14 research outputs found
The international community´s engagement in gender and community policing in Afghanistan : approaches and challenges
Full text linkAfghanistan has a long history of discriminatory practices against women and distrust in the police. Since 2001, the international community has had a strong presence in Afghanistan. A focus area has been security sector reform (SSR) where community policing has received much attention. Community based police reform aims to get closer relations and cooperation between police and civil society and to ameliorate the human security situation. A factor that might be of importance for community based policing to succeed is to address gender issues.
Using document analysis and interviews, this research study reveals that Afghan laws and policies have been modernized and ensure equal rights for both women and men. However, the implementation of these laws and policies is limited, which leads to inequalities and a lack of trust in law enforcement institutions. Gender is integrated in the planning processes, policies and development programs on community policing of the international community. However, there is a long way to go for community policing, gender and women ́s rights to be respected and integrated into Afghan society.
This research provides a broader understanding of the approaches to and effects of community policing projects that includes gender in Afghanistan. It reveals that progress has been slow. There is therefore a need for all involved actors to reflect together on any need for changes in their community policing programs and approaches to achieving gender equality and human security for all Afghans in the long-term.submittedVersionM-I
Valuing a People-Centered Approach to the Protection of Civilians Following Peacekeeping Mission Withdrawal in Eastern DR Congo.
Full text linkThis summary is from the abstract of my thesis.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, ongoing cycles of conflict and violence have heightened the focus on civilian protection by peacekeeping missions. Despite the robust military efforts employed to address these needs, violence against civilians persists, leading to calls for the withdrawal of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
This qualitative study involved interviewing civilians, MONUSCO personnel, and Congolese National Police representatives in Eastern DRC, alongside analyzing official UN policy documents to understand MONUSCO’s organizational perspective. The research examined the security landscape for civilian protection and explored how the protective role of the Congolese National Police in Eastern DRC might be enhanced by adopting a people-centered approach amidst discussions of MONUSCO’s potential withdrawal.
Grounded in human security theory and community-oriented policing framework, this study proposes establishing strong police-civilian relationships as a foundational step toward enhancing people-centered civilian protection.
The findings of this study suggest that adopting a people-centered approach can potentially enhance the effectiveness of local security forces in protecting civilians in Eastern DRC after the withdrawal of the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission. If the approach had been adopted to address violence against civilians in Eastern DRC, it might have led to fewer community-based conflicts and fewer protection needs among civilians. Therefore, the perspectives and experiences shared in this research are vital for developing longer-term people-centered protection strategies and solutions if conflicts and physical violence against civilians persist in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
«Det finnes ikke noe trygt sted» : narrativer om hverdags kjønnet u/sikkerhet i El Salvadors marginalsoner
Full text linkEl Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world and a dangerous place to be a woman. Nevertheless, the current public security narrative equates insecurity with gangs and security with police. In this context, marginalized women’s everyday gendered and embodied experiences and perceptions of in/security remain invisible or silenced. Feminist scholars argue that security is a relational practice, felt and experienced in the body. A growing body of research has revealed that public perception of security in El Salvador has been historically constructed through the securitization of social problems and the prioritization of certain concerns over others. This suggests that the public narrative and practice of security in El Salvador is exclusionary, state-centric, masculinist, and marginalizes non-hegemonic experiences of in/security; configurations of security that are shaped by the intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, and age.
To date, very few studies explore the gendered and embodied aspects of security in the country, and most remain embedded in a state-centered approach to this concept. This study contributes to filling that gap by exploring the everyday embodied experiences and the perception of security and insecurity amongst three groups of marginalized women in San Salvador –impoverished young women, trans women, and cis sex workers – in their relationships with their communities and the police. My analysis of these women's narratives is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines critical Feminist Security Studies with Latin American feminist epistemologies. As such, this study aims to explore security and insecurity from marginalized positionalities and the everyday diverse embodied locations of these three groups of women. By focusing on the security narratives of these women, the thesis explores how current hegemonic security logic and the position of marginalization of women and the LGBTI community in the country are connected to historical processes of othering. Finally, it investigates the impact of the public security narrative on the marginalized narratives and experiences of in/security of these women and their relations with the police.
