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1. Leveraging Higher Education to Promote Social Justice: Evidence from the IFP Alumni Tracking Study

Author:
Mirka Martel
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute of International Education
Abstract:
The fifth report from our 10-year tracking study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), Leveraging Higher Education to Promote Social Justice: Evidence from the IFP Alumni Tracking Study finds that IFP alumni are prepared to confront social injustices and have received promotions in their careers as a result of participating in the program. Study results showed that responding IFP alumni believed that IFP helped them develop personal and professional attributes that have helped them achieve career success and combat social injustices. Nearly 84 percent of responding alumni said they were employed, while 89 percent received a promotion at work that they attributed to IFP, and 83 percent are currently in leadership positions. In total, 1,284 alumni from 22 countries responded to the survey, representing 33 percent of the IFP population.
Topic:
Education, Social Justice, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

2. Social Justice and Sustainable Change: The Impacts of Higher Education

Author:
Mirka Martel
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute of International Education
Abstract:
Yielding the first findings from our 10-year impact study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), Social Justice and Sustainable Change shows that funding the post-graduate academic pursuits of emerging social justice leaders from marginalized groups leads to significant, measurable benefits for communities and organizations in their countries and throughout the world. The report shares the results of our 2015 IFP Global Alumni Survey, the first round of global data collection to occur during the course of tracking study. The findings reflect the responses of 1,861 IFP alumni from 22 different countries, capturing 43% of the program population. Findings from the report can be used to drive programmatic and policy decisions and shed light on research that supports the need for widening access to higher education in an effort to combat social inequality. The findings from Social Justice and Sustainable Change show that investing in higher education for individuals can have significant multiplier effects for communities, organizations, and societies. By studying the link between higher education and social justice and the effect that higher education can have on marginalized populations and leadership, Social Justice and Sustainable Change gives us a first look at the long-term impacts of international higher education programs like IFP.
Topic:
Education, Leadership, Social Justice, Higher Education, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

3. Social Justice Leaders in Action: IFP Impacts in Asia

Author:
Mirka Martel
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute of International Education
Abstract:
The second report from our 10-year impact study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), Social Justice Leaders in Actionprovides an in-depth look at the lives and careers of IFP alumni in three Asian countries—India, Indonesia, and the Philippines—detailing the different pathways alumni have taken and the ways they have leveraged their skills and networks to effect change. Drawing upon focus groups and interviews with 274 IFP alumni and community stakeholders, this qualitative research highlights the stories behind the numbers shared in the study’s first report, Social Justice and Sustainable Change: The Impacts of Higher Education, released in April 2016. The findings from Social Justice Leaders in Action provide insights not only at how life-altering IFP was at an individual level, but how that transformative power extends through alumni to their organizations, communities, and societies.
Topic:
Education, Social Justice, Higher Education, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Indonesia, India, Asia, Philippines, North America, and United States of America

4. The Brazilian model of Investment Agreements and Socio-environmental Safeguards

Author:
Maria Elena Rodriguez and Gabriel de Barros Torres
Publication Date:
03-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
BRICS Policy Center
Abstract:
With the purpose of contributing to expanding transnational investment flows, Brazil signed, in 2015, a series of Cooperation and Investment Facilitation Agreements (CIFAs) with African and Latin American countries. Among its provisions, the CIFAs feature distinctive characteristics in terms of direct (and indirect) expropriation, corporate social responsibility, dispute settlement mechanisms and national treatment clauses – ultimately, aiming to provide greater legal certainty for investors. However, civil society organizations have warned against the potential impact of this new model of investment agreements on the autonomy of states to establish regulations in the public interest. As such, this Quarterly Brief seeks to analyze similarities and differences between the new Brazilian CIFAs and traditional bilateral investment agreements – as well as to evaluate them in light of alternative frameworks, elaborated by civil society networks, aimed at balancing investment promotion with human and environmental rights protection.
Topic:
Civil Society, Environment, Treaties and Agreements, Regulation, Social Justice, Land Rights, and Public Health
Political Geography:
Brazil and Latin America

5. Who Protects Whom? Politicians, Police and the Regulation of Drug Trafficking in Argentina

Author:
Hernan Flom
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In many developing countries with weak formal institutions, sectors within the state protect organized criminal activities, allowing illicit markets to thrive. This article posits that how state actors regulate drug trafficking affects the levels of violence associated with such criminal activity. I argue that political competition influences coordination within the police and leads to different types of regulatory regimes. On the one hand, coordinated forces implement protection rackets that contain violence. On the other, uncoordinated police carry out particularistic negotiations with drug traffickers that exacerbate criminal violence. I illustrate this argument with a subnational comparison of two Argentine provinces, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, during a period in which both witnessed a surge in drug trafficking but only one (Santa Fe) suffered a dramatic increase in criminal violence. These cases show how corrupt states can obtain relative order in highly fragmented drug markets, and how the police shape the evolution of drug dealing in metropolitan areas.
Topic:
Security, Corruption, Democracy, Social Justice, Violence, Public Policy, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Argentina and South America

