Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper examines the social effects of fair trade transactions emerging from policies to expand the market around the globe. Focusing on the case of coffee farmers in Guatemala, it examines tensions that are created in local organisational networks linked to production, processing and certification of fair trade organic coffee and how these tensions fracture and fragment the life worlds of these coffee farmers. While the fair trade market has provided positive opportunities for rural producers the research finds that network separation and market exclusion are also social expressions of involvement in fair trade. It is argued that fair trade policies need to reflect a more nuanced understanding of household and community level consequences of production for the fair trade market. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

En el ya clásico artículo de Stephen M. Walt sobre el renacimiento de los estudios de seguridad publicado en International Studies Quarterly en 1991, se asegura que tradicionalmente, los estudios sobre seguridad han hecho énfasis en cuestiones relacionadas con la violencia y el uso de la fuerza militar, centrándose en el modo en que los Estados se adaptan y preparan en relación con la guerra. En una actitud que limita enormemente la capacidad de comprensión del mundo en que vivimos, si bien reconoce que pueden existir amenazas de carácter más amplio que lo militar (p.e. contaminación, enfermedades, recesiones económicas) propone no incluirlas en el "Research program" con el argumento de mantener la coherencia de la disciplina. En este trabajo se parte de la base de que el objetivo de la ciencia social no es finalista en sí mismo y no debe limitarse a mantener su coherencia interna, si bien esta es necesaria, sino dotar de elementos de comprensión del mundo en que se vive más allá de rigieses epistemológicas como la que subyace a la perspectiva planteada por Walt. Como Steven Miller ha asegurado, los nuevos estudios de seguridad deben promover un debate práctico que incida en las decisiones políticas de los gobernantes. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen) ; Comisión 2. La política argentina hacia Europa ; Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales

AbstractThis article reflects on contemporary social development, and suggests that we need to initiate a process of thinking about a post neo‐liberal development agenda. As a step in this direction, it is suggested we need to re‐approach the social as a conceptual category in order to consider social analysis not simply as an epiphenomenon of economic development, but as a social sphere in its own right. To start thinking about this process, the social is approached through the metaphor of the middle ground, which acts as a device to help conceptualize a field of action between social life and policy processes. Exploration of this field of action is used to consider changes in the policy community by focusing on the implications of 'liberal freedom' and 'negative freedom' for people's actions. This provides a basis to take a critical view of concepts such as social capital and approaches such as sustainable livelihoods, reflect neo‐liberal social development discourses. This leads us to argue for the need to consider the potential of contemporary biological science and of social movements for reinvigorating our understanding of social development. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This work proposes methodological designs contributing to an analytical-practical repositioning of ethnographic-studies of development, beyond the exclusive human domain. Starting from a conceptual and methodological actor-oriented perspective bases, we are proposing a socio-material approach. The proposal suggests an experimental ontology of the social actor that interconnect social relations to the territories' material properties. Considering the place of the material in human agency, we highlight interfaces of knowledge, affects, practices and values that lead to a relational epistemology. 'Creaturization' and assemblages are practical implications that make visible territorialization processes. By updating a series of works, carried out since the 1980s in different countries of Latin America, we illustrate heterogeneous territories, in which the development process unleashes a myriad of singular socio-material compositions, identified as counter-development processes.

Presentación del dossier "Estudios críticos de la agricultura y la alimentación: perspectivas sobre el actor, la práctica y el territorio en América Latina"