CSR and social conflict in the Brazilian extractive sector

ABSTRACT

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important means to address conflicts, support local development and build trust between businesses and civil society. Yet CSR often fails to live up to its ambitions and can even exacerbate conflicts between companies and communities. In this article we consider how changing CSR strategies over the past four decades between Brazilian company Vale to Norwegian company Hydro have fomented or mitigated company–community conflicts in Northern Brazil. We find that paternalistic and philanthropic approaches of Vale over time led to deep resentment and mistrust due to underdevelopment and environmental damages. Moreover, while Hydro’s more modern CSR strategies sought to deepen community engagement and build legitimacy, the company has struggled in addressing the legacies inherited from Vale and past and current civil society grievances. The case suggests that even forward-thinking CSR approaches are vulnerable to failure where they prioritise business risk over community engagement, neglect to account for past legacies in areas of operation, and fail to create a shared vision of future development. It suggests that EI companies should both understand and engage with their social and environmental impacts in the past, present, and future and create shared economic benefits in the short and long term in order to address social conflicts.     

Adding to the Controversy? Civil Society’s Evaluation of the National Conference Dialogue in Yemen

ABSTRACT

This article assembles a picture of Yemen’s 2013–14 National Dialogue Conference (NDC) by collecting perspectives from local civil society organizations (CSOs), which are contrasted to the views of international commentators. Despite all efforts by internal parties as well as the international community, the dialogue failed to avert war, which broke out shortly after. Through interviews with 50 CSOs, we reconstructed the reasons for failure, as well as paying attention to the observed strengths of the dialogue. Half of the consulted organizations were directly involved in the NDC, either as an invited participant or in a brokerage role. The other half concerns outside observers. We identify aspects on which the opinion of the CSOs converge, but also highlight striking divergences depending on insider/outsider status. In contrast to the view espoused in the international literature, the CSOs overall feel that, in spite of all its procedural and substantive flaws, the NDC was a significant junction in the long road towards peace and stability and laid important groundwork for future dialogues.     

Empty schools and Silencios: pedagogical openings for memory-making in Colombia

This paper draws from Silencios – a photography series by the Colombian artist Juan Manuel Echavarría. Silencios comprises more than 120 portrayals of abandoned schools due to armed conflict in Los Montes de María, Colombia. Sharing Echeverría’s belief that ‘these chalkboards have lessons to tell us about war’, the author of this paper advocates for the pedagogical use of Silencios to promote and support memory works in Colombia. The present analysis acknowledges that hegemonic memories and narratives have a negative impact on conflict-affected societies due to their authoritarian and oppressive character.

Therefore, the pedagogical use of Silencios seeks to ignite multiple narratives and counterhegemonic memories that might emerge as the public interacts with the photography. The visuals, in this sense, become an educational opportunity to stimulate reflection and resistance against the monopoly of the past in a country that is currently emerging from conflict. In this paper, the abandoned schools are considered as memory sites, and as renewed learning spaces to stimulate reflections and debates upon the armed conflict. Silencios can contribute to peacebuilding efforts by bringing up the possibility to reconsider essentialist conceptions of peace, memory, and pedagogy, that might hinder potential venues for enduring peace in Colombia.     

新时代提升党员干部政治能力问题研究--基于安徽省的调查与思考

政治能力是新时代党员干部第一位的能力。当前党员干部政治能力建设中还存在着政治敏锐性不高、政治定力不足、政治担当不够、政治执行力不强等问题,究其原因,既有主观方面的因素,也有客观方面的因素。因此,新时代提升党员干部政治能力,必须从加强党的长期执政能力建设出发,从党员干部个人和党组织主客观两个方面切入,既靠党员干部自身努力内外兼修提升政治能力,也要靠组织培养,充分发挥党组织政治功能。     

UNESCO,world heritage and the gridlock over Yemen

Abstract

Since March 2015, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen has had devastating consequences for the country, its people and its rich cultural heritage. This article traces the responses of the world’s foremost multilateral body concerned with heritage promotion and protection, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research and long-term ethnographic research on UNESCO itself and, more specifically, its responses to the war in Yemen, it documents UNESCO’s profound failures in protecting Yemen’s heritage and in confronting the Saudi-led coalition. To do so, the article utilises the framework of ‘gridlock’ to analyse how and why multilateral bodies such as UNESCO become hamstrung in confronting powerful member states in conflict. The article concludes by arguing that UNESCO’s failures in Yemen hold powerful lessons about the role of multilateral institutions in addressing conflict.     

社会主义政治文明建设和政治文化创新

社会主义政治文明概念的提出，使人们获得了研究社会主义文明发展的新视点，这就是文化的视点、文化和文明发展的历史视点。要正确认识政治文明发展中的文化继承和超越、拒绝和借鉴问题以及文化发展中同一性与差异性的关系，从而。适应时代要求，推进政治文化创新。在中国，社会主义政治文明建设的关键是中国共产党在政治思想和政治理论上的创新，是党能否把政治思想和政治理论创新的成果转化成制度创新的实践。     

“三个代表”与政治文明：构筑起政治合法性的双翼

政治合法性是政治学研究的一个基本命题，是各个政权更是执政党应该首先解决好的重大问题。在我国，解决这一问题，关系到执政党执政地位的持久性、稳固性，关系到社会主义制度优越性的发挥和合理性认证。针对我国政治合法性的特殊性，我们党与时俱进，开拓创新，提出了“三个代表”的重要思想和建设社会主义政治明这一全新执政课题，构筑起了我国政治合法性的双翼，为实现执政党执政合法性和社会主义政治制度合法性的良性互动指明了前进方向和现实路径。     

思想政治素质教育的重要性

随着我国社会主义市场经济体制的逐步建立和改革开放的不断深入,我国进入了经济发展的空前繁荣时期。与此同时,西方国家的拜金主义、享乐主义、个人主义等思想观念也随之乘虚而入,致使一些大学生的思想观念发生变化。因此,加强学生的思想政治素质教育就显得尤为重要。     

同治中兴:晚清政治体制模式与政治伦理的悖离

发生在清朝末年的同治中兴,虽在形式上保全了清政府君主专制中央集权的政权组织形式,但其政治体制模式却遭到结构性破坏———中央集权权力向地方督抚下移,而中兴所倚重的中兴名臣仍然抱持儒家封建政治伦理,造成清末政治体制模式与政治伦理相互悖离,双方均失去了在政治建设中的合法性和积极意义。其矛盾运动的结果,使中国近代社会政治新陈代谢的过程曲折而漫长,甚至迂回不前,并出现晚清政局特有的征象。