scholarly journals Research From the Global South: The important role of context in international research activities

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-235
Author(s):  
Katie Bryant
Keyword(s):  
International Research ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
African Continent ◽  
African Region ◽  
The Past ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Global North ◽  
North And South

Researchers from various disciplines have become interested in the supposedly extreme differences in rates of research between academics situated in the Global North and South, specifically those on the African continent. Yet, having worked as a researcher and a writing coach in the context of one university in the southern African region for the past three years, I cannot identify with many of the explanations given for these differences in rates. So, by reflecting on two instances emerging from my own experiences as a researcher in this particular context, this Note from the Field discusses the important and critical role context needs to have in making sense of this phenomenon.

Digital Borders, Diasporic Flows and the Nigerian Transgender Beauty Queen Who Would Not Be Denied

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B Camminga
Keyword(s):  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Beauty Pageant ◽  
Global North ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
Tabloid Press

In 2011, Miss Sahhara, a transgender woman from Nigeria with UK refugee status, was crowned First Princess at the world’s largest and most prestigious beauty pageant for transgender women—Miss International Queen. The then Cultural Minister of Nigeria when contacted for comment responded that if she was transgender, she could not be Nigerian, and if she was Nigerian, she could not be transgender—a tacit denial of her very existence. In recent years, LGBT people “fleeing Africa” to the “Global North” has become a common media trope. Responses to this, emanating from a variety of African voices, have provided a more nuanced reading of sexuality. What has been absent from these readings has been the role of gender expression, particularly a consideration of transgender experiences. I understand transgender refugees to have taken up “lines of flight” such that, in a Deleuzian sense, they do not only flee persecution in countries of origin but also recreate or speak back to systems of control and oppressive social conditions. Some transgender people who have left, like Miss Sahhara, have not gone silently, using digital means to project a new political visibility of individuals, those who are both transgender and African, back at the African continent. In Miss Sahhara’s case, this political visibility has not gone unnoticed in the Nigerian tabloid press. Drawing on the story of Miss Sahhara, this paper maps these flows and contraflows, asking what they might reveal about configurations of nationhood, gender and sexuality as they are formed at both the digital and physical interstices between Africa and the Global North.

Conclusion: lessons learned and tensions exposed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter North ◽  
Molly Scott Cato
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Lost Decade ◽  
Global North ◽  
Social Economies ◽  
North And South

This concluding chapter draws together lessons learned from the encounters between social economy activists and academics from Latin America and Europe which were brought together in this collection. It discusses the role of antagonism in social economies, especially in the light of austerity in Europe – and Latin America’s experiences of a lost decade. It discusses tensions between the benefits of top down, centralised, state delivered welfare, and grassroots creativity, arguing for the development of 45 degree politics that maintains the best of both conceptions, with the state maintaining universal access and sufficient resources, while grassroots actors ensure that initiatives are tailored to local needs. Finally it brings together arguments for the need for the SSE sector to develop conceptions of prosperous livelihoods providing dignity and inclusion for those currently denied a livelihood with dignity in the concept of the Anthropocene. It concludes by arguing that these conceptions can best be developed though continued dialogue between actors in the global North and South.

scholarly journals Anthropocene and “Development”: Intertwined Trajectories Since the Beginning of The Great Acceleration

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 400-413
Author(s):  
Marina Dantas de Figueiredo ◽  
Fábio Freitas Schilling Marquesan ◽  
José Miguel Imas
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Model ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
The North ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Global North ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Great Acceleration ◽  
North And South

ABSTRACT Objectives: We aim to propose the thesis that the trajectories of the Anthropocene and the current mainstream understandings of development are intertwined from the beginning. It means that the Anthropocene and the “development” are coetaneous: the implementation of development policies for the so-considered underdeveloped regions started to happen at the same time of what is known as The Great Acceleration of production, consumption and environmental degradation in a global level. Method: In this conceptual paper, we adopt a decolonial critique as an analytical lens and argue that different geopolitical positions may be necessary for approaching the issue of the Anthropocene from epistemological reflections that can include the cultural and political context of the production and reproduction of local knowledge. Results: Our theoretical argumentation sheds light on the role of Global North and South relations in shaping the environmental crisis. Latin America (LA) exemplifies the modus operandi of the intertwinement of the practical effects of development policies and the environmental consequences underlying the Anthropocene, in which natural resources are over-explored to satisfy export-oriented trade, from the South toward the North. LA is not only a propitious context to show the validity of our thesis, but also the source of alternatives to such developmental model. Conclusion: The emphasis on development as a cause of the Anthropocene supports The Great Acceleration thesis. The proposition of the name Developmentocene comes from the thesis that development and Anthropocene are coetaneous, the intertwinement of both resulting in the very definition of the new epoch.

scholarly journals CUL4A ubiquitin ligase: a promising drug target for cancer and other human diseases

Open Biology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 130217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puneet Sharma ◽  
Alo Nag
Keyword(s):  
Ubiquitin Ligase ◽  
Drug Target ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cellular Transformation ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Molecular Architecture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cullin 4A ◽  
Broad Overview

The ability of cullin 4A (CUL4A), a scaffold protein, to recruit a repertoire of substrate adaptors allows it to assemble into distinct E3 ligase complexes to mediate turnover of key regulatory proteins. In the past decade, a considerable wealth of information has been generated regarding its biology, regulation, assembly, molecular architecture and novel functions. Importantly, unravelling of its association with multiple tumours and modulation by viral proteins establishes it as one of the key proteins that may play an important role in cellular transformation. Considering the role of its substrate in regulating the cell cycle and maintenance of genomic stability, understanding the detailed aspects of these processes will have significant consequences for the treatment of cancer and related diseases. This review is an effort to provide a broad overview of this multifaceted ubiquitin ligase and addresses its critical role in regulation of important biological processes. More importantly, its tremendous potential to be exploited for therapeutic purposes has been discussed.

