The Participation Paradox: Quotas Policy in Latin America

Within the last 20 years, the problem of women’s participation in formal power positions has been mobilising women, especially feminists, throughout Latin America. After over half a century since gaining the right to vote, Latin-American women have recognised that, in practice, this fought for right did not guarantee the right to be elected as well. Indeed, Latin American women have remained marginalised from power, kept from participating in greater numbers in deliberative power structures. In these circumstances, the implementation of quota systems for women in a context of affirmative action policies has figured as a major goal in the mobilisation of women in their struggle for access to power structures. In some countries, thanks to the implementation of quota systems such as in Costa Rica and Argentina, women have been able to effect changes in the balance of power, reaching significant levels of participation in legislative bodies. However, in the great majority of Latin American countries that adopted quota systems, major changes have yet to come through. This is true even in the case of Brazil, despite the presence of a strong and well articulated women’s movement. The objective of this paper, which was presented to presented to the 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Analysis Conference held in Cairo, 20-24 January 2009, is to analyse these different Latin American experiences with quota systems, identifying the factors that have contributed to their success or failure, the implications for women’s actual access to formal power, as well as the role of women and feminist movements in articulating these demands.UK Department for International Developmen

Quotas: A Pathway of Political Empowerment?

Over the last 20 years, the problem of low levels of representation of women in political office has been mobilising women, and especially feminists, throughout the world. The adoption of quotas has become a much?used tool to address the challenge of increasing women's political representation, and as a route to enhancing women's political empowerment. In Latin America, many countries have adopted quota systems, but with widely varying effects. This article takes stock of Latin American experience and asks to what extent quota systems have served as a pathway of women into politics. Identifying challenges to implementation and factors that have contributed to their success or failure, the article seeks to explore lessons that can be learnt from this experience that can help contribute to strengthening mechanisms and processes that support the achievement of greater equality in a sphere in which women continue to be grossly under?represented

UNA ARCHITECTS – AN INVESTIGATION ABOUT PROJECT

O escritório paulista UNA Arquitetos, fundado em 1996, tem ganhado notoriedade no cenário da arquitetura contemporânea brasileira. Como caracterizar suas obras? Quais “lições projetuais” podem ser depreendidas delas para subsidiar novas práticas e reflexões?  Sem estabelecer discursos definitivos sobre esses questionamentos, o estudo ensaia uma análise tipológica da sua produção. Agrupadas em torno de estruturas formais comuns e organizadas cronologicamente, o artigo estabelece relações entre as obras, revelando um enlace e nós de soluções projetuais. Entre continuidades e rupturas, busca-se “didatizar” a análise dos seus projetos, revertendo em argumentos que subsidiem a prática profissional, o ensino e a pesquisa em arquitetura. Palavras-chave: UNA arquitetos. Séries tipológicas. Arquitetura contemporânea. Tipologia.  The UNA architect’s office, based in São Paulo, founded in 1996, has gained notoriety in the scenario of contemporary Brazilian architecture. How to characterize their works? What "project lessons" can be learned from them to support new practices and reflections? Without establishing definitive discourses on these questions, the study tests a typological analysis of their production. Grouped in common formal structures and organized chronologically, the article establishes relationships between works, revealing a link and nodes of design solutions. Between continuities and ruptures,the aim is to “educate” the the analysis of their projects, reverting to arguments that support professional practice, teaching and research in architecture. Keywords: UNA architects. Typological series. Contemporary architecture. Typology

Quotas as a Path to Parity: Challenges to Women's Participation in Politics

The promise of democratic equality has not arrived for women. In all societies said to be democratic, women have had an arduous struggle and are still fighting for access to rights common to any male citizen, for example an equal salary for equal work, promotion opportunities, the right to physical integrity, and access to work. Gaining the right to vote and the right to run for office as elected representatives has not in practice meant the right to be elected under the same conditions as men (Petit 2007). In the immense majority of representative democracies, women are far from having won political equality. The huge difficulty that women face in being elected places in check the democratic commitment of societies who claim to be democracies. It also raises questions about the gap between the normative discourse on equality that exists in the majority of constitutional texts, in which the formal inclusion of women is explicitly stated, and the realities of women's continued political exclusion. In this article, I reflect on the implications of debates about seeking parity of political representation as a means of achieving formal equality between women and men in the political arena, and the use of quotas as an instrument of achieving this

Scholarly communication : the role of OAI in the context of Open Access

Discute a questão do Acesso Livre ao conhecimento científico, abordando, de maneira sucinta, seus impactos na pesquisa. Discorre sobre algumas das principais questões relacionadas ao uso de tecnologias da informação na comunicação científica, com ênfase em questões recentes, como o auto-arquivamento de trabalhos científicos em repositórios (via verde) e os periódicos científicos eletrônicos de Acesso Livre (via dourada). Tais questões são focadas simultaneamente como uma reação dos pesquisadores ao modelo de negócios vigente nas editoras científicas comerciais e uma conscientização do grande aumento de impacto dos documentos disponibilizados em Acesso Livre. Acrescenta a essa discussão informação sobre as políticas institucionais necessárias à implementação plena do Acesso Livre. Trata das principais tecnologias que suportam o Acesso Livre, tais como sistemas de gestão de repositórios e de revistas científicas que obedecem às especificações OAI. Além disso, discute perspectivas futuras que deverão nortear as políticas, a tomada de decisões e as ações por parte das instituições acadêmicas e governamentais que garantam o Acesso Livre, particularmente nos países lusófonos.This paper discusses Open Access to scientific knowledge and its impacts on research. It overviews some of the major issues regarding the use of information technologies in scholarly communication activities, highlighting recent issues such as repository selfarchiving (green road) and Open Access journals (golden road). Such issues are focused both as a reaction of researchers to the current business models of commercial scholarly publishers and as an awareness of the increasingly impact of documents available in Open Access. It adds to this discussion information about the necessary policies to fully implement Open Access. Authors describe the main technology facilities that support Open Access, such as OAI compliant Repositories and Journal Management systems. Moreover, future perspectives that should guide academic and government policies, decisions and actions that can assure Open Access, particularly in Portuguese Speaking Countries, are discussed

Fronteiras de Gênero no Urbanismo Moderno

A partir de que perspectiva se tem construído a cidade, a rua, a casa, o local de trabalho e o lazer? No interesse de quem   e   para   que   se   ordenam   as   cidades?   Que   ideologia   está   por   detrás   desta   “ordem”   proposta   para   as   cidades?   O presente artigo apresenta uma análise crítica feminista do urbanismo moderno desde sua gênese, no século XIX, no contexto da urbanização nascida da industrialização. A maior parte do que foi produzido sobre o urbanismo moderno e seu planejamento é de autoria masculina, branca e de origem europeia. A análise, em uma perspectiva feminista, conduz ao questionamento da noção do conhecimento objetivo produzido independente da sua posicionalidade e adota a standpoint epistemologie. Ao final, demonstra que o sujeito do conhecimento não é neutro, contrariando o discurso urbanístico vigente, um conhecimento construído por homens, de modo a atender e reforçar uma ideologia patriarcal. As consequências para as mulheres são sentidas hoje