Brokers of hope: Extractive industries and the dynamics of future-making in post-colonial Greenland

Polar Record ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Sejersen
Keyword(s):  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Constant State ◽  
New Beginnings ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
Future Work

Abstract In the ambitious strategy of Greenland to attract foreign companies to engage in extractive industries as a means to create increased national independence the question of minerals emerges as pivotal. The article investigates how two prominent Greenlandic premiers (2009–2014) translated hard rock into soft human welfare in a complex post-colonial context. The article develops the concept of “brokers of hope” which points the analytical attention to the entrepreneurial activities of future- and people-makers in a dense field of indigenous politics. By linking this concept to the idea of “resource materialities” it becomes possible to see resources as relational assemblages that are in a constant state of becoming and also to examine how different engagements with substances can make certain political struggles and political systems legitimate. Furthermore, the article investigates how these “brokers of hope” use the Chinese interests, and ideas of new cooperation with Chinese partners to underpin the intrinsic motivation to create new beginnings and thus to transform existing asymmetrical relations between Denmark and Greenland. This process is conceptualised as “double orientalism”. The article points out how hope and promise in two quite different ways are creatively used to make the future work in the present and how people and nations are made up in that process.

Latino Studies: New Contexts, New Concepts

1997 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Flores
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Private Colleges ◽  
Latino Studies ◽  
Chicano Studies ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Puerto Rican Studies ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Public Colleges And Universities

In this article, Juan Flores provides a historical and theoretical context for the study of Latino ethnicities. Presently, Latino Studies is at a paradoxical crossroads. While students at elite private colleges are clamoring for such programs, many public colleges and universities are cutting and consolidating Latino Studies programs virtually out of existence. As the battle to create, or preserve, Latino Studies departments rages on, the author points out the theoretical transformations that have occurred over the past twenty five years. One of the biggest differences between past university movements and present ones is the manner in which the demands have been framed by students. Very few of the earlier student mobilizations called for "Latino Studies" per se; rather, the early initiatives, which usually called for "Puerto Rican Studies" or "Chicano Studies," corresponded more directly to the political struggles for justice located within particular Chicano and Puerto Rican communities. This change in the framing of Latino Studies coincides with the more transnational and global character of Latino ethnic groups. In addition, the theoretical insights provided by feminist, post-colonial, and race theories, as well as lesbian and gay studies, have added a level of complexity that was not present in the early days of Chicano or Puerto Rican studies. Flores concludes with a call for an opening of the theoretical space within Latino Studies curricula, and the universities that house them, to allow room for these new complexities, thereby taking advantage of a unique moment in the history of Latino Studies.

The Power of Social Movements and the Limits of Pluralism: Tracing Rastafarianism and Indigenous Resurgence through Commonwealth Caribbean Law and Culture

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2_3) ◽  
pp. 136-164
Author(s):  
Emily Becker
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Caribbean Culture ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Caribbean

In the post-colonial era, social movements in the Commonwealth Caribbean have empowered citizens to reclaim, redefine and further develop their identity. These movements, combined with a history of colonialism and transatlantic slavery in the region, have yielded a Caribbean culture “too diverse to be labeled.” Indeed, the Caribbean culture is composed of “a bastion of discrete identities as well as quarries of very invaluable raw material that can be used to build the bridges across cultural boundaries.” These distinct but potentially overlapping identities make the Commonwealth Caribbean a truly pluralistic region, at least at the cultural and social level. As modern legal and political systems, however, the states of the Commonwealth Caribbean have, in many ways, failed to sufficiently protect the non-dominant groups within Caribbean. Indeed, attempts to balance the majoritarian demands of democracy against the pluralist notion of minority rights protection have landed largely on the side of majorities.

