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Changing Circumstances (changing + circumstance)
Selected AbstractsMaking White: Constructing Race in a South African High SchoolCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2002Nadine Dolby As a social and cultural phenomenon, race is continually remade within changing circumstances and is constructed and located, in part, in institutions' pedagogical practices and discourses. In this article I examine how the administration of a multiracial, working-class high school in Durban, South Africa produces "white" in an era of political and social transition. As the population of Fernwood High School (a pseudonym) shifts from majority white working class to black working class, the school administration strives to reposition the school as "white," despite its predominantly black student population. This whiteness is not only a carryover from the apartheid era, but is actively produced within a new set of circumstances. Using the discourses and practices of sports and standards, the school administration attempts to create a whiteness that separates the school from the newly democratic nation-state of South Africa. Despite students' and some staff's general complacency and outright resistance, rugby and athletics are heralded as critical nodes of the school's "white" identity, connecting the school to other, local white schools, and disconnecting it from black schools. Dress standards function in a similar manner, creating an imagined equivalence between Fernwood and other white schools in Durban (and elite schools around the world), and disassociating Fernwood from black schools in South Africa and the "third world" writ large. This pedagogy of whiteness forms the core of the administration's relationship with Fernwood students, and maps how race is remade within a changing national context. [source] The Machakos Case Study: Solid Outcomes, Unhelpful HyperboleDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2006Jules Siedenburg This article revisits the well-known study of Machakos District, Kenya reported in the book More People, Less Erosion by Tiffen et al., which found dramatic, compelling evidence of successful endogenous adaptation to changing circumstances by rural Africans. The article seeks to elucidate discrepancies between the Machakos findings and other findings in the interest of both scientific accuracy and policy relevance. It is suggested that the Machakos study comprises hopeful data, on the one hand, and problematic calculations and assertions, on the other. After exploring problems with the study, the article suggests an alternative interpretation of the data that is arguably more pertinent to contemporary concerns with rural poverty and environmental degradation as well as more widely applicable in sub-Saharan Africa. [source] Matching Response to Context in Complex Political Emergencies: ,Relief', ,Development', ,Peace-building' or Something In-between?DISASTERS, Issue 4 2000Philip White There is an ongoing debate over the value and pitfalls of the policy and practice of ,linking relief and development' or ,developmental relief' in aid responses to complex political emergencies (CPEs). Driven by concerns about relief creating dependence, sometimes doing harm and failing to address root causes of emergencies despite its high cost, pursuit of both relief and development has become a dominant paradigm among international aid agencies in CPEs as in ,natural' disasters. In CPEs a third objective of ,peace-building' has emerged, along with the logic that development can itself help prevent or resolve conflict and sustain peace. However, this broadening of relief objectives in ongoing CPEs has recently been criticised on a number of counts, central concerns being that it leads to a dilution of commitment to core humanitarian principles and is overly optimistic. This paper addresses these issues in the light of two of the CPEs studied by the COPE project: Eritrea and Somalia/Somaliland. It is argued that the debate has so far suffered from lack of clarity about what we mean by ,relief', ,development' and, for that matter, ,rehabilitation' and ,peace-building'. The wide spectrum of possible aid outcomes does not divide neatly into these categories. The relief,development divide is not always as clear-cut, technically or politically, as the critics claim. Moreover such distinctions, constructed from the point of view of aid programmers, are often of little relevance to the concerns of intended beneficiaries. Second, there has been insufficient attention to context: rather than attempting to generalise within and across CPE cases, a more productive approach would be to examine more closely the conditions under which forms of aid other than basic life support can fruitfully be pursued. This leads to consideration of collective agency capacity to respond effectively to diverse needs in different and changing circumstances. [source] A Competitive, Sustainable and Diverse Agriculture: A View of the CAP Beyond 2013 Pour une agriculture compétitive, durable and variée : un point de vue sur la PAC après 2013 Eine wettbewerbsfähige, nachhaltige und vielfältige Landwirtschaft: Ein Ausblick auf die GAP nach 2013EUROCHOICES, Issue 2 2010Kris Peeters Summary A Competitive, Sustainable and Diverse Agriculture: A View of the CAP Beyond 2013 New challenges make clear that past achievements of the CAP cannot be taken for granted. A strong European agricultural policy remains necessary after 2013, at the service of Europe's citizens and agricultural sector. However, in order to realise the vision embedded in the European agricultural model, the CAP will have to evolve. Beyond dealing with the negative consequences of the economic crisis, more attention should go to competitiveness and entrepreneurship. The functioning of the supply chain should be improved leading to a fairer distribution of costs and benefits. Producer organisations should be expanded and strengthened. Work is needed to put into practice the concept of green growth and to explore the synergy between the demand for public goods and the need for higher farm income. An improved system of direct support remains justified, to compensate for extra costs and to stabilise income. The CAP post-2013 should offer a strong EU framework, able to meet shared challenges, with