Secular Development Research Articles

The ‘Humanitarian Frontline’, Development and Relief, and Religion: what context, which threats and which opportunities?

This paper examines the emergence of a humanitarian frontline in several operational contexts. Over the past 15 years, and since 2001 in particular, the international aid sector has been confronted by a climate of polarisation. With the traditional aid and donor landscape dominated by Western or Western-aligned parties who are sometimes involved in armed conflict too, aid organisations face the impact of the supposed or real instrumentalisation of development and relief in a wider security and geopolitical control agenda. At the same time Western or Western-associated secular development models that are often promoted by traditional aid have either encountered their limits or failed in several parts of the global periphery. The expanded space for religion resulting from globalisation and the social changes that it causes have also expanded the space for faith-based development and relief actors, especially in operational situations that have a large cultural and ideological dimension. The paper focuses on the Islamic world and Islamic faith-based aid, but several factors and trends discussed in it bear relevance for Christian faith-based aid and majority Christian parts of the global periphery as well.

Protection of Life and Human Dignity: The German Debate between Christian Norms and Secular Expectations

The German debate on bioethics and medical ethics turns on a change in the meaning of human dignity. Such dignity is increasingly rendered contingent upon a person's empirically assessable quality of life. In contrast to such dignity-endowed human life, a merely biological human life is taken to disqualify its bearer from such dignity, depriving his life of the protection “respect for human dignity” would otherwise guarantee. The idea of a “life not worth living” or “undignified life” evokes categories, which were developed at the beginning of the 20th century, and later informed the crimes of National Socialist medicine in Germany. Against this secular development, this article analyses the theological and church-based discussion of basic bioethical questions in Germany, especially the controversy among Protestants: once Protestant ethicists abandon an explicitly theological basis for their arguments, their conclusions come to closely resemble those of the secular participants in the debate. As a result, such Protestants relativize fundamental ethical norms. They subordinate, along with their secular environment, the protection of life to respect for autonomy. They thus prepare the ground for a revival of the risky concepts of the past.

The Secularism Debate and Turkey's Quest for European Union Membership

AbstractThe potential accession of Turkey to the European Union is undoubtedly one of the Union's most contested prospective enlargements. Among the stated concerns are continuing problems surrounding Cyprus and Turkey's record in terms of fundamental human rights protections. The nature of the Turkish state and its current government, headed by the Islamic Refah Partisi, is also the subject of much discussion. This article traces the development of secularism in modern Turkey and outlines the effect that the Islamic revival is having on both Turkey and its attempts to join the ranks of the European Union.

Finding Faith in Development: Religious Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Argentina and Zimbabwe

