Human Rights and the Pink Tide in Latin America : Which Rights Matter?

Latin America witnessed the election of ‘new Left’ governments in the early 21 st century that, in different ways, sought to open a debate about alternatives to paradigms of neoliberal development. What has this meant for the way that human rights are understood and for patterns of human rights compliance? Using qualitative and quantitative evidence, this article discusses how human rights are imagined and the compliance records of new Left governments through the lens of the three ‘generations’ of human rights — political and civil, social and economic, and cultural and environmental rights. The authors draw in particular on evidence from Andean countries and the Southern Cone. While basic civil and individual liberties are still far from guaranteed, especially in the Andean region, new Left countries show better overall performances in relation to socio-economic rights compared to the past and to other Latin American countries. All new Left governments also demonstrate an increasing interest in ‘third generation’ (cultural and environmental) rights, though this is especially marked in the Andean Left. The authors discuss the tensions around interpretations and categories of human rights, reflect on the stagnation of first generation rights and note the difficulties associated with translating second and third generation rights into policy

External information sources and players’ experiences with them in regard to MMORPGs

The purpose of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of players’ information behavior in regard to MMORPGs’ external information sources. Despite MMORPGs being a popular recreational activity, and players of this genre of games demonstrating novel information search strategies, this is still an understudied aspect of LIS research. The empirical material was gathered by conducting five semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using a model based upon Harviainen and Savolainien’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems, along with Wilsons (1999) nested model for information-seeking and information search behaviour. The findings show that external information sources play an important role for players in the information infrastructure of MMORPGs as is also confirmed by previous research on this topic. Which information sources players choose to access is determined based on convenience, habits and the nature of the players information need. The players demonstrate differences in their information behavior depending on if they are less experienced or experienced players. Less experienced players prefer utilizing other players before utilizing external information sources, while experienced players prefer utilizing external information sources as their first option. The findings show that the MMORPG Warframe is also applicable in Harviainen and Savolainen’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems. The different types of information behaviors that a player can manifest during play seems to align with previous research on the subject

External information sources and players’ experiences with them in regard to MMORPGs

The purpose of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of players’ information behavior in regard to MMORPGs’ external information sources. Despite MMORPGs being a popular recreational activity, and players of this genre of games demonstrating novel information search strategies, this is still an understudied aspect of LIS research. The empirical material was gathered by conducting five semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using a model based upon Harviainen and Savolainien’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems, along with Wilsons (1999) nested model for information-seeking and information search behaviour. The findings show that external information sources play an important role for players in the information infrastructure of MMORPGs as is also confirmed by previous research on this topic. Which information sources players choose to access is determined based on convenience, habits and the nature of the players information need. The players demonstrate differences in their information behavior depending on if they are less experienced or experienced players. Less experienced players prefer utilizing other players before utilizing external information sources, while experienced players prefer utilizing external information sources as their first option. The findings show that the MMORPG Warframe is also applicable in Harviainen and Savolainen’s (2014) theory of MMORPGs as information systems. The different types of information behaviors that a player can manifest during play seems to align with previous research on the subject

Military involvement in law enforcement

Law enforcement is not a task usually undertaken by military forces, at least within domestic legal contexts. Conversely, maintaining or restoring security within dysfunctional or ‘post-conflict’ areas of operation is a role commonly undertaken by them. Within these latter operations, the skill sets and highly calibrated application of force that are commonly associated with police forces in their law enforcement role are in fact manifested in a decisively military context. This article reviews the experiences and legal frameworks associated with military participation in two separate types of mission, namely UN-sponsored peace operations and unilateral/multilateral stabilization and counter-insurgency operations. It argues that these contexts have demanded a revised interpretative approach to the applicable law, one that is much more sensitive to social and political effect.Dale Stephen

Nuns and Sisters in the Nordic Countries after the Reformation. A Female Counter-Culture in Modern Society.

Female religious communities, and later also convents, accompanied the return of the Roman Catholic Church to the Nordic countries in the middle of the nineteenth century. These religious communities were mostly so-called active orders or congregations, who helped in parishes or ran private schools, orphanages or nursing homes. In the 1930s there were nearly 1,400 Catholic sisters working in Scandinavia. At the same time, there was a growing interest for regulated religious life within the established Lutheran Churches, and small communities – mostly female – were founded. In Finland, there was an unbroken tradition of orthodox monasticism. Until recently, however, monasticism was rejected as "Catholic" and thereby foreign to Nordic national identity. Religious communities were regarded as a tool of Roman Catholic propaganda, especially insidious to Nordic women. According to the mainstream Nordic tradition at the time, women’s calling was to marry and bear children. The female religious communities thus represented not only an alternative form of life but also a counter-culture in the Lutheran Nordic society. In the present book, we meet this female counter-culture in its various forms and expressions. The articles focus partly on Nordic Christian women, Catholic converts as well as members of the established Lutheran churches who were attracted to regulated religious life, and partly on sisters in Catholic religious congregations working in the Nordic countries. A common trait is that these women, although in various ways, traversed contemporary social and religious boundaries. By studying a variety of female religious orders and congregations, the authors have highlighted the frequently tense relation between "Catholic" and "Nordic" values, between tradition and modernity, and between Nordic and foreign. The long time period studied allows for the making of diachronic comparisons and to record transitions and changes in attitude and behaviour