This thesis is based on data collected through participant observation, focus groups, and interviews conducted during three periods of fieldwork in San Salvador, in February 2017, from September 2017 to January 2018, and from March to April 2019. The analysis of the empirical material exposes that these women experience in/security as an ambivalence created by the public security narrative, which disregards intimate expressions of violence in their individual lives and the complexities of living in-between the police and the gangs as local security providers. Moreover, their narratives also show how these women develop security practices in a post-conflict context characterized by protracted cycles of violence. Therefore, this study informs about the agency of these women to narrate security on their own terms and propose alternative ways to understand in/security from their embodied positionalities.
This dissertation proposes to take the everyday embodied experiences and perspectives of in/security narrated by marginalized young women, trans women, and cis sex workers in San Salvador seriously. By doing so, it widens the discussion of security in the country and locates the body of women as both a site of insecurity and political mobilization that needs to be included and rendered visible in the country’s security discourse. By bringing Latin American feminist perspectives into the discussion of security, the thesis also contributes a novel theoretical framework that locates the marginalized body as a site to re-think security. These findings can also be useful for security policymakers and practitioners in the country to understand diverse embodied experiences and promote security practices that are more sensitive and intersectional gender realities.El Salvador er et av de mest voldelige landene i verden og et farlig sted å være kvinne. Det offentlige synet på sikkerhet er at gjenger påfører samfunnet usikkerhet og at det statlige politiet er forbundet med sikkerhet. I dette bildet er særlig marginaliserte kvinner utsatt fordi kjønnede og kroppsliggjorte hverdagslige opplevelser og oppfatninger av trygghet blir usynlige eller fortiet. Feministiske forskere hevder at trygghet er en relasjonell praksis og noe som er følt og opplevd i kroppen. Nyere forskning har vist at den offentlige forståelsen av sikkerhet i El Salvador historisk har blitt konstruert gjennom sikkerhetisering (securitization) av sosiale problemer og prioritering av visse anliggender fremfor andre. Dette gjør sikkerhetspraksisen i El Salvador ekskluderende, statssentrisk, maskulinistisk, og marginaliserer ikke-hegemoniske opplevelser av (u)trygghet, altså (u)trygghet som er formet i skjæringspunktene mellom kjønn, rase, klasse, seksualitet og alder.
Til dags dato har svært få studier utforsket de kjønnede og kroppsliggjorte aspektene ved sikkerhet i landet. Denne studien søker å fylle dette gapet og utforsker de kroppsliggjorte opplevelsene og oppfatningen av trygghet og utrygghet blant tre grupper av marginaliserte kvinner i San Salvador - fattige unge kvinner, transkvinner og ciskvinner-sexarbeidere og deres forhold til lokalsamfunnet og politiet. Jeg analyserer disse kvinnenes fortellinger med en tverrfaglig tilnærming som kobler sammen kritiske feministiske sikkerhetsstudier og latinamerikanske feministiske epistemologier. Målet er å utforske sikkerhet og usikkerhet hosdisse tre marginaliserte gruppene. Ved å sette søkelys på sikkerhetsnarrativene til kvinnene, utforsker avhandlingen hvordan gjeldende hegemoniske sikkerhetslogikker og kvinners marginaliserte posisjoner er knyttet til historiske prosesser av annerledesgjøring. Til slutt undersøker den hvordan narrativet om offentlig sikkerhet virker inn på de marginalisertes forståelse og opplevelse av (u)trygghet og deres forhold til politiet.
Avhandlingen er basert på data samlet inn gjennom deltakende observasjon, fokusgrupper og intervjuer av marginaliserte kvinner utført på feltarbeid i San Salvador i tre perioder i februar 2017, fra september 2017 til januar 2018 og fra mars til april 2019. Analysen av det empiriske materialet synliggjør disse kvinnenes opplevelser av (u)sikkerhet som en ambivalens skapt av den offentlige sikkerhetsdiskursen. Denne diskursen ser bort fra uttrykk for vold i individuelle livs-situasjoner, og utfordringer ved å leve mellom politiet og gjengene som lokale sikkerhetsleverandører. Dessuten viser deres fortellinger også hvordan kvinnene utvikler sin egen sikkerhetspraksis i en post-konflikt kontekst preget av vold over lang tid. Derfor tar denne studien for seg den handlefriheten (agency) disse kvinnene har til å definere sikkerhet ut fra egne kriterier, og den foreslår å forstå (u)trygghet ut fra deres kroppsliggjorte erfaringer og posisjoner.
