Technological university in Brazil: examining the development and (de)construction of the model

Based primarily on an analysis of laws and legal frameworks, this qualitative exploratory study aims to examine the development, context, construction, as well as deconstruction, of the technological university model in Brazil. The Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR) is the only technological university in the country. The analysis presented herein demonstrates that its development is the outcome of movements and efforts within its predecessor, the Federal Center of Technological Education of Paraná (CEFET-PR), to respond to the deconstruction of the technical education model, on which the Institution was based, during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government. The concept of a technological university has not been replicated in any government since the transformation of CEFET-PR to UTFPR, not even during the Workers’ Party (PT) government, which introduced the model. We conclude that, despite efforts from within, the legal apparatus and the pursuit of certain characteristics and goals, such as obtaining world class status, are aligning UTFPR increasingly toward the profile of traditional universities.

Homicide and corpse dismemberment: A study of one case

Homicide may be an isolated impulsive act arising from a situation or based on a previous conception, which is premeditation. Despite its nature or motivations, homicide remains a wrongful criminal act at all times and in all places. Several studies conducted in Western countries on this topic have highlighted the overriding concern of the criminal, which includes concealing the criminal offence in most cases.In Africa, apart from cases of infanticide, the discovery of the body of a homicide victim in a public place is a relatively common phenomenon, particularly if it involves mutilation.The body was examined; it was a young adult African female whose corpse was wrapped in a plastic bag. The autopsy established that the section or cutting planes were preferably lodged in the large joints.Death was caused by mechanical asphyxia. The focus of this case lies in the atypical nature of this type of postmortem manipulation in the West African context.The unusual nature of this type of homicide illustrates and underscores some reality in our development context.

The Northern Drakensberg Cableway: An Unworkable yet Immortal Development

This study explores the proposed ‘Drakensberg Cableway’ in the Northern Drakensberg. This cableway project is mired in ongoing controversy with both the consultation process and feasibility study heavily criticised. The proposed site of the cableway borders a world heritage site, is within a culturally sensitive area and prone to highly variable weather, including thunderstorms and high winds. The purpose of this study was to garner the views of a mountain user group in South Africa regarding the proposed cableway using a questionnaire survey. Respondents were overwhelmingly not in favour of the development. Users noted several serious concerns ranging from economic, environmental, statutory and political impacts. In particular, the proposed cableway appears financially unsustainable due to low tourist numbers. Additionally, the infrastructure required will have a deleterious effect on the natural environment. It appears that lessons from South Africa’s other two cableways, in terms of economic impacts, environmental issues and weather-related risks, have not been considered. While the provincial KwaZulu-Natal government may punt the proposed cableway as a ‘silver bullet’ solution for the development and social issues bedevilling the area; the project may instead even exacerbate already fraught social and environmental conditions, both at the proposed lower cableway and upper cableway station. Government officials touting this project need to recognise that tourism development in peripheral mountain areas has to proceed within a much wider social and cross-sectoral economic development context.

Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Transnational Agricultural Land Investment Research

With the expansion of the global transnational agricultural planting scale, research on transnational agricultural land investment is growing. In order to analyze the development context and basic characteristics of this research, and to discover the research hotspots and frontiers, this study used documentation and bibliometric methods to examine the achievements of it. The results show the following: (1) Transnational agricultural land investment research is mainly focused on the social sciences, development studies, economics, environmental sciences and geography. (2) The concentration of researchers in this research field is not high, and there is still a lack of authoritative researchers with high influence. The cooperation network has been initially formed between research institutions. Among them, universities and research institutes are the main institutions of transnational agricultural land investment research, but the degree of integration among the research teams is not high. (3) The evolution of the research theme of the field has experienced three stages—an embryonic stage, growth stage and stable stage—and the research content shows a trend of continuous divergence and deepening. (4) From 2005 to 2019, the research hotspots of the research focused on “Land Grabbing, Global Land, Africa, Investment”. At present, the emerging frontier research topics are “Indonesia, Livelihood, Trajectory and Sustainability”. With many years of development, the research has become an obvious “land” attribute, independent from traditional agricultural economic research, and the research topics are becoming more and more mature, refined and diversified. Transnational agricultural land investment research is attracting continuous attention from scholars in multiple disciplines and fields.

Social Mobility in Developing Countries

Social mobility is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social mobility, but there is broad agreement that people should have roughly equal chances of success regardless of their economic status at birth. Concerns about rising inequality have engendered a renewed interest in social mobility—especially in the developing world. However, efforts to construct the databases and meet the standards required for conventional analyses of social mobility are at a preliminary stage and need to be complemented by innovative, conceptual, and methodological advances. If forms of mobility have slowed in the West, then we might be entering an age of rigid stratification with defined boundaries between the always-haves and the never-haves—which does not augur well for social stability. Social mobility research is ongoing, with substantive findings in different disciplines—typically with researchers in isolation from each other. A key contribution of this book is the pulling together of the emerging streams of knowledge. Generating policy-relevant knowledge is a principal concern. Three basic questions frame the study of diverse aspects of social mobility in the book. How to assess the extent of social mobility in a given development context when the datasets by conventional measurement techniques are unavailable? How to identify drivers and inhibitors of social mobility in particular developing country contexts? How to acquire the knowledge required to design interventions to raise social mobility, either by increasing upward mobility or by lowering downward mobility?

