Post Conflict Development

One should not conclude that Michael Burleigh’s “Small Wars, Far Away Places” is an account of obscure, unimportant conflicts.  While the conflicts about which Burleigh writes may seem to be relatively insignificant against the backdrop of the Cold War, Burleigh is presenting the reader with a new intellectual paradigm through which to consider the development of the modern world; in fact the subscript to his book is “The Genesis of the Modern World, 1945-1965.”  Burleigh, an independent scholar and author of “The Third Reich: A New History” and “Moral Combat,” does not necessarily shed new light on events as much as he reformulates the intellectual templates through which we view the past, allowing the astute reader to draw out the important themes which might be relevant today. 

"In a village community in the highlands of Cambodia’s Southwest, people struggle to rebuild their lives after nearly thirty years of war and genocide. Recovery is a tenuous process as villagers attempt to shape a future while contending with the terrible rupture of the Pol Pot era. Forest of Struggle tracks the fragile progress of restoring the bonds of community in O’Thmaa and its environs, the site of a Khmer Rouge base and battlefield for nearly three decades between 1970 and 1998.

Anthropologist Eve Zucker’s ethnographic fieldwork (2001–2003, 2010) uncovers the experiences of the people of O’Thmaa in the early days of the revolution, when some villagers turned on each other with lethal results. She examines memories of violence and considers the means by which relatedness and moral order are re-established, comparing O’Thmaa with villages in a neighboring commune that suffered similar but not identical trauma. Zucker argues that those differing experiences shape present ways of healing and making the future. Events had a devastating effect on the social and moral order at the time and continue to impair the remaking of sociality and civil society today, impacting villagers’ responses to changes in recent years.

More positively, Zucker persuasively illustrates how Cambodians employ indigenous means to reconcile their painful memories of loss and devastation. This point is noteworthy given current debates on recovery surrounding the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Forest of Struggle offers a compelling case study that is relevant to anyone interested in post-conflict recovery, social memory, the anthropology of morality and violence, and Cambodia studies."

This article examines Rwanda’s gender equality policies with the intention of contributing to the ongoing debate in the literature on the meaning of gender equality initiatives in authoritarian states. The article evaluates the transformative potential of Rwanda’s gender equality policies with reference to deep-rooted societal norms and practices within which gender inequalities are embedded. To this end, the article draws on in-depth interviews conducted in Rwanda with a range of stakeholders, as well as on documentary research. It explores the factors informing the Rwandan commitment to gender equality, and the positive developments this has brought about, before identifying five trends that threaten the transformative potential of Rwandan gender equality policies. The authors conclude that while a strong political will and target-driven policies offer opportunities for promoting gender equality, the transformative potential is jeopardized by the dominance of an underlying economic rationale; the neglect of the ‘invisible labour’ of women; the formalistic implementation of gender policies and their focus on quantitative results; the limited scope for civil society voices to influence policy; and the lack of grassroots participation.

"http://www.wolterskluwer.ro/variae/wolters-kluwer/the-romani-peoples-and-their-right-to-cultural-heritage

“Silvia Tabusca's book on the Roma peoples and their culture is a fascinating account of the history and life of communities radically different from mainstream modern society and its guiding lights. With appealing deep sympathy for the human beings involved, the author makes a compelling case for putting an end to the ubiquitous historic injustices of discrimination and for the tailoring of a legal regime to the specific needs and aspirations of the Roma, based on the global appreciation of cultural diversity within the framework of a world public order of human dignity”.

Professor Dr. iur. Siegfried Wiessner, Director, Graduate Program in Intercultural Human Rights, St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, Florida; former Chair of the International Law Association's Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples""

In dieser Arbeit erforsche ich das Problem der Hegelschen Bestimmung der Staatssouveränität im Hinblick auf die onto-logischen Kategorien der Negativität und des Idealismus. Ich versuche zu zeigen, dass eine solche Auffassung Hegels von der Staatssouveränität zur doppelten Bestimmung des Staatsbegriffs in seiner Philosophie des Rechts führt.

"They live quietly in the villages and towns of China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, which border their country of origin. Undocumented migrants, abused women, Vietnamese women of all ages try to live decent lives as wives and mothers, isolated from their home communities. If their “sisters” from border brothels attract attention from researchers, these unfortunates do not generate much interest. The product of a turbulent history of conflict, trade, and alliances between China and Vietnam, but also driven by poverty and hope, these women have recently helped provide a local solution to one of China’s major demographic issues: the lack of girls and thus spouses in rural areas resulting from China’s family planning policies and rural-urban migration. Stolen, Vanished, Wedded goes beyond the structural explanations for these women’s existence—economic difficulties, demographic imbalance, human trafficking—and lets them speak for themselves, acknowledging the ambiguity of their identities and the role that these identities play in an ambivalent local discourse. The result of investigations conducted recently, the book’s biographies and descriptions express the complexity of this social phenonemon—a phenomemon complicated by flows of migrations and business transactions, and one that is typical in the developing border regions of East and Southeast Asia. It describes the daily realities of these women’s marginalized and insecure lives by drawing on extensive empirical research conducted without preconceptions or compromise, but not without humility.

