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1 |
ID:
135794
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Summary/Abstract |
This study aims to explain how adolescents in a rural high school conceptualise school violence. Qualitative data were collected over two two-day periods (24 hours) through child-centred tasks like drawing and the completion of open-ended sentences, informal conversations regarding the given activities, observations documented as visual data (photographs), a research journal, and focus group discussions. In total, four boys and five girls participated in the study. Results of the study indicate that the adolescents (aged 15–17 years) view school violence both as negative, in that it causes harm, and positive, in that it serves as a strategy to ensure order and protection. The adolescents conceptualise violence as interweaving constructs of power, discipline and aggression. Future adolescent-focused interventions regarding violence must include conversations about these nuanced understandings.
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2 |
ID:
135790
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Summary/Abstract |
This paper investigates the implications of transitional politics to the processes and outcomes of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme targeted to the Maoist ex-combatants in Nepal. It shows that the DDR programme in Nepal was unconventional because of (a) following its own context-specific model developed outside of an established DDR framework, (b) being a process led by national actors in the absence of external intervention, and (c) offering no space for non-state actors such as civil society and business to engage in designing and implementing management of the Maoist arms and armies. Highly politicized by conflicting needs and interests of key political actors, the DDR programme was stalled for nearly six years before a resolution about the future of the ex-combatants was forged. Failure of the political actors to forge a common shared outcome of the DDR programme, lack of clarity in the peace negotiation document in terms of processes of rehabilitation and integration of the ex-combatants, and minimal political will of the Maoist to participate in the DDR programme have been identified as key political constrains that have significantly implicated and altered the modality, function and outcome of the DDR programme in Nepal.
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3 |
ID:
135788
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Summary/Abstract |
The young nation of South Sudan is currently engaged in a review of its Transitional Constitution with the aim of finalizing a Permanent Constitution by 2015. One of the key issues the subject of negotiations is whether the Permanent Constitution should contain power-sharing features and if so, whether those features should be formal or informal. While it is widely accepted that the Permanent Constitution will contain federal elements, this article gives consideration to the way in which formal and informal power-sharing arrangements that are found in federations such as Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia, could be employed by South Sudan.
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4 |
ID:
135789
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Summary/Abstract |
This paper addresses the effects of the mixed system used for the last three elections in Lesotho (2002, 2007 and 2012), a small African country with a turbulent history regarding opposition acceptance of elections. The decision to implement a mixed system was in part to encourage democratic stability, yet whether the electoral system has become more conducive to democratic competition is unclear. Through an analysis of national and district-level results, this paper addresses the following questions. First, at the district level, is competition consistent with Duverger’s law or the contamination thesis and is a progression over time evident? Second, does the population size of a district influence the number of candidates and the concentration of votes? Finally, following recent research on detecting electoral fraud, this paper tackles whether the reports of district results suggest extra-institutional manipulation
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5 |
ID:
135791
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Summary/Abstract |
This study examines the reform trajectory of financial supervision in South Korea after the 1980s, focusing on external and internal political–economic factors. Research results indicate that the changed economic landscape led the government, which once utilized financial supervision as a tool to support industrial policy, to alter its aims and pursue the development of the financial market itself. During this transformational process, the 1997 Asian financial crisis functioned as a powerful stimulus for the reform of the previous supervisory system. The process was also marked by social actors’ efforts to affect related policies and the government’s efforts to control the reform process, as well as confrontations between organizations that supported contradictory reform plans. A multi-strategy approach including in-depth interviews with a senior staff member from a government financial regulatory agency, literature reviews, and secondary data collection, was adopted in order to enhance the validity and reliability of this paper.
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6 |
ID:
135792
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Summary/Abstract |
The paper discusses participation of the public in local councils in Malawi in the context that Malawi has had no councillors since 2005. The paper is based on empirical evidence collected through a largely qualitative research design. It adopts a case study approach focusing on Lilongwe District Council and Balaka Town Council. The study has established that the absence of councillors in Malawi has negatively affected the participation of the public in local public machinery. Analysis of the empirical evidence indicates that in the absence of councillors, (i) local people are detached from councils because of a political leadership vacuum that has been created, (ii) withdrawal of formal policy spaces has culminated in the weakening of voices from below, (iii) power struggles among the actors sitting in for councillors impairs them for motivating people to participate in local public life at the council, and (iv) the interim participatory structures have ended up being patronage oriented rather than community-serving oriented as envisaged. The paper holds the view that, in the absence of councillors, participation in local public affairs is largely limited to the people that are connected to the influential political and social figures and networks.
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7 |
ID:
135793
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Summary/Abstract |
This study examined secondary school teachers’ understanding of the HIV and AIDS education policy and curriculum in Zimbabwe. The study was informed by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. Twenty teachers, four school heads from the participating schools and two Ministry of Education officials from Masvingo provincial offices participated in the study. Data for the qualitative case study were collected via individual interviews, focus group interviews and open-ended questionnaires. The study found that teachers had mixed perceptions of the HIV and AIDS school policy. Few teachers had a clear understanding of the policy and curriculum innovation while most of them were uninformed, ignorant, frustrated or confused regarding this policy and the implementation thereof. Overall, there was a disjunction between policy, curriculum requirements and teacher understanding and conceptualisation of the subject area due to a lack of professional qualifications and the non-availability of policy and curriculum documents. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education should become proactive in developing teachers’ knowledge and skills via significant and ongoing professional development and training for all teachers in HIV and AIDS education. School heads should provide support with regard to enhancing teachers’ understanding of HIV and AIDS education for effective implementation of the subject area in schools.
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8 |
ID:
135795
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Summary/Abstract |
This paper reports on an ethnographic study of a village near the town of Sangola in the Sholapur district of Maharashtra, India. The paper is influenced by the feminist interpretations of Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivak, and her plausible enquiry into gender imperialism, colonialism and Western dominations in one hand, and the critique of the quite celebrated development research approach of the 1980s - the participatory rural appraisal (PRA), on the other. Further proposing a new way of looking into ‘participation’ in development practices. Furthermore, it draws out the politics of ‘voice’, empowerment and participation as integral to women’s rights – and also to study men and their changing masculinities with regard to gender inequalities in the village.
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