The New Development Context in Morocco and Communication for Development

If development can be compared to the weaving of a cloth by millions of human beings, the thread of communication can weave the fabric in a sustainable way. And as long as the populations concerned by community development projects do not become the true actors of their own development management, no management or technology contribution alone will be able to improve their living standards in a sustainable manner. The contribution of communication to a development project is considerable: identification and prioritization of development priorities, search for collective solutions and reinforcement of the feeling of belonging to the said projects that they have decided to undertake. However, since the launch of the national incentive for human development in 2005, by His Majesty Mohamed VI, a multiplication of community development projects has emerged, aiming at the appropriation of communication strategies for development. However, due to a lack of professionalism, most LDAs are locked into rigid management logics exacerbated by the reference frameworks of international institutions. As a result, LDAs neglect the communication dimension of the development project to focus solely on its technical aspects.

The rise of big philanthropy in global social policy: implications for policy transfer and analysis

A new group of Western development donors has emerged as increasingly influential actors in global social policy. Big philanthropies have begun implementing social protection projects on a vast scale across the Global South and have become integrated within global governance structures. It is essential to examine whether their approach to social policy in the South is effective, legitimate and desirable for the substantive agendas and programmes in these countries and for analysis of social policy in a development context. This study investigates contemporary big philanthropies through a qualitative case-study of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its role in the health sector in Tanzania. It examines the ways in which big philanthropies engage and seek to influence policy on the ground, directly exploring the views and experiences of local stakeholders. The study finds that big philanthropies have distinctive features and mechanisms as global social policy entrepreneurs. In contrast to the vertical and linear processes associated with traditional policy transfer, a more messy and complex set of mechanisms are observed. The study also indicates that despite considerable resources and authority, philanthropic donors may not be effective in securing policy reform within aid-receiving countries due to a lack of transparency and embeddedness.

The Change of Concept: the Formation and Reflection of Applied Ethnomusicology

If the study of Jesse Fewkes and Frances Densmore in the late 19th century is taken into account, western Applied Ethnomusicology is entering its second century. After more than one hundred years of development, Applied Ethnomusicology has basically become a relatively mature research path in the West, which not only provides scholars with a new research perspective but also enriches the subject connotation of Ethnomusicology to a certain extent with its research philosophy and value pursuit. In China, Applied Ethnomusicology has attracted more and more attention. Therefore, reviewing the development history of the discipline is not only conducive to clarifying the development context of the discipline but also conducive to reflecting on the current problems and better grasping the development trend of the discipline. In the first part of this paper, the factors influencing the birth and development of applied ethnomusicology are further discussed from within and outside the discipline, respectively based on consulting relevant literature and briefly summarizing the existing discussions of scholars. The second part mainly discusses the research characteristics of Applied Ethnomusicology, such as "pragmatic orientation", "change of researcher's identity", and "emphasis on intervention and intervention". The third part of the Applied Ethnomusicology on the "intervention", "the definition of" discipline "and the edge of two issues are discussed.

Diagnosing Human Capital as a Binding Constraint to Growth

The empirical literature on the contributions of human capital investments to economic growth shows mixed results. While evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that human capital accumulation is associated with growth accelerations, the substantial efforts of developing countries to improve access to and quality of education, as a means for skill accumulation, did not translate into higher income per capita. In this Element, we propose a framework, building on the principles of 'growth diagnostics', to enable practitioners to determine whether human capital investments are a priority for a country's growth strategy. We then discuss and exemplify different tests to diagnose human capital in a place, drawing on the Harvard Growth Lab's experience in different development context, and discuss various policy options to address skill shortages.

Democratic Transition in the Development Context: The Case Study of Tonga

<p>In 2010 the Kingdom of Tonga experienced a democratic transition that saw the balance of power shift from a hereditary monarchy to the people. Elections were held that for the first time would result in a majority of Tonga’s Parliament comprising of democratically-elected politicians. Parliament was given the responsibility of nominating a Prime Minister from amongst its own ranks, who would in turn became responsible for nominating the Cabinet. These powers were formerly held by Tonga’s hereditary monarchy, whose role was reduced to one more akin to that performed by the modern monarchs of Europe. Since the 1960s, Tonga has received an increasing amount of overseas aid, especially from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and, latterly, China. Historically, donors have not been overtly concerned with issues of democracy in developing countries, instead relying on the modernist notion that economic development would lead to democratic development. Since the 1980s, however, donors have become increasingly interested in the issue of democracy in developing countries, as a result of the good governance agenda and its successor paradigm, the aid effectiveness agenda. This thesis explores the impact of donors on Tonga’s 2010 democratic transition, concluding that the effect of donors manifested in a variety of direct and indirect ways. A retrospective analysis identifies aspects of Tonga’s 2010 democratic transition that could have been improved, and actions that donors should consider taking if faced with similar circumstances in the future. Finally, the thesis considers how donors can assist the consolidation of Tongan democracy, concluding that support should be targeted towards sustainable economic development, the rule of law, and the public service.</p>