The topic of this essay is how countries can successfully democratize in different ways. The aim is to demonstrate how two vastly different countries as Chile and Mozambique were capable of democratizing through what at first glance looks like dissimilar ways, while at the same time trying the robustness of a known democratization theory. In this case study, I use a combination of qualitative, historical and process-tracing methods to get an in-depth understanding as I compare my two cases and measure them against Larry Diamond's theory. His theory is based upon internal- and external factors that play essential parts in democratization. My overall inference is that Chile meets essentially all theoretical expectations while Mozambique barely has more than half of the examined theoretical factors with at least somewhat favorable conditions. I also discovered that they share at least one important factor where they have plenty in common, democracy assistance. In addition to this, I also gained a new insight. Diamond's theory doesn't account for whether a country has a previous history of democracy. This appears to have played at least a significant part in many of his theoretical factors, and it's absolutely something that should be considered for the future. / <p>2022-05-25</p>

CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of Political Studies Department of Geopolitical Studies Master's Thesis Wagner Group and Opportunism in Russian Foreign Policy: Case Studies of the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, and Mozambique Abstract This research paper concerns Russian foreign policy and the tools it uses to accomplish its objectives. More specifically, the research is focused on the secretive private military company (PMC) Wagner Group. Wagner Group has been deployed around the globe to further the interests of Russia and is a key tool in Russia's opportunistic foreign policy. This paper seeks to answer the research question: At what point does the risk for Russia become too high to maintain the deployment of Wagner Group in a foreign country? Answering this research question will help academics and policymakers further understand the use of Wagner Group by the Russian government. Wagner Group is meant to be low risk to Russia. Previous research is sparse and often covers many deployments of Wagner Group. In contrast, this paper focuses on three case studies that allow for a more in- depth approach - Wagner Group in the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, and Mozambique. Using qualitative analysis this paper discerned that in its use of Wagner Group, Russia will...

This paper explores specific sites of leisure-swimming pools, movie theatres, hotels, and cafés that were built at the height of colonial tourist aspirations in Beira, Mozambique (1950s-1970s) and that were formally reserved for colonial elites, specifically in this case, Portuguese citizens, British Rhodesian sugar plantation managers who were stationed in Beira at the time, and visiting (white) tourists, and their families. What do these infrastructures tell us about colonial urban planning, including sites of leisure and their histories of racialized restrictions? What can they say about tourism in a (Portuguese) colonial city that was once the centre of the East African corridor and an access point to the ocean for neighbouring (British) Malawi and Rhodesia? That these same swimming pools, theatres, hotels, and cafés are very much in use today by a very different set of inhabitants says something about this „reluctant city“ (Forjaz 2007, 2) in the making. Through my ethnographic observations and impressions during two visits to the city in April 2009 and February 2016 I will attempt to think productively with „ruins of empire“ (Stoler 2008) in order to chart a set of ruminations on acts of renovation in present day Beira. These ruminations are intended to show a complex city in its daily habitus by way of relationships (both of materiality and affect) between people and certain build environments. My focus suggests that these particular sites (and by way of their features such as colours, tiles, fixtures) afford a window onto Beira‘s condition of postcoloniality (as well, the simultaneity of its conditions of colonialism, socialism and war) through the creative ability of its African inhabitants to take specific urban infrastructures left behind by its Portuguese colonial possessors in the wake of Mozambique‘s rapid decolonization in 1975, and adapt them to their own strategic and innovative purposes.

Mozambique is a developing country specifically targeted by the impacts and consequencesthat are caused by climate change. This is due to the inconvenient geographical location interms of climate change but also due to their economical and infrastructural disadvantagewhich makes the countries populations more prone to suffer from the consequences in amanner that makes adapting and coping with the circumstances significantly difficult. At the same time Mozambique has high rates of gender inequality, which impacts women inthe country who live in poverty, in unfavourable forms in everyday life.These two topics are investigated throughout the thesis, from both a broader and closerperspective. The idea with this research is to come closer to cover the research gap that isconcerned with how women in Mozambique who are already targets of gender inequality inthe country suffer from the hard impacts of climate change and how the two issues may relateor influence each other. The research is performed as a qualitative study with the ecofeminist theoretical approach asa lens on the investigation, and the findings were obtained through the text-analysis method.The findings of the research present evidence on how climate change affects Mozambiqueand its society as well as the gender inequality circumstances women live in the samecountry. From empirical studies the findings chapter provides a perspective that helps betterexplain and understand how women's vulnerable position in society along with theirexpected responsibilities due to cultural norms sets them in a directly exposed climatechange-affected position. The research culminates with a response to the research gapsuggesting that the relation between climate change and gender inequality in Mozambiquehas an unbalanced impact on women, where the gender roles forced upon women in thecountry set a targeted situation for them by climate change resulting in a double-burdencircumstance for women.

