1,720,983 research outputs found
Does Transitional Justice Build the Rule of Law? : The Role of Domestic Prosecutions
Full text linkIn the aftermath of widespread human rights violations, states may engage in a process of transitional justice in an effort to diffuse conflict, prevent further violence, and promote reconciliation in society. Though transitional justice is a broad term that may encompass both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, prosecution of perpetrators is frequently held to be of great importance, particularly by human rights organisations and victims’ associations. This thesis evaluates claims regarding the benefits of prosecutions, specifically their effects on building the rule of law, and identify the factors that play a role in how and under what conditions prosecutions are able to contribute to the development of the rule of law, where prosecutions are a central strategy of transitional justice. Although it has been suggested that prosecutions will contribute to the rule of law in an essentially linear fashion, it may be that prior conditions within the state determine the degree to which prosecutions are able to make a positive contribution to the development of the rule of law. Drawing on three case studies of countries that have undertaken domestic prosecutions as a primary transitional justice strategy – Argentina, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina – this thesis suggests that prosecutions will be more likely to contribute to the development of the rule of law where legal institutions already have capacity to enforce the norm of accountability by taking on politically sensitive and complex trials, there is a civil society that promotes legal accountability, and there is elite support for the prosecutions. Prosecutions may, therefore, contribute to the development of the rule of law under certain conditions but not in all circumstances
Collective Sustenance and the Environment: A Political Economy Analysis of Tourism in Himachal Pradesh, India
Full text linkThe Himalayas have long been a source of attraction for people for its resources that have encouraged its use and exploitation by the government since colonial times. The Himalayan terrain has typically been favoured for the tourism industry owing to its scenic beauty, recreational activities and the local cottage industries that have developed over a period of time, alongside the tourism sector that has facilitated the growth and sustenance of the local hill economies. Tourism in Himachal Pradesh is not a new phenomenon and dates back to the historical accounts of the famous Chinese Traveler, Hiuen Tsang and later colonial travelers later such as William Moorcroft, who had written extensively on the social and economic life, art and architecture, scenic beauty and the flora and fauna of Himachal. However modern day tourism in the state has acquired new dimensions. Both formal and informal networks of people have been involved with the tourism industry in Himachal that has symbolically separated older forms of tourism with the newer kinds. This relates to not only the massive influx in the quantum of people to the state but the articles of exchange- kinds of products exchanged, and kinds of recreational opportunities made available to the tourists. Owing to the fact that agriculture was by itself not sufficient and was often severely impaired by adverse climatic conditions, the local communities engaged in trade of plants, herbs and herbomineral oils such as shilajit or paththar ka paseena (some of which were made illegal by colonial and post-colonial law). The nexus of contractors and tourists with that of the local communities in the trading of a narcotic produce from Cannabis resin, Malana cream (native of the village Malana, in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh) is another issue linked with the creation of a massive illicit drug trade that caters to the national and international market. While on the one hand its positive impact on the economy cannot be disregarded, the issue of environmental degradation has gradually deepened with the massive explosion of mega and midsized resort projects and building of hotels that have eroded the fragile slopes and been responsible for tremendous deforestation. Furthermore, the growth of the tourism sector (which has itself been heartened by the building of roadways) has in its turn encouraged incessant construction of roadways and led to urban modes of expansion in the hills, that have resulted in slope erosion and continuously de-stabilized slopes displacing the landless living in forests. Additionally, air pollution has become a major concern in the Himachal, owing to the vehicular emission from the large volume of buses and cars that ply to and fro the hills to cater to tourists. Himachal Pradesh has therefore witnessed a process of steady environmental degradation. The study is conducted in Manali town in the Kullu district of Himachal, to critically look at the changing nature of peoples’ survival mechanisms and coping strategies in the context of exploitation and management of natural resources vis-à-vis tourism. The notions of ‘risk’ is understood not merely in terms of environmental concerns in the hills, but also from the 4 perceptions of ‘new threats’ to ‘security’ that are embedded in the very geopolitical composition of the region, in the context of modern risk societies and the way in which ‘collective sustenance’ finds meaning in the context of the ‘shadow’ economy. It endeavoures to contribute to existing literature on exploitation of natural resources owing to tourism development in hill economies broadly, by trying to bridge gaps in the literature and bringing in an integrated agenda to look at institutional frameworks of the state and that of the local people in their modus operandi and collective sustenance mechanisms, including coping strategies in the light of ‘risks’ in ecologically fragile landscapes. Also, since not much literature has been generated as significant case study material for Himachal Pradesh, in terms of analysing the political economy of tourism in the region, the study addresses the concerns of these neglected hills and their communities as ‘precarious’ ‘risk communities’ attempting to cope with changing environment through collective action. The study specifically engages in- 1. To examine how collective sustenance mechanisms operate beyond mere sustenance needs and evolve as coping strategies underlying the fabric of hill economies as tourism expands and impacts the politics of survival in molding these power configurations. 