The states of the ‘South’, although diverse, tend to be underdeveloped in the political sense: neither authoritative and effective nor legitimate and accountable to citizens The conventional response of aid donors is institutional transfer : trying to align the institutional configurations of Southern states even more closely with those of Northern polities This may not be the best approach The political underdevelopment of much of the South largely results from the ways in which Southern states have been created and political authority shaped through economic and political interactions with the wealthier countries of the North Political underdevelopment is an outcome of uneven (economic) development A better appreciation of the nature of these processes could lead to more appropriate policy History cannot be reversed But more attention could be paid to the ways in which Northern states currently help sustain political underdevelopment in the South, notably by perpetuating the conditions under whic

Political Underdevelopment: What causes ‘bad governance’

There are clear connections between how states obtain revenue, and the quality of their governance. If governments are not dependent on taxes for their fi nance, they are less accountable and responsive to citizen taxpayers, and have little incentive to build political and organisational capacity to negotiate and collect revenue and spend it effectively. The likely outcome is arbitrary governance and weak states. However, tax dependence does not necessarily guarantee better governance. Taxes may be collected coercively. This may poison relations between government and citizens. The good news is that there are some very practical ways of improving the tax relationship that could contribute to better governance.

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How Does Taxation Affect the Quality of Governance

In descriptive studies, where the source and target texts are the main primary sources (‘primary text products’), ‘extra-textual’ sources are looked at with ‘circumspection’. However, in historical research methodologies they are central. This article examines the use and value of archives, manuscripts and, especially, translator papers, post-hoc accounts and interviews in producing a history of translation and translators. Rather than informing a ‘traditional’ Rankean history of facts and major personalities, the article underlines the potential value of such material in creating a ‘microhistory’, reclaiming the details of the everyday lives and working processes of sometimes little-known or forgotten translators and contextualising them to construct a social and cultural history of translation and translators. Sometimes these sources are housed in collections where translation may not be very visible, which creates problems of location. Examples are given from the autobiography of A. Birse and research ...

/pdf/using-primary-sources-to-produce-a-microhistory-of-vzzyhd7bqq.pdf

Using primary sources to produce a microhistory of translation and translators: theoretical and methodological concerns

Of all the terms bandied about in both current cultural theory and contemporary writing on the arts, postmodernism must be the most overand under-defined. It is usually accompanied by a grand flourish of negativized rhetoric: we hear of discontinuity, disruption, dislocation, decentring, indeterminacy and anti-totalization. What all of these words literally do (by their disavowing prefixes, dis-, de-, in, anti-) is incorporate that which they aim to contest — as does, arguably, the term postmodernism itself. I point to this simple verbal fact in order to begin my 'theorizing' of the cultural enterprise to which we seem to have given such a provocative label. First and foremost, I should like to argue, postmodernism is a contradictory phenomenon that uses and abuses, installs and then subverts, the very concepts it challenges be it in literature, painting, sculpture, film, video, dance, television, music, philosophy, aesthetic theory, psychoanalysis, linguistics or historiography. These are some of the realms from which my 'theorizing' will proceed, and my examples will always be specific, because what I want to avoid are those polemical generalizations (often by those inimical to postmodernism — Jameson 1984a, Eagleton 1985, Newman 1985) diat leave us guessing about just what it is that is being called postmodernist, though they are never in doubt as to its undesirability. Some assume a generally accepted 'tacit definition' (Carmello 1983); others locate the beast by temporal (after 1945? 1968? 1970? 1980?) or economic signposting (late capitalism). But, in as pluralist and fragmented a culture as that of the Western world today,, such designations are not terribly useful if they intend to generalize about all the vagaries of culture. After all, what does television's Dallas have in common with the architecture of Ricardo Bofill? What does John Cage's music share with a play (or film) like Amadeusi In other words, postmodernism cannot simply be used as a synonym for

Beginning to theorize postmodernism

There is a refugee crisis in Africa. A resort to war as a substitute for politics has pushed massive numbers of Africans beyond state borders. This article examines the historical roots of internal...

Africa's Refugee Crisis: State Building in Historical Perspective

Gabriel Garcia Marquez & the Lost Art of Storytelling@@@One Hundred Years of Solitude

If this be treason : translation and its dyscontents : a memoir

If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents

The poet had come to the end of the road. He went down the Avenida La Paz. But, according to the Junta, the Internal War was just beginning. The strange cortege halted. Although the tune was distantly familiar, he couldn't quite make it out. Music had never been his forte. It came to him weak at first, then powerful. Because he was hearing everything, as never before, in a way that might have come from hypertrophy. He could still hear through dead ears. He could still see through dead eyes. But with new conditions, with a different intensity and a different clarity. He could hear what had been inaudible to him before. He could see what had been invisible to him when he was alive. He could

Gregory Rabassa

Papers

Gabriel Garcia Marquez & the Lost Art of Storytelling@@@One Hundred Years of Solitude

If this be treason : translation and its dyscontents : a memoir

If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents

From Internal War

The apple in the dark