160 research outputs found
Transnational reflections on transnational research projects on men, boys and gender relations
This article reflects on the research project, âEngaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-beingâ, funded by the Finnish and South African national research councils, in the context of wider debates on research, projects and transnational processes. The project is located within a broader analysis of research projects and projectization (the reduction of research to separate projects), and the increasing tendencies for research to be framed within and as projects, with their own specific temporal and organizational characteristics. This approach is developed further in terms of different understandings of research across borders: international, comparative, multinational and transnational. Special attention is given to differences between research projects that are in the Europe and the EU, and projects that are between the global North and the global South. The theoretical, political and practical challenges of the North-South research project are discussed
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'This is not America': Cultural mythscapes, media representation and the anatomy of the Surveillance School in Australia
Schools have exhibited a demonstrable predilection for surveillance technologies in recent years. While much attention has been paid to the globalized diffusion of surveillance and security practices, in contrast, the ways in which artefacts of surveillance surface and take root unevenly internationally has not received much scholarly attention. Drawing on the media representation of emergent school surveillance technologies in Australia, this article seeks to illuminate how distinctive cultural dynamics interact with acceptability, reverence and rejection of surveillance apparatus in the educational context. Far from revealing homogeneity in the manifestation of surveillance practices, the findings show that cultural context and specificity are central to understanding the materiality of surveillance apparatus and regimes
Country Concepts and the Rational Actor Trap: Limitations to Strategic Management of International NGOs
Growing criticism of inefficient development aid demanded new planning instruments of donors, including international NGOs (INGOs). A reorientation from isolated project-planning towards holistic country concepts and the increasing rationality of a result-orientated planning process were seen as answer. However, whether these country concepts - newly introduced by major INGOs too - have increased the efficiency of development cooperation is open to question. Firstly, there have been counteracting external factors, like the globalization of the aid business, that demanded structural changes in the composition of INGO portfolios towards growing short-term humanitarian aid; this was hardly compatible with the requirements of medium-term country planning. Secondly, the underlying vision of rationality as a remedy for the major ills of development aid was in itself a fallacy. A major change in the methodology of planning, closely connected with a shift of emphasis in the approach to development cooperation, away from project planning and service delivery, towards supporting the socio-cultural and political environment of the recipient communities, demands a reorientation of aid management: The most urgent change needed is by donors, away from the blinkers of result-orientated planning towards participative organizational cultures of learning.Des critiques croissantes de l'aide au dĂ©veloppement inefficace exigent de nouveaux instruments de planification des bailleurs de fonds, y compris les ONG internationales (ONGI). Une rĂ©orientation de la planification des projets isolĂ©s vers des concepts holistiques de la planification de lâaide par pays ainsi que la rationalitĂ© croissante d'un processus de planification orientĂ©e vers les rĂ©sultats ont Ă©tĂ© considĂ©rĂ©s comme rĂ©ponse. Toutefois, si ces concepts de pays - nouvellement introduites par les grandes OING eux aussi - ont augmentĂ© l'efficacitĂ© de la coopĂ©ration au dĂ©veloppement est ouvert Ă la question. Tout d'abord, il y a eu lâimpact des facteurs externes, comme la mondialisation de l'entreprise de l'aide, qui a exigĂ© des changements structurels dans la composition des portefeuilles des OING vers la croissance de l'aide humanitaire Ă court terme. Cela Ă©tait difficilement compatible avec les exigences de l'amĂ©nagement du territoire Ă moyen terme. DeuxiĂšmement, la vision sous-jacente de la rationalitĂ© accrue de la planification, concentrĂ© sur les resultats, comme un remĂšde pour les grands maux de l'aide au dĂ©veloppement Ă©tait en soi une erreur. Un changement majeur dans la mĂ©thodologie de la planification, Ă©troitement liĂ©e Ă un changement d'orientation dans l'approche de la coopĂ©ration au dĂ©veloppement, qui nâest pas concentrer sur planification du projet et la prestation de services, mais qui soutienne l'environnement socio-culturel et politique des communautĂ©s bĂ©nĂ©ficiaires, exige une rĂ©orientation de la gestion de lâaide: Le changement le plus urgent est un changement par les donateurs eux-mĂȘmes, qui devrait implanter des cultures de collaboration Ă©troit avec les partenaires et la population locale