Elles vivent discrètement dans les bourgades et villages chinois du Yunnan et du Guangxi, à la frontière de leur pays d’origine. Migrantes clandestines, femmes abusées, des Vietnamiennes de tous âges tentent de vivre décemment une existence d’épouse et de mère, malgré elles en marge de leurs communautés d’origine et d’accueil. Si leurs consœurs des bordels frontaliers attirent l’attention, ces infortunées ne suscitent guère l’intérêt. Héritières d’un turbulent passé de conflits, de négoce et d’alliances matrimoniales entre Chine et Vietnam, poussées par la pauvreté et le désir d’émancipation, elles contribuent pourtant à résoudre un grave problème que la Chine subit depuis peu, conséquence de la politique de contrôle des naissances et de l’exode rural : le manque de filles, et donc d’épouses pour nombre de paysans. Au-delà des explications faciles : difficultés économiques, déséquilibres démographiques, trafic humain, cette enquête inédite donne la parole à ces femmes dont l’image ambiguë sert un discours local ambivalent. Fruit d’enquêtes menées très récemment autour de plusieurs postes frontaliers, les témoignages et situations nourrissant cet essai expriment la complexité d’un fait social existant de manière floue entre flux migratoires, transactions commerciales et déséquilibres sociaux, typiques d’Extrême-Orient et surtout de cet espace frontalier en devenir. Prétendre saisir ces vies souvent réduites à l’impasse, précaires, existant en marge du monde, impose de se confronter au terrain, à l’écoute des épreuves individuelles, sans parti-pris ni compromission, et avec humilité.

THE AUTHOR

Social Anthropologist (University Paris X-Nanterre) and sinologist (INALCO, France), Caroline Grillot has lived in China for more than ten years. A student at the Universities of Shandong (1994-95) and Sichuan (1998-2000), she was supported by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. C. Grillot has worked as a program assistant at UNESCO’s Beijing Office on the implementation of several programs in social sciences, and as a translator of Chinese novels for the French publisher Bleu de Chine (Paris). She has also conducted research in the field of Chinese underground music. C. Grillot has obtained in 2012 a Ph.D. in social anthropology under the joint supervision of Professors Lisa Wynn at Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia), and Pal Nyíri at the Free University in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

L'AUTEUR
Ethnologue d’abord formée à l’Université Paris X-Nanterre puis par la pratique, et sinologue formée à l’Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales de Paris (INALCO), Caroline Grillot a effectué plusieurs séjours en Chine où elle a passé plus de dix ans, aux Universités du Shandong (1994-95) et du Sichuan (1998-2000), avec le soutien du ministère français des Affaires étrangères et européennes, puis comme assistante de projet UNESCO à Beijing pour la mise en place de programmes en sciences sociales. Longtemps engagée dans le milieu de la musique indépendante chinoise, elle fut également traductrice de romans chinois pour les éditions Bleu de Chine (Paris) et pour divers projets artistiques. Elle a obtenu en 2012 un Ph.D. (thèse de doctorat) en anthropologie sociale en co-tutelle, sous la direction conjointe du professeur Lisa Wynn de l’Université Macquarie de Sydney (Australie) et du professeur Pal Nyíri de l’Université Libre d’Amsterdam (Pays-Bas)."

"This chapter examines how stakeholders try to influence how business should conduct itself to become a socially responsible organ of society. The assessment is made in the
context of society’s pursuit of a holistic and democratic sustainability, encompassing its social, economic and environmental dimensions. I part from the premise that there is broad consensus that we must redress the postulates under which human activity takes place, for the footprint we are embedding on the planet is completely unsustainable. Thus, increasingly, we are coming to terms with the need to build a new culture for the sustainability of people and planet.

At the core of our consumer-society’s structures is the market. Business, as the market’s leading driver and with the largest sphere of influence on all dimensions of human activity, bears considerable responsibility for the current footprint and for the successful pursuit of a new sustainable ethos. Making it accountable for its performance, through a binding universal regulatory framework, is instrumental for building a truly sustainable paradigm.

Yet there is no consensus about the responsibilities and areas of accountability of business. This has engendered a permanent debate among different stakeholders with opposing views on the social responsibilities of business. This is an assessment of how interested stakeholders of civil society who want to change the current ethos try to influence corporate behaviour and that of other stakeholders opposing a binding framework."