Empowering development: capabilities and Latin American critical traditions

This thesis theoretically and critically examines the move towards people-centred approaches to development. It offers a critical examination of the work of Amartya Sen using theoretical resources emerging from Latin American traditions. Amartya Sen’s calls to understand Development as Freedom (1999) have significantly influenced mainstream development thinking and practice, constituting the clearest example of people-centred approaches to development today. Overcoming the limitations of previous state-centred notions of development articulated around ideas of economic growth, in Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) development is seen as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In this understanding, the agency of development shifts from the state to individuals and the analytic focus moves from economic growth to individual capabilities. In this manner, this framework is structured towards the central goal of empowerment, wherein the expansion of capabilities is seen both as the means and end of development. Since its inception, the widespread support for the CA has allowed for the expansion of ethical considerations within mainstream development thinking. Even while the remarkable advances offered by Sen’s work should be praised, this thesis argues that these have come with new limitations. These limitations stem from, what is termed here, a “Paradox of Empowerment” that effectively encloses Sen’s approach within Western notions of development. While Sen’s approach is poised to provide a theoretical framework that is built on the expansion of freedom and individual agency, there is little agency here to move beyond the ideas of development fundamentally linked to liberal democracies and market economies. This thesis engages with several critical traditions from Latin America, recovering their often undervalued insights for development thinking. Crucially, this engagement provides the critical framework to illustrate the aforementioned paradox and explore multiple dimensions of empowerment central for contemporary development thinking and practice. In this, the thesis engages Sen’s work with the Liberation Theology of Gustavo Gutierrez, with Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and with the contemporary discussions of ‘Buen Vivir’ associated with Indigenous philosophies of the Andean region. Throughout its chapters,it uncovers the conceptual baggage within the Paradox of Empowerment in Sen’s work and examines the ethical challenges and boundaries of this approach in relation to the collective dimension of development processes, the possibilities for structural transformation and concerns for sustainability. Progressively engaging the different dimensions of this paradox, this thesis advances the recovery of the transformative potential of the ideas of empowerment for development

The G2 checkpoint activated by DNA damage does not prevent genome instability in plant cells

Root growth, G2 length, and the frequency of aberrant mitoses and apoptotic nuclei were recorded after a single X-ray irradiation, ranging from 2.5 to 40 Gy, in Allium cepa L. root meristematic cells. After 72 h of recovery, root growth was reduced in a dose-dependent manner from 10 to 40 Gy, but not at 2.5 or 5 Gy doses. Flow cytometry plus TUNEL (TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling) showed that activation of apoptosis occurred only after 20 and 40 Gy of X-rays. Nevertheless, irrespective of the radiation dose, conventional flow cytometry showed that cells accumulated in G2 (4C DNA content). Simultaneously, the mitotic index fell, though a mitotic wave appeared later. Cell accumulation in G2 was transient and partially reversed by caffeine, thus it was checkpoint-dependent. Strikingly, the additional G2 time provided by this checkpoint was never long enough to complete DNA repair. Then, in all cases, some G2 cells with still-unrepaired DNA underwent checkpoint adaptation, i.e., they entered into the late mitotic wave with chromatid breaks. These cells and those produced by the breakage of chromosomal bridges in anaphase will reach the G1 of the next cell cycle unrepaired, ensuring the appearance of genome instabilit

Electron and Phonon Temperature Relaxation in Semiconductors Excited by Thermal Pulse

Electron and phonon transient temperatures are analyzed in the case of nondegenerate semiconductors. An analytical solution is obtained for rectangular laser pulse absorption. It is shown that thermal diffusion is the main energy relaxation mechanism in the phonon subsystem. The mechanism depends on the correlation between the sample length and the electron cooling length in an electron subsystem. Energy relaxation occurs by means of the electron thermal diffusion in thin samples (), and by means of the electron-phonon energy interaction in thick samples (). Characteristic relaxation times are obtained for all the cases, and analysis of these times is made. Electron and phonon temperature distributions in short and long samples are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed for different correlations between the laser pulse duration and characteristic times.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figure

La calidad de la democracia salvadoreña evaluada desde los logros de sus ciudadanos en el derecho a la comunicación

Propuestas a corto y mediano plazo en el tema del derecho a la comunicación en El Salvador y su contribución con la democraci

Migration, refugees, and health risks.

Migration both voluntary and forced is increasing all over the world. People are moving in larger numbers faster and further than at any other time in history. This is happening at a time when many countries are ill-prepared to deal with a changing demography and when policies and attitudes to population movement and immigration are hardening. The health implications of this are many, and, in some cases, illness and death rates associated with migration are exacerbated by a lack of policies needed to make migration a healthy and socially productive process. From a public health point of view, this is having and will continue to have serious ramifications for the people that move, the family they leave behind, and the communities that host the newcomers

Cálculo de tensiones en la superficie generalizada de recipientes a presión de composites: criterios de fallo

IX CONGRESO NACIONAL DE MATERIALES COMPUESTOS. Celebrado en Girona los días 5, 6, 7 y 8 de julio de 2011Se revisan las alternativas usadas, en el ámbito de los composites, para la determinación de las tensiones en puntos de la superficie generalizada de recipientes a presión de forma cilíndrica sometidos en exclusiva a la acción de sobrepresión interior. La revisión se complementa con la de los criterios de fallo empleados. Se comparan los resultados obtenidos para el campo de tensiones mediante: modelos analíticos simplificados (Teoría Clásica de Laminados y Cálculo de red), modelos analíticos generales (Formulación de Parnas-Lekhmitskii), modelos numéricos de softwares comerciales y medidas de laboratorio. La comparación de los criterios de fallo implica a los siguientes: Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu, Hoffman, Tensión máxima, Deformación máxima y AMS3 (AE). Se señalan los resultados consistentes entre todos los estudios, (ángulo óptimo de tejido y secuencias de apilado) y se evidencian y discuten aquéllos otros contradictorios, dando pie a nuevas líneas de trabaj