Editorial

No. 54 — 2021
Another Power: To Other Masculinities

Bertrand Russell used to say that the most fundamental matter in social sciences is power, in the same way that energy is fundamental to physics . However, the understanding of power is too often taken for granted and the truth is that it has often remained in the background in both philosophical and political debates, as well as being excessively linked to State theory and the study of its institutions. Thus, when thinking about power, political/legal theory and the social sciences have favoured an object, the State and its sovereignty, hiding the true diversity of the figures of power, and…
No. 54 — 2021
Masculinities, body and health: An essay based on narrative

The aim of this article is to establish a mirror/dialogue between different perspectives in order to think and contribute to the transformation of the relationship between the construction of masculinity, risk, illness and health, seeking to point towards a salutogenic experience, that is, of care and the promotion of health. It seeks to spark a conversation between the social perspective, the cultural perspective and experience, between quantitative contributions and qualitative experiences. We based our analysis on different sources such as the report Masculinities and Health in the Region of the Americas and the Literature, Memory and Identity Workshops, as well…
No. 54 — 2021
Representing the Self-Made Man in United States Literature

The bulk of critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM) have historically been defined by disciplines like sociology, anthropology or social work, with voices like those of Raewyn Connell, Jeff Hearn and Michael Kimmel, among many others. As Paul B. Preciado argues, masculinity does not exist in itself as an ontological unit separate from social relations and discursive networks, which are closely linked to power relations . Setting out from this basis, CSMM focus on giving a critical analysis of the historical evolution of what being a man has been taken to mean up to the present day . Through…
No. 54 — 2021
On masculinities, bodies and history

Does masculinity have a history? Everything social has a history, and masculinity is a social phenomenon that has, like femininity, a long and surprising history. In fact, its changeability amazes those who see it as something stable and natural. Being a man in the 15th century was something very different from what it is to be a man today. But the history of masculinity also surprises those who are aware of its constructed nature, especially for the persistence of some of its most characteristic features. Now and in the past, masculinity has been in some way linked to the exercise…
No. 54 — 2021
Men and caring masculinities

First of all, we must ask ourselves why the focus needs to be placed on men and on fostering caring masculinities. Well, the answer is simple. This is a social need and it is only fair to women and to society in general for men to be involved in care. Contemporary western societies are gradually changing the traditional sexual division of work. During most of the 20th century, in heterosexual couples the breadwinner model, where the man took the role of primary economic support of the family and the woman the role of primary carer, was dominant. Women’s work was…
No. 56 — 2021
The Making of African Megacities: a case of Lagos, Nigeria

Africa is witnessing one of the most rapid stages of urbanisation in human history. By the year 2100, 13 of the world’s largest megacities are projected to be in Africa, with Lagos at the top of the list. However, in Africa, the urban paradox exists as an ideological foil to conceal the society’s inefficiencies and inequities, therefore exacerbating the continent’s already dire situation. In Lagos, Nigeria, the state government’s ambition of transforming the city into Africa’s model megacity and a global commercial and financial powerhouse has paradoxically fostered ecological threats and socio-spatial repercussions that are incompatible with the city’s development…
No. 56 — 2021
Africa, center stage of a changing reality

The African continent is in the midst of multiple transformations. The global context marked by the overlapping of crises (democratic, social and ecological) has embraced Africa as the main stage for all these changes, presenting different accents and characteristics in each region. Similarly, many of the major impacts on the international scene, such as the rise of the Asian continent and China, now occupying the centre of worldwide geopolitics, cannot be explained without the central role of the African region. Therefore, it could be argued that Africa today hosts a reciprocity of dynamics. On the one hand, the continent is…
No. 56 — 2021
The African Union’s 20th anniversary: a celebration with plenty of work ahead

In her now-famous speech in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, in 2014, former African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma set out her vision for Arica’s renewal. In what she dubbed ‘an email from the future‘, dated 24 January 2063, she writes to former Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah outlining what the AU had achieved five decades into the future. The email describes an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent by 2063, where all citizens have access to quality education and health services and where campaigns have been launched to eradicate major diseases. Africa is an industrialised continent and the AU is transformed into…
No. 56 — 2021
Artificial Intelligence and health technologies in Africa