Conflict, Justice, and the Stranger-King Indigenous Roots of Colonial Rule in Indonesia and Elsewhere

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Henley
Keyword(s):  
Military Power ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Common Ancestry ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Guerilla Warfare ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
European Expansion ◽  
Tribal Societies ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Stranger

Historians of Indonesia often think of states, and especially colonial states, as predatory institutions encroaching aggressively on the territory and autonomy of freedom-loving stateless peoples. For Barbara and Leonard Andaya, early European expansion in Sumatra and the Moluccas was synonymous with the distortion or destruction of decentralized indigenous political systems based on cooperation, alliance, economic complementarity, and myths of common ancestry (B. W. Andaya 1993; L. Y. Andaya 1993). Anthony Reid (1997: 81) has described tribal societies like those of the Batak and Minangkabau in highland Sumatra as ‘miracles of statelessness’ which ‘defended their autonomy by a mixture of guerilla warfare, diplomatic flexibility, and deliberate exaggeration of myths about their savagery’ until ultimately overwhelmed by Dutch military power. Before colonialism, in this view, most Indonesians relied for security not on the protection of a powerful king, but on a ‘complex web of contractual mutualities’ embodying a ‘robust pluralism’ (Reid 1998: 29, 32). ‘So persistently’, concludes Reid (1997: 80-1), ‘has each step towards stronger states in the archipelago arisen from trading ports, with external aid and inspiration, that one is inclined to seek the indigenous political dynamic in a genius for managing without states’. Henk Schulte Nordholt (2002: 54), for his part, cautions against any tendency to downplay the violent, repressive aspects of colonial and post-colonial government in Indonesia, expressing the hope that ‘a new Indonesian historiography will succeed in liberating itself from the interests, perspective, and conceptual framework of the state’. An even more systematic attempt to demonize the (modern) state in Indonesia and elsewhere can be found in the work of James Scott (1998a, 1998b).

Born-again Buganda or the limits of traditional resurgence in Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Englebert
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Material Benefits ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Born Again ◽  
Fiscal Pressure

Since the restoration of traditional leaders in Uganda in 1993, the Kingdom of Buganda has developed unusually effective institutions, financing mechanisms and policy tools, re-building itself as a quasi-state. The reinforcement of Buganda's empirical statehood provides one of the farthest-reaching examples of the current trend of traditional resurgence in African politics and to some extent supports claims for the participation of traditional structures in contemporary political systems. Yet, the Buganda experiment also highlights the limits of traditional resurgence as a mode of reconfiguration of politics in Africa. First, it is unclear how the kingdom can maintain the momentum of its revival and the allegiance of its subjects in view of its fiscal pressure on the latter and the limited material benefits it provides to them. Already the monarchists are finding it difficult to translate the king's symbolic appeal into actual mobilisation for development, shedding doubts on one of the main justifications for the kingdom's rebirth. Second, Buganda's claims to political participation clash with the competing notion of sovereignty of the post-colonial state. These limits are likely to confront other similar experiments across the continent.

Investor-State Arbitration in Domestic Mining Conflicts

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-49
Author(s):  
Zoe Phillips Williams
Keyword(s):  
International Investment ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Nonstate Actors ◽  
Extractive Industry ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
International Investment Agreements ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Investment Agreements

International investment agreements (IIAs) give conflicts between mining companies and communities a transnational dimension, allowing investors to sue a state before an IIA tribunal. While investor-state disputes related to extractive industries arise from a wide range of state actions, an important subset are triggered by domestic conflicts between anti-mining groups and foreign companies. How does arbitration affect anti-mining movements? I argue that IIAs limit the government’s responsiveness to domestic pressure, reducing the ability of domestic nonstate actors to influence policies governing the extractive industry. However, it cannot be assumed that states would support these groups even without investor pressure; IIAs only have this effect when anti-mining groups are able to change the state’s preference toward the investment.

scholarly journals ESL in Australia – A chequered history

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda Oliver ◽  
Judith Rochecouste ◽  
Bich Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Constant State ◽  
The Difference

A historical perspective of English as a second or additional language (ESL/EAL) in Australia reveals the field as in a constant state of flux, in spite of Australia’s status as a nation of immigrants. This paper provides a contemporary review of the various phases of English language teaching in Australia for both adults and school-aged learners. It does so in the context of earlier pro-British monolingual attitudes, external global forces, ongoing changes in education policy, more recent national assessment regimes and the various global and local developments in the teaching of second languages. Historically the impetus for teaching English as a Second Language came with large-scale post-World War II arrivals from Europe. Language support for child migrants was only introduced some time later and has continued, although decreasing in availability in recent years. From the 1970s, more focussed programs were instigated with the arrival of refugees from war-torn countries. In this paper we describe the constant changes experienced by the providers and the recipients of English language instruction in Australia. Theoretically, the development of ESL instruction in Australia began with an essentially post-colonial perspective whereby the process of assimilation focussed on normalising the difference and/or deficit of non-English speakers and attaining the language skills of normative white middle-class native speakers (Pavlenko, 2003). Despite various investments in multiculturalism, the non-native English speaker in Australia remains the ‘other’, subject to sometimes intermittent and ad hoc funded assistance. 