clear objectives and sufficient funding. Within that framework, diversity is a fact, and regions should be able to deploy CAP policies and funds in a more flexible way to accommodate local needs and problems and to be able to react to changing circumstances. De par l'apparition de nouveaux défis, il est clair que les réalisations antérieures de la PAC ne peuvent être considérées comme acquises.Une politique agricole européenne forte, au service des citoyens et du secteur agricole de l'Europe, reste indispensable après 2013. Cependant, pour concrétiser la vision comprise dans le modèle agricole européen, la PAC devra évoluer. Au-delà du traitement des conséquences négatives de la crise économique, l'attention doit se porter davantage sur la compétitivité et l'esprit d'entreprise. Il faudrait améliorer le fonctionnement de la filière de l'offre pour obtenir une répartition des coûts et des avantages plus équitable. Les organisations de producteurs devraient se développer et se renforcer. Des travaux sont nécessaires pour mettre en pratique le concept de croissance verte et pour étudier les synergies entre la demande de biens d'intérêt public et le renforcement nécessaire des revenus agricoles. Un système de soutien direct amélioré reste justifié, pour compenser les coûts supplémentaires et stabiliser les revenus. La PAC d'après 2013 devrait fournir un cadre européen solide, capable d'atteindre les défis partagés, avec des objectifs clairs et des financements suffisants. Au sein de ce cadre, la diversité est un fait et les régions devraient pouvoir déployer les politiques et les fonds de la PAC de manière plus flexible pour répondre aux besoins et problèmes locaux et pour permettre de réagir aux changements. Neue Herausforderungen lassen erkennen, dass die früheren Erfolge der GAP nicht als selbstverständlich angesehen werden können.Nach 2013 wird zum Wohle der Bürger und des Agrarsektors in Europa nach wie vor eine stabile europäische Agrarpolitik gebraucht. Die GAP wird sich jedoch weiterentwickeln müssen, um der Vision aus dem europäischen Agrarmodell entsprechen zu können. Das Augenmerk sollte hierbei nicht nur auf den Umgang mit den negativen Auswirkungen der Wirtschaftskrise, sondern ebenfalls auf Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Unternehmertum gerichtet werden. Die Funktionsfähigkeit der Wertschöpfungskette sollte erhöht werden und zu einer gerechteren Verteilung von Kosten und Nutzen führen. Erzeugerorganisationen sollten ausgeweitet und gestärkt werden. Es muss viel getan werden, um das Konzept des Grünen Wachstums umzusetzen und die Synergien zwischen der Nachfrage nach öffentlichen Gütern und der Notwendigkeit für höhere Einkommen in der Landwirtschaft zu untersuchen. Ein verbessertes System für die Direktzahlungen ist nach wie vor gerechtfertigt, um zusätzliche Kosten auszugleichen und die Einkommen zu stabilisieren. Nach 2013 sollte die GAP einen stabilen EU-Rahmen bieten, um den gemeinsamen Herausforderungen mit klaren Zielen und ausreichender Finanzierung begegnen zu können. Innerhalb dieses Rahmens ist Platz für Diversität, und die Regionen sollten dazu in der Lage sein, die Politikmaßnahmen der GAP flexibler einzusetzen, um auf die Bedürfnisse vor Ort reagieren und sich den wechselnden Bedingungen anpassen zu können. [source] The dynamics of social exclusionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 4 2006Graham Room Much mainstream analysis of the dynamics of social exclusion is concerned with the changing circumstances of households, using panel and cohort studies. However, changes in these circumstances are mediated by institutional processes and can be adequately explained only if the interactions of institutional and household strategies are taken into account. This is also a precondition of sound inferences for policy. These interactions may involve feedback loops and cumulative change: these require analysis as dynamic systems. The article explores how such dynamic systems can be modelled. It proposes a toolkit that brings together qualitative and quantitative modelling techniques, checks them against empirical data and roots their interpretation within an action frame of reference. [source] Controlling Corruption in Hong Kong: From Colony to Special Administrative RegionJOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2001Jack M. K. Lo Corruption has been a perennial problem in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong of the post-war years represented what appeared to have become an intractable case of a society in which corruption was entrenched as part of political, economic and social life. This paper seeks to delineate the experience of Hong Kong's fight against corruption in the midst of a rapidly changing political and social environment. After describing the context in which the Hong Kong anti-corruption programme is set, this paper identifies the critical policy decisions that account for the programme's success and the lessons Hong Kong has learned from the campaign. It ends by highlighting some of the current issues and problems that arise from the changing circumstances of Hong Kong's development. [source] Organizational Routines as Sources of Connections and UnderstandingsJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2002Martha S. Feldman Organizational routines are increasingly identified as an aspect of organizations that allows them to achieve the balance between adaptability and stability. We contribute to this discussion by showing that the connections that organizational routines make between people contribute to both stability and the ability to adapt. We argue that the connections between people that are formed as they engage together in organizational routines are important for developing understandings about both what needs to be done in a specific instance of performing a routine and about the goals of the organization that routines presumably help accomplish. Together the two sets of understandings influence organizational performance by affecting the ability of organizations to adapt to changing circumstances. These arguments lead to a general recognition of the importance to organizations of connections and the suggestion that the connections, themselves, may be an important outcome of organizational routines. [source] THE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE