Replace One´s Place: The Livelihood of Internally Displaced People in Colombia

Colombia es el país con el número más alto en desplazados internos en el mundo. La población rural huye generalmente por la violencia generada en el conflicto armado. Pero también los llamados “proyectos de desarrollo” de empresas multinacionales que invierten en infraestructura generalmente afectan a comunidades locales. El Banco Mundial ofrece un manual de operaciones (4.12) para los “reasentamientos inducidos por el desarrollo” para evitar el empobrecimiento. El manual pone énfasis en la devolución de los bienes desubsistencia (livelihood) de la población reasentada. Pero, ¿comparte la población afectada por desplazamiento el mismo concepto de subsistencia (livelihood)? ¿Se puede reemplazar el lugar (place)? Entrevistas profundas con personas afectadas enseñan que cultura y proyecto de vida están relacionados fuertemente con lugar e identidad. A través de los resultados un enfoque (approach) de livelihood basado en el concepto de lugar es desarrollado y reúne la teoría de livelihood con la teoría del Buen Vivir.Colombia is the country with the highest number of internally displaced people worldwide. Rural populations often flee violence provoked by the armed conflict. Also so called “development projects” when multinational corporations invest in infrastructure, usually affect local communities. The World Bank provides an Operational Manual (4.12) for “development induced resettlement” to prevent impoverishment. It puts its focus on reimbursing the assets of livelihood of the resettled population. But does the population suffering of displacement share the same approach of livelihood? Can place be replaced? This thesis analyses the case of El Quimbo, a hydroelectric project in the south of Colombia, which displaces a peasant community. In-depth interviews with affected people show that culture and life projects are strongly related to place and identity. Through the findings a place-based livelihood approach is developed, bringing together the livelihood and the Buen Vivir (good life/well-being)approach

Ten recommendations for political ecology case research

Contributions in political ecology draw heavily on case study research. This has triggered questions regarding the wider theoretical relevance to such studies. This article argues that one of the main shortcomings of political ecology case studies is not their wider applicability, but that scholars often miss reflection on their chosen cases and case methodology. The purpose of the article is to examine the continued relevance of case study research, especially within more recent advances of political ecology, and to develop ten recommendations for how a political ecology case study could overcome identified weaknesses.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Technology of detachment : the promise of renewable energy and its contentious reality in the South of Colombia

Taking infrastructure as the means to control space, this paper analyses the large-scale hydroelectric dam project “El Quimbo” in Huila, South Colombia, and the environmental conflict it caused. The paper argues that instead of acting as a “technology of engagement” that extends vital infrastructure into marginalised territory, the dam functioned as a “technology of detachment” that destroyed the social and physical infrastructure in place, fragmented territory and marginalised affected populations further. While localised marginalisation can be considered an unintentional side-effect of a project, which otherwise serves the “greater good”, critical conceptualisations of the capitalist state see purpose behind these impacts. Governments use infrastructural objects as tools for social engineering, subjugating their population to control and discipline in line with their biopolitical project. The paper analyses how far this subjugation was visible in the El Quimbo dam case, and critically reflects on the promises of renewable energy. It brings novel insights to the infrastructure citizenship debate by highlighting that infrastructure can act as intermediary between state and citizens but, in the same way, can hamper citizenship formation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

New Permo-Carboniferous geochemical data from central Thailand: implication for a volcanic arc model

Current ideas and models of geotectonic reconstructions of Southeast Asia are reviewed and new data on Late Carboniferous through Middle Permian tuffites and sills from central Thailand are presented in the light of the problems of Southeast Asian palaeogeography. The volcanic rocks of quartz-keratophyric to spilitic composition are associated with platform carbonates and deep basin sediments. Their geochemistry and the character of the accompanying sediments suggest the existence of a Late Palaeozoic volcanic arc separating a subduction zone in the west from a back arc basin to the east. The geotectonic frame of Southeast Asia is explained in terms of repeated accretion of volcanic arcs by the Late Palaeozoic subduction zone along the northern Tethys margin

Immigration Encounter: Relevance of Emotions in Communication

Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication

Spatial distribution of centromeres and telomeres at interphase varies among Brachypodium species

In this study the 3-D distribution of centromeres and telomeres was analysed in the interphase nuclei of three Brachypodium species, i.e. B. distachyon (2n=10), B. stacei (2n=20) and B. hybridum (2n=30), which is presumably a hybrid between the first two species. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with centromeric and telomeric DNA probes, it was observed that the majority of B. distachyon nuclei in the root tip cells displayed the Rabl configuration while both B. stacei and B. hybridum mostly lacked the centromere-telomere polarization. In addition, differentiated leaf cells of B. distachyon did not display the Rabl pattern. In order to analyse the possible connection between the occurrence of the Rabl pattern and the phase of cell cycle or DNA content, FISH was combined with digital image cytometry. The results revealed that the frequency of nuclei with the Rabl configuration in the root tip nuclei was positively correlated with an increase in DNA content, which resulted from DNA replication. Also, the analysis of the influence of the nuclear shape on the nuclear architecture indicated that an increasing elongation of the nuclei negatively affected the occurrence of the Rabl pattern. Some possible explanations of these phenomena are discussed

Sub-kHz-level relative stabilization of an intracavity doubled continuous wave optical parametric oscillator using Pound-Drever-Hall scheme

We report the relative frequency stabilization of an intracavity frequency doubled singly resonant optical parametric oscillator on a Fabry-Perot\'etalon. The red/orange radiation produced by the frequency doubling of the intracavity resonant idler is stabilized using the Pound-Drever-Hall locking technique. The relative frequency noise of this orange light, when integrated from 1 Hz to 50 kHz, corresponds to a standard deviation of 700 Hz. The frequency noise of the pump laser is shown experimentally to be transferred to the non resonant signal beam