Avhandlingen foreslår å ta på alvor de dagligdagse kroppsliggjorte opplevelsene og perspektivene av (u)sikkerhet fortalt av marginaliserte unge kvinner, transkvinner og cis-sexarbeidere i San Salvador. På denne måten utvider den diskusjonen om sikkerhet i landet og lokaliserer kvinnekroppen som både et sted for usikkerhet og politisk mobilisering som må inkluderes og synliggjøres diskurs og fortellinger om sikkerhet i El Salvado. Ved å bringe latinamerikanske feministiske perspektiver inn i diskusjonen om sikkerhet, bidrar avhandlingen med et nytt teoretisk rammeverk som lokaliserer den marginaliserte kroppen som et sted for nytenkning om sikkerhet. Disse funnene kan også være nyttige for beslutningstakere og utøvere av sikkerhetspolitikken i landet, fordi de kan bidra til forståelse av sammenhengen mellom kvinners kroppsliggjorte erfaringer og sikkerhetspraksiser, en forståelse som er mer sensitiv overfor mangfold og interseksjonelle kjønnsrealiteter.El Salvador es uno de los países más violentos del mundo y un lugar peligroso para ser mujer. Sin embargo, la narrativa actual de la seguridad pública equipara la inseguridad con las pandillas y la seguridad con la policía. En este contexto, las experiencias cotidianas de género y encarnadas de las mujeres marginadas y sus percepciones de in/seguridad permanecen invisibles o silenciadas. Las académicas feministas argumentan que la seguridad es una práctica relacional, sentida y experimentada en el cuerpo. Creciente investigación revela que la percepción pública de seguridad en El Salvador se ha construido históricamente a través de la securitización de los problemas sociales y la priorización de ciertas preocupaciones sobre otras. Esto sugiere que la narrativa pública y la práctica de la seguridad en El Salvador es excluyente, centrada en el Estado, masculinísta, y margina las experiencias no hegemónicas de in/seguridad; configuraciones de seguridad que están formadas por las intersecciones de género, raza, clase, sexualidad y edad.
Hasta la fecha, muy pocos estudios exploran los aspectos encarnados y de género de la seguridad en el país, y la mayoría permanece sumida en un enfoque de este concepto centrado en el estado. Buscando llenar ese vacío, esta investigación exploró las experiencias cotidianas encarnadas y la percepción de in/seguridad entre tres grupos de mujeres marginadas en San Salvador -mujeres jóvenes empobrecidas, mujeres trans y mujeres cis trabajadoras sexuales - en sus relaciones con sus comunidades y la policía. Analicé las narrativas de estas mujeres desde un enfoque interdisciplinario que conecta los Estudios Feministas de Seguridad críticos y las epistemologías feministas latinoamericanas. Como tal, el objetivo de este estudio es explorar la seguridad y la inseguridad desde las posiciones marginadas y las diversas ubicaciones cotidianas encarnadas de estos tres grupos de mujeres. Al enfocarse en las narrativas de seguridad de estas mujeres, la tesis explora cómo la lógica de seguridad hegemónica actual y la posición de marginación de las mujeres y la comunidad LGBTI en el país están conectadas con los procesos históricos de creación de otredad. Finalmente, este estudio investiga el impacto de la narrativa de seguridad pública en las narrativas marginales y experiencias de in/seguridad de estas mujeres y sus relaciones con la policía.
Esta tesis se basa en datos recopilados a través de la observación participante, grupos focales y entrevistas realizadas durante tres períodos de trabajo de campo en San Salvador, en febrero de 2017, de septiembre de 2017 a enero de 2018 y de marzo a abril de 2019. El análisis del material empírico expone que estas mujeres experimentan la in/seguridad como una ambivalencia creada por la narrativa de seguridad pública, que ignora las expresiones íntimas de violencia en sus vidas individuales y las complejidades de vivir entre la policía y las pandillas como proveedores de seguridad local. Además, sus narrativas también muestran cómo estas mujeres desarrollan prácticas de seguridad en un contexto de posconflicto caracterizado por ciclos prolongados de violencia. Por lo tanto, este estudio informa sobre la agencia de estas mujeres para narrar la seguridad en sus propios términos y proponer formas alternativas de entender la in/seguridad desde sus posicionamientos encarnados.