Unifying Artificial Intelligence (AI) for health ecosystems across the world presents tremendous opportunities for global health in general and, in particular, for Africa to transform its health care system and propel the continent at the forefront of health care innovation. This paper explores the scope of opportunities being offered by AI and associated emerging technologies for health care transformation and provides recommendations for adoption and scaling-up of these solutions. The pressing challenges for the use of Artificial Intelligence for health in Africa Provision of healthcare with international standards remains a major challenge in Africa. Health systems on the continent are…
No. 56 — 2021
Africa after COVID-19: insights from popular epidemiology

If tropical medicine started off in India and en route to the Indies, it completed its doctorate in Africa. And in so doing, it became one of the fundamental components of our new understanding of international health, to be later established through the World Health Organisation (1948) and deployed across increasingly discrete, but no less real, health boundaries . The concept of global health, as described by Alma Ata (“Health for All in 2000”, September 19782), overwhelmed by the neo-liberal tide and revived with great fervour in 2016 with the Sustainable Development Goals (2030 Agenda), aims to overcome the huge…
No. 56 — 2021
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the Context of COVID-19

While the African continent is still feeling the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, the process of establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) continues to make progress. The AfCFTA has numerous ambitions, including increasing intra-regional trade, promoting industrial development and creating jobs. Its operational launch in January 2021, despite the pandemic, represents a watershed moment in the history of pan-African integration. Within the present context of difficulties —although also the early stages of recovery—, the AfCFTA stands as a key instrument in the African agenda for rendering markets more competitive and furthering the continent’s economic and social…
No. 56 — 2021
How does Democracy in Africa look after 30 years?

It is challenging to talk about democracy in Africa in just a few thousand words, because there is no such thing as “African democracy”. Indeed there is as much variation in the quality of democracy on the continent than any other region of the world. According to the most commonly used democracy ratings indices, Africa features a small number of high quality democracies and some highly authoritarian regimes, while most countries have political systems that fall somewhere in-between – combining elements of democracy with elements of autocracy. Talking about democracy in Africa is also complicated by the fact that the…
No. 56 — 2021
The Role of Urban Music in Social Change: The Revolution May Be Rapped

On 9 October 2020, the Nigerian musician Davido shared a post on social media stating, “My people need me… #EndSarsNow”. At this precise moment, the artist’s over 20 million followers on Instagram and almost 10 million followers on Twitter received the message loud and clear that their idol had become actively involved in the protest against police brutality which was sweeping the nation. An uprising that would finally crystallise in two weeks of intense protests, during which people clamoured for a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s political system and which put the Nigerian Government against the ropes. On 6 March…
No. 55 — 2021
The future of International NGOs in a Post-Pandemic World

We are at a critical juncture that calls for us to reflect on the role of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) and our ability to respond to the global development challenges that lie ahead. The pandemic has left us stunned and disconcerted, but more aware than ever of the importance of public policy, of our interdependencies and fragility as a global society. For the first time since 1990, human development has regressed. We’re facing an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis, which is destroying many of the social advances achieved over the last decade and substantiating the collapse of an economic…
No. 55 — 2021
Rethinking Development Cooperation to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century

This summer, two countries, as well as the despair of their populations, have taken over the world news: Haiti and Afghanistan. Both states have received significant transfers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the years, and despite being very different cases facing unique situations, they are an example of the limitations that development cooperation encounters when addressing the complex and multidimensional causes that underlie poverty, inequality and low levels of human development in much of the planet. These humanitarian emergencies, in addition to many other long-term crises with minor media impact, have coincided in the same year, 2021, in which…
No. 55 — 2021
Transformations in the world order and their impact on the evolution of development cooperation

