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Forskerprosjekt

Over hele Europa er det tydelig at dagens jordbrukspraksis ikke lenger er bærekraftig, og at jordbrukssystemene må endres for å opprettholde matproduksjonen og samtidig ivareta det biologiske mangfoldet, økosystemene og de mange fordelene de gir samfunnet.

En løsning på dette er agroøkologi. Agroøkologisk jordbruk har til felles å utnytte naturlige økologiske prosesser for å gjøre jordbruk mer bærekraftig. Dessverre, til tross for mye forskning på agroøkologisk jordbrukspraksis, er bruken av dette svært begrenset i Europa.

I SAFER-prosjektet vil et stort team av europeiske forskere jobbe på tvers av et nettverk med seks 'levende laboratorier', det vil si at gårder i drift på tvers av Europa vil iverksette agroøkologisk praksis. Ved samarbeid på de involverte gårdene, vil bønder, forskere og andre interessenter sammen bidra til økt kunnskap om agroøkologi. Det vil gi mer kunnskap om de landbruksmessige, miljømessige og sosialøkologiske fordelene, samt de mulige avveiningene mellom ulike fordeler.  

Teamet fra Universitetet i Bergen, ledet av prof. Peter Manning, vil være en viktig bidragsyter i prosjektet. De skal oppskalere data fra prosjektet på felt- og gårdsnivå til hele landskap, og simulere endringer i gårdspraksis ved å bruke en kombinasjon av samfunnsvitenskap, fjernmåling og matematisk modellering. Dette vil gi prognoser for hvordan konsekvenser av landsbruksstrategier på landskapsnivå påvirker hele systemet, fra bønder til lokale interessenter. 

Sluttproduktet vil være detaljert kunnskap om hvordan ulike økologiske praksiser påvirker bønder, bygdesamfunn og om hvilke strategier som øker bærekraftig produksjon og flerfunksjonalitet i europeiske jordbrukslandskap. Ved aktiv involvering av bønder og andre interessenter gjennom hele forskningsprosessen, tar vi også sikte på å øke relevansen og bruken av de identifiserte løsningene.

Agroecology offers an opportunity to reconcile agricultural production with human well-being across Europe. However, despite significant evidence that agroecological farming reduces the environmental footprint of agriculture, agroecology is struggling to expand across Europe. This limited adoption emerges from a limited understanding of the cross-disciplinary impacts (agronomic, ecological, economic and social dimensions) of upscaling agroecological farming and recent social unrest following the deployment of agroecological policies indicates that there is an urgent need to address this issue. In addition, a major challenge for agroecology is that no single agroecological practice is suitable for all contexts. Instead, practices need to be targeted and adapted to local socio-ecological contexts, with a strong involvement of stakeholders. Addressing such challenge implies a paradigm shift towards co-design in research and innovation in agroecology.

SAFER will address these challenges by mobilizing a European network of 6 Living Labs distributed across contrasting regions and social-ecological systems, in a multidisciplinary approach. We will: (i) co-design best suited agroecological practices adapted to local social-ecological conditions via a participatory approach that actively involves stakeholders; (ii) quantify the multiple agronomical, environmental and socio-economic benefits and risks of scaling up these agroecological practices from the field to the landscape scale using a similar landscape-scale design across Living Labs; (iii) forecast the whole-system consequences of landscape-scale strategies for farmers and local stakeholders; (iv) identify how local policies, stakeholder demands and the Living Lab methodology can enhance or limit the expansion of agroecological practices

Work at UiB will concentrate on modelling work in (ii) and (iii) but will contribute to all aspects.

AGROECOL 1 SAFER Strengthening Agricultural landscape multiFunctionality through expansion of agroecological farming in EuRope (SAFER)

Chemosensation is a critical signalling process for sea cucumbers which relies on the interaction between their chemosensory receptors and various ligands for foraging and reproduction. Although there is a vast amount of research on the chemistry of secreted specialized metabolites of sea cucumbers, and some behavioural data evidencing chemoreception of these metabolites, the chemosensory receptors of these organisms have not yet been identified and nothing is known about the physiology behind sea cucumber chemosensation. This setback is in large part because the scientific approach behind studying chemosensation requires a vast array of techniques and expertise in ethology, chemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics.  Firstly, a behaviour associated with a chemical cue must be quantifiable, secondly, the precise chemical cue eliciting the behaviour response must be identified and isolated, thirdly, the chemosensory receptor of this specific cue needs to be identified on a tissue, cellular, and molecular level, and finally, the activation of this specific receptor by a specific chemical cue must elicit a measurable response on a molecular, cellular, tissue, and organismal level. Through this project, I will elucidate the physiology of chemical communication between sea cucumber by considering these sequential steps in chemosensation. With my previous experience in sea cucumber ethology and chemistry, SensHolo will enrich my skill base in molecular biology and biophysics so that the mechanisms behind intraspecific chemical communication between sea cucumbers may be determined from both the emitter and receiver perspective; from signal to receptor.  This holistic approach will be ground-breaking in chemosensation and sea cucumber research. It will enable future research to address the evolution of chemosensation in marine invertebrates and the chemical ecology of sea cucumbers both in the context of optimizing aquaculture and in their ecological conservation.

