The contradictions of empowerment promotion through social engineering. Mozambique’s Peace and the ‘7 million’ Initiative

The concept of ‘empowerment’ has been widely used among development practitioners since the early 1990s. This thesis aims to contribute to the literature on empowerment by developing an analytical framework that incorporates: (a) the dialectical nature of power, (b) multiple levels of analysis, and (c) the subjectivities of power that different actors have and that affect the way they respond to policies. The model is applied to the analysis of Mozambique’s transition to peace and the study of a national initiative called District Development Fund, known as the ‘7 Million’, which aims to promote empowerment by reducing poverty and promoting local participation in the rural districts. The analysis focuses, on the one hand, on the ‘7 million’ policy formulation, stressing the power struggles that shaped its final outcome and, on the other hand, the policy implementation in the district of Angoche, where I conducted extensive fieldwork. I argue that, even though the ‘7 million’ had some positive aspects – including providing a discourse that underlines the relevance of the districts and the local community in matters of governance – its effects in promoting local empowerment have been far below its potential. One of the reasons for this is to be found in the dynamics of power-to and power-over that take place at the local level and that partly reflect structural aspects linked to the Mozambique state formation and peacebuilding process. More generally, the case illustrates the limitations and contradictions of policies that aim promoting ‘bottom-up’ empowerment from the ‘top-down’

Rose, Michael (2020), Indigenous Spirits and Global Aspirations in a Southeast Asian Borderland

This book is a compilation of different stories that explore a common theme: the complex relation between the meto (the indigenous/familiar) and the kase (foreign) modes of life in the enclave of Oecussi, Timor-Leste. Written by anthropologist Michael Rose, the book draws on the author’s experience in the region initially as a United Nations (UN) advisor and later on as a researcher. The meto/kase relationship is discussed in the context of different dynamics at play in the highlands and low..

The Margins of the State in the Covid-19 Pandemic: peripheral experiences of human (in)security in Brazil

The article consists of a discussion of the research project in progress, “The Margins of the State in the Covid-19 Pandemic: peripheral experiences of human (in)security in Brazil". We present the work context, its epistemological framework, based on central concepts in the field of Peace Studies, and an analysis of preliminary results obtained so far. Started in August 2020, the purpose of the project is to build a diagnosis of the Brazilian peripheries’ situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, mapping peripheral experiences from the perspective of human security. For this purpose, primary data will be collected through interviews and testimonies, which will make up a public online repository of information. Through a critical approach that removes the primacy of the security concept from the scope of States, including individual and societal dimensions such as empowerment and rights and access to basic services such as education, sanitation and social protection, this project explores the security subjectivities that emerge from marginalized contexts. This research contributes to the expansion of the conceptual frameworks of human security and development, from a post-colonial perspective, which addresses local experiences in their vicissitudes. Thus, the project is thought and developed in order to contribute to the visibility of narratives and peripheral experiences, as well as proposing a co-construction of approaches and policies with the potential to fill the specifics of the crises that are emerging in marginalized contexts in Brazil due to the COVID-19 pandemic.O artigo consiste em uma discussão do estado atual da pesquisa, em andamento, “As Margens do Estado na Pandemia: experiências periféricas de (in)segurança humana no Brasil”. Apresentamos o contexto do trabalho, o seu enquadramento epistemológico, alicerçado em conceitos centrais do campo de Estudos para a Paz, e uma análise preliminar dos resultados obtidos até o momento. Iniciado em agosto de 2020, o intuito do projeto é construir um diagnóstico da situação das periferias brasileiras durante a pandemia de COVID-19, mapeando as experiências periféricas a partir do prisma da segurança humana. Para o efeito, serão coletados dados primários através de entrevistas e testemunhos, que comporão um repositório online público de informações. Através de uma abordagem crítica que retira a primazia do conceito de segurança do âmbito dos Estados, incluindo dimensões individuais e societais tais como o empoderamento e o direito e acesso a serviços básicos como educação, saneamento e proteção social, este projeto explora as subjetividades de segurança que emergem de contextos marginalizados. Esta pesquisa contribui para a expansão do enquadramento conceitual acerca da segurança e desenvolvimento humanos, através de uma perspectiva pós-colonial, que aborda as experiências locais nas suas vicissitudes. Assim, o projeto é pensado e desenvolvido com o intuito de contribuir para a visibilização das narrativas e experiências periféricas, bem como propor uma co-construção de abordagens e políticas com o potencial de colmatar as especificidades das crises que estão a emergir em contextos marginalizados do Brasil em decorrência da pandemia de COVID-19

