Gender Justice and (In)security in Pakistan and Afghanistan†

ABSTRACT

This article argues that gender justice becomes a politicised issue in counterproductive ways in conflict zones. Despite claims of following democratic principles, cultural norms have often taken precedence over ensuring gender-sensitive security practices on the ground. The rightness of the ‘war on terror’ justified by evoking fear and enforced through colonial methods of surveillance, torture, and repression in counter-terrorism measures, reproduces colonial strategies of governance. In the current context, the postcolonial sovereign state with its colonial memories and structures of violence attempts to control women’s identities. This article analyses some of these debates within the context of Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s security dynamics. It begins with the premise that a deliberate focus on the exclusion and limitation of women in Muslim and traditional societies sustains and reinforces the stereotypes of women as silent and silenced actors only. However, while the control of women within and beyond the nexus of patriarchal family'society'state is central to extremist ideologies and institutionalisation practices, women’s vulnerabilities and insecurities increase in times of conflict not only because of the action of religious forces, but also because of ‘progressive’, ‘secular’, ‘humanitarian’ interventions.     

‘It’s good but it’s not enough’: the relational geographies of social policy and youth mentoring interventions

Developing a critical analysis of the relational and situated practices of social policy, this paper draws on an evaluation of an early intervention project in Scotland (UK) where volunteer adult mentors supported young people ‘at risk’ of offending or antisocial behaviour. Contributing to ‘enlivened’ accounts of social practice, we explore how practices of mentoring developed through the co-presence of mentor and young person in the often transitory spaces of care which characterized the ‘diversionary activities’ approach in the project. We expand the notion of the relational in social practice beyond the care-recipient dyad to include wider networks of care (families, programme workers, social institutions). The paper explores how such social interventions might both be ‘good’ for the young people involved, and yet recognize critiques that more individualized models of intervention inevitably have limitations which make them ‘not enough’ to deal with structural inequalities and disadvantages. Acknowledging the impacts of neoliberalism, we argue critical attention to diverse situated relational practices points to the excessive nature of engagement in social policy and provides scope for transformative practice where young people’s geographies can be ‘upscaled’ to connect to the realms of social policy and practice.     

The Mysterious Lives of Words,Sounds, and Images: Now I Only Know This Far,Too…

Discerning art in verbal messages, a primary concern of ethnopoetics, is contested and complex. Skeptical linguists argue that linguistic richness is epiphenomenal and should be reduced to underlying principles. Even sympathetic anthropologists and linguists often dismiss the aesthetic uses of language in favor of semantics or social structure. Dell Hymes and Saskia Kersenboom suggest that such attitudes cause us to miss much, and show that the means of narration, editing, and transmission of verbal art are key to both its local appreciation and wider dissemination. I argue that a preoccupation with universals versus particulars is not very beneficial.     

新区域经营观的空间体系价值统一规划理念——我的区域规划社会公正观

依据\"新社会经济发展的公正理念\"首议的\"新区域经营\"管理思想,从空间公正角度创立了将其耦合到区域发展规划的系统理念。当代人文社会科学与区域学科出现了\"社会公正\"转向探讨的系列\"新\"前沿理念。地理学提出了新人文地理学逻辑,社会行政的公共管理也提出了新公共管理逻辑。将空间公正与社会公正耦合到区域生活空间单元体系,为此\"新区域经营\"提出了\"社会与区域价值统一\"的原理。论文以新人文地理学的\"社会生活空间质量观\"为基础,阐述了\"空间体系价值统一规划\"机理、原则与控制性路径;其次,论证了其构建的价值体系响应及构成因素响应结构;最后,论述了新区域经营观对生活质量价值统一的两个层次控制规划规则与路径。     

再发展能力与社会公正——关于安倍政府的再挑战援助计划

日本安倍政府上台后,在促进社会公平正义方面,提出了再挑战援助计划,以提升再发展能力为核心,通过扶助弱势群体、增加就业岗位、完善社会保障制度等措施,为失败者提供一个走向成功的外部保障体系。其部分措施对我国建设和谐社会具有一定的启示。     

建立劳动者利益公平增长机制

收入分配问题已成为我国当前社会问题中最引人注目的问题,资本收益与劳动收入、经营者收入与劳动者收入差距过大,是收入分配问题的根源。要实现不同群体利益的公平增长,关键是建立、完善劳动者维权机制,提高弱势群体维护自己利益的能力。在现代企业制度下,实现劳动股本化是实现劳动者利益在公平中增长的一条颇有希望的改革之路。     

略论冷战后美国的国际安全理论

冷战结束后,为维持"一超"霸权地位,美国的国际安全理论与实践发生了巨大的变化。在理论上,"终结主义范式"理论、"文明冲突范式"理论和"霸权稳定范式"理论在美国政府的决策上占据了主导地位。这些理论鼓吹大国之间和"民主"国家之间的冲突已经结束,现在的冲突,是异质文化与西方文化的"文明冲突"。为了国际安全,需要改造异质文化,消除"暴政",推行"民主"。为此,美国可以"先发制人",对"威胁"其国际安全的国家或其他行为体进行军事打击,以"结束世界上的暴政"。这些理论导致了美国的对外干涉、战争和冲突。这充分证明,在冷战结束后,不仅非传统安全因素威胁着国际安全,美国霸权主义更威胁着国际安全,需要充分揭露和批判。     

Innovation,knowledge and relations – on the role of clusters for firms’ innovativeness

ABSTRACT

For more than two decades, theories on regional clusters have inspired economic and structural policies at the European, national and regional levels. Based on the assumption that clusters generate innovation, policy-makers at all levels of governance have adopted instruments and mechanisms to stimulate, resource and sustain clusters. Despite the considerable attention paid to the clustering phenomenon, empirical evidence on to what extent firms’ innovation activities benefit from operating in clusters is scarce and inconclusive. This paper contributes to the micro-foundation of clustering effects by examining the characteristics and activities of cluster firms in relation to their innovativeness. Bridging innovation, management and cluster theories, it is argued that structural and relational embeddedness, relational capital and absorptive capacity influence clustered firms' innovativeness. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling of data from 104 firms in two software and information technology service sector clusters reveals that firms’ structural embeddedness (i.e. frequency of interactions) in clusters and external networks facilitates innovation cooperation. Firms’ absorptive capacity reinforces this positive effect of cluster-internal interactions on innovation cooperation. Results also suggest a substitution effect of trust as relational control mechanisms for formal control mechanisms within the cluster. However, the study finds no significant impact of firms’ innovation cooperation within the cluster (i.e. relational embeddedness) on their innovation success.