Background: Cities worldwide are growing fast, and so is solid waste production, which calls for different stakeholders to come together and find creative ways to deal with urban growth and waste. This study explores how Augmented Reality (AR) could enhance public participation in public spaces and deal with solid wastein Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo. The study draws on material semiotics, detournement theorists and study participants’ views gathered through a questionnaire on urban public spaces in the city to make a case for AR technologies to enhance public engagement. Methodology: The study received responses from 57 participants (n=57). Inspired by theparticipants’ answers, Detournement theory, and AR activism, an AR experience called the Trash Snail to symbolise the slowness of the municipalityin gathering solid waste and properly managing it and the waste’s agency in shaping life in public spaces was created. Results: Three participants placed and experienced the Trash Snail in public spaceswith poorly managed solid waste. They also responded to two surveys, one before the experience with AR and the other after experiencing AR. The results were screenshots depicting the Trash Snail co-habitating with waste from human consumption and modes of living in contemporary Maputo and residents’ opinions about public spaces in Maputo. Conclusions: Drawing on those materials, Detournement theory and AR activism, the study concluded that AR, rather than just relaying computer-generated graphics information onto the real world, is best understood as an agent that shapes the users’ relations with it. AR has the potential to enhance public engagement in public spaces and in dealing with solid waste issues in Maputo. However, structural challenges related to the digital divide and financial shortcomings are limiting factors that one needs to consider when employing AR in Maputo and similar contexts. On a more extrapolative note, the study argues waste in public spaces needs to be seen as more than an administrative and technical problem, but one that is deeply embedded in lifestyles and accelerated consumption.

Gender-based violence has been widely used by various actors against the most vulnerable individuals in conflict-affected settings. Internally displaced girls and women are especially susceptible to suffer from this type of violence; nevertheless, they frequently choose not to report it. The present research identifies and analyses the reasons for the under-reporting of gender-based violence occurrences against the above-mentioned individuals in northern Mozambique, namely, the province of Cabo Delgado. In the first phase of primary data collection, the researcher conducted two focus group discussions to obtain a transparent understanding of the community members’ interpretations, including internally displaced people. In a second phase, seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with community agents, activists, service providers, international and non-governmental organizations representatives, and political and religious figures. Subsequently, the findings were evaluated through an altered version of the ecological model (What Works to Prevent Violence, 2018). The results revealed that under-reporting of gender-based violence cases is caused by the following reasons: victim’s fear; social stigma; fear of retaliation; lack of information about gender-based violence and respective materialization; culture-blaming; distorted interpretations of female and male identities; the perpetrators’ influence within the community; lack of preparedness of officials working formal institutions, including hospitals, to refer victims to judicial bodies; women empowerment as a secondary subject within decision-making bodies; prevalence and importance of informal institutions and respective decisions; lack of official supervision on informal institutions; grassroots’ lack of knowledge on the creation or amendment of laws; male majority in security forces, including police stations and military; abuse of authority; lack of training of security forces concerning gender-based violence and respective long-term implications; absence of a standardized reporting process; and morosity of the trial. Therefore, this research points out that under-reporting of gender-based violence must be evaluated from a variety of cultural, social, and political perspectives.

