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Abstract
Since the 1990s diasporic communities have increasingly been recognized as agents of development, with states, citizens, and the global development community keen to harness their knowledge, skills, and economic capital. Approaches to the 'diaspora option' tend to be rooted in the discourses, practices, and products of neoliberal globalization. Yet the most recent decade of the 21st century has witnessed a backlash against this cosmopolitanism. This paper pushes for a re-orientation of the diaspora-development nexus that looks to respond to the contemporary realities of (and the backlash against) neoliberal globalization: (re)bordering, European and North American ethnonationalism, nativist politics, and anti-migrant discourses. Thinking through a post-diasporic lens foregrounds the interconnected geographies, the complex temporalities, and the (racialized) inequalities within the diaspora–development nexus. The paper concludes that through a post-diasporic lens the diaspora–development nexus can be centred on everyday social, cultural, material, and political circumstances and experiences and feelings of belonging through multiple locales, re-orienting the nexus to advance the everyday socio-economic, cultural, and political liberation of diasporic communities.

AbstractCivil society remains a contested concept, but one that is widely embedded in global development processes. Transnationalism within civil society scholarship is often described dichotomously, either through hierarchical dependency relations or as a more amorphous networked global civil society. These two contrasting spatial imaginaries produce very particular ideas about how transnational relations contribute to civil society. Drawing on empirical material from research with civil society organizations in Barbados and Grenada, in this article I contend that civil society groups use forms of transnational social capital in their work. This does not, however, resonate with the horizontal relations associated with grassroots globalization or vertical chains of dependence. These social relations are imbued with power and agency and are entangled in situated historical, geographical and personal contexts. I conclude that the diverse transnational social relations that are part of civil society activity offer hope and possibilities for continued civil society action in these unexpected spatial arrangements.

Civil society is one of the most contentious terms in political thought. There is considerable, and highly significant, difference between academic debate about the meaning of 'civil society' and the way the term is mobilized in international development discourse. In particular, narratives of civil society in international development are often dominated by reference to organizational descriptions and measurability. But I would like to suggest here that the term should be reclaimed as a way of giving meaning to the stories of the everyday lives of the people who create, shape and embody civil society. Used in this way, the idea of civil society can be understood as intersecting emotions, discourses and practices and can add to the body of scholarly work that nurtures and values everyday life as a lens through which to view wider social processes. Paying attention to the everyday life of civil society may have implications for that way the civil society is engaged with academically, and also has the potential to refresh how civil society is thought about in development practice.

Evidence suggests that the early economic and political success of the English in Plimoth Colony is due to the introduction of European diseases into coastal Massachusetts during the late sixteenth century. Building upon Alfred Crosby's 1972 publication The Columbian Exchange, modern environmental historians and cultural historians recognize the important interconnection between parasitism, disease, and historic trends. It is now fairly well recognized in both the science and humanities disciplines that any study of the political and economic development of European settlements and colonization of the Americas correlates with studies and research about the introduction of foreign diseases, as well as the introduction of new plant and animal species. The successful political and economic English history of Plimoth Colony is directly related to the decline of the Wampanoag population as a result of plagues and epidemics brought to the New World by European explorers and settlers during early years of exploration of New England. Although the diseases that existed in North, South, and Central America before 1492 were epidemiologically insignificant to the indigenous populations living in the New World, those diseases brought into the Americas by early European explorers spread rapidly throughout the continent. Most diseases in pre-contact North America were endemic, not epidemic. When a disease has been prevalent in an area for an extended period of time and the inhabitants are regularly in contact with the pathogen(s), a disease is considered endemic in that area. If foreign diseases were introduced to an area it would act in an epidemic nature for mortality and sickness during times of high prevalence in a targeted location. Put simply, European diseases reached the Wampanoag living in the region now recognized as Plymouth Massachusetts long before English colonization in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. Yet, the idea that the Natives of New England were somehow destined to be destroyed by diseases that pre-date English settlers is often misinterpreted and relieves the English themselves of responsibility for the mass death of Native peoples in New England. This thesis argues that the key to the successful English colonization of coastal Massachusetts was not just the onslaught of plagues and epidemics that affected the Wampanoag in coastal Massachusetts from 1616 to the mid-seventeenth century, rather, the success is due to how English explorers and colonists crafted racial and religious perceptions about these disease ridden Wampanoag populations, and how these perceptions empowered the English to perceive themselves as a culturally superior power further enabling them to become the colonizer and the Wampanoag the colonized.

AbstractResearch Question/IssueWe investigate outside director departures prior to management buyout offers (MBOs). In these transactions, managers have both an information advantage and incentives to make a lowball offer to shareholders. Outside directors can safeguard against managerial self‐dealing by negotiating for the best terms for public shareholders from either management or another bidder.Research Findings/InsightsIt is typical that outside directors stay on the board through an MBO offer as MBOs are less likely to have changes in directors—either joining or leaving—relative to a control sample. After controlling for endogeneity as well as firm and director characteristics, we find that outside directors are more likely to leave when the offer is later contested. We do not find any evidence that departing directors are replaced by new outside directors who ensure shareholders get a higher premium nor do we find any evidence that the board acts as a public auctioneer. We also find that outside directors are more likely to depart when the buyout contest is longer. Our findings show that outside directors provide a weak internal monitoring mechanism as they leave precisely when shareholders need their expertise the most.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsOur results contribute to research that supports the notion that outside director departures are symptomatic of board weakness. The results of our study support the contention of other researchers that outside directors often fail to monitor managers.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsOur study offers useful information to M&A investment banking advisors and leverage buyout analysts by showing the mechanisms under which director turnover can affect the value and the outcome of MBOs.