.     

Detection of species of graft in xenotransplants using arbitrary primed polymerase chain reaction.

Because of a shortage in the availability of human organs, xenografts have been attempted in humans with cardiac, renal, and hepatic failure, despite limited success. Use of xenografts, however, is regulated under law in various countries. In xenotransplant cases related to violation of transplantation law, determination of species of the source of tissue and organ(s) becomes highly essential. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) protocols using six sets of arbitrary short-sequenced primers have been standardized for verifying claims of porcine cardiac and renal grafts in human transplantation cases. Six arbitrary primers used were found to generate unique amplicon patterns at 36 degrees C annealing temperature. Among the selected primers, a single primer set having the sequence 5'- GGTGCGGGAA -3' is found to be the most informative in discerning porcine tissue contamination in humans. The patterns obtained were consistent for a particular genome. The grafted organs in the studied case were analyzed to be of porcine origin.     

Insecure peace: understanding citizen and local government relations in a Maoist-affected region in India

This paper examines emerging citizen and local government relations in a village in the Junglemahal region of the state of West Bengal, once a major bastion of the Maoist insurgency in India. Since 2014, Junglemahal has not experienced a single Maoist-related incident. This has been widely attributed to the West Bengal government’s “model” handling of the insurgency, which rests on the rapid mobilization of public services through the non-elected arms of local governments, bypassing elected officials. How have Junglemahal’s residents experienced this particular form of post-conflict governance? Drawing on the culture-centered approach that ethnographically observes the processes of identifying development problems and developing community-grounded solutions to these problems, our findings indicate that the hyper-developmental state was paradoxically experienced by our respondents as a very distant entity. A recurrent theme in our interviews is the absence of a locally embedded party leadership that could be approached regarding issues of distributive justice. We argue that this desire for party mediation in public service delivery is an expression of a powerful social norm that has survived the conflict and ought to be integrated into post-conflict governance structures if the current peace is to endure.     

On Diarrhoea in Adolescents and School Toilets:Insights from an Indian Village School Study

The economics literature on the determinants of diarrhoea focuses on infants; but what about school going adolescents? Our survey in an Indian village school affirms that sanitation, defecation practices at home and school, and the degree of crowding of living space at home are all significant determinants of diarrhoeal incidence for adolescents. Usage of toilets at school varies as a function of gender and existence of a toilet in student’s home. Access to toilets is not sufficient to guarantee their usage. To eliminate open defecation: toilets installation, behavioural change, and sustainable mechanisms to maintain school toilets seem necessary.     

Are women self-help group members economically more empowered in left-run municipalities?

Who controls the income earned by members of women's self-help groups (SHG) from group activities – the women or their husbands? The answer indicates one dimension of the level of economic empowerment attained by SHG members. This paper examines whether identity of the person controlling the income earned depends upon the political party ruling the municipality where the SHG is situated. Two parties are considered – the Left Front, a coalition comprising of Leftist parties, and the Indian National Congress. This paper is based on a field study of 240 SHG members in six municipalities in West Bengal, India.

Les participants aux groupes d'entraide pour les femmes économiquement plus habilités dans les municipalités de gauche?

Qui contrôle les revenus tirés par les membres des groupes d'entraide de femmes (GEF) de leurs activités - les femmes ou leurs maris ? La réponse indique une dimension du degré d'autonomisation économique obtenu par les membres de GEF. Cet article traite de la question de savoir si l'identité de la personne qui contrôle les revenus gagnés dépend du parti politique qui régit la municipalité où se situe la GEF. Deux partis sont considérés – le Front de gauche, coalition composée des partis de gauche, et le Congrès national indien. Cet article se base sur une étude de terrain de 240 membres de GEF répartis sur six municipalités dans le Bengale-Occidental, en Inde.

¿Están los participantes en los grupos de autoayuda para las mujeres económicamente más empoderadas en los municipios de izquierda?

¿Quién controla los ingresos generados por las mujeres que participan en los grupos de autoayuda (GAA) a partir de actividades grupales: las mujeres o sus esposos? La respuesta dada a esta pregunta opera como indicador de una dimensión del grado de empoderamiento económico logrado por las integrantes de los GAA. Este artículo examina en qué medida el género de la persona que controla los ingresos depende del partido político que tenga el poder en los municipios donde existen los GAA. Para ello, se analizaron dos partidos: el Frente de Izquierda (“Left Front”), una coalición de partidos de izquierda, y el Congreso Nacional Indio (“Indian National Congress”). El artículo se basa en un estudio de campo realizado entre 240 integrantes de los GAA residentes en seis municipios de Bengal Occidental en India.

São membros de grupos de auto-ajuda para mulheres economicamente mais habilitadas na esquerda municípios?

Quem controla a renda ganha pelas participantes de grupos de mulheres que se auto-ajudam (Self-Help Groups - SHG) – as mulheres ou seus maridos? A resposta indica uma dimensão do nível do empoderamento econômico alcançado por membros dos SHGs. Este artigo examina se a identidade da pessoa que controla a renda recebida depende do grupo político que governa o município onde o SHG está situado. Dois grupos são examinados – a Frente Esquerda, que é uma coalizão formada por partidos da esquerda, e o Congresso Nacional Indiano. O artigo baseia-se em um estudo de campo com 240 membros de SHGs em seis municípios de Bengala Ocidental, Índia.     

The changing face of culture: gauging the impact of a free media

This paper empirically assesses the relationship between culture and a free press. The results reveal that a privatized or ‘free media’ strongly influences informal institutions of a country or what is commonly known as culture. By providing unbiased and a wide variety information to the masses, the media sector not only reduces information asymmetry and transaction costs but also helps generate higher levels of social capital. It acts as an effective liaison between the masses and the government and also among various religious, ethnic and other fractionalized groups in a society. We use the proxy of informal institutions identified by Tabellini (Journal of the European Economic Association 8(4):677–716, 2010) which consists of four traits. The results are robust to alternate specifications and inclusion of controls.