In the face of increased uncertainty and a slow economic recovery, it is crucial to protect populations from the effects of systemic crises beyond the narrow goal of poverty reduction. In Ecuador,... Show moreIn the face of increased uncertainty and a slow economic recovery, it is crucial to protect populations from the effects of systemic crises beyond the narrow goal of poverty reduction. In Ecuador, social assistance programs had little effect in reducing earnings losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a renewed discussion on the implementation of a universal basic income (UBI). This study evaluates the potential impact of social assistance reforms using tax-benefit microsimulation techniques. Four simulated counterfactual reforms are assessed, ranging from an extension of current social assistance programs to the implementation of UBI, which would replace existing programs and be partially funded through progressive personal income tax and social security contributions. Our findings demonstrate that poverty and inequality would decrease significantly under the more generous UBI scenarios. This research contributes to the ongoing debate on the potential benefits of UBI in reducing poverty and inequality and emphasizes the importance of considering alternative social assistance reforms in the face of growing systemic challenges. Show less
The departure of most Greeks from Egypt at the beginning of the 1960s raised questions in the community about how it should readjust its presence at an institutional level. This article examines... Show moreThe departure of most Greeks from Egypt at the beginning of the 1960s raised questions in the community about how it should readjust its presence at an institutional level. This article examines how the Greek Koinotēta of Alexandria (GKA) operated as both a local and diasporic institution in periods of contraction, in terms of size and finances, and analyzes the adjustment policies it undertook concerning its institutional property and real estate. Despite the community’s demographic shrinkage in the 1960s and 1970s, the GKA was assigned its role as the value keeper and moral guide for the children of the community through its educational institutions and orphanages, having the support of the Greek representatives, in this case the consular authorities.Even though the GKA faced serious financial difficulties in the 1960s, it strived to find strategies of adaptation to maintain its agency and social, political and economic capital. Show less
The increase of African per capita growth figures led international organisations, the media and pundits to proclaim that the rise of Africa is inevitable, as the result of novel policies and an... Show moreThe increase of African per capita growth figures led international organisations, the media and pundits to proclaim that the rise of Africa is inevitable, as the result of novel policies and an improved environment in the continent. Ian Taylor, in his article ‘Is Africa rising?’, is questioning the arguments on which this narrative is based. The present piece seeks to discuss the main contributions of Taylor’s article and show how it has influenced debates on the topic. Show less
There is no or desperately little reliable early evidence to support the historicity of the grand pre-Buddhist Bon Zhang zhung Empire of later Bon po sources and their western aficionados.... Show moreThere is no or desperately little reliable early evidence to support the historicity of the grand pre-Buddhist Bon Zhang zhung Empire of later Bon po sources and their western aficionados. Imagination is nonetheless plentiful. In the PIATS 2016, I discuss the oldest historical textual sources relevant to a heartland of Bon, which is variously conceptualised as Zhang zhung, Ta zig and 'Ol mo lung ring, with special reference to a central stronghold and main seat of power in Zhang zhung: the so-called Silver Castle of Garuḍa Valley or Khyung lung Dngul dNgul mkhar. If one carefully examines the genealogy of knowledge and the history of invention of that grand Zhang zhung Bon Empire and its legendary Khyung lung castle, one cannot help but notice that our ideas about them derive from surprisingly late discourse, which postdates any relevant historical and geographical realities by a long stretch. The later Bon Zhang zhung literary construct is to be distinguished clearly from a probably historical and probably also small principality by the name of Zhang zhung, that is located west of Central Tibet, roughly centred on the Kailash area and that seems to have had a northern extension as well. But, interestingly, that historical Zhang zhung in its descriptions carries no significant Bon po associations and in time also significantly precedes Bon traditions as we know them now. ... In the following, we will examine the earliest evidence for a {\textquoteleft}location{\textquoteright} of the origin of Bon, or at least for the origin of its narratives. We find those in non-Buddhist ritualistic narratives of the Dunhuang period. For an overview and analysis of Dunhuang historical narratives, I refer to PIATS 2006 (but see also Macdonald 1971). The analysis of ritualistic narratives is significantly more involved than that of historical sources. It requires fragile attempts at connecting clusters of narrative elements that in Dunhuang sources appear loosely assembled around important names and locations to the earliest, self-consciously Bon sources, such as the mDo {\textquoteleft}dus, the Klu {\textquoteleft}bum and other sources, with special attention to those names and locations, of course, that are already familiar from later strata of emerging Bon. The latter begin to emerge in around the 10th–11th century AD and thus may be closely contiguous with the redaction of Dunhuang materials. The nature of the rituals cannot be elucidated here, for reasons of space. Show less
