Despite the breakthrough of ‘women’s empowerment’ in the international development field and the continuous emphasis on its importance, there is still no consensus on the concept’s meaning. Many feminist scholars argue that this has affected the concept’s transformative potential as development institutions have tended to adopt overly simplistic understandings. The recent establishment of UN Women can be understood as marking an institutionalization of the women’s empowerment agenda as it was created through development institutions’ joint forces for the increased advancement of gender agendas. With this new institution and the still ambiguous meaning of women’s empowerment, this study examines how UN Women understands women’s empowerment and explores possible implications of this understanding for its practice of empowering women. Via ideal types this study uses feminist critique and visions as reference points to discuss whether UN Women has managed to change previous simplistic understanding of women’s empowerment. The study concludes that UN Women’s understanding of women’s empowerment is similar to the international development institutions’ often adopted understanding of the concept. The results therefore imply that despite the institutionalization of the women’s empowerment agenda via the creation of UN Women, the transformative project of women’s empowerment is likely to be absent.

During the past decade, a significant change in use of force norms took place within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The United Nations (UN) is founded on a collective security agreement, which gives the UNSC the power to authorize the use of force to protect UN member-states. The UN Charter explicitly provides the UNSC with a mandate to keep peace between states, not within them. In 2006, however, the UNSC unanimously adopted the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) doctrine, which expanded what I call the UNSC's circle of protection to include "human protection." Further, in exceptional circumstances, R2P gives the UNSC the power to authorize the use of force in a country without the consent of its government. Many UNSC members initially resisted institutionalizing R2P, especially those with contested territory and a history of foreign intervention, such as China. This dissertation attempts to explain how and why this change in use of force norms developed. I argue this macro-level change was principally due to two often overlooked factors: an epistemic community pushing the Council to become more empathetic and altruistic, and Council members wanting to gain social status. In order to adequately explain the development of R2P you must explain the significant role the epistemic community played. And to adequately explain the significance of the epistemic community you must explain the significant role empathy played. Further, to sufficiently explain the UNSC's decision to adopt R2P you must explain the significance of China's acceptance. And to sufficiently explain China's acceptance you must explain the significant role status-seeking played. Explanations for the adoption of R2P that do not acknowledge the significant role of empathy and social influence are incomplete and insufficient. Although others have argued emotion and social influence are important causal variables in international relations, few offer specific mechanisms or micro-processes demonstrating how these factors work. This dissertation attempts to fill this gap. The implications are that empathy and status-seeking matter far more to international relations than many suggest.

We live in a severely unequal world. Pressing questions are, then, what changes the global advantaged should bring about to improve the situation of the global disadvantaged, and why they should do so in the first place. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 answer the latter question whereas chapters 4 and 5 answer the former. Chapter 1 considers Peter Singer’s ‘non-relationist’ and Thomas Pogge’s ‘relationist’ approaches to global justice. The chapter argues that Pogge’s argument is more compelling than Singer’s, but that it is incomplete. To make a relationist argument more plausible, the chapter draws on two critical social theorists: Alf Hornborg and David Harvey. Based on their analyses, and employing the perspectives of ‘human time’ and ‘ecological space’, the chapter concludes that the advantaged are in violation of a stringent negative duty by being complicit in the harmful global system. The chapter also introduces two kinds of debt – ‘temporal debt’ and ‘ecological debt’ – that the advantaged may owe the disadvantaged. Chapter 2 argues that the global system is not only harmful but severely harmful: it is likely to reproduce ‘absolute harm’ (a harm that infringes upon minimum human well-being). Chapter 3 discusses what positive action the advantaged ought to take because of the negative-duty violation and the problem-solving ability they have. Focusing on two kinds of action – reparation and remedy – the chapter argues that achieving reparation may face practical problems, but that the advantaged should act immediately to provide remedy – in particular, institutional remedy – for the disadvantaged. In doing so, the chapter commends the ‘advantaged remedy’ principle. Chapters 4 and 5 consider remedial institutions which the advantaged should strive to create and uphold. Chapter 4 focuses on one which we already have: the UN Global Compact. The chapter argues that this institution is necessary in the light of present global circumstances and also advances a set of principles appropriate to protect minimum human well-being. But it concludes that this reformist institution may turn out to be insufficient. Based on this conclusion, chapter 5 supports a more radical proposal: a market-socialist proposal offered by Leslie Sklair. Sklair’s account, however, does not explain why it is market socialism, rather than a non-market alternative, that should be pursued. Neither does it show how market-socialist institutions would remedy the global-systemic problems that are likely to afflict the disadvantaged. The chapter offers answers to these questions by drawing on David Miller (for the first question) and David Schweickart (for the second question). The chapter then argues that market socialism, if accompanied by an appropriate ethos, would serve to remedy the situation of the global disadvantaged. Meanwhile, the shift to market socialism would, and should, take time. So, this project concludes by considering a supplementary institution that may need to be implemented in the meantime: an ecological space tax.