Finding Faith in Development: Religious Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Argentina and Zimbabwe Erica Bornstein, The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. 213 pp. Laurie A. Occhipinti, Acting on Faith: Religious Development Organizations in Northwestern Argentina. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.211 pp. International development-both an ideology and set of practices aimed at promoting change to eliminate poverty in global south-has in recent decades increasingly shifted from a government project to a private one. No longer are states and their agencies assumed to be best or most desirable purveyors of development. Instead, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become important channels for development flows, a reality reflected by an explosion in number of development NGOs worldwide and an intensification in amount of money flowing through them (Riddell and Robinson 1995:26-32). Accordingly, analysis of NGOs working to design and deliver international development has become a mainstay of development studies (Bebbington and Thiele 1993; Carroll 1992; Farrington and Bebbington 1993; Fisher 1997; Lewis and Wallace 2000). The development studies literature, in general, has engaged in a number of lively debates about NGOs: e.g., relative strengths of NGOs vis-a-vis state-led development (Edwards and Hulme 1996; Riddell and Robinson 1995; Zaidi 1999); degree to which NGOs are particularly efficient, participatory, or purveyors of development (Lister 2000; Lorgen 1998; Tvedt 2001; Unnithan and Srivastava 1997); extent to which NGOs might operate outside development's conventional and bureaucratic spheres of power, politics, and discourses (Farrington and Bebbington 1993; Gardner and Lewis 1996; Grillo 1997). Still, one particular type of has been largely ignored in most discussions: religiously-driven or faith-based1 NGO2 (as exceptions, see Belshaw, Calderisi, and Sugden 2001; Clarke 2005; Mayotte 1998; Hefferan 2007; Tripp 1999; Tyndale 2006). Faith-based development NGOs route significant financial flows from developed to developing world, marshal collective resources of the faithful, and link together co-religious (and potential co-religious) in transnational relationships (Clarke 2005). Yet, NGOs-like religion and faith more broadly (Ver Beek 2000:36; see also Selinger 2004)-remain largely ignored in development studies literature. As such, several fundamental gaps exist in our understanding of these particular types of development NGOs, including a grounded understanding of what exactly development is and how faith orientation of an organization affects its mission and programming. Answering such questions is complicated because label NGO covers such a wide array of organizations, with vastly different belief systems, funding channels, programming, and like. Nonetheless, two recently published works, while acknowledging and reflecting such complexities, also provide a number of answers. Erica Bornstein 's The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe is an engaging and sophisticated analysis of Protestant NGOs World Vision and Care and their attempts to evangelize Zimbabweans through development. Laurie A. Occhipinti's Acting on Faith: Religious Development Organizations in Northwestern Argentina is an absorbing examination of two local Catholic NGOs-Fundapaz and Obra Claretiano de Desarrollo (OCLADE)-working in pursuit of social justice for indigenous populations in Northwestern Argentina. Both works situate themselves within a post/development studies literature that considers equally meaning and practice of development. The Meaning of Faith-based Development While faith-based development NGO is a term encompassing a wide range of institutions that link religion (whether Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, or others) with development, both Bornstein and Occhipinti focus specifically on Christian forms to argue that faithbased NGOs employ ideological frameworks that are different from conventional, secular development organizations. …

Secularism and Secularization in the Arab World

AbstractThe development of secularism and secularization is a major issue in the Arab world in the intellectual, cultural and social dimensions. A general survey of the development of secularism an...

The Empire of the Spectacle

The Empire of the Spectacle

The heart (and soul?) of international development: the role of faith in global poverty reduction

AbstractWith prognosis bleak in most countries for meeting the MDGs by 2015, development approaches are being scrutinised in an effort to identify gaps and opportunities in policy and practice. Can faith fill some of the current gaps or will it merely get in the way of the (mainly secular) development agenda? This article reviews four books on the subject and focuses on their underlying themes: the linkages between faith and development and how faith‐based communities can make a positive contribution to the reduction of global poverty. Despite growing acknowledgement by the secular development community that issues of faith may be more relevant than previously recognised, many of the tensions that have polarised the faith and development worlds for so long still abound. These books highlight that a just world should not merely be considered a singular aim of both the development and faith communities, but needs to be understood as a shared aim. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Alcohol, tobacco and local control: A comparison of several community-based prevention trials

In North America there are significant similarities and differences in attitudes with regard to alcohol and tobacco on several dimensions, including the view taken of producers, suppliers and retailers, the products, and in the patterns of use. There are also contrasting as well as overlapping tendencies with regard to perceived problems associated with alcohol versus tobacco consumption, intervention initiatives and the resources available. These secular developments and forces provide a context for examining 10 community-based prevention trials which have sought to reduce harm from alcohol or tobacco using a range of strategies. The strategies have included education and information campaigns, media advocacy, counter-advertising and health promotion, controls on selling and consumption venues and other regulations reduced access to alcohol or tobacco, enhanced law enforcement and surveillance, and community organizing and coalition development. The paper outlines the challenges of undertaking community-based trials and interpreting their findings. It notes that interventions which show promise are those that pay particular attention to controls on access, include the environmental contexts of where the products are sold and distributed, and involve enforcement of public health polices. Controlling tobacco use may be made somewhat easier, than is the case for alcohol, with the vilification of the tobacco industry and marginalization and victimization of smokers. Nevertheless, the community trial provides opportunities for reducing harm related to alcohol and tobacco, particularly if resources are oriented in a coordinated way to those control measures and policies with the widest scope and greatest effectiveness.

