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Reconciling Rwanda: Unity, Nationality and State Control
Full text linkIn July 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) set out to stabilise and secure Rwanda, a country decimated by genocide. This mandate was later extended to include the herculean task of promoting unity and reconciliation to a population torn apart by violence. More than two decades later, these goals appear to have been achieved. Beneath the veneer of reconciliation lies myriad programmes and legislation that do more than seek to unite the population - they keep the RPF in power. In 'Reconciling Rwanda: Unity, Nationality and State Control', Jennifer Melvin analyses the highly controversial RPF and its vision of reconciliation to determine who truly benefits from the construction of the new post-genocide Rwanda
Do Fictions Explain?
Full text linkI argue that fictional models, construed as models that misrepresent certain ontological aspects of their target systems, can nevertheless explain why the latter exhibit certain behaviour. They can do this by accurately representing whatever it is that that behaviour counterfactually depends on. However, we should be sufficiently sensitive to different explanatory questions, i.e., ‘why does certain behaviour occur?’ vs. ‘why does the counterfactual dependency invoked to answer that question actually hold?’. With this distinction in mind, I argue that whilst fictional models can answer the first sort of question, they do so in an unmysterious way (contra to what one might initially think about such models). Moreover, I claim that the second question poses a dilemma for the defender of the idea that fictions can explain: either these models cannot answer these sorts of explanatory questions, precisely because they are fictional; or they can, but in a way that requires reinterpreting them such that they end up accurately representing the ontological basis of the counterfactual dependency, i.e., reinterpreting them so as to rob them of their fictional status. Thus, the existence of explanatory fictions does not put pressure on the idea that accurate representation of some aspect of a target system is a necessary condition on explaining that aspect
Giving with one click, taking with the other: e-legal deposit, web archives and researcher access
Full text linkEnvironmental Ethics For A Fallen World: Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733) And The Boundaries Of Human Agency
Full text linkThis article traces the formation of a (self-)critical discourse around human environmental agency in early Enlightenment Europe, focusing on the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733) and the Royal Society milieus to which he was connected. In manuscript and printed writings, and particularly in his beautifully illustrated Physica sacra (1731–1735), Scheuchzer used a combination of biblical exegesis, thought experiments, and ecological insights to reflect about the relationship between God, humankind, and nature. Against claims that the tradition of natural theology in which Scheuchzer belonged “prevented and delayed the acknowledgment of the earth as vulnerable” (Kempe 2003b, p. 166), the article shows how different thinkers could use the Bible to support competing claims regarding the role of humans as agents in God’s creation. While some authors enthusiastically upheld contemporary ideologies of environmental ‘improvement’, others—including Scheuchzer himself—called for greater self-restraint and developed a biblically-grounded form of precautionary environmental ethics
'Administering Empire' annotated bibliographic Check List
Full text linkFor a record of published memoirs and studies related to the Colonial Service there is the very extensive 'Administering Empire' annotated bibliographic Check List compiled by Terry Barringer of Wolfson College, Cambridg
Improving empathy: is virtual reality an effective approach to educating about refugees?
Full text linkPrompted by the need to educate host communities about refugees as a way to promote a two-way process of integration, this dissertation is an empirical investigation into the use of virtual reality in the context of education about refugees. In particular, it focuses on the question of whether virtual reality could effectively foster empathy towards refugees. The emphasis on empathy is motivated by two main reasons: first, empathy can be taught and,
second, it can lead to altruism. Inspired by the success of the 360-degree video Clouds Over Sidra, which helped virtual reality earn the title of ‘empathy machine’, this study asked 107 middle and high school students to watch the above-mentioned Clouds Over Sidra and the multimodal video Step into a Refugee Camp and compare the two media experiences. Overall, the results indicated VR’s immersive quality can enhance compelling content by eliciting both
emotional and cognitive empathy and help develop perspective-taking capacities. They also demonstrated that, at least in the short term, the empathic reaction stimulated some forms of altruism expressed in the commitment to offer a personal contribution to improve the refugees’ situation
Financial inclusion for refugees in India – a study on the practical access to banks and financial systems
Full text linkIndia hosts over 200,000 refugees within its territory. In spite of this, it has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention (‘Refugee Convention’), nor does it have a law specifically addressing their stay or their rights. India’s current domestic asylum framework is characterised by its lack of formal structure and is largely driven by geo-strategic interests in the region. The absence of a uniform and institutionalised legal framework and consequent lack of legal documentation, along with a general lack of awareness about refugees, has led to them being deprived of access to any financial institution or service in India. Consequently, with no access to banks, refugees have had to primarily depend on the exploitative parallel economy for sustenance, with earnings and savings exclusively in cash. Over the years, this has resulted in refugees being largely excluded from the mainstream economy and livelihood opportunities within it.