The post-war world and the origins of International Development Cooperation The concept of International Development Cooperation (IDC) arose from the ashes of the Second World War. The configuration of a blossoming new world order, in which the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the victorious powers, generated a new dynamic in international relations and forced traditional European powers to take the back seat. A new geopolitical chessboard was unfolding around the American and Soviet aspirations as to the world that needed to be built, in which international cooperation would play a crucial role. At the heart of the…
No. 55 — 2021
Latin America and the Caribbean, the SDGs and the pandemic

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly approved the declaration on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an ambitious work agenda that the signatory states committed to accomplishing by 2030. The selection of these goals came after an in-depth evaluation of the outcome of its direct predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight global initiatives that, at the turn of the century, states committed to achieving by 2015. The outcome of these objectives during their last years of validity was marked by the economic and social upheavals unleashed by the international financial crisis that began in 2008 and the way…
No. 55 — 2021
Feminist Humanitarian Action: a Matter of Human Rights

Humanitarian Action (HA) has come to be managed as a specific type and sector of international development cooperation, with its own characteristics, time frames, principles, objectives and procedures. This differentiated action has led to the sectorisation of interventions and the specialisation of organisations and agencies, making it difficult to articulate a fluid dialogue aimed at the harmonisation and complementarity between different actions. Changes in the understanding of development and international cooperation are challenging this sectorisation and driving the search for formulas that enhance complementarity and increase the potential for convergence between development and Humanitarian Action. This integrated perspective can also…
No. 55 — 2021
New Challenges and Emerging Actors in Multi-Actor Cooperation

The current circumstances are fairly unique with regards to international cooperation and public policy, not only in Catalonia but also in Spain, Europe and the rest of the world. The reform of the current Spanish Cooperation Law fuelled a reflection that led to a series of parallel processes, or even merged with or led into other areas of debate that are usually of a critical nature and have been ongoing for years. Civil society and certain public administrations, at various levels, have for some time been highlighting the need for a new form of cooperation; one that is able to…
No. 55 — 2021
The Importance of Solidarity in Challenging Times

Catalonia has always been a great country of solidarity, especially from its towns and cities. Municipal cooperation started back in the early 1980s, when a group of entities started collecting signatures to ask the Spanish state to comply with the United Nations recommendation to allocate 0.7% of GDP to international cooperation. The success of that campaign at the social level led a group of city councils to meet in July 1986 in Salt (Catalonia) to create the Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation (FCCD). The idea of grouping different city councils in the same space or entity was innovative in Catalonia…
No. 49 — 2020
Marine Exploitable Areas: shifting the burden of proof for marine protection

This article is an updated abstract from an essay published in March 2021 during the Monaco Ocean Week. The authors are veteran ocean advocates and campaigners with more than 40 years of experience each. They form the Varda Group for environment and sustainability. Will 2021 be a super year for the ocean? Those working to protect marine biodiversity hope so, after the global pandemic led to the cancellation or postponement of a line-up of potentially catalytic events in 2020. However, with the pandemic forecasted to stretch far into 2021, and possibly even 2022 if vaccines prove less effective against emerging…
No. 49 — 2020
The transition to a circular economy in the context of the 2030 Agenda

A little over 100 years ago, a group of farmers from the Plain of Vic, including my great-great-grandfather Joan Solà, boarded a train bound for the Netherlands with a mission: to buy Frisian dairy cows and bring them back to the county. They did not speak the language or know what challenges they’d face along the way, but with wads of notes hidden under their belts and a considerable dose of determination, they crossed Europe and returned home with dozens of cattle. The superior milk production of the Frisian cows allowed them to set up a business collecting milk from…
No. 49 — 2020
Biodiversity: time for action?

