Entrepreneurship in Peace Operations

Journal of Civic Society," 6(01), (2010), pp. 1-21.A central question guides this article: To what extent can entrepreneurship be a force for change and transformation in war-torn areas? To address the question, this article introduces the topic of social entrepreneurship and illustrates how social entrepreneurs are serving as change agents in rebuilding and reconstructing areas devastated by conflict. The social enterprise of Kiva, the brainchild of social entrepreneurs Matthew Flannery and Jessica Jackley, provides an example. It is notable for its innovative idea—a Web-based, internet-facilitated micro-loan process that attracts individual investors worldwide in support of business entrepreneurs in the developing world. As a counter example to top-down, mandate-driven, organization-centric intervention strategies that many organizations pursue in peace operations, Kiva’s enduring legacy may very well be its bottom-up, entrepreneur-driven, network-centric model of change. Its most salient features are: a supply chain that ‘contractually’ connects all the partners in the loan process to minimize coordination problems and ensure that each step in the workflow sequentially adds value; processes and systems that guarantee work is transparent, efficient and accountable; a model of learning that enables global and local partners to co-create a complex, worldwide community-based learning system in support of entrepreneurship; and a rich network of social relations built from face-to-face and online interactions to help generate social capital needed for development

Capital social, gênero e representação política no Brasil

As mulheres ocupam menos de 10% das cadeiras na Câmara dos Deputados no Brasil, contrastando com uma tendência internacional de aumento na representação política feminina. Este artigo considera fatores culturais, particularmente aqueles relacionados à cultura política e ao capital social para tratar dessa questão. A partir da análise dos dados de um survey nacional de 2006, o artigo analisa como o capital social é estruturado por gênero, e discute suas possíveis consequências para a representação política de homens e mulheres. Os resultados indicam que homens e mulheres participam em diferentes tipos de redes associativas: os homens tendem a se organizar em grupos voltados à esfera pública e as mulheres naqueles que lidam com questões práticas do cotidiano familiar e comunitário.<br>Women occupy less than 10% of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Brazilian situation contrasts with an international trend of growth in the political representation of women. In dealing with this issue, this article considers cultural factors, in particular those related to the political culture and social capital. Using data from a national survey of 2006, the article analyses how social capital are structured by gender and considers the likely implication of this factor for men and women's political representation. Results indicate that men and women participate in different types of associations. Men tend to organize themselves into social groups more geared towards the public sphere whereas women involve themselves in groups which deal with practical daily issues related to the family and community life