Second Annual Conference of the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) held its secondannual conference at Georgetown University on April 7, 2001. Students,diplomats, liberal professionals, investors, activists and academicians wereamong the guests at the conference cosponsored by GeorgetownUniversity's Center for Muslim Christian Understanding (CMCU), theInternational Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), and the Institute of GlobalCultural Studies.The conference theme, "Islam, Democracy and the Secularist State in thePost Modem Era" echoed in the presentations of Muslim scholars in thefollowing five panels: Islam and Democracy, The Secular State, Elementsof Democracy with Respect to Islam, Postmdernity, and Democracy inPractice and Islam in Context. A total of twenty presentations were madeby the panelists in these five sections.Since the CSID is a research organization with a membership ofacademics, entrepreneurs, Muslim intellectuals, liberal professionals andactivists committed to promoting democracy in the Muslim world, itsannual conferences and monthly publication "The Muslim Democrat" serveas a forum through which the relationship between Islam and democracy isdefined and democratic elements inherent in Islam are identified. As athink-tank dedicated to defining the historical and philosophical basis ofdemocracy and its compatibility with the elements of Islam, CSID'spresentations underscored justice, equality and tolerance as democraticconcepts intrinsic to Islamic principles.By outlining the historical development of secularism and its role inMuslim societies, the panelists did not only encourage Muslim activists toinstitutionalize democratic practices, but they also addressed Muslimscholars and activists from both the western and the Muslim worlds whoare convinced that Islam is incompatible with democracy. By presentingthe causes of problems inherent in secular trends in Muslim countries likeYemen, Jordan, Indonesia and Malaysia, and identifying the shortcomingsin their democratization process, CSID's presentations simultaneouslysought to convince both Islamists and secularists that democratic ideals andIslamic principles were compatible.Since a distinction must be made between the separation of church andstate and the separation of religion from politics in order to advance the ...

Faith and economics in 'development': A bridge across the chasm?

Beliefs about the origin and nature of the universe and the place of humanity within it have seldom been considered of relevance for economic theory and practice. Yet, for the large majority of the world's people, a bedrock of strong ethical principles, based on their religious faith, is an essential prerequisite for long-term economic progress. The World Faiths Development Dialogue is exploring the possibility of bridging the apparent chasm which separates the secular development agencies, such as the World Bank, from the world's religions. What visions have the faith communities to offer? Is there a genuine convergence of interests?

De Roncesvales ao Contestado: resignificações da memória carolíngia na Península Ibérica e no Brasil

O presente artigo sintetiza o longo processo do desenvolvimento e da difusão da tradição carolíngia, desde seu início, na Idade Média, até os dias atuais, na cultura popular brasileira. Analisa também a relação entre o episódio mítico da batalha de Roncesvales, verificando a importância que assume sobre o movimento do Contestado (1912-1916).

‘Don't ask, don't tell, and don't pursue’

A Panel on Fit to Fight: the Armed Forces and Cultural Change was held at the Institute on 11 May and these articles are based on the presentations. The title is a reference to Not Fit to Fight: The Cultural Subversion of the Armed Forces in Britain and America. 1 This book is something of a polemic. It claims that the British Armed Forces are threatened not by foreign powers, but from within this country, by ‘secular developments’ forced on the necessarily different world of the military. The matter of gays in the military was particularly topical as the ban was taken to the European Court of Human Rights2 the following week on 18 May. A judgement is expected three to six months after the hearing.

