THE G77+CHINA’S ROLE IN TRADE MULTILATERALISM: ADVOCATING FOR SOUTH AGENCY

The Group of Seventy-Seven (G77) plus China is positioned in global multilateralism as a platform for advancing the collective interests and issues of the global South in the United Nations (UN) system. For this reason, the organization has a special role to play in the multilateral trade negotiation system where groups, coalitions and alliances are crucial negotiation levers for individual countries. On this basis, the G77 seeks a fair, just and equitable international trade environment, an ideal linked directly to the pursuit of global reform towards a post-Western-led world. This article analyses critically the role of the G77 in exercising global South agency on international trade within the World Trade Organization (WTO) system and the efficacy of its role in promoting South-South trade co-operation. As the group is not without its challenges and its diverse membership has varied interests within the multilateral trade system, it is difficult to ascertain the group’s authority in advocating for reforms in the system. The G77’s advocacy for South agency, however, remains important.

Putting Anthropological Skills to Use in Engagement with Grassroots Community Organizations1

Academic anthropologists have many valuable skills to offer community-based non-profit organizations. Conceptualizing and tracing the embeddedness of the organization in its community, constituency, or client base, especially in situations of change, is essential in understanding and reformulating organizational mission, designing new programming, developing leadership and governance, building coalitions and alliances, measuring organizational effectiveness and achievements, and being able to articulate a compelling rationale in grant-writing and other funding appeals for organizational support. This account draws from an auto-ethnographic case study of the author's involvement in a Boston-based workers' center that supports Brazilian immigrants.

Coalitions in theory and reality: a review of pertinent variables and processes

Coalitions and alliances are ubiquitous in humans and many other mammals, being part of the fabric of complex social systems. Field biologists and ethologists have accumulated a vast amount of data on coalition and alliance formation, while theoretical biologists have developed modelling approaches. With the accumulation of empirical data and sophisticated theory, we are now potentially able to answer a host of questions about how coalitions emerge and are maintained in a population over time, and how the psychology of this type of cooperation evolved. Progress can only be achieved, however, by effectively bridging the communication gap that currently exists between empiricists and theoreticians. In this paper, we aim to do so by asking three questions: (1) What are the primary questions addressed by theoreticians interested in coalition formation, and what are the main building blocks of their models? (2) Do empirical observations support the assumptions of current models, and if not, how can we improve this situation? (3) Has theoretical work led to a better understanding of coalition formation, and what are the most profitable lines of inquiry for the future? Our overarching goal is to promote the integration of theoretical and field biology by motivating empirical scientists to collect data on aspects of coalition formation that are currently poorly quantified and to encourage theoreticians to develop a comprehensive theory of coalition formation that is testable under real-world conditions.