The political economy machinery: toward a critical anthropology of development as a contested capitalist practice

This article discusses anthropology’s current mainstream understandings of development and offers a historical materialist alternative. According to these, development was and is either a discourse-backed anti-politics machine that strengthens the power of postcolonial governments or a category of practice, a universal that generates frictions when it clashes with local historical–cultural formations. The approach proposed here reintegrates the analysis of development into the anthropological analysis of capitalism’s uneven and contested histories and practices. A reassessment of World Bank reporting on Lesotho and an analysis of the Bank’s impact on the wider policies of development in postcolonial Mauritius, one of the twentieth century’s preeminent success stories of capitalist development, underlines that development is best understood as a political economy machinery that maintains and amends contested capitalist practices in an encounter with earlier global, national, and local historical–cultural formations

Recognition of valid open and online learning

Project ReOPEN has been funded with the support from the European Commission Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnership for VET project (N: 2016-1-LT01-KA202-023131)It has been a while since recognition of prior and non-formal learning was addressed by education providers and policy makers in Europe. Quite a number of universities in Europe established instruments and procedures properly addressing strategic goals to recognize prior and non-formal learning in the form of results in formal curricula. However, this practice has been challenged by two main factors and innovations in themselves. [...]Edukologijos tyrimų institutasInovatyvių studijų institutasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij

Rebuilding global fisheries

After a long history of overexploitation, increasing efforts to restore marine ecosystems and rebuild fisheries are under way. Here, we analyze current trends from a fisheries and conservation perspective. In 5 of 10 well-studied ecosystems, the average exploitation rate has recently declined and is now at or below the rate predicted to achieve maximum sustainable yield for seven systems. Yet 63% of assessed fish stocks worldwide still require rebuilding, and even lower exploitation rates are needed to reverse the collapse of vulnerable species. Combined fisheries and conservation objectives can be achieved by merging diverse management actions, including catch restrictions, gear modification, and closed areas, depending on local context. Impacts of international fleets and the lack of alternatives to fishing complicate prospects for rebuilding fisheries in many poorer regions, highlighting the need for a global perspective on rebuilding marine resources

Do climate and fishing influence size-based indicators of Celtic Sea fish community structure?

Ecosystem-based management requires the development of indicators that allow anthropogenic impacts to be detected against the background of natural variation. Size-based community metrics are potentially useful indicators because of their theoretical foundation and practical utility. Temporal and spatial patterns in size-based community metrics for Celtic Sea fish are described and calculated using data from the English groundfish survey of the area (1987-2003). The results reveal that the size structure of the community has changed over time, and that a decrease in the relative abundance of larger fish was accompanied by an increase in smaller fish (4-25 g). Temporal analyses of the effects of fishing and climate variation suggest that fishing generally has had a stronger effect on size structure than changes in temperature. Therefore, size-based metrics respond clearly to the effects of fishing even in variable environments, reflecting the ubiquity of size-based processes in defining community structure and responses to mortality. Spatial analyses were inconclusive, probably owing to the limited area for which fishing effort, temperature, and survey data were all available