The involvement of the Church of Pakistan in development

This research critically examines the involvement of the Church of Pakistan in development of the poor people by way of a comparative case-study of two key dioceses, Multan and Hyderabad. The development priorities in the Dioceses studied have been defined and adopted mainly by the Diocesan Bishops of Multan and Hyderabad, J. V. Samuel and Bashir Jiwan who both by interaction with the local context as well as by exposure to externally produced theological discourses i. e. ecumenical and evangelical respectively, developed distinct approaches to mission and development in their dioceses, thus having `conscientization' and `evangelization' as specific aims of development respectively. Therefore, conscientization and evangelization as overruling diocesan motivating philosophies along with sample development projects have been analyzed. The diocesan aims of conscientization and evangelization were examined in the light of the `wholism' projected by the Biblical materials. The involvement of the Church of Pakistan in development has been highlighted in the contexts of a feudal and religiously biased national and the international secular development debate. With the objective of discussing the applicability of the two respective theologies for strengthening the mission understanding within the Church of Pakistan and the Church worldwide, the findings of this research have provided a base for the proposition of more realistic components of a theology of development for Pakistan.

The stability of the Kuznets curve: some further evidence

This paper examines the stability of the (cross-sectional) Kuznets curve with focus on the international comparability of both income distribution and income data. If the Kuznets curve changes its slope, or if the relationship between income and income inequality is not stable over time, then, the validity of using the cross-sectional Kuznets curve to test the Kuznets hypothesis is considerably weakened, and consequently the results from a cross-section of countries may not be used to predict the secular development of a country. For reasonable international comparability, household income distribution data and per capita GDP data based on purchasing power parity are employed in this paper. We show that, contrary to a previous finding, the (cross-sectional) Kuznets curve is stable.

Three Models of Secular Constitutional Development: India, Israel, and the United States

As a subject for serious investigation, constitutionalism in faraway places seems finally to have come of age. To appropriate the famous metaphor from the First Amendment arena that is the concern of this paper, it is as if, until relatively recently, a “wall of separation” had shielded both scholarly and judicial analysis of American constitutional issues from the experience of other polities. As a result, too often constitutional inquiry has been denied the illumination and insights of comparative research. My specific aim in this article is to explore the concept and practice of the secular constitution within three nations that are committed, albeit in different ways, to the principle of religious liberty.

Temporal relationships of lode gold mineralization to accretion, magmatism, metamorphism and deformation — Archean to present: a review: R. Kerrich & K. F. Cassidy, Ore Geology Reviews, 9(4), 1994, pp 263–310