Life of a Nation's Text: The Travels and Travails of the Indian Constitution

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-718
Author(s):  
Ronojoy Sen
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Landmark Study

This review essay briefly discusses Granville Austin's landmark study of the working of the Indian Constitution and its critics, reviews three recent books on that Constitution, and evaluates the extent to which these new works have been able to take constitutional studies in new directions. All three books shine a light on the critical role of the Constitution and the courts in Indian democracy. While the authors are well aware of contemporary challenges to constitutionalism and have written on them elsewhere, this does not fully come through in their books. Despite this shortcoming, these recent studies are indispensable in making sense of the Constitution and its role in Indian democracy.

Towards a Critical Political Economy of Global Health

2018 ◽  
pp. 468-490
Author(s):  
Ted Schrecker
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Global North ◽  
North And South ◽  
Trade And Investment

This chapter begins with a conception of political economy that foregrounds unequal distributions of power and resources and the role of transnational actors and processes. Two specific case examples are described in some detail: (1) the structural adjustment conditionalities demanded by the international financial institutions roughly post-1980 and their impacts on health systems and social determinants of health and (2) the connections between trade and investment liberalization and health outcomes, with a focus on harmonization of intellectual property protection regimes, on food systems, and generically of the incorporation of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in many bilateral and regional agreements. The chapter concludes by identifying two directions for future inquiry: the erosion of familiar distinctions between global North and South and the normative implications of the proliferation of cross border influences on health.

Private sector strengthens Africa regional ties

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Private Equity ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Its Regions ◽  
Insurance Firms

Subject The role of the private sector in strengthening regional ties between African states. Significance Over the past decade, the African continent has experienced greater integration within and across its regions, especially through trade. While still lagging behind many other emerging market regions, this growth has been driven in large part by the private sector. More African companies are now expanding beyond the borders of their home countries. Private equity is playing an important role in funding this expansion, supporting companies with knowledge and experience to access broader markets. Impacts Commercial ties are pushing regulators to harmonise aspects of economic policy across borders, eg on banks and insurance firms. Longer-term integration projects -- eg African Central Bank and African Monetary Fund -- are unlikely to succeed. Firms from regional hegemons (Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa) will tend to have the greatest pan-Africa footprint.

scholarly journals Failure matters: Reassembling eco-urbanism in a globalizing China

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1719-1742 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Chun Catherine Chang
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Dominant Focus ◽  
Planning Software ◽  
Global North ◽  
Policy Mobilities ◽  
North And South

This paper is an attempt to reassess the role of failure in policy mobilities. Empirically, this paper examines the various aftermaths of, and the continuing trans-local connections originating from, the prominent but un-materialized Sino-British Shanghai-Dongtan eco-city—with a particular consideration on its relation with a subsequently realized project—the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city. The findings reveal that despite its apparent failure, Dongtan eco-city established a set of urban planning procedures adopted by many, including those who designed and delivered the Tianjin eco-city. Meanwhile, Dongtan’s failure to materialize motivated the Chinese government to pursue collaboration with the Singaporean government over the increased involvement of private Western partners. The intent to avoid association with Dongtan’s failure also fostered a new eco-urbanism model based on rebranding the planning practices of Singapore’s public housing. Parts of Dongtan eco-city have also lived on through the international circulation of a piece of planning software that was first developed for the failed project. This paper contributes to the policy mobilities literature by challenging its dominant focus on successful exemplars and exploring how a project fails in implementation yet parts of it remain mobile, influential and present in other developments. This paper also advances the understanding of contemporary urban sustainability by revealing how eco-urbanism models are co-produced in this globalizing era between the global North and South, as well as within the global South.

MAKING SENSE OF THE WAYS WE MAKE SENSE OF THE PAST: THE PERIODO PROJECT

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADAM RABINOWITZ ◽  
RYAN SHAW ◽  
SARAH BUCHANAN ◽  
PATRICK GOLDEN ◽  
ERIC KANSA
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Linked Data ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Direction

Abstract The PeriodO project seeks to fill a gap in the landscape of digital antiquity through the creation of a Linked Data gazetteer of period definitions that transparently record the spatial and temporal boundaries assigned to a given period by an authoritative source. Our presentation of the PeriodO gazetteer is prefaced by a history of the role of periodization in the study of the past, and an analysis of the difficulties created by the use of periods for both digital data visualization and integration. This is followed by an overview of the PeriodO data model, a description of the platform's architecture, and a discussion of the future direction of the project.

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