Hybridisation in a Case of Diamond Theft in Rural Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

Drawing on cultural studies, the concept of hybridity has emerged in peace and conflict studies as an important critique of the fragile failed/state discourse, and the binaries whereby the modern state is often contrasted with traditional or non-state actors. The concept is also challenged for reproducing the very binaries that it seeks to overcome and lacking analytical vigour. The paper addresses these critiques by exploring a case of diamond theft in rural Sierra Leone. It suggests an analytical shift from interaction between state institutions (police) and non-state authorities (traditional leaders) to focusing on processes of hybridisation through the enactment and performativity of authority. This is an analytical move from preconceived cultural and political entities to the subject and the simultaneous quality of how he or she assembles and projects authority. It is in the subject’s strategies and practices at the micro level that we clearly see how hybridisation processes occur.     

Social justice and affirmative action

ABSTRACT

While the concept ‘justice’ undergirds every discourse on affirmative action, its meaning is feverishly contested with contradictory definitions wielded as battling swords in a zero sum struggle over the distribution of scarce material resources and symbolic goods. In part, the issues have become even more important since the number of states that have now embarked on affirmative action policies have been growing and the results have been diverse. Affirmative action policies have occurred most frequently in internally heterogeneous societies marked by deep ethno-cultural divisions in which one ethnic community has tended to dominate the rest. To overcome inequalities and ingrained segmental prejudices in these multi-ethnic countries that witnessed over the years the cementing of advantages and privileges among certain ethnic groups has been the primary aim of affirmative action policies. Upheavals and ongoing conflicts have generally dogged these experiences, attesting to some successful societal changes in institutions and practices, to winners and losers. In this paper, we examine some of the controversies, especially in relation to two paradigms and perspectives of social justice.     

Lymphatic absorption and transport of retinol and vitamin D-3 from rat intestine Evidence for different pathways

The lymphatic absorption and transport of retinol and vitamin D-3 from rat intestine has been studied. When rats were cannulated in the intestinal lymph duct and given an intraduodenal bolus of [³H]retinol and ¹⁴C-labelled vitamin D-3, ¹⁴C-labeled vitamin D-3 appeared later in the intestinal lymph than [³H]retinol and the rate of absorption of vitamin D-3 was still maximal at a time when that of retinol had declined. Both vitamins were absorbed via the lymphatic route in association with chylomicrons. Almost all the retinol was esterified, while vitamin D-3 appeared in the chylomicrons as free vitamin D-3. In vitro incubations and in vivo studies using hepatectomized and normal rats showed that the retinyl ester was a relatively nonexchangeable component of the chylomicrons and their remnants. Hence, all the vitamin A followed the remnants in their clearance from plasma. In contrast, significant amounts of vitamin D-3 were transferred from the chylomicrons to other plasma fractions. Therefore, only a fraction of this vitamin may be removed in association with the chylomicron remnants.     

环境科学国际合作的理论机制研究

迄今科学界尚无形成系统的国际科学合作理论,也鲜有就环境科学国际合作进行理论研究。首次从全球资源配置的角度来看待环境科学国际合作。通过国际合作,环境科学在内在科学动力和外在社会动力的驱动下,促使全球科学资源和社会资源向有利于环境学科自身发展的方向流动和积聚。其中,配置科学资源遵循"最优要素选择原则",配置社会资源遵循"最小省力原则",两种内在动力和两个调节手段共同构成了环境科学国际合作的理论机制。     

Transnational Medicine in Public Arenas: Aids Treatments in the South

This article looks at the AIDS-related controversy surrounding the experiments on and the availability of medicines in southern countries. It situates these debates in a longer-term history of transnational medicine. It highlights the rise of international therapeutic modernity at the beginning of the 1990s, based on the strict regulation of clinical trials and on the formalization of the international ethical rules governing experiments. This rise helped to change radically the reception of experiments conducted in southern countries around AIDS. With regard to this new ethics applied to clinical trials in southern countries, this article goes on to demonstrate the confrontation at the end of the 1990s between two different approaches to the universalization of healthcare. Finally, it shows how new laws on international trade have reinitiated this confrontation. Through this story, the article suggests in what sense the study of the political transformations of transnational medicine could offer a new field of investigation for the social sciences.     

Time‐Continuous Phosphorus Flows in the Indian Agri‐Food Sector: Long‐Term Drivers and Management Options

Phosphorus (P) is a major agricultural nutrient and, in its mineable form, a potentially scarce resource. Countries with limited physical access to P should hence develop an effective national P governance. This requires analyses of trends and variations in P flows and stocks over time. Here, we present a long‐term P flow analysis for the Indian agri‐food sector from 1988 to 2011. Major P flows are imports of mineral P, fertilizer application, and uptake of animal fodder. The mineral P import dependency ratio is constant at around 93%. On average, 20% of P inputs to soils are lost through erosion. Key drivers of changes in P flows include population growth, dietary change, and agricultural intensification. To reduce its P fertilizer import dependence, India could, for example, substitute up to 19% of the presently applied mineral P if manure used as a household fuel were recycled, and up to 21% if P was fully recovered from wastewater and household waste. Comparing selected indicators for P use in agriculture with China and the European Union (EU) reveals that there are structural similarities, such as increasing fertilizer application rates and P accumulation in soils, with the first but large differences compared to the latter. The analyses highlight that in contrast to static indicators, the time‐continuous tracking of P flows provides substantial advantages, such as the identification of long‐term trends, drivers, and intervention options for sustainable P management, given that it allows for the interpretation of present indicators in the context of past trends and legacies.     

The Robin Hood Narrative: A Discussion of Empirical and Ethical Legitimizations of Somali Pirates

The pirates of Somalia pose a major challenge for the international community, both economically and morally. Somali pirates try to legitimize their actions by reference to a number of arguments that appeal to the international community. Allegedly, the illegal fishing and waste dumping in Somali waters were the triggers for piracy. Hence, the pirates want to protect their coasts. These various strands form the so-called legitimacy Robin Hood narrative. In this article, this narrative is critically examined. The analysis includes a discussion of justice theories and related claims based on the works of John Rawls and Thomas Pogge. This is followed by a discussion of the justification of violence using Nicholas Fotion's irregular just war theory.     

An economic analysis of the international transfer of marine technology

Abstract

This paper develops a general economic framework for the analysis of international technology transfer, provides an analysis and categorization of countries, and concludes with a case study on the Peruvian fish‐meal industry.

The economic framework focuses upon the impact of technology transfer on the resource allocation choices of a country and the analytical techniques or models available to facilitate the making of these choices. The optimization of investment is first considered and then the discussion is broadened to include the concepts of an efficient technology frontier and a social‐welfare function. The paper also dwells upon cost‐benefit analysis and other measurement techniques relevant to technology transfer and social‐choice considerations. A categorization of countries, using several indicators, is then attempted with need, potential, and interest as the determining parameters.

Finally, the Peruvian fish‐meal industry is considered as a case study with the theoretical arguments developed earlier applied to it.     

医药卫生体制绩效国际比较

根据居民与筹资的联系方式和卫生费用的补偿机制两个维度,按世界卫生组织和世界银行等众多机构提出的目前最富代表性的分类方法,把医药卫生体制分为市场主导型、国家福利型、公共合同型和公私功能互补型。通过对各种类型医药卫生体制的代表国家在模式与资源结构方面进行分析与比较,以起到“他山之石,可以攻玉”的效果。