Abstract Late Archean (ca. 2.7 Ga) lode gold mineralization in the Superior Province of Canada and Yilgarn Craton of Australia was late kinematic, and syn to late peak metamorphic, and intimately related in space and time to accretionary tectonic processes. Gold mineralization in the Superior Province was coeval with late-kinematic diachronous accretion of allochthonous subprovinces from north to south over ca. 2710 to 2670 Ma. Timing of gold genesis is constrained by field relationships, and rigorous lower ages of cross-cutting dikes. Gold vein formation is an integral part of the thermal and rheological history of deposit host rocks, such that, in general, deposits in greenschist facies rocks have greenschist facies assemblages and occur in brittle-ductile structures, whereas counterparts in amphibolite facies rocks feature amphibolite facies alteration assemblages and generally occur in ductile structures. Gold mineralization in the southeastern Yilgarn Craton is also temporally related to craton-scale compressional events. There is abundant evidence for thermal, structural and hydrothermal disturbance post orogeny in the Yilgarn Craton, with most ArAr, RbSr and reset UPb zircon ages corresponding to known periods of tectonism in adjacent terranes. In addition, gold-related sulphides typically have reset model Pb ages recorded by secondary isochrons. Accordingly, anomalously young UPb ages on rutile and titanite and ArAr ages on hydrothermal silicates in deposits that post-date peak metamorphism by 100 to 240 m.y. are interpreted to reflect multiple secondary hydrothermal events that also locally remobilized primary ore metals. These variably young, reset ages are also recorded in lithological units of undisputed primary age, including VMS deposits, syn-tectonic granitoids and komatiites. These variably young ages provide an exact parallel for reset secondary ages in gold deposits. Mineralization interpreted to have formed 100 to 240 m.y. after terrane accretion based on scattered ages from non-robust isotopic systems or minerals is not compatible with the above relationships, but rather reflects intermittent secondary reactivation of the primary ore hosting structures. The southern Superior Province has experienced thermal, structural and hydrothermal disturbances since termination of S-type magmatism at ca. 2645–2611 Ma, reflected in KAr, RbSr and SmNd ages 100 to 240 m.y. younger than UPb zircon ages on the same lithological units, and reversed apparent blocking sequences. Eight different models, with distinct time connotations, exist for lode gold deposits in the late Archean terranes. The TTG model linking mineralization in the southern Abitibi Subprovince to synvolcanic tonalite-trondhjemite granodiorite batholiths (2695–2685 Ma) can be ruled out on geochronological grounds, as the deposits are most closely associated in space and time to late-kinematic, calc-alkaline and shoshonitic rocks (2685–2670 Ma). Two “late gold” models based on the non-concordant young ages, involving either delayed thermal rebound or young events in Kapuskasing-like mid-crust can be reinterpreted as late kinematic primary mineralization with multistage isotopic resetting. Both young gold models are based on geochronology alone, and ignore tectonic, structural and metamorphic relationships that provide evidence of deposits forming in thermal and rheological equilibrium with their host terranes. Five models (“early gold” models) for lode gold deposits in late-Archean terranes, namely granulization, cratonization, two gold-shoshonite schemes and the crustal continuum model, explicitly relate mineralization to processes resulting from terrane accretion. All five are consistent with rigorously constrained ages of some gold deposits, including primary mineralization at Val d'Or as given by hydrothermal zircons. Lode gold deposits in the Proterozoic Trans-Hudson orogenic belt (ca. 2.0 to 1.7 Ga) also closely follow terrane collision and metamorphism. Similarly, lode gold deposits in late Paleozoic orogenic belts of Appalachia and the Lachlan fold belt of southeastern Australia show temporal relationships of mineralization to collisional tectonics, metamorphism, magmatism and deformation. The temporal relationships of mineralization to collisional tectonics is also repeated in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Cordilleran belt of the North American continent and the Cenozoic Alpine-Himalayan chain. Giant lode gold metallogenic provinces formed at three times in Earth history, in the late-Archean (2.7-2.6 Ga), late Paleozoic (450–340 Ma) and Mesozoic-Cenozoic. These times correspond to accretionary tectonic assembly of a supercontinent, in external orogens. Minor gold deposits also formed in space and time with collisional tectonics in internal orogenic belts of the supercontinent cycle. Consequently, the local temporal relationships of lode gold mineralization to collisional tectonics and post-peak metamorphism is also part of the secular development of a larger global geodynamic cycle.

Genèse et métamorphose d'un territoire d'agglomération urbaine : de Lyon au Grand Lyon / Birth and metamorphoses of the area of an urban agglomeration : from Lyon to Greater Lyon

The formation of the Lyon agglomeration as an entity in the local political system is the result of a long development process. This has evolved from the confrontation between the centre of city and its suburbs, existing at the beginning of the century, to the supra- communal institution which exists currently. The history of joint action between 'communes', in particular the secular development of the urban drainage system, makes it possible to understand how a multi-communal agglomeration progressively establishes itself as a legitimate territorial unit. The interest of this genealogical approach is to propose a new formulation of terms currently used in the debate over the reform of local territorial systems.