Chemosensation in Holothruoids

Multidisciplinary Assessment of Crustacean Sentience

Crustacean sentience (the capacity of this group to experience emotions) has sparked a heated debate across multiple disciplines, particularly as it could impact several major sectors such as fisheries and aquaculture. The outdated argument that animals do not experience negative emotions (such as pain) because they lack conscience, has been proven wrong for vertebrates and some invertebrates (e.g. octopus), but remains controversial for crustaceans. There is evidence of criteria consistent with the idea of pain, as crustaceans have and activate nociceptive pathways, but there is no evidence of the neural pathways integrating the responses nor the demonstration of the awareness thereafter. This is partly due to the ‘dispersed’  central nervous system (CNS) these animals present, with multiple ganglia, but no ‘brain’ as a focal point. To overcome this, MACS aims to apply new technology to measure 9 simultaneous nerve signals (8 ganglia and the heart) to fully understand the nociceptive pathways and how are they integrated in crustaceans’ CNS. This approach will tackle the principle of triangulation by (1) The development of an electroencephalogram (EEG) to record the nervous system of commercially important crustacean species; (2) the characterization of pain and stress through physiological and molecular animal-based indicators; and (3) the evaluation of behaviour and its neurological integration pathway.  As such, this multidisciplinary study will only be possible through a combination of my crustacean stress physiology background, my supervisor’s knowledge of the central nervous system anatomy, and my second supervisor's expertise in aquatic species' EEG. The outcome of this fellowship will range from CNS studies to validate current industrial practices (during a non-academic placement), to socio-economic impacts involving the society's concern for animal welfare. The knowledge and skills gained from this project will allow me to become an independent researcher.

Tørre øyne er en multifaktoriell betennelsessykdom karakterisert av en ustabil tårefilm, som oftest grunnet nedsatt kvalitet av tårefilmens ytre fettlag produsert av modifiserte talgkjertler i øyelokkene. Grunnet de mange underliggende årsakene til tørre øyne blir mange forskjellige behandlinger og behandlingskombinasjoner ofte brukt. Dette kan være både økonomisk krevende og slitsomt for pasienten. Dette prosjektet tar sikte på å strømlinjeforme, optimalisere og individualisere behandlingstilbudet til forskjellige undergrupper av tørre øyne basert på maskinlæring og prediksjonsmodeller.

Dry eye disease is a multifactorial disease characterized by inflammation, decreased tear production and/or tear film instability due to dysfunction of the lipid producing glands of the eyelids. As a result, a multimodal treatment approach is often initiated, addressing several pathological clinical signs and modifiable risk factors concomitantly. This is often time consuming, financially expensive and exhausting for the patient. Interpreting signs and symptoms of dry eye disease and making accurate predictions as to which patient will respond which treatment or combination of treatments difficult. With the current project we aim to improve clinical decision making by:
1. Through machine learning and prediction models delineate which group of patients are most likely to benefit from either IPL or cyclosporine in monotherapy, and which patients are most likely to require dual therapy.   	
2. Construct prediction model protocols to streamline and individualize IPL protocols based on prognostic factors and prediction analysis of treatment outcomes. This is especially applicable in relation to demodex eradication, as demodicosis remains fairly treatment refractory to date and is readily involved in the pathophysiology of MGD. Thus, it is of utmost interest to streamline the current treatment options and, hopefully, contribute to an expanded repertoire of efficacious eradication methods in the future. 
3. Contribute to the lack of standardized treatment regimes, recommendations and guidelines concerning IPL treatment. Evaluate the optimum number of treatments and treatment intervals as well as the need for concomitant heat mask and eyelid massage.

