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CONTENTS: Introduction / Carin Norberg -- China and Africa: Genuine Partnership or a Marriage of Convenience? / Fantu Cheru – TRADE -- New Focus on China-Africa Relations / He Wenping -- African Marriage Practices and the Global Financial Crisis / Knut Christian Myhre – CONFLICT -- A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Researching Conflict in the Niger Delta / Cyril Obi -- Diary of Dreams Deferred -- A Zimbabwean in Limbo / Amanda Hammar -- POLICY -- Africa and the Global Recession / Göran Holmqvist -- South Africa 2008: Quo Vadis, Whereto? / Anders Möllander -- Bridging the Gap between Policy and Research / Mathias Krüger -- Past Memories Informing Future Policies / Proscovia Svärd -- URBAN -- Walls of Shame: Evictions, Global Pressures and Local Agendas / Amin Kamete & Ilda Lindell -- The Index Finger of Justice: Democratization in Sierra Leone / Mats Utas – RURAL -- Forests Returned to Village Management in Northern Tanzania -- Natural Resources under New Rulers / Kjell Havnevik -- Adam Azzain Mohamed - Claude Ake Professor 2008 -- Research in the Midst of Controversy: "You Coming Here is Like a Spear to Me" / Lisbeth Larsson Lidén – GENDER -- Talking About Aids - the Problem of Openness / Elina Oinas -- CULTURE -- What's Culture Got to Do with It? / Mai Palmberg -- Three Months Up North… / Tolu Ogunlesi -- COMMUNICATIONS AND LIBRARY -- Easy Come, Easy Go / Åsa Lund Moberg -- From Out of Print to In Print Forever / Birgitta Hellmark Lindgren -- Published by the institute -- STAFF AND ACTIVITIES

The article presents the major findings from a research project on the social and symbolic function of evaluations of education. The aim and perspective of the research project was to formulate a social theory about evaluations. The project was documented in the author's dissertation (Nørholm 2008a). The original article Danish article consisted of an edited version of the oral presentation of the project, published in Danish as Nørholm (2008b). The analyses draw upon theories by Durkheim (art or practical practice, practical theory, science or theoretical theory respectively), Bourdieu (the notions of habitus, capital, field and the theories from Reproduction), Ulf P. Lundgren (a scientific theory of evaluations) and Staf Callewaert (pedagogy as science). The empirical material consists of eight evaluation reports regarding the educations/formal training programmes for the (semi-)professions within a medical field, of different text about evaluations, and of dominant examples of Danish normal evaluation research. The analysed evaluations were conducted by representatives at all hierarchical levels, and was implicitly relating to evaluation research performed by a group of researchers/experts allocated seemingly external to the representatives. In a typically meritocratic vision and according to a New- Public-Management model, the evaluations and the evaluation research presuppose that in contemporary society, performances e.g. in school are only legitimate, they only exist, when they are evaluated. Any other performance or effort is illegitimate, non-existent. The premise being that the directions formulated in the purposive evaluation research are realized. The social and symbolic function of evaluations of educations is constructed as a societal tool for social sorting, reproducing an already existing arbitrary social order. Normal evaluation research is constructed as a symbolically necessary part of the scientific object evaluation of education. Evaluations of education, an accompanying normal evaluation research and the evaluated educations are constructed as parts of a societal tool for social sorting, for reproducing an already existing arbitrary social order. The legitimacy of the evaluations is borrowed from a research constituting a nonautonomous part of a political-administrative field, the field of power, despite 2 the fact that it is administratively allocated externally related to the evaluations and to the evaluand.

This paper discusses the design of things. This is done in an attempt to conceptually explore some of the political and practical challenges to participatory design today. Which things, and which participants? The perspective is strategic and conceptual. Two approaches are in focus, participatory design (designing for use before use) and meta-design (designing for design after design). With this framing the challenge for professional design to participate in public controversial things is considered.

CONTENTS: To our readers / Carin Norberg -- COMMENTARIES: Rainbow Kenya: Government of National Unity / Fibian Kavulani Lukalu -- Political parties and the challenge for democracy in Kenya / Mwandawiro Mghanga NORDIC AFRICAN STUDIES: Nordic Masters courses in African and development related studies -- University of Copenhagen, Denmark: Master of Arts in African Studies -- Agder University College, Norway: Master's Programme in Development Management -- University of Jyväskylä, Finland: Master's Programme in Development and International Cooperation -- Interview with a student -- Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Master's Degree in African Studies -- Göteborg University, Sweden: Master's course in African Studies and International Development Cooperation -- Dalarna University: International Master in African Studies -- NAI's library services: A resource for distance users -- RESEARCH: The African agricultural and rural crisis / Kjell Havnevik -- Collective organisation among informal workers in African cities / Ilda Lourenço-Lindell -- Call for papers to a conference -- Youth's Independent Migration from Rural Burkina Faso to Ouagadougou / Dorte Thorsen -- DEBATE: Global Compact – Nordic and African perspectives / Nina Frödin -- VISITS: African Presidents visit to the Institute -- PUBLISHING: Recent publications

