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51. World System Mobility: The Relevance of the Semiperiphery Concept for Development Projects in the 21st Century

Author:
Alexandre Freitas
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The objective of this article is to discuss the relevance of the concept of semiperiphery to analyze the world system in the 21st century. First, the main concepts of the world-system approach will be analyzed. In the second part, a more in-depth examination of the question of the semi-periphery will be made through its political and economic characteristics. Later, we will examine the empirical attempts to define the semiperiphery, its role in the reproduction of the capitalist world-economy and the question of mobility in the world-system hierarchy. In conclusion, the role of government apparatus in the issue of development and overcoming the status of semi-periphery in the capitalist world-system will be highlighted.
Topic:
Development, Capitalism, Mobility, and World System
Political Geography:
Global Focus

52. Life and Death During the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen and Alejandra Gonzales Rocabado
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This study carries out a cross-country analysis of changes in quantity and quality of life during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic (11 March to 11 September 2020) for 124 countries. Changes in quantity of life are measured as life years lost to COVID-19, including excess deaths not officially reported as COVID-19 deaths. Changes in quality of life are proxied by the average change in daily mobility, compared to a pre-COVID baseline. We find a significant negative correlation between the two, meaning that the countries with the biggest reductions in mobility are also the countries with the biggest losses of life years. We calculate that about 15 million life years were lost during the first six months of the pandemic, corresponding to 0.006% of all expected life years. For comparison, at least three times more life years are lost every six months due to children dying of diarrhea. About 28 million life years are created every day from babies being born, so the first six months of the pandemic set us back about 14 hours in terms of quantity of life. The setbacks in terms of quality of life are several orders of magnitude larger. Some countries have suffered more than a 50% reduction in mobility sustained over half a year, with devastating effects on many aspects of quality of life. Globally, the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs were lost. GDP is estimated to have been set back about three years, poverty about five years, and the tourism industry about 20 years. The already large inequalities in access to quality education have been further widened, leaving hundreds of millions of disadvantaged children farther behind. Even countries that have managed the pandemic relatively well are suffering large economic contractions due to the negative spill-over effects from other countries. We still have a long way to go before this pandemic is over, and we urgently need to course-correct in order not to cause even more harm than has already been done. The paper provides a series of recommendations on what needs to be done to minimize total harm.
Topic:
Political Economy, GDP, Mobility, Mortality, Coronavirus, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Quality of Life
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

53. Assessing Protection Claims at Airports: Developing procedures to meet international and domestic obligations

Author:
Regina Jefferies, Daniel Ghezelbash, and Asher Hirsch
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
Abstract:
The policy for assessing claims for refugee and complementary protection at Australian airports needs to be reformed to ensure that those in need of protection are identified and not returned to harm. The current procedures, called ‘entry screening’, set out a streamlined process for assessing refugee and complementary protection claims with no access to review. This Policy Brief argues that they prioritise visa cancellations, mandatory detention and removal over protection needs.3 This Policy Brief finds that Australia’s entry screening process and treatment of travellers who seek protection at Australian airports raise significant questions regarding fairness, transparency, efficiency and compatibility with the international and domestic legal frameworks of humanitarian protection. This Policy Brief critically analyses the legal and operational framework for handling protection claims made by people at Australian airports in light of Australia’s international protection obligations. It also examines the domestic legal framework which is claimed to provide the basis for airport screening procedures and through which Australia’s protection obligations are supposed to be given effect. This Policy Brief finds serious issues concerning transparency, legality and accountability, which require better Parliamentary intervention and oversight.
Topic:
Refugees, Mobility, Airports, and Protection
Political Geography:
Australia

54. Climate Change, Disasters and Mobility: A Roadmap for Australian Action

Author:
Jane McAdam and Jonathan Pryke
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
Abstract:
Across the globe, the adverse impacts of disasters and climate change are prompting millions of people to move. Disasters now displace many more people within their countries each year than conflict, and the Asia-Pacific region is the hardest hit. Between 2008 and 2018, this region alone saw more than 80 per cent of all new disaster displacement. Australia cannot afford to ignore the fact that in its own region, internal and cross-border displacement within and from the Pacific Islands is likely to increase as disasters intensify and become more frequent, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. While Australia cannot stop such displacement altogether, it can implement policy changes now that would help to reduce its scale and impact. Preventative measures, such as mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction, along with proactive measures, such as enhanced mobility, could significantly reduce the risk of future displacement, and thereby also reduce economic, social and human costs and suffering. Most Pacific Islanders want to remain in their homes, and this should be enabled to the extent possible through disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development policies. At the same time, there is widespread recognition that planning for mobility is necessary so that people can move before disaster strikes. Smart migration policies can provide people with choices to take control of their own lives, rather than being displaced when disasters occur. This report focuses on the role of mobility as a release valve for Pacific Islanders at risk of displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. It demonstrates why Australia should proactively develop laws and policies that enable people in the Pacific region to move out of harm’s way, thereby harnessing migration as a climate change adaptation strategy in its own right.
Topic:
Climate Change, Natural Disasters, Displacement, and Mobility
Political Geography:
Australia