Esta disertación propone tomar en serio las experiencias cotidianas encarnadas y las perspectivas de in/seguridad narradas por mujeres jóvenes marginadas, mujeres trans y trabajadoras sexuales cis en San Salvador. Al hacerlo, amplía la discusión sobre la seguridad en el país y ubica el cuerpo de las mujeres como un sitio tanto de inseguridad como de movilización política que necesita ser incluido y visibilizado en la narrativa de seguridad del país. Al incorporar las perspectivas feministas latinoamericanas a la discusión sobre la seguridad, la tesis también aporta un marco teórico novedoso que ubica el cuerpo marginado como un lugar para repensar la seguridad. Estos hallazgos también pueden ser útiles para los encargados de la formulación de políticas y los profesionales de la seguridad en el país para comprender diversas experiencias encarnadas y promover prácticas de seguridad más sensibles a las diversidades e interseccionalidades de las realidades de género
Civil Security in the Wake of Crisis - Renegotiating Police-Community Relations in Post-Crisis Development in Swat, Pakistan
Full text linkThis paper explores the transition from military to civil security in post-militancy and subsequent militant operations in 2009 and the floods of 2010 in the Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Based mainly on qualitative interviews with local police and community women and men, the paper examines the shifting roles of the police over the course of these crises and how community-police relations are continuously negotiated. Before the conflict, relations between the community and police were weak, and traditional institutions such as the jirga were functioning. Militants attacked both systems, targeting police, politicians, jirga leaders and education institutions. Following the military operation, the responsibility for security became a confusing institutional landscape of civil and military actors, which has reshaped community-police relations in Swat. Dichotomous distinctions between state and non-state, formal and informal institutions fall short in describing the everyday dynamic crafting of local institutions, particularly in a post-conflict context like Swat. New 'hybrid' institutions have emerged, initiated by both government and communities, with varying degrees of success in building trust and addressing peoples' fears that militants may return. The results are relevant for both post-conflict development assistance and police and justice reform not only in the study area, but also in other post-conflict areas where states and communities find themselves re-negotiating their basic relationships
Recovering from disasters: a study of livelihoods in post‐quake villages in northern Pakistan
No full textEnvironmental and social benefits of improved handling and disposal of black wastewater in Greenland
No full textWastewater collection and treatment is difficult in arctic climate due to, i.e. permafrost and cold climate. Currently all toilet wastewater (blackwater) in Greenland is discharged untreated, mainly to the sea. Water from bathing, washing and kitchen (greywater) is usually not collected and is discharged above ground, next to the dwelling, even in the cities. Due to the lack of piping systems bucket toilets for collection of excreta are common. The bucket toilets and the greywater handling can pose health threats to the people and improved systems are needed. The current wastewater handling in Greenland causes visual contamination of the coast near many towns and settlements. Furthermore the nutrients in the wastewater may cause local eutrophication where the water exchange is poor. Another and maybe more serious consequence of discharging untreated wastewater into the arctic waters are organic chemicals including medicine residues. Such compounds may accumulate in the food chain, can act as endocrine disruptors, and are shown to promote formation of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. In addition to the environmental and health issues the current practice of wastewater handling in Greenland can be harmful to the image of Greenland as being a clean country with an unspoiled nature that is important since tourism is a fast-growing industry. The nature in arctic areas is more vulnerable to environmental contaminants because of low temperatures, lack of nutrients and extreme seasonal variations in light. It is difficult and expensive to treat wastewater in Greenland by traditional methods due to natural conditions and settlement patterns. Alternative methods are therefore needed. One of the options is to treat the excreta separate from the greywater, and introduce modern composting toilets or low flush toilets with collection at the household level and improved greywater treatment. This will improve the indoor and outdoor hygiene and thus status for the families. The blackwater can be sanitized and converted to small volumes of soil amendment and fertilizer and used in e.g. greenhouses or agriculture in South Greenland. The potential for removal or breakdown of medicine residues or other organic chemicals is also larger in an intense thermophilic composting process than in traditional wastewater treatment. This paper focuses on the social and environmental consequences of the current wastewater handling in Greenland and the challenges, being of social, technical or economical character, connected to implementation of new solutions that can improve public health and living standard as well as protect the environment