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías is probably the most controversial among the Latin American political leaders of the recent decade(s). The former coup-leader (or military rebel, depending on the interpretation by the analyst), who was democratically elected President of the Republic in 1998, is likewise a forefront figure of the current wave of Leftist transformations on the continent. This first edition of the Stockholm Review of Latin American Studies is dedicated to the topic of Venezuelan politics and society in times of Chavismo. A rather broad range of researchers from three continents have contributed with distinct points of departure and scopes of focus, with the first three articles in English and the five subsequent ones in Spanish. In the first, Daniel Hellinger employs the concept of tercermundismo to approach Venezuelan politics and society in the context of rising and developing Chavismo. Aspects of social and political inclusion and exclusion are analytically revised, as well as other relevant factors behind the popularity (and the rejection) of Chávez. Thereafter, Angel Alvarez presents a series of analytical arguments regarding social cleavages and political polarization in the context of the break-down of the ancient regime and its consequences for democracy. Rickard Lalander then emphasizes the destiny of Venezuelan decentralization since Hugo Chávez came to power. José Vicente Carrasquero addresses certain aspects of participatory democracy and social and political inclusion and exclusion respectively, and offers a balance of accounts of the first seven years of the Chávez government. José Antonio Rivas Leone contributes with an historical analysis of the crises and process of de-institutionalization of the Venezuelan party system, considering both internal factors, as the exhaustion of the traditional parties, and external, like the decentralization process since 1989. In their qualitative study, Friedrich Welsch and Gabriel Reyes approach the possible social, class and ethnical differences between the supporters and the opponents of the Chávez movement, also taking into consideration citizens auto-classified as independent. The study by Carlos Blanco constitutes a critical analysis of whether the regime as officially declared is to be considered revolutionary, or, as the author argues, rather a type of neo-authoritarianism. Likewise, both the behaviour of the government and the political opposition are reviewed by Blanco, as well as Venezuela's relationship with the United States during the Chávez government. Finally, in the contribution presented by Oscar Reyes, the main focus is the concept of 21st Century Socialism, which in recent years has been used by analysts and by Chávez himself as an umbrella term for the present Venezuelan government.

This chapter promotes transnational perspective in ethnological research on labour migrants and refugees, and discusses the potential theoretical benefits of the notion of diaspora in an effort to think beyond ethnicity as the main ground of group formation. Using the adjective diasporic instead of the noun diaspora is suggested, as it hints at manifold processes of identity formation and social activities. It keeps the research interest open towards a wide range of experiences of what is often presented as "living away from home", or, from a transnational perspective, as having yet another home(land) – whether actual, remembered, or imagined – as a potential or actual frame of emotional, social or political reference.

This paper examines the role of NGOs in rebuilding socio-political order in South Sudan. It describes the socio-political determinants of the last ten years which will throw some light on the political stage in South Sudan and might contribute to the main question of who really has the political power and influence in South Sudan today. ; CONTENTS -- History of the conflict and INGO-involvement -- Present situation -- INGOs in South Sudan – The role of OLS -- The relationship between SPLM/A-SRRA and INGOs -- The 'Agreement on Ground-Rules'and the 'Memorandum of Understanding' between OLS/INGOs and SPLM -- Dimensions of the political impact of INGOs -- INGOs as peace-makers or war-mongers?Creating normality in an abnormal situation -- Shaping a ramshackle state: Ground-Rules as INGO-legislation and the Memorandum of Understanding as proxy for laws -- Civil society - The role of the churches, SINGOs, and new institutions

The Nordic countries are stable democracies with solid infrastructures for political dialogue and negotiations. However, both the "Nordic model" and Nordic media systems are under pressure as the conditions for political communication change – not least due to weakened political parties and the widespread use of digital communication media. In this anthology, the similarities and differences in political communication across the Nordic countries are studied. Traditional corporatist mechanisms in the Nordic countries are increasingly challenged by professionals such as lobbyists, a development that has consequences for the processes and forms of political communication. Populist polit­ical parties have increased their media presence and political influence, whereas the news media have lost readers, viewers, listeners, and advertisers. These developments influence societal power relations and restructure the ways in which political actors communicate about political issues. This book is a key reference for all who are interested in current trends and developments in the Nordic countries. The editors, Eli Skogerbø, Øyvind Ihlen, Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, and Lars Nord, have published extensively on political communication, and the authors are all scholars based in the Nordic countries with specialist knowledge in their fields.

Media systems theory (Hallin & Mancini, 2004, 2017) has been a productive theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between media and politics in a compara-tive perspective. Recent developments in the growing research field have suggested that the democratic corporatist media system model is not one-model-fits-all with regard to the northern European countries (Brüggemann et al., 2014; Nord, 2008; Ohlsson, 2015; Syvertsen et al., 2014). However, empirical studies of the media systems of the Nordic countries tend to have the larger Nordic countries – Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark – as their object, leaving us with little research on the smaller media systems in "the other" Nordic countries and autonomous regions. The grand question still to be answered is whether we can speak of one or a Nordic media system, or whether there are differences from west to east or from north to south? What has our shared Nordic history meant in relation to the development of our media systems, and are there differences between the smaller and larger Nordic countries? Are we as alike as we might think?

