Global South
Algodão, uma fibra global
Abstract:
Cotton doesn’t lie. This well-known idiom in Portugal highlights how the most important natural fiber — both historically and commercially — has woven itself into our lives. Yet, while cotton doesn’t deceive, it does conceal. It’s more than just a fiber; it’s an entire global industry. It shapes production and consumption patterns, directly impacting the lives of millions worldwide. Cotton influences the fate of soils and water sources and significantly affects the environment. It encompasses agriculture, fashion, and high technology. Cotton has a complex and often troubling history: it can be sweet, but it’s also bitter. Its soft touch belies the complexity of its life cycle, which spans from cotton fields in Burkina Faso to garment factories in Bangladesh, fashion runways in Milan, and algorithms in New York. This distribution isn’t arbitrary: the value gap —evident in the income disparity between a field worker in Burkina Faso, a factory manager in Bangladesh, and a top designer in Milan — illustrates global inequalities. Cotton connects these diverse landscapes and activities. This briefing is for anyone who wants to understand the fashion they wear and the fibers they choose. It’s also for decision-makers regulating cotton production and consumption. Responsible consumption is a key step in altering economic structures, but it’s rarely enough on its own. Our aim is clear: meaningful action requires clarity, knowledge, and information.
Cite this ebook:
Bernardo, Luís Pais (2023). Algodão, uma fibra global. Lisboa: FEC | Fundação Fé e Cooperação.
Working Paper 200/2024: The Impact of Climate Change on Developing Economies: A comparative analysis of vulnerability indices
Abstract:
In order to make informed decisions on climate finance and policies, there is an increasing need to develop an index to assess countries’ vulnerability to climate change. However, differing concepts and methodologies have led to varied views on which countries are most vulnerable and deserve more international financial support. This Working Paper examines whether key indices in climate science consistently classify countries’ vulnerability to climate disruption. It begins by reviewing literature on the impact of climate change on developing countries, followed by a comparative analysis of the EVI, ND-GAIN, INFORM, and WRI indices from 2014 to 2020. The findings indicate that while these indices are valuable for understanding and monitoring vulnerability, their differing components lead to divergent results. This research underscores the importance of a holistic approach to vulnerability assessment and calls for informed selection of indices based on specific objectives and contexts.
Cite this Working Paper:
Cardoso, Eduardo (2024). “The Impact of Climate Change on Developing Economies: A comparative analysis of vulnerability indices”. CEsA/CSG – Documentos de Trabalho nº 200/2024.
Turismo Costeiro e Marítimo em Cabo Verde. Rumo a um destino sustentável
Cite this paper:
Sarmento, E. (2024). Turismo costeiro e marítimo em Cabo Verde. Rumo a um destino sustentável. In Morgado, Carlos (2024). Anuário do Turismo de Cabo Verde 2024: a transformação de um destino (pp.30-32). Praia, Cabo Verde.
Cape Verde: Islands of vulnerability or resilience? A transition from a MIRAB Model into a TOURAB one?
Abstract:
Small island developing states (SIDSs) traditionally face a set of challenges like the weak and highly fragile economic configuration, environmental issues, and a traditional dependence on a few economic activities forcing them to open the economy to the exterior. Therefore, their development model, like in Cape Verde, depends on migration, remittances, dependence on aid, tourism, and state employment. The current research offers an insight into the nature of Cape Verde’s economy as a SIDS economy and the degree to which the country has been relying on tourism receipts, external remittances from migrations, aid programs, and government services. Understanding Cape Verde’s development model is important to clarify the challenges the country faces and its development needs to gather a long-term resilience and to understand if it is changing from a MIRAB (Migrations, Remittances, Aid, and Bureaucracy) model into another one.
Cite this article:
Sarmento, E.; Silva, Ana (2024). Cape Verde: Islands of Vulnerability or Resilience? A Transition from a MIRAB Model into a TOURAB One? Tour. Hosp. 2024, 5(1), 80-94; https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp5010006. MDPI. Special Edition Submit to Special Issue: Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS): Tourism between Innovation and Authenticity for Better Sustainable Developing Paths
Working Paper 199/2024: Literatura e Ecologia: Representações da água em romances angolanos e moçambicanos
Abstract:
This article offers a brief cartography of the narrative role of water in Angolan and Mozambican literature, through a comparative reading of four novels: O desejo de Kianda (1995) by the Angolan Pepetela; De Rios Velhos e Guerrilheiros. I. O Livro dos Rios (2006) by Luandino Vieira; Água. Uma novela rural (2016) and Ponta Gea (2017) both by the Mozambican João Paulo Borges Coelho.
The introduction places the proposed cartography within the framework of ecocritical studies, whose various paradigms offer useful tools and concepts for reading the selected literary works. The thematic and comparative methodological approach highlights experiences and imaginaries common to two post-colonial contexts, despite the difference in scenarios, themes, aesthetic choices and narrative strategies. The analysis aims to demonstrate that water is a crucial element in narrating post-colonial Angolan and Mozambican societies.
Cite this Working Paper:
Falconi, Jessica (2024). “Literatura e Ecologia: Representações da água em romances angolanos e moçambicanos”. CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 199/2024
Working Paper 198/2024: The Relevance of the Concept of Cumulative Causation: Understanding growth trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract:
Differences in growth trajectories among countries – including the possibility of divergence -, are a central issue in economics. Mainstream economics explain growth processes via varieties of neoclassical models, even improved with concepts such as institutions. Yet such models have difficulties in providing accurate accounts of the growth trajectories of many developing countries, notably low-income ones. It is argued that the growth paths of low-income countries are more appropriately explained by the theoretical framework that relies on the nexus of concepts of cumulative causation, non-linearities, threshold effects, self-reinforcing processes, irreversibility, path dependence and traps – though this approach remains marginal in mainstream economic analyses of growth and development. Firstly, this nexus of concepts is a powerful framework concerning the possibility and explanation of dynamic divergence regarding growth between countries, as it exhibits properties such as: the possibility of cumulative, dynamically self-reinforcing, processes; the existence of thresholds and tipping points; multiple equilibria. Secondly, cumulative causation, by definition, involves a combination of causes: its conceptual framework allows for the integration of several dimensions – economic, political, social, cognitive -, whose combination results in either virtuous or vicious circles. In developing countries, these causes (and their coalescence) typically consist in economic structures (e.g., commodity-based export markets), political institutions and social norms (predatory regimes, high inequality) as well as types of public policies.