While cash transfers gain prominence as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a strong impulse to regard them as a stepping-stone towards the formalization of employment and... Show moreWhile cash transfers gain prominence as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a strong impulse to regard them as a stepping-stone towards the formalization of employment and universalization of social protection. This contribution problematizes how populations in informality are included in narrowly targeted social assistance interventions, which are heavily reliant on targeted schemes and fail to make informality legible to programme administrators. The focus of the article lies in the politics of exclusion and inclusion that permeate digital infrastructures, particularly data infrastructures such as social registries, that are used to target Ecuador's most prominent social assistance programme, Bono de Desarrollo Humano, and the COVID-related programme Bono de Proteccion Familiar. The article is based on ethnographic work, interviews and narrative analysis. It finds that social registries compiled for proxy means testing weaken the link between eligibility and informal employment and obscure the processes that perpetuate precarity. More recent data innovations, such as machine learning, are also insufficient to locate vulnerable workers as they learn from historical social registries data and replicate their biases, for example by overlooking non-poor areas where informal employment also occurs. Data infrastructures have shifted attention to the technicalities of the selection of beneficiaries and away from power imbalances in the design of social assistance, despite their selectivity and politics. Show less
Conditional cash transfers have become the tool of choice in poverty reduction throughout the global South, granting women significant access to social protection. Yet, their inclusion has not... Show moreConditional cash transfers have become the tool of choice in poverty reduction throughout the global South, granting women significant access to social protection. Yet, their inclusion has not necessarily resulted in more equal gender outcomes in employment. This paper addresses the question: to what extent has targeted social protection supported women in creating a more level playing field in the labour market? Two cities in the south of Ecuador form the context of new empirical evidence gathered to study the Bono de Desarrollo Humano programme (Ecuador) used to explore narratives of dependence associated to the provision of conditional cash transfers in a context marked by deep-rooted gender inequalities. The paper argues that the essentialist views of women’s capacities that underpin conditional cash transfer hinder their intended transformative impact, failing to introduce changes that would otherwise permit women to take full-time secure employment or move towards guaranteeing their social rights. Show less
The conditional cash transfer programme Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador has allowed the increase in coverage of the social protection system to families in a situation of poverty, drawing... Show moreThe conditional cash transfer programme Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador has allowed the increase in coverage of the social protection system to families in a situation of poverty, drawing attention to care activities for human capital for- mation. Although women have gained more visibility and have been included in a significant way under this scheme, their inclusion has not resulted in a ruptu- re of traditional gender roles in the household and society. In what ways can we re-imagine non-contributory social protection to reduce gender gaps and include women in a meaningful and transformative way? This article addresses this question by means of an institutional discussion of the hindrances of the current de- sign and invites a consideration of alternatives aimed at framing a new politics of distribution guided by a right-based rationale and rupture of the normative elements that confine women to the care of the household.El programa de transferencias monetarias condicionadas Bono de Desarrollo Humano en Ecuador ha permitido extender la cobertura del sistema de protec- ción social a familias en situación de pobreza, dando relevancia a las labores de cuidado en la construcción de capital humano. A pesar de que las mujeres han ganado mayor visibilidad y han sido incluidas de manera significativa bajo es- te esquema, su inserción no ha generado rupturas con asignaciones tradiciona- les de género dentro del hogar y la sociedad. ¿De qué manera puede reimaginar- se la protección social no contributiva para reducir las brechas de género e incluir de manera significativa y transformativa a las mujeres? El presente artículo abor- da esta pregunta con una discusión institucional de los limitantes del diseño ac- tual e invita a evaluar alternativas encaminadas hacia una nueva política de distri- bución guiada por una lógica de derechos y ruptura con los elementos normativos que relegan a la mujer al cuidado del hogar. Show less