With the 2015 refugee migration and its aftermath as a main reference and focal point, this anthology uses Conviviality as a lens to examine the current challenges to democracy. Conviviality and the inter-related concepts Cosmopolitanism and Creolisation are assumed to provide tools for analysis as well as forms for "cross-cutting communication". Originally introduced by Ivan Illich (1973), conviviality was re-launched and re-defined by Paul Gilroy (2004) against a backdrop of social, racial and religious tensions in post-imperial Britain, denoting an ability to be at ease in the presence of diversity without restaging communitarian conceptions of ethnic and racial difference, and has subsequently been refined to provide "an analytical tool to ask and explore in what ways, and under what conditions, people constructively create modes of togetherness" (Nowicka & Vertovec 2014: 2). In Gilroy's understanding conviviality was a substitute for cosmopolitanism, which in his view had been hijacked as a pretext for Western "supposedly benign imperialism" in the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror (Gilroy 2004: 66). But rather than replacing one concept with the other, this anthology seeks to explore the interconnections – commonalities and differences – between cosmopolitanism and conviviality. Creolisation is the other supplementary concept, by constituting a valid alternative to conventional interpretations of cross-cultural contact and allowing agency and influence to hitherto marginal and subordinate cultures and peoples (Cohen and Toninato 2010).

According to narrative trends, digitalization has the potential todeconstruct both power structures and practices of exclusion insociety. What we argue here is that this deconstruction is not theresult of digitalization alone, it is dependent on how digitalizationis done. On the contrary, digitalization has often resulted inreproduction instead of transformation and deconstruction, i.e.digitalization tend to uphold practices instead of challengingthem. Being slightly more provocative, what becomes digitalizedis often what we can easily capture and understand. Similarly,when we open up for an increased participation in the creation ofdigital artifacts (sometimes expressed as demand-driven, citizencentered,or participatory development), those participating indigitalization are often already known; the use of alreadyestablished contact channels making them easy to reach andconnect with. Such logics raise questions about the intersectionsof norms and power and the potential transformative character ofdigitalization. The aim of this paper is to, through a theoreticalframework combining critical information systems, policyenactment and norm critical design, introduce a reflexive designmethod to gently provoke norms. We analyze the need tointervene in the everyday practices of digitalization. This is donein an empirical case study of the making of a regional digitalcultural heritage portal. The results indicate that digitalizationneeds norm critical interventions to change existing practices andprevent norm reproduction. Otherwise, as in this case of thedigitalization of cultural heritage, digitalization runs the risk ofstrengthening existing power structures and excluding practicesinstead of challenging them.

Due to the media's normative power to reflect daily life and to shape our understanding of gender, media plays a vital role in constructing – or deconstructing – gender equality. In modern societies, the advertising industry plays a major role in the media landscape. In the Nordic countries gender discriminatory advertising has been on the public agenda since the 1970s and 1980s, the time when gender equality legislation was adopted. However, the Nordic countries have chosen different ways of combating and regulating gender discriminatory advertising. This report presents results of a survey on how gender-discriminatory advertising is regulated in the Nordic countries. The survey was conducted as part of a project on gender equality in the media carried out during the Finnish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2016.

Developments in technologies are shaping information access globally. This presents opportunities and challenges for understanding the role of new technologies in sustainability research. This article focuses on a suite of technologies termed Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) developed for communicating observations and simulation of environmental processes. A strength of EVOs is that they are open and decentralised, thus democratising flow and ownership of information between multiple actors. However, EVOs are discussed rarely beyond their technical aspects. By evaluating the evolution of EVOs, we illustrate why it is timely to engage with policy and societal aspects as well. While first generation EVOs are primed for scientists, second generation EVOs can have broader implications for knowledge co-creation and resilience through their participatory design. ; QC 20181217

The climate is changing, and the people in the Arctic are facing huge challenges. Many rely on natural resources for both subsistence and income. Successful adaptation to climate change and the sustainable use of resources require observation of the environment. Scientific knowledge of the environment is incomplete, and conventional scientific monitoring is logistically difficult. Arctic citizens observe the environment all year-round. Their observations and knowledge are, however, not systematically used in the political decision process. An international symposium was therefore organized to encourage Arctic cooperation, and to exchange experiences, on the use of citizens' knowledge and observations to document natural resources and inform the political process. The meeting drew participants from all the Arctic countries. Their discussions and conclusions are presented in this report.

In The Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism, Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt elaborate on the concept of "culturalism." In Telos 163 (Summer 2013), Eriksen continues to analyze its intricacies under the heading "Culturalism: When the Culture becomes Political Ideology."2 Horizontal class divisions are out, vertical cultural barriers are in. Seemingly, culture has squeezed out all other concepts. The present essay shall broaden this discussion by asking the question: What is the relation between the Counter-Enlightenment of the early nineteenth century and today's culturalism?