Recasting Power and Transforming Governance: A feminist perspective from the South

Viviene Taylor looks at the many challenges that experiences of governing and being governed pose for democratic movements and for those previously excluded from government. She draws on research undertaken with women in selected countries in the global South by Development Alternatives with Women in a new era (DAWN) on governance and social transformation. She points to several factors that emerge from the research that have implications for democratic governance. Among them are how governments face the need for a formative break with the old order and, at the same time, how they ensure continuity with it. How women with critical feminist consciousness enter political spaces in ways that change political institutions in order to bring government closer to people. And what type of resources is required to change formal and informal rules and structural relationships of power. Development (2007) 50, 28–35. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100332

A Mid- to Late Holocene Sequence from Weld Range, Mid West Western Australia, in Local, Regional and Inter-Regional Context

International audienceà veni

Das Jo'burg Memo Oekologie - die neue Farbe der Gerechtigkeit; ein Memorandum zum Weltgipfel fuer Nachhaltige Entwicklung

'What will be the legacy of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development? Will it be remembered as an 'historic' watershed, as we now regard the 1992 Rio Earth Summit? Will it serve to catalyse and renew commitments for the failed promises of Rio? Will Johannesburg generate results that will be worthy of celebration, or will it lead to yet another meaningless global photo opportunity? We publish this Memorandum a few months before the Summit, at a critical juncture of renewed political momentum. It is our contribution to the debate on both the desired outcomes of the Summit and the critical path for the sustainable development agenda in the next decade. The composition of the Memorandum's authorship reflects the diversity of our international network, from North and South, from East and West, from NGOs, science, politics, and business. The meetings of the Memorandum Group were convened in both the venues of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the forthcoming Johannesburg Summit, as well as Berlin, the capital of an EU Member State whose government has started to take serious steps towards translating sustainability into concrete policy. The launch of the Memorandum will take place in New York, which serves as both the financial capital of the world and the seat of the United Nations. The Memorandum raises the central but oft-forgotten question 'Development yes, but what kind of development and for whom?' Its recommendations are grounded firmly in the principles of ecological sustainability and equity. The text concentrates on elaborating on the mutual and intricate relationship of ecology and equity, while not pretending that it deals exhaustively with poverty eradication in all its manifold dimensions. It combines a critical account of the post-Rio decade with a rich set of proposals how to change the paradigms of unsustainable development and to promote civic, social and environmental rights. In spite of different views on the ongoing process of globalisation the authors agree about the urgent need to re-integrate markets in a framework of social and environmental regulations and limitations on a local, regional, national and global level. The demand for a redistribution of rights and resources stands in the very centre of the memorandum. The authors enjoy the privilege of being able to generate new ideas removed from the constraints and pressures of official decision-making processes. Nevertheless, we do hope that the Memorandum's comprehensive set of recommendations might assist the official preparatory process and ultimately the elaboration of the Summit's final outcomes. We are convinced that Memorandum's conclusions represent elements of the new sustainability agenda that will hopefully shape the work of the international community in the years to come.' (extract)'Die UN-Konferenz ueber Umwelt und Entwicklung von Rio de Janeiro im Jahr 1992 hatte 'nachhaltige Entwicklung' zum neuen Namen fuer Fortschritt erklaert. Die Idee fand weltweit Anklang, doch Ergebnisse lassen eher auf sich warten. Zehn Jahre nach Rio wird der 'Weltgipfel fuer nachhaltige Entwicklung', der Ende August 2002 in Johannesburg stattfinden wird, ein Anlass sein, Bilanz zu ziehen. Darueber hinaus wird auch dieser Gipfel sich vornehmen, auf die Herausforderung zu antworten, die sowohl chronische Armut wie ressourcenhungriger Reichtum in der Welt von heute darstellen. Dieses Memorandum umreisst eine Agenda zu Oekologie und Gerechtigkeit fuer das gerade angebrochene Jahrzehnt. Es wurde von einer 16-koepfigen Gruppe von Aktivisten, Intellektuellen, Managern und Politikern entworfen, die von der Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung zusammengebracht worden sind, um sich in die globale Debatte aus einer zivilgesellschaftlichen Perspektive einzuschalten. Weder ist das Memorandum ein politisches Programm noch eine Expertenstudie, sondern es moechte ein 'Memorandum' im woertlichen Sinne sein: es versucht, ins Gedaechtnis zu rufen, worum es eigentlich geht. Das Johannesburg Memorandum: zieht Bilanz der Entwicklungen im Jahrzehnt seit Rio; skizziert eine konkrete 'Johannesburg Agenda' zur Ueberwindung des obsoleten fossilen Entwicklungsmodells in Nord und Sued; zeigt auf, wie die Lebensbedingungen und Lebensrechte der marginalisierten Mehrheit auf diesem Planeten direkt mit dem Zustand ihrer Umwelt zusammenhaengen; verdeutlicht, dass die tatsaechliche Wohlstands-Trennungslinie mittlerweile quer durch jede Gesellschaft geht und die lokalisierten Armen von den globalisierten Reichen trennt; konzipiert Entwicklungslinien fuer einen 'gerechten Wohlstand' im 'globalen Norden'; entwickelt eine ambitionierte Programmatik fuer Oekologie und Gerechtigkeit: Alternativen zur Privatisierung globaler Gemeinschaftsgueter sowie zur Liberalisierung der Finanzstroeme und des Welthandels, Rechte fuer Buerger und communities, oekologische Signale fuer die Globalen Maerkte, neue globale Institutionen.' (Autorenreferat)Available from http://www.worldsummit2002.org/publications/memo dt with.pdf / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman