Local conflict and development projects in Indonesia : part of the problem or part of a solution ?

Drawing on an integrated mixed methods research design, the authors explore the dynamics of the development-conflict nexus in rural Indonesia, and the specific role of development projects in shaping the nature, extent, and trajectories of"everyday"conflicts. They find that projects that give inadequate attention to dispute resolution mechanisms in many cases stimulate local conflict, either through the injection of development resources themselves or less directly by exacerbating preexisting tensions in target communities. But projects that have explicit and accessible procedures for managing disputes arising from the development process are much less likely to lead to violent outcomes. The authors argue that such projects are more successful in addressing project-related conflicts because they establish direct procedures (such as forums, facilitators, and complaints mechanisms) for dealing with tensions as they arise. These direct mechanisms are less successful in addressing broader social tensions elicited by, or external to, the development process, though program mechanisms can ameliorate conflict indirectly through changing norms and networks of interaction.Post Conflict Reintegration,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Education and Society,Rural Poverty Reduction,Population Policies

The Hand that Writes Community in Blood

I propose this account of community formation, which finds bodies, ungraspable difference and the expression of meaning inextricably linked, in order to address a neglect of the sociality of the body in current models of community. That neglect, I submit, explains why some models of community, while keen to promote multiculturalism and tolerance of difference, can tend toward the opposite. This is true of communitarianism and related models that would base community on the commonality of meaning and unity of identity. Against the emphasis on individualism in liberal political theory, communitarians understand community to be built through shared practices, dialogue, common social meanings and traditions, and on the interrelation, mutual recognition, and knowledge of the other as derived from a Hegelian notion of identity formation

The Art of Dreaming: Merleau-Ponty and Petyarre on Flesh Expressing a World

I do not understand painting very well, and especially not Australian Indigenous painting, the dot painting of Western and Central Desert artists such as Kathleen Petyarre. I grew up without art on the wall, among gum trees, red dirt, dying wattle, and ‘two thirds (blue) sky’. While this might suggest that I inhabit the same landscape as Petyarre, I also grew up without ‘the Dreaming’, the meaning that this dot painting is said to be about. How and why then can this painting have the impact on me that it does? And, given the history of colonisation in Australia, including the colonisation of Indigenous meanings, what is the politics of the impact of that painting

Can the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch

In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers

Chapter Canals, Cities, Museums, Libraries & Photography: a Reconnaissance Study of Regent’s Canal, London

City waterways are a valuable part of our cultural heritage. Over the years the usage has changed from business to pleasure. Regent’s Canal, cutting across north central London since 1820, has a rich social and industrial history. Much of this history has been and is being captured via photographs. Many of these are being lost due to limited museum resources and disparate collections. This paper reports on phase one of a fifteen-month exploratory research project. The research aims to explore ways of aiding image capture, selection, storage and retrieval. We hope to link with researchers elsewhere, especially in Italy

Effective interim leadership and management: development of a cyclical model of interim assignments

Purpose This paper reviews literature on interim leadership and management through the lens of effective interim performance. The purpose of this review is to advance understanding of interim assignment performance and the antecedent individual psychological characteristics of effective interim leaders and managers, to improve the practice of managing interim leaders from a human resources (HR) perspective. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports a targeted review of the literature on interim leadership and management. Findings The main proposition from this review is that the influence of individual factors on interim performance operates within the stages and contexts of assignments. Accordingly, the authors propose a framework of the demands on interim assignments (the interim assignment cycle), comprising stages of preparation, entry, delivery and exit. The paper subsequently reviews evidence of the potential individual characteristics (focussing on individual differences in personality, leadership approach, motivation and competencies) of effective preparation and entry to an assignment, actions and performance during an assignment and exit/disengagement. Practical implications The findings of the review have implications for the selection and placement of interims into organizations and their management once appointed. Originality/value The main original contribution of the paper is to provide a framework around which interim assignments can be modelled and better understood. The paper discusses implications for future research, theory and human resource management practice and calls for a renewed research effort in this critical area of management and leadership

Beyond waged work: The everyday politics of alternative socio-economic practices

Within geography and beyond there has been much discussion about how to best respond to the mounting inequalities, pressing environmental concerns and socio-economic precarity that appear to characterise current neoliberal capitalist societies. Kathi Weeks (2011) suggests that contemporary forms of precarity are linked to dominant discourses around waged labour which she terms the ‘work society’. This work society is characterised by three inter-related expectations that frame waged work as morally necessary, as the primary right to citizenship, and as the main way to participate in wider society. Weeks argues that these expectations have increased since the global financial crisis, yet paradoxically there are fewer secure and meaningful waged jobs available. In response to these socio-economic and environmental concerns, feminist autonomous geographers like J-K Gibson-Graham (2006) argue that the best way to respond is to ‘take back the economy’ at local scales. Rather than ‘overthrowing’ global neoliberal capitalism, Gibson-Graham and groups such as the Community Economies Collective have been engaged in ongoing projects which foster and enact alternative practices and subjectivities. In this thesis I draw on the work of J-K Gibson-Graham, the Community Economies Collective and others to explore two examples of collective social action in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. These two examples are the relational arts platform, Letting Space, and the Wellington Timebank. I employ a post-structural approach drawing on ethnographic methods to explore how these collectives foster and enact alternative forms of exchange and community in response to the dominant discourses of the work society. I draw on the ideas of Jacques Rancière (2001; 2004) to show how the practices associated with Letting Space and the Wellington Timebank create political moments which disrupt the work society. I complement these discussions about political moments by drawing on the work of Judith Butler (2006b) and Jean-Luc Nancy (1991; 2000) to show how subjects enact forms of community that are not based on fixed identities. In this thesis I provide an important contribution to geographic literature by illustrating the potential of relational art and Timebanking practices to move beyond the melancholy affects associated with leftist politics over the last 30 years. I argue that the forms of social action explored in this research provide one practical way for subjects to partially negotiate the contradictions of the work society while simultaneously fostering forms of community that are more open and not premised on exclusionary identity categories

Do the Perceived Effects of Injecting Insulin Influence Adherence to Insulin Regimens in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM)?

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the perceived effects of injecting insulin in adolescents with Type One Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and the resulting implications of these to their insulin regimens. Background: Self injections of insulin play a huge part in the life of individuals with T1DM and research has shown that there are both physical and psychological problems associated with injecting insulin. These effects associated with administering insulin injections could contribute towards adolescent’s reasons for not adhering to their insulin regimen and thus, lead to long term complications. Methods: This study took a quantitative approach by administering a questionnaire, adapted from the third version of the Diabetes Attitude Questionnaire developed in 1998. Over a 2 month period all adolescents, using the definition of young people aged between 10 and 19 years (World Health Organisation, 1995), attending a paediatric diabetes clinic in a large teaching hospital in the East Midlands were approached to participate in this study. Results: This study has found that there is a small negative correlation between adolescent’s attitudes towards diabetes and adherence to insulin regimens, so as the number of injections missed each day increases, the adolescent’s attitudes towards diabetes become more negative. The results also show that although by looking at the graphs of the results there appears to be a difference in the number of males and females who missed injections, when the data was analysed using a Mann-Whitney U test, no significant difference was found. Conclusions: The results of this research are not conclusive. Further research such as a larger version of this study may provide more distinguishable results enabling the alternative hypothesis to be either accepted or rejected