The need for financial services was most acutely realised in the aftermath of the government’s demonetisation policy (introduced in November 2016), which sought to remove existing 500- and 1,000-rupee notes from circulation, rendering them illegal. As per the government, besides targeting black-money, this was also a step towards achieving complete financial inclusion by transforming India into a cashless economy and ensuring a bank account for each individual. However, for refugees, with their cash savings rendered worthless, no access to banking services and difficulty in acquiring the new currency, the impact of the policy was devastating. Post demonetisation, the government’s designation of ‘Aadhaar’, a 12-digit unique biometric ID issued to persons legally residing in India, as a core tool of its drive for socio-economic and financial inclusion, also had a deep impact on refugees as their eligibility to acquire this document was not clear. Owing to these policies, over the last two years, refugees in India have been completely relegated to the margins with no means to access the formal economy.
Against the aforementioned background, M.A.P, India’s first and only refugee law centre, recognised an urgent need to initiate efforts to advocate for the financial inclusion of refugees. To this end, it conceived of a pioneering project in 2017 (the ‘Project’) to analyse the financial landscape in India from a refugee lens and engage with the refugee community and their interlocutors to: (a) identify barriers to inclusion; (b) constructively engage with concerned government authorities and financial institutions to highlight the legal vacuum and systemic gaps that act as roadblocks to refugees’ access to financial services; and (c) identify and test avenues for increasing such access. This paper seeks to document the key findings of the Project and is intended to inform future interventions for financial inclusion of refugees in India
State of the Art of the Literature on Internal Displacement in Latin America
Full text linkThis paper reviews the scholarship on internal displacement in Latin America. This includes not only the vast literature on internal displacement in Colombia, and the responses to that
protracted situation, but also the research on other emerging scenarios of internal displacement in the region, particularly Mexico and countries in the north of Central America. The paper starts by describing the main internal displacement trends in Latin America. It then reviews how scholarship on internal displacement in this region has developed, respectively, in the fields of law and policy, other social sciences and humanities, and health and medicine. It ends by offering conclusions on the scope of existing research and directions for future study.
This review of the scholarly literature seeks to identify principal trends, gaps and opportunities relating to research on internal displacement. Towards this end, the review concentrates on academic publications, including monographs, chapters in edited volumes and peer-reviewed
articles, from the early 1990s until the start of 2020, a period of approximately 30 years. It thus offers not only a critical review of the state of the art in this field of study but also a key point of reference for researchers looking to develop our understanding of internal displacement from the standpoint of a variety of different disciplines and themes.
The paper forms part of a series of papers published in this Working Paper Series that review the state of the scholarship on internal displacement at the global level and in particular regions as we enter the decade of the 2020s. This research forms part of the Interdisciplinary Network on Displacement, Conflict and Protection (AH/T005351/1) and Global Engagement on Internal Displacement in sub-Saharan Africa (EP/T003227/1) projects, pilots of which were supported by
the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). It should be read in conjunction with the other review papers in this series
A World You Do Not Know: Settler Societies, Indigenous Peoples and the Attack on Cultural Diversity
Full text link'A World You Do Not Know' explores the wilful ignorance demonstrated by North America’s settlers in establishing their societies on lands already occupied by indigenous nations. Using the Innu of Labrador-Quebec as one powerful contemporary example, Colin Samson shows how the processes of displacement and assimilation today resemble those of the 19th century as the state and corporations scramble for Innu lands. While nation building, capitalism and industrialisation are shown to have undermined indigenous peoples’ wellbeing, the values that guide societies like the Innu are very much alive. The book ends by showcasing how ideas and land-based activities of indigenous groups in Canada and the US are being maintained and recast as ways to address the attack on cultural diversity and move forward to more positive futures