The institutional forces that impact on the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the form of social partnerships in the Peruvian Mining industry

The purpose of this research is to examine the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements under the New Institutional theory that have an impact on the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the development of social partnerships between peasant communities, mining companies and government in Peru. The literature review shows that New institutionalism theory is a suitable theoretical framework as it analyses these three elements of institutionalism that shape the logic of behaviour of Peruvian native and non-native people towards CSR, including: regulative, represented by law; normative, seen in value dimensions; and cultural-cognitive, seen in the symbols that represent reality. This research contributes to the wider CSR literature in developing countries from the Andean region by capturing the native peoples’ voices. To this end, multiple qualitative methods including observations and semi-structured interviews have been utilised as they allow for a more in-depth, exploratory study. In total, 53 semi-structured interviews were carried out between August 2016 and September 2017 in Ancash and Lima regions. Moreover, indigenous methodology has been deployed to identify the ontological and epistemological stances of native people that involved participating in their traditions and seeking understanding of their oral stories. The findings from this study regarding the regulative elements, indicate that, whilst in Peru there is no specific law that promotes social partnerships, the government has developed an ecosystem of law that promotes social partnerships. The Work for Taxes law is appointed as the most important legal tool that fosters early development of partnerships. Similarly, the Prior Consultation law permits a space for dialogue between comuneros and mining companies as a starting point of a partnership. However, there is the perception that it does not protect comuneros’ rights from Andean regions, but rather, only indigenous people from the Amazon. For this reason, comuneros have often resorted to protest, which they see as a legitimate way to change the law to protect their rights. The findings regarding the normative elements of institutionalism suggest that egalitarianism is the most important value dimension for the development of partnerships as it offers the opportunity for collaboration between the parties and promotes the comuneros’ common welfare. Moreover, mining companies need to increase their efforts to develop trust by developing CSR initiatives that will benefit peasant communities. Meanwhile, comuneros demonstrate two levels of ambition to access CSR initiatives, a community-wide ambition, on which they are seeking for the best outcome for their own community; and group ambition, on which comuneros pursue economic group goals. Finally, in respect of the cultural-cognitive elements, this study found that comuneros demand CSR to have both components: compulsory CSR on which its initiatives attend their urgent needs; and voluntary CSR aimed at developing their long-term capabilities. Moreover, partnerships have been changing from bilateral agreements between comuneros and mining companies, towards tripartite ones that include the participation of the government, which can provide the technical support in the development of CSR initiatives; meanwhile, third parties only occupy the role as an advisor in the execution of CSR initiatives

Estado, comunidades locales y escuelas primarias en el departamento de Lima, Perú (1821-1905)

This article shows that from Independence up to the early twentieth century, regional, provincial and district elites in Lima used the growing educational apparatus to achieve and maintain political hegemony, and that patronage was a key mechanism in this pattern. Many of the alleged and real deficiencies of primary education were directly linked to the search for political power and material resources.Este artículo demuestra que desde la Independencia hasta principios del siglo XX, las élites regionales, provinciales y distritales de Lima utilizaron el creciente aparato educativo como un medio para conseguir y mantener la hegemonía política, para lo cual el clientelismo fue un mecanismo clave. Muchas de las deficiencias supuestas o reales de la educación primaria estuvieron directamente vinculadas a la búsqueda de poder político y de recursos materiales

Legal Narratives, Theraputic Narratives: The Invisibility and Omnipresence of Race and Gender

My first introduction to Denise Gray was through a form. The intake sheet was dated October 17, 1994. The legal problem was straightforward. My introduction to Denise Gray would come much later. I am a clinical law professor. The clinic, Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau, is known as LAB. I teach students law by supervising them as they represent, usually for the first time, a real person with real problems

Empowerment and Achievement in Minority Law Student Support Programs: Constructing Affirmative Action