scholarly journals Readiness of Technical University Students to Entrepreneurship Activity

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 83-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Minin ◽  
E. V. Politsinskaya ◽  
V. G. Lizunkov
Keyword(s):  
Educational Process ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
Technological Entrepreneurship ◽  
Entrepreneurial Competencies ◽  
Business Structures ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The University

The article raises the problem of the formation of entrepreneurial competencies in response to the current situation in the country’s economy, which arose due to the lack of specialists capable of organizing innovation and technology business in the Territories of advanced socio-economic development (TOSED).The authors have analyzed the professional preferences of graduates of the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russia), the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and the University of Lyon (France) and identified the reasons why graduates do not create their own business. In order to determine the necessary cluster of entrepreneurial competencies of university graduates with basic technical education, a survey involving the representatives of Russian and foreign companies working in Russia, including TOSED residents, was conducted. As a result, the authors have received a list of key entrepreneurial competencies necessary for entrepreneurial activities and the formation of graduate competence in the field of management and business.The authors believe that for the formation of entrepreneurial competence, certain conditions must be created in the educational process for preparing a student for entrepreneurial activities, in particular a number of disciplines (entrepreneurship, technological entrepreneurship, project management, business planning) should be included in the curricula; interactive design training methods aimed to develop graduate’s readiness to create their own business should be applied. It is also necessary to provide an the interaction between universities and business structures, which are mostly the residents of TOSED.

scholarly journals West Africa: The Formation Of National Statehood

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
Zinaida N. Sokova
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Political Modernization ◽  
Expert Assessments ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Specific Influence

The article is devoted to the study of the dynamics of political modernization in West Africa in the first decade of independent development. The author analyses the formation of political systems, the emergence of democratic institutions, and the causes of their crisis as well as the emergence of military and civilian authoritarian regimes. The author draws on legislative acts, documents of state authorities and governing bodies, evidence of contemporaries, expert assessments and explores national mechanisms of political leadership and governance using the examples of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone. The national specifics of political systems and the characteristics of political culture exclude the possibility of highlighting the “universal” model of power relations that is valid in all countries of the region. At the same time, a comparison of these processes with similar phenomena that took place in other parts of the post-colonial world allows concluding that the development of the political space of West Africa had regionally special features. At the same time, the country approach to the topic made it possible to identify the specific influence of the state and its institutions on the life of society, as well as to form an idea of the variety of forms and methods of political rule. The significance of the scientific analysis of the formation of national statehood rests upon the incompleteness of our ideas about the ruling groups and their role in the system of public administration in West Africa. The article shows that many politically active groups of society — professional politicians, military men, officials, technocrats, and leaders of religious organizations — joined the struggle for control over state structures. Social conflicts, coupled with ethnic, regional, confessional contradictions, shook the fragile political regimes that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

National Power and Local Politics in India: A Twenty-year Perspective

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Brass
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
National Power ◽  
High Degree

The study of federal political systems, particularly parliamentary or representative federal political systems, such as those in the United States, Canada, or India involves complexities that do not exist in unitary states such as Great Britain or France. In the first place, there are three or more institutional levels in such systems, each of which has its own arena in which political struggles take place. Second, the balance of power among the levels in federal systems varies in different systems and in the same system at different times. Third, the study of the extraparliamentary organizations, such as political parties, and of social movements, also becomes a more complex task since it cannot be assumed that a political party or social movement with the same name is the same sort of formation in New York and Mississippi or in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Moreover, in federal systems with a high degree of regional cultural diversity, each federal unit in the country may have a distinctive configuration of extraconstitutional political formations and social forces. This is certainly the case in India, the most culturally diverse of all existing federal parliamentary systems in the world today. Fourth, politics in federal systems takes place between levels as well as within levels, again in far more complex ways than in unitary systems.

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