The main purpose of the study is to identify household characteristics which can 1) distinguish between the chronic poor and transient poor and 2) be feasibly implemented as targeting criterion in poverty interventions. Data for this study was drawn from Mozambique's 2008/09 Household Budget Survey and consisted of 10,832 observations. This study fills a gap in the literature by structurally determining the impact of common shocks (drought, floods and cyclones, agricultural pests, illness, death, and theft) on 1) food expenditures at the household level and 2) poverty rates at the national level. The results of the study indicate that shocks are one of the key determinants of household food expenditures. The expected impact of shocks in aggregate increases the national poverty rate by 9%. However, the impact of specific shocks on household food expenditures varies across regions and households. Further, the variables which are strongly correlated with chronic poverty differ from the variables strongly correlated with transient poverty. These results suggest the need to both more rapidly identify and enroll households exposed to shocks in short-term social protection programs and continue to improve methods targeting the chronic poor in long-term programs. / Master of Science

Text in English / Undergraduate students at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) experience great difficulty in developing their translation competence during their training period. On the one hand, they show many signs of poor quality during their training when they accomplish practical translation assignments on and off-campus. On the other hand, the quality of the final work submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor Honours Degree (Licenciatura) suggests that most students fail to go beyond the minimum standards with regard to translation competence. Yet, comprehensive research aimed at understanding factors hindering translation competence at the UEM has been scanty. Besides, the few studies available have some significant lacunae, for they focus on Portuguese language development; are limited to error analysis, and often ignore students‟ perspectives. Consequently, the problem of finding a balanced approach to developing students‟ translation competence has remained unaddressed. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the purpose of investigating the translation competence of the UEM undergraduates in order to establish the major obstacles to their translation competence development, and consequently come up with suggestions for improving the current translator-training degree programme. The study design uses qualitative methods translated into a case study approach. First, questionnaire data is analysed to gain lecturers‟ and students‟ perspectives on translation competence at the UEM. Second, a students‟ error typology is developed following a macro- and micro-textual analysis of their translations. The study concludes that substandard bilingual skills, compounded by curricular, attitudinal/motivational, pedagogical and infrastructural/instrumental factors, negatively impact the students‟ development of translation competence at the UEM and that addressing these may pave the way towards improving the current translation-training programme. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

The study sought to explore possibilities of harmonising Shona-Nyai cross-border varieties in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Emerging from the responses were problems of attitudes, ignorance of what the harmonisation project entails and the different levels of development among the varieties to be harmonised. Participants believed that the challenges they faced could be resolved and they proposed some intervention strategies. Results from the questionnaire, the interview and documents analysed affirmed the generally held view that, the future of Shona-Nyai as a language and culture is securely in the hands of the speakers’ initiatives. The argument of the study has been that, the success of such a harmonisation project depends on the presence of favourable and conducive political and economic conditions through enabling language engineering activities. Information collected from the questionnaires was mainly presented in tables and information from interviews and document analysis was presented qualitatively in words. The language as a right and the language as resource orientations of language planning guided this study. The intention was to show that the preservation of linguistic diversity is important in the maintenance of group and individual identity and harmonisation should further this cause. Findings from this thesis indicate that for a successful harmonisation project to take place there is need for research in the documentation of underdeveloped Shona-Nyai varieties so that they have some presence in the education domain. The study recommends that people’s mindsets must be changed by packaging the harmonisation project in a way which they understand and appreciate. A holistic approach in solving the language problem can be achieved through a mixed approach of language policy formulation. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African languages)

Text in English / Undergraduate students at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) experience great difficulty in developing their translation competence during their training period. On the one hand, they show many signs of poor quality during their training when they accomplish practical translation assignments on and off-campus. On the other hand, the quality of the final work submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor Honours Degree (Licenciatura) suggests that most students fail to go beyond the minimum standards with regard to translation competence. Yet, comprehensive research aimed at understanding factors hindering translation competence at the UEM has been scanty. Besides, the few studies available have some significant lacunae, for they focus on Portuguese language development; are limited to error analysis, and often ignore students‟ perspectives. Consequently, the problem of finding a balanced approach to developing students‟ translation competence has remained unaddressed. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the purpose of investigating the translation competence of the UEM undergraduates in order to establish the major obstacles to their translation competence development, and consequently come up with suggestions for improving the current translator-training degree programme. The study design uses qualitative methods translated into a case study approach. First, questionnaire data is analysed to gain lecturers‟ and students‟ perspectives on translation competence at the UEM. Second, a students‟ error typology is developed following a macro- and micro-textual analysis of their translations. The study concludes that substandard bilingual skills, compounded by curricular, attitudinal/motivational, pedagogical and infrastructural/instrumental factors, negatively impact the students‟ development of translation competence at the UEM and that addressing these may pave the way towards improving the current translation-training programme. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Linguistics)