2. To study the networks that grow as a result of the interplay of tourism in relation to adaptive measures and coping strategies employed which has further repercussions in changing patterns of collective sustenance mechanisms. 3. To understand the ‘risk’ perceptions in relation to livelihood, shadows and collective sustenance and explore to what extent they have had implications for shaping the economy of the region
Class Relations in India’s Building Construction: Bihari Migrant Labourers and the Political Apparatus of Surplus Extraction
Full text linkThe thesis examines class relations, i.e. social relations of organising exploitation in the case of internal migrant labourers in India, in explaining class formation. By incorporating migrant labourers through production relations, such as sub-contracting in building construction, social relations of caste, ethnicity, region, etc., are deployed to organise and reinforce exploitation. A case in point is the historical and intergenerational exploitation of migrant labourers from the East Indian state of Bihar. Bihari migrant labourers, on the one hand, form the bulk of the labour force in, among others, building construction in India and, on the other hand, face ethnic discrimination and stereotyping as ‘Bihari’ labour. They are incorporated in building construction through historically exploitative labour relations organised by labour contractors, i.e. thekedars. However, the existing literature on class analysis has ignored how capital accumulation is enabled and reinforced through labour migration. Further, how the experience of exploitation is politically produced in shaping class formation remains to be discovered. The research fills these gaps in the literature on class formation. The thesis argues that the political apparatus of production relations shape the lived experiences of exploitation in ‘configuring’ class relations. The thesis outlines configurations of class relations, i.e. the conditions and mechanisms for the emergence and silencing of class conflicts shaping class formation. Methodologically, the research employs ethnographically informed approaches using qualitative research techniques. By employing these approaches and techniques, the thesis examines specific conditions and mechanisms that enable and reinforce the architecture of surplus extraction in the case of Bihari migrant construction labourers. In doing so, it explains the politics of production relations in building construction, shaping class formation
Conservation and Displacement: A Study of Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) Forest in Mizoram, Northeast India
Full text linkConservation projects and displacement are two facets of the relationship between the state and the environment. Conservation projects aim to address the threats to the environment and its biodiversity that are undoubtedly real in contemporary times. At the same time, they are based on an exclusionary framework in approach, practices, and understanding. They begin with the process of identification, distinction, division, and demarcation of what is to be preserved and conserved. Hence, state-led conservation becomes top-down, instrumental, and forceful. My thesis argues that such practices of conservation projects become untoward and unsustainable, victimising people, and destroying nature. It fails to both understand people and the environment and to address the problems. The approach denies an ecology whereby both the people and the environment share a symbiotic relationship, and displacement becomes a common outcome. Displacement of people from a conservation project is not just about the physical removal of the people from their habitats but also the erasure of their history, memory, and representation (Schama 1996 cited in Brockington and Igoe, 2006) and fails to recognize complex and enduring human-nature interactions. Consequently, it disrupts ecosystems in the name of conservation. My thesis critically examines and analyses the issues of conservation and displacement from a bottom-up approach, that is, from the experiences of the displaced. It studies a prominent ‘tiger conservation project without tiger’, namely the Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) in the state of Mizoram, India, its disruption of local ecosystems it was established to conserve and the resulting environmental and socio-economic crisis. I investigate socio-cultural and historical factors affecting the human-nature relationship in the DTR. The Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) conservation project demonstrates the importance of understanding local ecosystems and conservation that challenges the state-led conservation practices resulting in displacement of both people and nature
Contesting conservation: shahtoosh trade and forest management in Jammu and Kashmir, India
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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