Against the epistemicide. : Itinerant curriculum theory and the reiteration of an epistemology of liberation
Echoing Ettore Scola metaphor âBruti, Sporchi & Cativiâ, this chapter challenges how hegemonic and specific (or so called) counter hegemonic curriculum platforms â so connected with Western Eurocentric Modernity â have been able to colonize the field without any prudency to âfabricateâ and impose a classed, raced and gendered philosophy of praxis, as unique, that drives the field to an ideological surrealism and collective suicide. Such collective suicide framed by a theoretical timesharing unleashed by both dominant and specific counter dominant platforms that tenaciously controlled the circuits of cultural production grooms the field as a ghetto, flooded with rudeness, and miserable ambitions, a theoretical caliphate that wipes out any episteme beyond the Western Eurocentric Modern terrain, insolently droving to sewage of society the needs and desires of students, teachers and the community. Drawing from key decolonial thinkers, this chapter examines the way Western eugenic curriculum of modernity created an abyssal thinking in which âthis sideâ of the line is legitimate and âthe other sideâ has been produced as ânon-existentâ (Sousa Santos B, Another knowledge is possible. Verso, London, 2007). The paper suggests the need to move a post-abyssal curriculum that challenges dominant and counter dominant traditions within âthis sideâ of the line, and respects âthe otherâ side of the line. The paper challenges curriculum studies to assume a non-abyssal position one that respects epistemological diversity. This requires an Itinerant Curriculum Theory (Paraskeva JM, Conflicts in curriculum theory: Challenging hegemonic epistemologies. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2011), which is a commitment and a ruthless epistemological critique of every existing epistemology
Crucial role of conserved lysine 277 in the fidelity of tRNA aminoacylation by Escherichia coli valyl-tRNA synthetase.
International audienceValyl-tRNA synthetase (ValRS) from Escherichia coli undergoes covalent valylation by a donor valyl adenylate synthesized by the enzyme itself. ValRS could also be modified, although to a lesser extent, by the noncognate isosteric substrate L-threonine from a donor threonyl adenylate synthesized by the synthetase itself, or by the nonsubstrate methionine from methionyl adenylate produced by catalytic amounts of methionyl-tRNA synthetase. MALDI mass spectrometry analysis designated lysines 154, 162, 170, 533, 554, 593, 894, 930, and 940 of ValRS as the target residues for the attachment of valine. Following autothreonylation, lysines 162, 170, 178, 277, 291, 554, 580, 593, 861, 894, and 930 were found to be modified. Finally, L-Met-labeled residues were lysines 118, 162, 170, 178, 277, and 938. Alignment of the available ValRS amino acid sequences showed that lysines 277 and 554 are strictly conserved (with the exception concerning replacement of Lys-277 with a methionine or a tyrosine in archaebacteria), suggesting that these residues might be functionally significant. Indeed, lysine 554 of ValRS is the first lysine of the Lys-Met-Ser-Lys-Ser signature of the catalytic site of class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Lys-277 which is labeled by L-threonine or L-methionine, and not by L-valine, is located at or near the editing site, in the three-dimensional structure of ValRS. The role of lysine 277 was evaluated by site-directed mutagenesis. The Lys277Ala mutant (K277A) exhibited a posttransfer Thr-tRNA(Val) editing rate that was significantly lower than that observed for the wild-type enzyme. In addition, the K277A substitution altered amino acid discrimination in the editing site, resulting in hydrolysis of the correctly charged cognate Val-tRNA(Val). Finally, significant amounts of mischarged Thr-tRNA(Val) were produced by the K277A mutant, and not by wild-type ValRS. Altogether, our results designate Lys-277 as a likely candidate for nucleophilic attack of misacylated tRNA in the editing site of ValRS
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