The evidence is irrefutable: we are losing biodiversity. During recent decades (between 2002 and 2019), the abundance in the number of specimens of a long list of critical animal species that make up Catalonia’s own particular Living Planet Index has decreased by 25% on average . We could be forgiven for thinking that our level of biodiversity loss is relatively moderate compared to the figure for the planet as a whole (68% ), but it is important to remember that this last figure reflects a much more extended period of time and that the rates of loss per unit of…
No. 49 — 2020
The real challenges to achieve the goal of sustainable water development in Catalonia

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations are an evolution of the old Millennium Development Goals. They aim to address global issues such as poverty, hunger, peace, health, education, inequality, inclusion, economic prosperity, protecting the planet, the fight against climate change, cities and territories, energy, sustainable consumption and production, and governance. Specifically, 17 goals and 169 targets were defined, along with the corresponding indicators to measure their progress. The sixth of these goals deals with water, and seeks to ensure universal and equitable access to safe drinking water, as well as affordable sanitation and hygiene services. This,…
No. 52 — 2021
A Chinese centre of the world? Jing Jin Ji and the remaking of Beijing

The China of Xi Jing Ping is on course to become the first economic power of the world, overtaking the US around 2040 according to their own previsions. In parallel, Chinese leadership is massively investing in the upgrading and development of its army and fosters its political influence all over the globe, mostly through investments and political pressure. In many public occasions, Chinese leaders have expressed the view that the balance of power and influence was coming back to normal. The old state of China had been the most developed part of the world including many technical advances and sophisticated…
No. 52 — 2021
Global China from a Gender Lens

In the context of globalization and China “rising”, the past two decades witnessed the increasing research interest on the emerging field of “Global China”. Global China studies is an interdisciplinary research field that studies China’s multifaceted global engagements and impacts. It expands China Studies beyond China’s territorial boundaries and looks into the role of China in the global stage, its profound influence on global governance, trade, aid, investment, financing for development, technology, militarization and peace, environment, geopolitics, human rights, etc. The considerable amount of studies, initiatives and media coverages focus on the monitoring of China’s global footprint, overseas investment—especially the…
No. 52 — 2021
China’s Multilateral Diplomacy

Multilateralism, according to one of the most frequently quoted definitions, is “an institutional form which coordinates relations among three or more states on the basis of ‘generalized’ principles of conduct” . International organizations (IO), the major institutional form of multilateralism, are an instrument to tackle challenges that transcend national borders. How China utilizes these instruments is an intrinsic part of China’s overall foreign policy and features China’s multilateral diplomacy. This paper traces China’s multilateral diplomacy, which has been shaped by its relations with the West and has evolved with China’s own policy adjustments. A Bumpy Road to International Organizations Giving…
No. 52 — 2021
From workers to capitalists in less than two generations: Chinese urban elite transformation between 1988 and 2013

This article was originally published on October 9, 2019 at voxeu.org website. The historically unprecedented economic and social transformation in China over the past four decades has seen urban areas becoming much richer, but also much more unequal. This column analyses changes in the Chinese urban elite. It finds that, compared to the 1980s, the elite today consists mainly of professionals, self-employed, and smaller and larger business people, they are much better educated, and they receive a much greater share of total urban income. This is reflected also in the composition of the Communist Party of China. The transformation of…
No. 52 — 2021
‘Els xinesos a Catalunya’ (2001) revisited

Els xinesos a Catalunya (The Chinese in Catalonia) , was published in 2001. It was the first piece of research to take an in-depth look at the population, especially given the need to further knowledge on how to incorporate it into the educational system. The pioneering work commissioned by the Jaume Bofill Foundation provides us with a helpful starting point for analysing the characteristics of their presence twenty years on. In 2020, 65,048 Chinese nationals were living in Catalonia, making them the fourth-largest group of foreign residents, after Moroccans, Romanians and Italians. Like the rest of Spain, Catalonia has become…
No. 52 — 2021
China’s Environmental and Climate Change Policies

Melanin in milk powder, cadmium in rice, malachite in seafood, lead in tea, carbamate in ginger, antibiotics in chicken meat, exploding water melons and cooking oil “recycled” from sewage – those are just some of numerous food scandals leaked out in recent years in China. They highlight various contaminations of water, air and soil equally as the weak points of political regulation. For many years, China has become a permanent feature on international debates on environmental and climate protection. The rapid economic development caused massive deterioration of the environmental conditions and because of high emissions China is considered to be…