6. Dilemmas of an Expert Witness in the Amazon

Author:
Stuart Kirsch
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This article discusses two affidavits submitted to the Inter-American court system. The first is concerned with Suriname’s refusal to recognize indigenous land rights despite its international obligation to do so. The second addresses problems associated with indigenous land titles in Guyana. Comparing the two cases permits observations about ethnographic research conducted for expert witness reports, including the need to make affidavits legible to three different audiences, each with its own frame of reference: the legal system, communities seeking recognition of their rights, and anthropology (Paine 1996). I also consider the narrative choices in these affidavits, the political dilemmas of being an expert witness, and the compromises of short-term ethnography.
Topic:
Development, Culture, Economic growth, Social Justice, and Public Policy
Political Geography:
South America, Amazon Basin, and Suriname

7. HOW LIBERAL IS NEOLIBERALISM? RETHINKING THE CONCEPTIONS OF THE WELFARE STATE, LEGISLATIVE ORGANS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND COMPETITION IN HAYEK’S THOUGHT

Author:
Selma TOKTAŞ
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
With the expansion of US-led economic policy following the economic depression of the 1970s and the proliferation of new information and communication technologies, the 1980s became a crucial period signaling dramatic changes all around the world. By the end of these years, the Keynesian economy, which accredited states as active and interventionist players in the economy in order to ensure both growth and equity, began to break down. In this period economic liberalism gained power again and political and economic theories and practices turned towards neoliberalism. As a result, deregulation, privatization and the withdrawal of the state from many areas were accelerated. All these changes were significant and affected the structure of almost everything, including education, culture, life and trends in thought. Friedrich A. von Hayek was one of the pioneers of this transformation. Therefore, this descriptive study attempts to understand the points where neoliberalism combines with liberalism and how it is separated from liberalism through Hayek's views about the welfare state, legislative body, social justice, and competition terms. In other words, this study aims to explore the extent to which Hayek’s neoliberalism is a continuation or a break from liberalism.
Topic:
Economic structure, Neoliberalism, Social Justice, Welfare, and Liberalism
Political Geography:
United States, North America, and Global Focus

8. Michael Higgins, President of Ireland

Author:
Michael D. Higgins
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
His Excellency Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, addresses the Columbia University World Leaders Forum in Low Library.
Topic:
Climate Change, Human Rights, United Nations, Neoliberalism, and Social Justice
Political Geography:
New York, Europe, and Ireland

9. The 1001 Black Men Online Sketchbook and the Art of Social Justice

Author:
Ajuan Mance
Publication Date:
03-2018
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
Abstract:
Ajuan Mance created 1001 Black Men: An Online Sketchbook as a reaction against the controlling images that have limited and defined media representations of Black men. In this lecture at Mills College, Mance uses a slideshow of images from her series as the basis of a wide ranging discussion of art, Black maleness and gender performance, and representation.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Race, Arts, Media, Social Justice, Identities, and Representation
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

10. Leaders, Contexts, and Complexities: IFP Impacts in Latin America

Author:
Mirka Martel
Publication Date:
11-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute of International Education
Abstract:
The third report from our 10-year tracking study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), Leaders, Contexts, and Complexities provides an in-depth look at the lives and careers of IFP alumni in three Latin American countries: Brazil, Guatemala, and Mexico. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with 268 alumni, former IFP staff, community members, and other stakeholders, the fieldwork paints a complex picture that highlights the opportunities of the IFP experience against the challenges posed by local social and political realities. Myriad examples emerged from the fieldwork of ways the IFP fellowship has helped boost the individual lives and social justice careers of many members of Brazil, Guatemala, and Mexico’s most disadvantaged communities. IFP alumni in these countries are serving in leadership roles, most often in academia, government, and civil society organizations. They are directing research centers, serving as vice ministers of education, and leading organizations that work on a wide range of social justice issues such as cultural preservation, indigenous and human rights, and youth development. At the same time, home country contextual challenges have limited the extent to which some alumni have been able to advance their careers, their organizations, and social progress more generally. Several alumni have faced significant challenges because of continued discrimination and difficult labor market conditions in their home countries. In contrast, some alumni in Brazil have been able to leverage the introduction of affirmative action programs and other policies aimed at addressing inequities to advance their social justice aims. Taken together, these findings show that local environments matter.
Topic:
Employment, Leadership, Social Justice, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, Mexico, and Guatemala