Analysis of the sustainability of upland farming systems in the Middle Mountains region of Nepal
No full textSpatial palindromes/palindromic spaces: spatial devices in Vitruvius, Mallarmé, Polieri, Perec and Libeskind
No full textThis thesis explores non-linear geometric texts and narratives in literature and architecture and the experience of space that is facilitated by them. The research focuses on the palindrome because it is a non-linear mathematical/geometrical device that is found both in literature and architecture. In language, the palindrome is expressed in the geometrical arrangement of words, letters or concepts in the text or the narrative; and, in architecture, as mirrored symmetries or palindromic proportions, measurements and distributions of elements in drawings and buildings. The primary aim of the thesis is to explore the spatial qualities of palindromes, and the experience of those qualities not only in text but also in architecture. This dissertation thus consists of two parts: the first examines Spatial Palindromes in terms of the spatial structures of selected texts and considers their relation to architecture; and the second examines Palindromic Spaces in terms of the spatial experiences created by and through palindromes in text and architecture. The first part, Spatial Palindromes, constructs an original history of the spatial qualities of palindromes by looking at the theory guiding the use of non-linear devices in texts and architecture. This history moves from the use of palindromes in the work of classical figures and scholars (Orpheus, Pythagoras and Vitruvius), to the Medieval and Renaissance practice of mnemonics (Frances Yates, Mary Carruthers), to early twentieth-century structural linguistics (Ferdinand de Saussure) and the group OuLiPo (Raymond Queneau, Franyois Le Lionnais) and, finally, to late twentieth-century post-structural linguistics (Jean Baudrillard.) The thesis argues that palindromes create spatial experiences both in texts and architecture. For this reason the second part, Palindromic Spaces, studies the nature of spatial experience in the fictions and designs of Stephane Mallarme, Jacques Polieri, Georges Perec, and Daniel Libeskind. According to Baudrillard the poetic space, hidden or revealed by the anagram and palindrome, is where the solid structure of language is "exterminated." This act of extermination, or the poetic space that palindrome reveals in language, opens up perception, memory and recollection to a spatial experience "that incorporates the recession of outcomes ad infinitum;" a self-generated, self-consumed or self-reflective conception of history and space that this thesis aims to explore in architecture
Author correction: Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function
Full text linkChristina M. Lill, who contributed to analysis of data, was inadvertently omitted from the author list in the originally published version of this article. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article
From Guns to Roses: Understanding Community-Oriented Policing in Afghanistan
Full text linkIn Afghanistan, police reform is an important focus of international efforts. After over a decade of assistance, however, there are still daunting challenges of public trust and police effectiveness. From a civilian perspective, the role of the police is a crucial one—and very different from that of the military. Communities, being at the very heart of security challenges, are well positioned to understand the intricacies of security and development. A police service able to work closely with communities plays an important role in managing conflict in the long run. Recognizing this, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) has steadily increased its efforts in community-oriented policing (COP), despite a deteriorating security situation since the withdrawal of US troops in 2014. This paper explores how COP in Afghanistan links with local communities and institutions to ensure both peoples’ security and trust. It begins by considering police-community relations through a broad lens of human security, which comprises the social, economic, political, cultural and legal aspects of their everyday lives. We then examine international assistance to police reform, how the Afghan police have developed their COP philosophy, and how this has played out in re-defining police-community relations. Using field data from Nimruz Province, we then look at the role of local institutions of chowkidari and shura in addressing people’s insecurities, and opportunities for linking these with COP efforts of the police. We conclude that there is a real potential for COP in Afghanistan that his locally owned and sustainable, if enough attention is given to inclusive processes and developing creative and flexible trust-building relationships with local institutions and organizations