PURSUIT OF SURVIVALMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2010SHERRILYN ROUSH Abstract: Knowledge requires more than mere true belief, and we also tend to think it is more valuable. I explain the added value that knowledge contributes if its extra ingredient beyond true belief is tracking. I show that the tracking conditions are the unique conditions on knowledge that achieve for those who fulfill them a strict Nash Equilibrium and an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy in what I call the True Belief Game. The added value of these properties, intuitively, includes preparedness and an expectation of survival advantage. On this view knowledge is valuable not because knowledge persists but because it makes the bearer more likely to maintain an appropriate belief state,possibly nonbelief,through time and changing circumstances. When Socrates concluded that knowledge of the road to Larissa was no more valuable than true belief for the purpose of getting to Larissa, he did not take into account that one might want to be prepared for a possible meeting with a misleading sophist along the way, or for the possibility of road work. [source] 2-DE proteomic approach to the Botrytis cinerea secretome induced with different carbon sources and plant-based elicitorsPROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 12 2010Francisco Javier Fernández-Acero Abstract Botrytis cinerea is a phytopathogenic fungus infecting a number of crops (tomatoes, grapes and strawberries), which has been adopted as a model system in molecular phytopathology. B. cinerea uses a wide variety of infection strategies, which are mediated by a set of genes/proteins called pathogenicity/virulence factors. Many of these factors have been described as secreted proteins, and thus the study of this sub-proteome, the secretome, under changing circumstances can help us to understand the roles of these factors, possibly revealing new loci for the fight against the pathogen. A 2-DE, MALDI TOF/TOF-based approach has been developed to establish the proteins secreted to culture media supplemented with different carbon sources and plant-based elicitors (in this study: glucose, cellulose, starch, pectin and tomato cell walls). Secreted proteins were obtained from the culture media by deoxycholate-trichloroacetic acid/phenol extraction, and 76 spots were identified, yielding 95 positive hits that correspond to 56 unique proteins, including several known virulence factors (i.e. pectin methyl esterases, xylanases and proteases). The observed increases in secretion of proteins with established virulence-related functions indicate that this in vitro -induction/proteome-mining approach is a promising strategy for discovering new pathogenicity factors and dissecting infection mechanisms in a discrete fashion. [source] Context and Ambiguity in the Making of Law: A Comment on Amending India's Patent ActTHE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 5 2007Dwijen Rangnekar In implementing its patent-related obligations to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), India opted for the optional additional transitional provisions in article 65.4. This, delayed the introduction of product patents in exempt technologies, notably pharmaceuticals, until 1 January 2005. Ostensibly, this gave India the opportunity to exploit changing circumstances to and emergent views on TRIPS implementation, in particular exploring new interpretations to residual flexibility in TRIPS and any continuing legal ambiguity in TRIPS obligations. Here, the Panel Report in Canada: Patent Protection of Pharmaceutical Products is pertinent in having exhibited rare reticence in stepping back from defining the principle of non-discrimination in article 27.1 of TRIPS. In maintaining legal ambiguity, this reticence also provides space for law-making and regulatory diversity. The article reviews the three amendments to India's Patent Act 1970 and finds mixed use of residual flexibility and some evidence of efforts to explore legal ambiguity. Thus, despite a favourable climate to TRIPS implementation and an active transnational access to medicine campaign, legislators in India have demonstrated a degree of caution. The article concludes that this caution is best explained in terms of deepening ambivalence concerning intellectual property within the government and the changing economic interests of sections of Indian pharma. [source] MOSAICS OF MAYA LIVELIHOODS: READJUSTING TO GLOBAL AND LOCAL FOOD CRISESANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Rebecca K. Zarger The particularities of how residents in Southern Belize encounter the vagaries of what is commonly referred to as a "global food crisis" (between 2006 and 2008) are explored in this paper. Belize, like many other nation states around the globe, has been structurally (and sequentially) "readjusted" by transnational lending institutions over the last several decades. Cyclical shifts in agricultural practices have taken place in many Maya communities in Southern Belize in the last decade, partly in response to migration, a severe hurricane, land tenure conflicts, and within the last year, skyrocketing staple prices and food scarcity. The costs of basic staples such as corn, wheat, and rice have nearly doubled, in parallel with much of the rest of the globe during the same time frame. Shifts in subsistence strategies have significant implications for the power and politics of land use, access, and mobility. Furthermore, they reflect centuries-old ways of adjusting to changing circumstances in global markets and colonial and postcolonial realities. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of incorporating political and historical ecologies of land use and food production when considering the local impacts of global food crises. [source] Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business modelAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2010Helen Ashwell Abstract Objective: This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. Methods: A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Results: Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. Conclusion: An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Implications: Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills. [source] | |||||||||||||