Cite this Working Paper:
Sindzingre, Alice Nicole (2024). “The Relevance of the Concept of Cumulative Causation: Understanding growth trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa”. CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 198/2024
Working Paper 197/2024: La Production Agricole des Femmes en Guiné-Bissau comme Moyen d´Afirmation de son Identité
Abstract:
This working paper is an intermediate product of the study done for Swiss Cooperation in Guinea-Bissau, written in French without any point in Portuguese. What we demonstrate, as well as the principles of restitution and appropriation by the persons or institutions that access to respond to surveys or interviews, are words that do not translate into concrete actions for this Cooperation. The data were obtained by surveys and interviews in the regions of Bissau, Biombo, Bafatá, and Oio, with the producers (which also include a limited number of male producers) of leguminous agricultural products, in a sample of 160 people chosen at random. At the option of the promoter, the study focused on the marketing of products and not on production. To better understand the results, it must be said that this business model is not very profitable, but it is an activity that gives a greater independence of women in relation to men in the family space, since decisions about the use of profits belong to the producers. It also has a potential environment of action for the affirmation of the social (and not just family) identity of women that should not be despised although, as far as we can see, this is expressed for now only in the organization of associations of producers.
Cite this Working Paper:
Sangreman, C. e Melo, M. (2024). “La Production Agricole Des Femmes En Guiné-Bissau Comme Moyen D´Afirmation De Son Identité”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 197/2024
Understanding Social Realities of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria (FCT), Abuja
Abstract:
This article examines the social realities of forcibly displaced persons in Nigeria, with a focus on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria, Abuja. Internally displaced persons are individuals who have been forced from their homes or habitual places of residence and, unlike refugees, have not crossed the borders of their country. They remain under the primary protection of their governments and often seek refuge in their own countries. This study draws on secondary data sources and primary data collected from two IDPs campsites, arguing that most IDPs in the FCT, displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency live in makeshift and inhumane informal settlements in the peri-urban areas of Abuja City. These settlements also host the urban poor and other economic migrants in the country’s capital, occasionally leading to conflicts between them. The paper calls for the government to recognise the presence and condition of IDPs in the FCT and to work with relevant organisations to provide durable solutions to ensure that displaced persons can once again become productive members of society.
Cite this article:
BA-ANA-ITENEBE, C. A.; EDO, Z. O. (2023). Understanding Social Realities of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria (FCT), Abuja. In: Balkan Social Science Review, Vol. 22, 213-231. https://doi.org/10.46763/BSSR232222213bai
From Angola to Portugal: Narrating Migration, Memory and Identity in Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Work
Abstract:
Based on the teoretichal perspetives of Lusophone Postcolonial Studies, in dialogue with other analytic tools from Feminist Studies, this chapter aims to explore the topics of migration, memory and identity through the close reading of two works of fiction by the Portuguese writer of African descent Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida (1982), who was born in Angola and grew up in Portugal. In the autofiction That Hair (Tin House, 2020; originally published in Portuguese as Esse Cabelo, 2015), as well as in the novel Lisbon, Luanda, Paradise (Lisboa, Luanda, Paraíso, 2018), the main characters move from Angola to Portugal for personal or family reasons and seek to redefine their identities. They give voice to memories and narratives that involve the relationships between the colonial past and the building of contemporary postcolonial identities. In particular, the chapter analyses the representation of both the place of orign and arrival to portray the complex socio-cultural and migratory identity landscapes that emerged during Portuguese colonialism, as well as following the decolonization in Lusophone Africa (1975). In this regard, incluiding also a brief reading of the most recent novel by Almeida, Maremoto (2018), the chapter pays special attention to the perceptions and experiences of the city of Lisbon by narrators and protagonists who are immigrants, in order to reflect on the contemporary configurations of a postcolonial city on the periphery of Europe.
Citation:
Falconi, Jessica (2024) “From Angola to Portugal: Narrating Migration, Memory and Identity in Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Work” in S. Gintsburg & R. Breeze (eds) Afriacan Migration: Traversing Hybrid Landscapes. Lanham: Lexington Books, p. 15-35.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666938708/African-Migrations-Traversing-Hybrid-Landscapes
Working Paper 196/2023: The Primacy for the Accommodation of the Brazilian Economy: A Theoretical-Methodological Analysis
Abstract:
The capitalist economy is immersed in generalized inertia. A movement of slow accumulation, low investment, limited growth rates, but with a high level of profit, and which is due to intense pressure on the levels of existing inequalities, combining worldwide restructuring of the generation of wealth and income to a pattern of reproduction of the labor force at the level of its limited maintenance. This inertia occurs, above all, from the financial-productive crisis of the first decade of the 2000s. Brazil is no stranger to this inertia and its developments. Therefore, this paper intends, from a conceptual reflection, to analyze the national economic conjuncture, from what I call the structure and primacy for the accommodation of the Brazilian economy.
Cite this Working Paper:
Moreira, Marcelo Jose (2023). “The Primacy for the Accommodation of the Brazilian Economy: A Theoretical-Methodological Analysis”. CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 196/2023