Part I of this Article reviews the findings of the LSAC Report. The LSAC Report is a good beginning for an understanding of the structure of current minority academic support programs. The data provided by the Report, particularly regarding student selection criteria, demonstrates the link between support programs and affirmative action. Part II explores the stigma exacerbated by many academic support programs and the prejudice that stigma perpetuates. Part III examines law school myopia in approach and design of academic support programs. Academic support should do more than reiterate, albeit at a slow and studied pace, earlier classroom material. Students with a different acculturation require new approaches to material. Finally, Part IV describes concrete, affirmative measures to ameliorate the prejudice that isolates and undermines minority law students, the most important of which is the hiring of minority law faculty

A Critical Analysis of the Media Representations of Venezuelan Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum-Seekers (Venezuelan IRAS) in Peru

The Venezuelan migration phenomenon is currently the second-largest external displacement crisis worldwide. As the number of Venezuelans leaving their country has risen, migration policies in Latin American countries have become more restrictive. In Peru, the second-largest recipient of Venezuelans and the largest host of Venezuelan asylum-seekers worldwide, the securitization of migration policies started in August 2018 with a passport requirement for Venezuelans, and intensified in June 2019 with another, yet virtually unreachable requirement: the Humanitarian Visa. Utilizing media-framing theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study analyzed the media discourse built by El Comercio newspaper between April 1 and June 30, 2019. CDA was performed on a total of 63 news stories of different journalistic genres, and findings are consistent with the academic literature pertaining to the media representations of immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers around the globe. Overall, there is a tendency to frame Venezuelans negatively, portraying them as threats and accusing them of Peru’s structural flaws. In addition, specific findings suggest a lack of rigour in the journalistic practices of El Comercio as well as larger discursive strategies involving political purposes

Rapid absolute plate motion changes inferred from high-resolution relative spreading reconstructions: A case study focusing on the South America plate and its Atlantic/Pacific neighbors

The reconstruction of past plate motions relative to a deemed–to–be–fixed hotspot reference frame relies on the sparse occurrence of intraplate volcanism. Consequently, this absolute reference frame often features a temporal resolution that exceeds the rapid kinematic changes observed in plate–to–plate spreading reconstructions, changes recently shown to occur within less than 5 Ma. In this work we put forward an alternative method based on the study of high–resolution relative plate motion data sets. By studying time periods featuring a relatively high probability of plate motion change across multiple spreading ridges, we are able to identify and quantify (likely) changes in absolute plate motion. Specifically, we implement such approach and provide well–defined estimates for the absolute plate motion changes of South America and neighboring plates Nubia, Antarctica, Somalia, North America and Pacific. We find that kinematic changes for all these plates occur between 9 and 5 Ma. For South America, we identify a change also between 14 and 10 Ma. Lastly, we estimate the torque–variations required upon these plates to generate the inferred kinematic changes, which we find to be between ∼5⋅1023 and ∼20⋅1024 N ⋅ m

Molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance in plants

Environmental stress conditions such as drought, salt stress and pathogenic fungi affect negatively plant growth and productivity. Therefore, it is necessary to search for new genetic components and strategies for improving resistance and tolerance in crops. In the present thesis, we describe two different approaches that increase our understanding of mechanisms of stress tolerance in plants. The first approach is to study an extreme adaptation to dehydration tolerance from a plant than can "resurrect" after being completely dried. The second study addresses how plant might respond to two different stresses simultaneously, and how one stress can enhance the response to the other. In Chapter 2, we investigate the dehydration tolerance mechanism in the model resurrection grass species Sporobolus stapfianus using a large scale expression profiling of leaf tissues at full hydration, during drying and after re-watering. This study provides some important insights into the gene regulatory mechanisms used by this interesting plant during severe vegetative desiccation and subsequent recovering during re-watering. We also found some genes that are differentially expressed between S. stapfianus and its desiccation sensitive sister species S. pyramidalis. These genes are considered potential candidates for engineering drought tolerant crops. Previous studies have shown a positive effect of chitin (released from the fungal cell wall) on salinity tolerance. In Chapter 3, we explore the cross talk between salt stress and chitin-triggered immune responses. Our results demonstrate a physiological and biochemical link between salinity stress and chitin-triggered innate immunity. Chitin receptors, CERK1 and LYK4, and ANN1, a NaCl- induced calcium permeable channel, interact physically at the plasma membrane and are necessary to modulate early responses (e.g. Ca2+ signaling) to both stresses. Understanding these layers of cross-talk may lead to more sustainable methods to employ innate immunity to protect against both biotic and abiotic stress induced crop losses