Clinical predictors of treatment response in dry eye disease

Antimikrobiell resistens (AMR) er en alvorlig trussel mot folkehelsa som er spådd å bli verre i fremtiden. En av de vanligste metodene som bakterier bruker for å kunne stå imot antibiotika, er å skaffe resistensgener. Disse sitter ofte på noen DNA-deler som heter plasmider. Plasmider som bærer resistensgener er vanligere i kliniske miljøer enn samfunnet ellers, og det å forstå hvorfor vi har denne forskjellen er svært viktig for å forstå hvordan resistente bakterier sprer seg. Men plasmider utvikler seg raskt, og kan spre seg mellom forskjellige bakteriestammer. Derfor er det vanskelig for oss å klassifisere og overvåke dem. I PEAK skal vi benytte oss av nye sekvenseringsteknologier og utvikle nye metoder for å forske på hvordan plasmider utvikler seg og sprer seg, med fokus på den viktige sykdomsfremkallende bakterien Klebsiella pneumoniae. Vi skal utvikle nye metoder for å klassifisere plasmider og analysere de genetiske forskjellene mellom plasmidgrupper. Deretter skal vi bruke disse plasmidgruppene til å forske på hvordan plasmider sprer seg mellom forskjellige miljøer og typer Klebsiella. Så skal vi utføre detaljerte analyser av de genetiske endringene som driver utviklingen av plasmider. Målet er å bruke de nye metodene og kunnskapen til å forbedre overvåkning, både av AMR Klebsiella pneumoniae og andre bakteriestammer.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat to human health which is predicted to increase in the future. One of the most common ways that bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics is by acquiring AMR genes; these are often carried on small pieces of DNA called plasmids. Understanding the mechanisms and conditions that promote AMR dissemination via plasmids is critical, but several knowledge gaps remain. AMR is unevenly distributed among environments, whilst the highest levels of AMR are typically found in clinical environments, the risk of AMR acquisition from environmental and animal settings remains less clear. Plasmids are important vectors for the transmission of AMR between environments, but plasmid evolution is complex, and lack of appropriate data and methods has to date largely precluded high-resolution study and surveillance of plasmids in most major pathogens.

In PEAK, we will use two newly generated long-read sequencing datasets to study the evolution and transmission of plasmids and AMR genes in Klebsiella. By combining the datasets, consisting of 1594 isolates from diverse one-health sources, we will establish a unique collection of hybrid assemblies, including thousands of complete plasmids. Next, we will develop novel methods to quantify the genetic structure and diversity of plasmids. By combining this information with genetic variation in the isolate chromosomes and metadata, we will then perform phylogenetic and association analyses to disentangle AMR distributions among environments. This will enable us to identify high-risk environments for AMR transmission, followed by detailed evolutionary analyses to gain insight into the tempo and mode of plasmid evolution, and how chromosomes coevolve with plasmids.

The overarching aims of PEAK are to uncover the drivers and mechanisms of the acquisition and maintenance of AMR, with the ultimate goal of enabling use of this knowledge to design interventions to combat the spread of AMR in the future.

PEAK: Plasmid Evolution and Antimicrobial resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Verifying the therapeutic potential of newly discovered siRNA drug candidates for treating acute leukemia.

Doktorgradsprosjektet dreier seg om å utvikle neste generasjon autonome borerigg. Denne maskinen opererer i tunneler og gruver globalt, og brukes til å bore hull i en "drill and blast" operasjon når tunnelen eller gruven drives videre innover i fjellet.

Boreriggen har 3 armer, som alle har hvert sitt bor. Disse kan kjøres på samme tid til forskjellige borehull. Det vil bli utviklet et system som kjører bommene automatisk til de ønskede borehull uten å kollidere med hverandre. Dette vil senke tidsbruken for operasjonen. Systemet vil også estimere riggens oppstilling relativt til tunnelen. Ønskede borehull, som defineres i en boreplan, vil sees i sammenheng med riggens oppstilling, for å sikre at de faktiske hullene som bores er i henhold til plan. 

Prosjektet vil danne et godt grunnlag for at maskinen får selvkjørende egenskaper, som bidrar til økt effektivitet og en sikrere hverdag for operatørene.

Hensikten med prosjektet er å utvikle neste generasjon autonome borerigg. Maskinen vil muliggjøre en mer effektiv, sikker og miljøvennlig boreoperasjon.

Autonom borerigg

Prosjektets hovedmål er å forbedre kunnskapsgrunnlaget rundt ledelsesutvikling innen styrkebasert prosessledelse, samt om og hvordan dette kan hjelpe aktører til å samarbeide bedre for å løse de små og store utfordringene samfunn står ovenfor i tiden fremover.

Prosessledelse kan defineres som ferdigheter i å lede mennesker gjennom prosesser mot felles mål på en måte som fremmer deltakelse, eierskap og kreativitet fra alle involverte. Styrkebasert vil si at man har tatt inspirasjon fra positiv psykologi i ledelsesutviklingen, fokuserer på hva som allerede fungerer og personlige styrker - der personlige styrker vil si noe en person har potensial til å bli god i, og samtidig får energi av. 
Prosjektet søker å utvikle kunnskapen rundt ledelsesutvikling innen styrkebasert prosessledelse, om det har en målbar effekt på viktige psykologiske og organisatoriske faktorer, samt forutsetninger for mulig effekt. Det at flere og flere ledere, mellomledere, prosjektledere, koordinatorer, rådgivere og andre som utfører ledelse både med og uten personalansvar velger å investere i kompetanse innen styrkebasert prosessledelse gjør det desto mer relevant å lære mer om dette.