55. The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence of Educational Persistence and the "Great Gatsby Curve" in Brazil

Author:
Tharcisio Leone
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper explores the variation in intergenerational educational mobility across the Brazilian states based on Markov transition matrixes and univariate econometric techniques. The analysis of the national household survey (PNAD-2014) confirms a strong variation in mobility among the 27 federative units in Brazil and demonstrates a significant correlation between mobility and income inequality. In this sense, this work presents empirical evidence for the existence of the "Great Gatsby curve" within a single country: states with greater income disparities present higher levels of persistence in educational levels across generations. Finally, I investigate one specific mechanism behind this correlation – namely, whether higher income inequality might lead to a lower investment in human capital among children from socially vulnerable households. The paper delivers robust and compelling results showing that children born into families where the parents have not completed primary education have a statistically significant reduction in their chance of completing the educational system if they live in states with a higher level of income inequality.
Topic:
Education, Children, Inequality, and Mobility
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

56. Energy as a Source of Economic Growth and Social Mobility

Author:
Sarah Ladislaw and Jesse Barnett
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
The CSIS Energy Program assessed the existing academic literature, commissioned new research papers, convened an expert summit, and compiled the findings to produce Energy in America: Energy as a Source of Economic Growth and Social Mobility. This report analyzes the ways energy contributes to the challenges and opportunities facing ordinary Americans, covering the impacts of production, distribution, and consumption of energy products in the United States. The report highlights the new, extra-energy objectives that energy policy is increasingly expected to advance and evaluates their historical efficacy. We conclude that while deliberate U.S. energy policy interventions have hitherto achieved mixed results, there are promising developments and best practices that decisionmakers ought to consider.
Topic:
Development, Energy Policy, Economic Growth, and Mobility
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

57. The Future of Mobility and Migration within and from Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:
Loren B. Landau, Caroline Wanjiku-Kihato, and Hannah Postel
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
African migration—its drivers, dynamics, and consequences—increasingly features in European and global policy debates.Through an examination of existing data on African mobility, this report argues there are few reasons to expect dramatic changes in the sources, directions, or nature of migration within and from sub-Saharan Africa. In the coming 30 years, economic inequality (within the continent and between Africa and Europe), climate change, persecution, and conflict will continue to encourage ever-diversifying movements to cities, to neighboring countries, and beyond Africa. The vast majority of those moving will stay within their countries of citizenship or move to neighboring countries; about one-fifth of sub-Saharan migrants will seek passage to Europe, Australasia, or North America. Although the proportion of Africans migrating internationally may not substantially increase in the decades ahead, the onset of the continent’s demographic boom will result in many more Africans on the move. Ironically, current development investments intended to sedentarize would-be migrants or reduce fertility (and hence the number of potential migrants) are only likely to intensify movements. For sub-Saharan African economies to absorb the surplus labor, African states would almost universally need to sustain two decades of economic growth at a pace previously unseen in global history.
Topic:
Migration, Displacement, Mobility, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa

58. The Sarayaku and the Inter-American System on Human Rights: Justice for the “Medio Dia” People and their Living Jungle

Author:
Mario Melo Cevallos
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Dejusticia
Abstract:
Mario Melo Cevallos, lawyer of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, presents his version of the history of resistance and mobilization of the indigenous people before the State plans to exploit the oil that was in the heart of the Amazon.
Topic:
Oil, Natural Resources, Mobility, Indigenous, Land, and Resilience
Political Geography:
Ecuador and Amazon Basin

59. Local Cross-line Coordination in Syria

Author:
Natasha Hall, Benjamin Smith, and Thomas McGee
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Throughout the eight-year-long conflict in Syria, the movement of people and goods—including vital foodstuffs, medicines, equipment, and fuel—has often been severely restricted by periods of prolonged fighting. Yet in many areas, local arrangements, historical circumstances, and key actors have facilitated trade and movement across the lines of conflict. This report examines four cross-line areas in Syria and draws lessons for how these local dynamics might affect the resolution of the larger conflict and these communities in the long term.
Topic:
Conflict, Syrian War, Mobility, and Peace
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

60. Transforming Pastoralist Mobility in West Darfur: Understanding Continuity and Change

Author:
Hussein Sulieman and Helen Young
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
Earlier studies have shown that pastoralist mobility offers significant advantages in drylands by enabling herds to access the best-quality grazing over the course of a year. These patterns of mobility face many challenges and are changing. This study focuses on livestock movement in West Darfur, Sudan. It uses GPS tracking to illustrate mobility during the hot dry season and the rainy season. We find that compared with the past, grazing zones are retracting closer to home areas. The report proposes a typology of livestock movements and describes the ways in which herders are responding to challenges related to pasture, water, and conflict and also to livelihood activities. We present provisional recommendations to serve as the basis for further discussion.
Topic:
Mobility, Pastoralism, and Rural
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan