The International Organization for Migration (IOM): Gaining Power in the Forced Migration Regime

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) remains understudied, despite its dramatic growth in recent decades, particularly in the humanitarian sphere. In this article I examine key factors driving IOM’s expansion, and implications for the forced migration regime. Despite lacking a formal protection mandate, IOM has thrived by acting as an entrepreneur, capitalizing on its malleability and reputation for efficiency, and carving out distinctive roles in activities including post-disaster camp management, data collection, and assistance for migrant workers in crises. I reflect on IOM’s efforts to accrue increased authority and power, and suggest that understanding IOM’s humanitarian engagements is now essential to understanding the organization itself and, increasingly, the forced migration regime.En dépit de sa croissance spectaculaire ces dernières décennies, particulièrement dans le domaine humanitaire, l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) reste peu étudiée. J’envisage dans cet article les facteurs clés qui ont conduit à l’expansion de l’OIM et leurs conséquences sur le régime de la migration forcée. Bien que n’ayant pas de mandat officiel de protection, l’OIM s’est en effet développée comme un entrepreneur, en exploitant sa malléabilité et sa réputation d’efficience et en se taillant des activités distinctes parmi lesquelles la gestion des camps faisant suite à des catastrophes, la collecte de données, et l’assistance apportée aux travailleurs migrants dans les contextes de crise. Je révèle les efforts de l’OIM pour accroître son autorité et son pouvoir, et suggère que comprendre les engagements humanitaires de cette organisation est aujourd’hui essentiel pour comprendre l’organisation elle-même et, progressivement, le régime de la migration forcée

Growing Food and Community: An Exploration of Local Food Initiatives in Cape Town, South Africa

Local food has recently arisen as a social movement, a diet, and an economic strategy. While the concept is abstract, it is characterized by an emphasis on organic production, conscious consumption, and the convergence of the farm and table. In Cape Town, South Africa, efforts exist across a wide variety of businesses, organizations and communities defined geographically, socially, and economically. This study explores the role of local food initiatives in sustainable community development with a focus on the notions of food sovereignty, community capacity, and social capital. It aims to compare diverse schemes in the movement to identify commonalities in goals, principles, and impact. Through a series of in-depth interviews, conversations with participants, and observations of community gardens, markets, and other food-focused organizations, findings suggest that such initiatives empower community development, economically and socially, through principles of food sovereignty, social capital and education

Overlapping murmurs

Overlapping Murmurs is an ambient sound installation presented as part of the 'INDELIBLE' exhibition at Waikato Museum. Overlapping Murmurs is a collaboration between Jeremy Mayall, Kent Macpherson, Haco, Horomona Horo, Reuben Bradley, and Megan Rogerson-Berry. It is designed to provide an overall accompaniment to the show, whilst also being a deconstruction and re-working of elements from the Where We Overlap recording sessions

Negotiating the Global

This thesis examines four instances between 2002 and 2012 where Canadian artists have participated in international exhibitions: in all these cases the Canadian identity of the artists in question is de-emphasized, while a new global identity comes into play: David Altmejd at the 2003 Istanbul Biennial; Ingrid Bachmann at the 2012 Havana Biennial; Brian Jungen at the 2009 Basel Art Fair, and Gareth Moore at the 2012 dOCUMENTA exhibition in Kassel. This study interrogates the shifting meaning of “global art” at the present time, by evaluating the circumstances of these institutions and tracking the curatorial outlook, the artworks presented and the location and context of each global encounter. The theoretical approaches of contemporary thinkers such as Arjun Appadurai, Ali Behdad, Okwui Enwezor, Nikos Papastergiadis and John Ralston Saul provide a framework for thinking about the way the global has been positioned. The case studies identify how the global can be considered as a paradigm that expands beyond the easy opposition of global vs. local, or global vs. national, by considering instead the complex set of issues that arise when artists participate in global exhibitions. The global paradigm opens up the discourse of contemporary art to a multitude of possibilities for exchange and interaction