Search results

Alternative perceptions of authority and control: the desert and the Ma’moura of Syria

17 December 2013

Mobile peoples and conservation: an introduction

17 December 2013

UNHCR Ideas: Open innovation inspiring collaboration and new ideas within the UN

31 March 2014

Since 2012 UNHCR and the Humanitarian Innovation Project (HIP) have been actively collaborating in several areas of thinking around innovation for the humanitarian world, and in this context HIP were invited to carry out an independent evaluation of the UNHCR Ideas pilot. ‘UNHCR Ideas’ is a tool for creating new ideas amongst an online community. Powered by SpigitEngage, the online platform is specifically designed to enable collaborative problem solving and idea generation. The platforms’ online community contribute ideas, solutions and discussion to a common problem statement posted on the site. The UNHCR Innovation team launched a pilot ‘challenge’ on the platform in August 2013 – intended to empower the participants to innovate for the organisation. The pilot involved 318 participants from over 50 counties – including employees from UNHCRs offices, partner organisations, and refugees. The platform aims to start building a culture of innovation within and around the organisation, and to help find new solutions for longstanding challenges in their global work with refugee communities. This pilot was used by UNHCR Innovation to learn whether, and how, the platform can be used more widely within the organisation, and beyond. This report summarises the set-up, output and inside workings of the pilot 'launch challenge'. This report specifically looks at the relationship between UNHCR and Spigit, and provides an overview of how UNHCR Ideas supports the wider process of innovation for the organisation. Future opportunities and recommendations for use of the platform, and collaborative innovation, within UNHCR and more widely for the humanitarian sector are discussed.

Modern Pastoralism and Conservation: Old Problems, New Challenges

30 July 2013

Changing pastoral dynamics make knowledge of pastoralism vital to understanding landscapes, development and governance across dryland regions. Modern Pastoralism and Conservation: Old Problems, New Challenges presents new pastoral research from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The volume addresses the nature and viability of pastoralism in practice and examines current pastoral conditions in diverse locations. Pastoralists engage with changing climatic and environmental conditions whilst encountering policy, population and socio-economic challenges. Issues of transformation and sustainability are at the heart of the book, whose chapters highlight the contemporary practice of pastoralism in order to enhance understanding of this unique livelihood and lifestyle. The Commission on Nomadic Peoples (CNP), part of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Union Sciences (IUAES), unites researchers, practitioners, government and non-government organisations to further pastoral knowledge. As Commission members, the authors have had extensive interactions with and possess rich experience of diverse pastoral societies. This book’s chapters originate in papers presented at CNP sessions during the 2009 IUAES Congress in Kunming, China. Two perspectives were stressed: pastoralism in an international context and in the host nation, China. This approach identified both the impact of rapid development on nomadic practices and livelihoods in China and the country’s growing integration into the global pastoral research community. Modern Pastoralism and Conservation: Old Problems, New Challenges builds an international perspective on the wide-ranging approaches and challenges to traditional pastoralism in the twenty-first century.

The extraterritorial application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: from territoriality to facticity, the effectiveness model

13 May 2014

About the book: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrines the key political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents in EU law. In its present form it was approved in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However its legal status remained uncertain until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. The Charter obliges the EU to act and legislate consistently with the Charter, and enables the EU's courts to strike down EU legislation which contravenes it. The Charter applies to EU Member States when they are implementing EU law but does not extend the competences of the EU beyond the competences given to it in the treaties. This Commentary on the Charter, the first in English, written by experts from several EU Member States, provides an authoritative but succinct statement of how the Charter impacts upon EU, domestic and international law. Following the conventional article-by-article approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to the case law and is augmented with extensive references to further reading. Six cross-cutting introductory chapters explain the Charter's institutional anchorage, its relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, its interaction with other parts of international human rights law, the enforcement mechanisms, extraterritorial scope, and the all-important 'Explanations'.

The problem of externalising the EU’s borders

11 February 2014

‘Future citizens of the world’? The contested futures of independent young migrants in Europe

12 December 2013

Irrespective of their points of entry, for most young people subject to immigration control in Europe, turning 18 marks a significant repositioning of their relationship with the state and a diminution of rights and entitlements; they change from rights holders as ‘children’, for whom states must consider the ‘best interests’, to young people subjected to a varied array of classifications who are hard to position in the ‘national order of things’ (Malkki 1995). Young people frequently end up in limbo, uncertain of whether or not they will be able to remain in the country of immigration/asylum and for how long. This paper at once outlines and critically analyses the dissonance between how European policies formulate and impose a set of future options for independent migrant young people who are subject to immigration control as they transition to ‘adulthood’, and what is known about young people’s own conceptualisations of their futures and how they intend to realise them.

The Future of International Cooperation

18 December 2013

Reflecting our aspirations for the journal, the inaugural edition invites empirical and theoretical consideration on the future of international cooperation. In the aftermath of the divisions created by the invasion of Iraq and the questions raised about the future relevance of the United Nations, mapping the contours of inter-state collaboration and identifying the bases of global governance is crucial to the prospects for peace and security. Whether ‘coalitions of the willing’ or regional structures will supersede global responsibility-sharing, whether religious divides will polarise the West from the Islamic World, or whether the United Nations will adapt through initiatives such as the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, are amongst the key questions that make ‘The Future of International Cooperation’ so germane for reflection and debate.

The International Politics of Migration

18 December 2013

International migration is an increasingly important part of world politics. However, despite its inherently political and inherently international nature, it remains relatively neglected by scholars of International Relations in comparison to other trans-boundary issue-areas. In particular, the international politics of migration remains under-theorized. Consequently, even basic International Relations concepts such as “power” and “interests” remain poorly developed in relation to migration. In order to address this gap, this article begins to develop the basis of a theory of the international politics of migration. It does so by laying out a series of heuristic frameworks for understanding the interests, interactions, and institutions that underlie state and interstate behaviour around international migration.

Refugee livelihoods in Kampala, Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee settlements: patterns of engagement with the private sector

12 November 2013

Drawing from preliminary fieldwork undertaken between February and March 2013, this working paper presents provisional findings regarding refugees’ livelihoods and interactions with the private sector and markets in Kampala, Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee settlements in Uganda. The paper sketches out the diversity of livelihoods strategies employed by the refugees, and reveals their different patterns of engagement with local and national markets. In particular, the paper shows that refugees’ economic activities at all three sites are deeply nested in the multiple layers of the host economies. These initial observations, furthermore, illustrate the vital role played by personal and community social networks in linking refugees with private sector actors in Uganda and sub-regions. As a way forward, the paper concludes by identifying several intriguing themes to be investigated in continuing field research.