Temporal relationships of lode gold mineralization to accretion, magmatism, metamorphism and deformation — Archean to present: A review

Late Archean (ca. 2.7 Ga) lode gold mineralization in the Superior Province of Canada and Yilgarn Craton of Australia was late kinematic, and syn to late peak metamorphic, and intimately related in space and time to accretionary tectonic processes. Gold mineralization in the Superior Province was coeval with late-kinematic diachronous accretion of allochthonous subprovinces from north to south over ca. 2710 to 2670 Ma. Timing of gold genesis is constrained by field relationships, and rigorous lower ages of cross-cutting dikes. Gold vein formation is an integral part of the thermal and rheological history of deposit host rocks, such that, in general, deposits in greenschist facies rocks have greenschist facies assemblages and occur in brittle-ductile structures, whereas counterparts in amphibolite facies rocks feature amphibolite facies alteration assemblages and generally occur in ductile structures. Gold mineralization in the southeastern Yilgarn Craton is also temporally related to craton-scale compressional events. There is abundant evidence for thermal, structural and hydrothermal disturbance post orogeny in the Yilgarn Craton, with most ArAr, RbSr and reset UPb zircon ages corresponding to known periods of tectonism in adjacent terranes. In addition, gold-related sulphides typically have reset model Pb ages recorded by secondary isochrons. Accordingly, anomalously young UPb ages on rutile and titanite and ArAr ages on hydrothermal silicates in deposits that post-date peak metamorphism by 100 to 240 m.y. are interpreted to reflect multiple secondary hydrothermal events that also locally remobilized primary ore metals. These variably young, reset ages are also recorded in lithological units of undisputed primary age, including VMS deposits, syn-tectonic granitoids and komatiites. These variably young ages provide an exact parallel for reset secondary ages in gold deposits. Mineralization interpreted to have formed 100 to 240 m.y. after terrane accretion based on scattered ages from non-robust isotopic systems or minerals is not compatible with the above relationships, but rather reflects intermittent secondary reactivation of the primary ore hosting structures. The southern Superior Province has experienced thermal, structural and hydrothermal disturbances since termination of S-type magmatism at ca. 2645–2611 Ma, reflected in KAr, RbSr and SmNd ages 100 to 240 m.y. younger than UPb zircon ages on the same lithological units, and reversed apparent blocking sequences. Eight different models, with distinct time connotations, exist for lode gold deposits in the late Archean terranes. The TTG model linking mineralization in the southern Abitibi Subprovince to synvolcanic tonalite-trondhjemite granodiorite batholiths (2695–2685 Ma) can be ruled out on geochronological grounds, as the deposits are most closely associated in space and time to late-kinematic, calc-alkaline and shoshonitic rocks (2685–2670 Ma). Two “late gold” models based on the non-concordant young ages, involving either delayed thermal rebound or young events in Kapuskasing-like mid-crust can be reinterpreted as late kinematic primary mineralization with multistage isotopic resetting. Both young gold models are based on geochronology alone, and ignore tectonic, structural and metamorphic relationships that provide evidence of deposits forming in thermal and rheological equilibrium with their host terranes. Five models (“early gold” models) for lode gold deposits in late-Archean terranes, namely granulization, cratonization, two gold-shoshonite schemes and the crustal continuum model, explicitly relate mineralization to processes resulting from terrane accretion. All five are consistent with rigorously constrained ages of some gold deposits, including primary mineralization at Val d'Or as given by hydrothermal zircons. Lode gold deposits in the Proterozoic Trans-Hudson orogenic belt (ca. 2.0 to 1.7 Ga) also closely follow terrane collision and metamorphism. Similarly, lode gold deposits in late Paleozoic orogenic belts of Appalachia and the Lachlan fold belt of southeastern Australia show temporal relationships of mineralization to collisional tectonics, metamorphism, magmatism and deformation. The temporal relationships of mineralization to collisional tectonics is also repeated in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Cordilleran belt of the North American continent and the Cenozoic Alpine-Himalayan chain. Giant lode gold metallogenic provinces formed at three times in Earth history, in the late-Archean (2.7-2.6 Ga), late Paleozoic (450–340 Ma) and Mesozoic-Cenozoic. These times correspond to accretionary tectonic assembly of a supercontinent, in external orogens. Minor gold deposits also formed in space and time with collisional tectonics in internal orogenic belts of the supercontinent cycle. Consequently, the local temporal relationships of lode gold mineralization to collisional tectonics and post-peak metamorphism is also part of the secular development of a larger global geodynamic cycle.