Shifting Frames,Vanishing Resources,and Dangerous Political Opportunities: Legal Mobilization among Displaced Women in Colombia

How can we make sense of the use of legal claims and tactics under conditions of internal displacement and armed conflict? This article argues that in violent contexts mobilization frames are unstable and constantly shifting, resources tend to vanish, and political opportunities often imply considerable physical danger. It is grounded on a three‐year, multimethod study that followed internally displaced women's organizations as they demanded government assistance and protection in Colombia. Through detailed examples of specific cases, this article illustrates the constraints of legal mobilization in violent contexts, as well as different social movement strategies of resistance. It, thus, contributes to decentering theories of social movement uses of law that tend to be based on the legal cultures and institutions of industrialized liberal democracies, rather than on those of the Global South, and hence, tend to exclude violence.     

Open Data for Science,Policy, and the Public Good

Supporters of open data believe that free and complete access to research data is beneficial for science, public policy, and society. In environmental science and policy, open data systems can enable relevant research and inform evidence‐based governmental decisions. This article examines the unlikely case of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research's transition toward an open data model. Considering Brazil's young democracy, incipient practice of government transparency and accountability, and lacking a tradition of science‐policy dialogue, this case is a striking example of how open data can support public debate by making information about forest cover widely available. The case shows the benefits and challenges of developing such open data systems, and highlights the various forms of accessibility involved in making data available to the public.     

Unpacking the Path‐Dependent Process of Institutional Change for PPPs

In the recent past, several countries and states have begun to use Public‐Private‐Partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development and have attempted to create institutional environments that enable PPPs. Providing an enabling environment for PPPs entails a combination of institutional creation and changing existing institutions relating to project procurement. This paper attempts to understand how path‐dependant institutional change takes place in the context of PPPs and their enabling environments, and why different institutional environments evolve differently, using two cases: the implementation of PPPs in the road sector in the Netherlands and in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. We identify two factors that can be used as predictors of the direction of institutional change: a long‐term orientation towards institutional change and a willingness to learn and modify transitional institutions. Where these factors exist, and thereby provide a goodness of fit, institutional change is likely to occur.     

Miscommunication in the COVID-19 Era

This article discusses issues around the communication of preventive health messages related to COVID-19 to indigenous language-speaking communities in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Official communication is primarily in Spanish, and the many translation initiatives that have arisen do not always succeed in getting the message across due to the lack of cultural interpretation that needs to accompany the linguistic message. This situation compounds the vulnerability of indigenous peoples in the face of the crisis.     

Humanitarian aid and host state capacity: the challenges of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia

How can humanitarian actors operate in a host state with significant subnational variations in willingness and capacity to meet its obligations? This is an issue of pressing importance, given the expansion of humanitarian aid to middle-income countries with growing state capacity, but with persistent infrastructural weakness in their periphery. The article illustrates the challenges and potentialities of engaging these states through the case study of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Colombia. It describes the way the NRC has located its offices in peripheral areas, and how its activities have fostered the rule of law, successfully using rights-based approaches to strengthen subnational state institutions, activate and mobilise citizen demands and bridge national and subnational administrations. The article concludes that these activities, operated by officers with extensive practical knowledge and local trust networks, can open the way for durable solutions for humanitarian crisis, but can also provoke backlash from subnational actors.     

New optimized DNA extraction protocol for fingerprints deposited on a special self-adhesive security seal and other latent samples used for human identification

Abstract: Obtaining complete short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from fingerprints containing minimal amounts of DNA, using standard extraction techniques, can be difficult. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new kit, Fingerprint DNA Finder (FDF Kit), recently launched for the extraction of DNA and STR profiling from fingerprints placed on a special device known as Self‐Adhesive Security Seal Sticker^® and other latent fingerprints on forensic evidentiary material like metallic guns. The DNA extraction system is based on a reversal of the silica principle, and all the potential inhibiting substances are retained on the surface of a special adsorbent, while nucleic acids are not bound and remain in solution dramatically improving DNA recovery. DNA yield was quite variable among the samples tested, rendering in most of the cases (>90%) complete STR profiles, free of PCR inhibitors, and devoid of artifacts. Even samples with DNA amount below 100 pg could be successfully analyzed.     

English literacy： Consuming the Kapampangan oral antecedent

This paper discusses the effects of American colonial rule on the cultural life of the Kapampangans and inhabitants of the province of Pampanga. The colonial masters, who seemed to deliberately marginalize the local language of the community and succeeded in eventually arresting its natural development. The American policy to ＂educate＂ the Filipinos resulted in the waning of the Kapampangan language and literature. A brief overview of Kapampangan literary history will be given to emphasize the folk tradition, the oral nature of Kapampangan verbal art as well as the worldview and ethos of the people embedded in their literature. To be mentioned are two Kapampangan writers, Crisostomo Soto and Jose Gallardo, who represented the periods during and after the American regime respectively. Each responded to his time and scene; both struggled against the most powerful colonial machine which was the English language. They were aware that this medium and its message were one, and that their own language would, sooner or later, be a lost medium and a lost message. The shift from orality to literacy, as a consequence of western education, will also be discussed. In particular, the reaction of Kapampangan verbal artists to the reductive pressure exerted by literacy upon their literature will be focused.     

Transferring knowledge in Quebec–Mexico partnerships: the case of the dairy industry

This work seeks to contribute to technology transfer case study literature, by exploring the possibilities of an international trade between Mexico and Quebec in dairy industry under an international agreement??s environment. We report this probable exchange on an exploratory study, based on previous studies made at HEC Montréal at the International Technology Transfer course. This was explored in terms of knowledge and technology transfer, involving an innovative product. We present evidence based on public information and company interviews?? results which, analyzed through a theoretical framework of knowledge and technology transfer, suggests a possible future partnership, involving knowledge transfer. Our results show that, even if the two companies selected have similar cooperative-type structures, they do not behave in similar way. Both enterprises could better complement each other in terms of R&D, marketing, benchmarking, process and entrepreneurial capabilities. Furthermore, our research indicates that both enterprises could better face on industry??s threats in domestic and international competition, which could be used as a basis for further research in international technology transfers.