Tesis

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciada en Lengua y Literatura Hispánica / Esta tesina, que es el resultado final del trabajo que desarrollé durante el año 2012 en el Seminario de Grado impartido por el profesor Leonel Delgado y la ayudante Nicole Muñoz, es una reflexión sobre el testimonio y la memoria a través de la lectura de Un día de octubre en Santiago, de Carmen Castillo. Me interesó establecer un vínculo entre ciertos rasgos que esta obra exhibe y propone de acuerdo a mi análisis, y algunas lecturas teórico-críticas sobre el asunto de la “verdad testimonial” (algunas de las cuales escapan del ámbito específico del testimonio y la memoria).

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Hispánica / El objeto de este informe es la novela del autor chileno Mauricio Wacquez, Frente a un hombre armado (Cacerías de 1848), publicada el año 1981 por editorial Bruguera en Barcelona. Se encuentra ambientada en la campiña francesa del siglo XIX, pero además, se van asimilando, repentinamente, distintos parajes, incluido el campo de Colchagua. Se divide en dos partes: la primera consta de casi la totalidad del relato y posee cinco secciones; la segunda, se conforma sólo de unas cuantas páginas, éstas últimas, hacen las veces de un comentario externo, que contiene un tono desautorizante sobre la narración anterior. En la primera parte, prima la función narrativa, en cambio en la segunda, se manifiesta una actitud reflexiva y crítica.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Hispánica mención Literatura / Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento.

¿Does an award that restitutes a, wrongly resolved, construction contract have effects if the project of work is completed? And ¿what effects does an award have if the work is being developed by a third party?.In this article, the author seeks to answer the questions raised exposing what effects has, in the reality, an award that reinstates contractual relations. / ¿Un laudo arbitral que restituye un contrato de ejecución de obra inválidamente resuelto tiene efectos si la obra ya se culminó? Y ¿qué efectos tiene el laudo si la obra está siendo continuada por un tercero?.En el presente artículo, el autor busca responder a las cuestiones planteadas exponiendo qué efectos tiene, en la realidad, un laudo que restituye relaciones contractuales.

Este trabajo tiene como objeto la novela Frente a un hombre armado (Cacerías de 1848) del escritor chileno Mauricio Wacquez, publicada en el año 1981 en España, e intenta desarrollar la hipótesis de que en se desarrollan temáticas y procedimientos que se corresponden con la teoría del Neobarroco latinoamericano.

A Constituição Brasileira traz que as escolas públicas de ensino fundamental devem prever o Ensino Religioso (ER) como componente curricular, mas cuida também de que a matrícula na disciplina se dê de forma facultativa. A oferta do ER não tem um entendimento uníssono. Para alguns a obrigatoriedade do Ensino Religioso nas escolas públicas e a utilização de professores de qualquer pertença religiosa é inconveniente e transforma o espaço escolar público em um mero espaço de catequese e proselitismo religioso, utilizado por católicos ou por qualquer outra confissão considerada influente. E a consequência da obrigatoriedade é um prejuízo aos alunos de visão ateísta, agnóstica ou de qualquer outra denominação religiosa com menor poder na esfera sócio-política e ao princípio constitucional da laicidade. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os possíveis efeitos jurídicos do julgamento da constitucionalidade do Ensino Religioso nas escolas públicas brasileiras por parte do Supremo Tribunal Federal e diante da controvérsia da temática estudaremos do nascedouro até os dias atuais, verificando se o modelo aplicado no Brasil tem ou não o condão de doutrinar, catequisar ou servir como forma de dominação, ou se o ensino é oferecimento com base nos princípios da ética e da moral, que podem e devem estar constantes em todas e quaisquer religiões, no respeito ao direito legítimo do indivíduo a ter acesso ao ensino do religioso e da ética. / The Brazilian Constitution says that Religious Education (RE) should be a curricular component in the public basic education schools, but it also points out that the enrollment should be optional. The offering of RE is not understood in a unified way. To some, the obligation to offer RE in public schools and the fact that professors of any religious background can teach this discipline is inconvenient and transforms the public school space into a mere space of religious catechism and proselytism, used by Catholics or by any influential religious confession. And the consequence of it being mandatory is a loss for students with atheist, agnostic perspectives or perspectives of any religious denomination with less power in the social-political sphere, and to the constitutional principle of secularism. The present paper has the objective of analyzing the possible legal effects of the judgement of the constitutionality of Religious Education in Brazilian public schools by the Federal Supreme Court, and facing the controversy of the theme, we will study [Religious Education] from its beginning until today, verifying if the way it is implemented in Brazil has or does not have the power to indoctrinate, catechise or serve as a form of domination, or if the teaching is given based on ethical and moral principles, that can and should be part of all and any religion, in respect to the legitimate right of the individual to have access to the teaching of religion and of ethics.