Evaluation of the Agreements of the National Reforestation Program in the Santiago de Quito, Palmira, Pistishi and Compud parishes, Chimborazo Province

The objective of this study was to evaluate the Forest Restoration agreements, by means of sampling the equivalent of 10% of the entire ground surface and 10% of the total land, in which control points were established in order to estimate the planted area; for the verification of land for reforestation, the control points were issued from the central office, which were located in the field with GPS; then the systematization of the data collected in the field was carried out. In the Palmira parish, the area evaluated showed 39.38 ha (74.94%) in which there were indications of planting, and 12.84 ha (26.06%) that did not show signs of planting; 57 farms were evaluated, of which 14 (71.93%) presented evidence of planting and 16 farms (28.07%) had no such evidence. In the Pistishi parish, the area evaluated had 36.27 ha (93.81%) in which there were signs of planting, and 2.39 ha (6.19%) that did not show signs of planting; 29 farms were evaluated, of which 22 (75.86%) presented evidence of planting and 2 (24.14%) had no evidence of planting. The properties evaluated in the Santiago de Quito and Compud parishes were considered for reforestation. Keywords: forest restoration, inventory, biodiversity, reforestation. Resumen El objetivo del trabajo fue evaluar los convenios de Restauración Forestal, mediante un muestreo equivalente al 10% de toda la superficie y el 10% del total de los predios, en los que se establecieron puntos de control con la finalidad de estimar la superficie plantada; para la verificación de predios para la reforestación, desde central fue emitido los puntos de control los mismos que fueron ubicados en campo con GPS; seguidamente se realizó la sistematización de los datos recogidos en campo. En la parroquia Palmira se evalúo un área plantada de 39,38 ha (74,94%) en el que se registró indicios de haberse plantado, 12,84 ha (26,06%) no presento indicios de plantación; se evaluaron 57 predios de los cuales 14 (71,93%) presentó plantaciones y 16 predios (28,07%) no se registra indicios de plantación. En ella Parroquia Pistishi se evalúo un área de 36,27 ha (93,81%) en el que se registró indicios de plantación, 2,39 ha (6,19%) no presento indicios de plantación; se evaluaron 29 predios de los cuales 22 (75,86%) presentó evidencias de plantación y 2 (24,14%) no se registra indicios de plantación. Los predios evaluados en las parroquias Santiago de Quito y Compud fueron consideraron para la reforestación. Palabras clave: restauración forestal, inventario, biodiversidad, reforestación

The enigmatic spin evolution of PSR J0537-6910: r-modes, gravitational waves and the case for continued timing

We discuss the unique spin evolution of the young X-ray pulsar PSR J0537-6910, a system in which the regular spin down is interrupted by glitches every few months. Drawing on the complete timing data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE, from 1999-2011), we argue that a trend in the inter-glitch behaviour points to an effective braking index close to $n=7$, much larger than expected. This value is interesting because it would accord with the neutron star spinning down due to gravitational waves from an unstable r-mode. We discuss to what extent this, admittedly speculative, scenario may be consistent and if the associated gravitational-wave signal would be within reach of ground based detectors. Our estimates suggest that one may, indeed, be able to use future observations to test the idea. Further precision timing would help enhance the achievable sensitivity and we advocate a joint observing campaign between the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) and the LIGO-Virgo network.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, emulate ApJ forma