THE PUTATIVE COMMON BEAN KINASE \u3ci\u3eCOK-4\u3c/i\u3e PLAYS A ROLE IN PLANT DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION Several anthracnose resistance loci have been identified in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), including the broad-based resistance locus Co-4 (Melotto et al., 2004). Co-4 contains several paralogs of the COK-4 gene that is predicted to code for a protein kinase. The predicted COK-4 protein is highly similar to FERONIA (FER), a membrane-localized receptorlike kinase of Arabidopsis that has been implicated in the regulation of plant growth. We observed that the fer-5 kinase null mutant has some developmental defects as it accumulates lower levels of fresh and dry weight than the wild type plants. Interestingly, genetic complementation of fer-5 with COK-4 partially rescued the wild type phenotype. Altogether, these data provide evidence that COK-4 is a structural and functional ortholog of FER kinase domain and these proteins may be involved in the control of growth-defense balance in plants. MATERIAL AND METHODS Genetically complemented fer-5 mutant with the COK-4 gene isolated from the resistant bean genotype SEL1308 was obtained using the floral-dip method (Clough and Bent, 1998). Transgenic plants were selected by spraying a solution of BASTA (0.0114% of glufosinate ammonium) supplemented with 0.005% of Silwet. Col-0 and fer-5 plants containing the empty vector (35S-GFP), and the fer-5 expressing COK-4 (35S-GFP::COK-4) lines, were grown at 22- 24oC, 60±5% relative humidity, and 12 h photoperiod. Three sets of 10 four- to five-week old plants were collected to evaluated fresh and dry weights. The rosette of each genotype was kept at 70ºC during 72 hours to measure dry weight. The fresh weight was obtained immediately after removing the rosette from the soil. In both cases, the plant weight was obtained using analytical balance (OHAUS AV114 Adventurer Pro Analytical Balance) according with Abe et al. (2003)

Integrating subjectivities of power and violence in peacebuilding analysis

Over the last 20 years the local domain has gained widespread attention in the analysis of peacebuilding. While this debate has contributed to an important review of many assumptions underlying peacebuilding practice and analysis, the subjective domain of peacebuilding – how actors experience and make sense of these transformations – still needs to be more methodically explored. In particular, while different narratives of peace have been analysed in this literature, much more rarely has there been a systematic discussion linking peace with power and violence and the different understandings and experiences around these two concepts. In this article I argue that integrating violence and power more systematically in the local turn and exploring their subjective domain can greatly benefit this debate, including by contributing to the elaboration of conceptual and theoretical tools more aligned with Southern epistemologies

International peacebuilding vs. local perceptions of peace: encounters and misencounters

Este artigo discute a virada local na análise da consolidação da paz, em especial o conceito de paz híbrida, alertando para as limitações desse debate no que concerne à ótica cultural utilizada. Argumenta-se que, à medida que a discussão sobre paz híbrida está atada à da paz liberal e enfatiza dinâmicas de resistência, ela limita a própria discussão da dimensão cultural ao excluir da análise aspectos mais interpretativos sobre a paz, não necessariamente relacionados à paz liberal.This article discusses the local turn in peacebuilding and the concept of hybridity, highlighting the limitations related to cultural analysis framework utilised in this discussion. It argues that, as long as this debate is tight to the liberal peace (and the expressions of resistance to it), it limits the cultural analysis by excluding a broader discussion that includes alternative interpretations and perceptions of peace that are not necessarily related to the liberal peace

Culture and Legitimacy in Peacebuilding Settings

Book review of: The cultural dimension of peace: decentralization and reconciliation in Indonesia, by Birgit Bräuchler, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies Series, 2015, pp.208 + bibliography + notes + index, £38.93 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-4039-9575-9 ; Liberal peacebuilding and the locus of legitimacy, edited by David Roberts, London and New York, Palgrave, 2015, pp.104 + index, £105.00 (hbk), ISBN13 978113880135