Det vil jobbes med å undersøke psykologiske og organisatoriske faktorer i team og organisasjoner til ledere som deltar på ledelsesutvikling - både før og etter. Det planlegges å sammenligne disse med ledere som ikke har fått trening. Prosjektet har tre studier: et som undersøker effekt og forutsetninger på individnivå, et på gruppenivå og et på organisasjonsnivå. Her undersøkes om lederes kompetanseheving fører til for eksempel økt jobbengasjement for teammedlemmene, økt psykologisk trygghet i teamet, eller bedre tverrfaglig samarbeid og resultater for organisasjonen.

Prosjektet forventes å ha direkte virkninger på endringer i kompetanse, atferd og praksis. Endringen i kompetanse kan endre atferd, som igjen kan føre til ny forbedret praksis med hvordan man samarbeider og skaper resultater og løsninger.

Formålet med prosjektet er å bedre hjelpe aktører der ute i det norske arbeidsliv til å samarbeide bedre for å løse de små og store utfordringene samfunnet vårt står ovenfor i tiden fremover. Måten dette prosjektet skal undersøke dette på er ved å utvide og utvikle kunnskapen rundt den potensielle effekten av ledelsesutvikling innen styrkebasert prosessledelse, samt hva som er forutsetningene for når dette eventuelt har en positiv effekt. 
Prosessledelse kan defineres som ferdigheter i å lede mennesker gjennom prosesser mot felles mål på en måte som fremmer deltakelse, eierskap og kreativitet fra alle involverte. Styrkebasert vil si at man har tatt inspirasjon fra positiv psykologi i ledelsesutviklingen, fokuserer på hva som allerede fungerer og personlige styrker. Personlige styrker vil si noe en person har potensial til å bli god i, og samtidig får energi av.
Dette er relevant i det norske samfunnet i dag både på grunn av de store utfordringene det norske samfunnet står ovenfor i tiden fremover. Det at flere og flere offentlige ledere, mellomledere, prosjektledere, koordinatorer eller andre med ledelse uten personalansvar velger å investere i kompetanse innen styrkebasert prosessledelse/fasilitering gjør det enda viktigere å lære mer om dette.

Ledelsesutvikling innen styrkebasert prosessledelse - potensielle effekter og nytte i norsk arbeidsliv

Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) og Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU) lanserer NorHTE, en ny nasjonal plattform hvor kjemiske eksperimenter kan gjennomføres med høy gjennomstrømming (eng. HTE). HTE bruker avansert robotikk for å automatisere og kontrollere kjemiske eksperimenter og prosesser, noe som muliggjør raskere og mer pålitelig forskning sammenlignet med tradisjonelle manuelle metoder. NorHTE vil være en to-delt fasilitet delt mellom UiB og NTNU. UiB-noden vil tilby fasiliteter for batch-HTE, hvor robotsystemer utfører sekvenser av kjemiske eksperimenter og prosesser på en lignende måte som en menneskelig kjemiker, mens NTNU-noden vil tilby verktøy for flow-HTE, hvor reagenser strømmer gjennom en serie kjemiske moduler. Begge nodene vil tilby omfattende muligheter for sanntidsanalyse og optimalisering av kjemiske reaksjoner, ved bruk av kunstig intelligens for å muliggjøre oppdagelsen av nye molekyler og materialer for elektronikk, katalyse, medisin, diagnostikk, energiteknologi og mange andre anvendelsesområder. Et kjennetegn ved NorHTE er at det tilbyr fasiliteter for kjemisk produksjon i mellomskala, ved bruk av flow-reaktorer for å produsere opptil 1 kg fine kjemikalier per dag.

This application seeks to establish a new national infrastructure platform (NorHTE) that will furnish Norway’s academic and industrial research communities in chemistry and related sciences with state-of-the-art hardware for high-throughput experimentation (HTE) and manufacturing. By offering a fast, automated and quality-assured alternative to error-prone manual methods, NorHTE will accelerate the discovery of new molecules and materials for multiple application areas, including electronics, catalysis, therapeutics, diagnostics and energy generation and conversion.
The proposed infrastructure – the first of its kind in Norway – will comprise four platforms for (i) batch-chemistry, (ii) flow-chemistry, (iii) real-time analysis and optimisation, and (iv) scale-up. By combining automation, chemometrics and machine learning, NorHTE will allow Norwegian scientists to carry out large-scale chemical experiments of far wider scope than is currently feasible, leading to superior products and/or more efficient synthesis routes. The UiB node will consist of two robotic systems for aerobic and anaerobic batch synthesis, and a system for automated purification. The NTNU node will comprise a suite of flow modules for in-line reaction, purification and scale-up. Both nodes will be furnished with extensive in-line instrumentation for reaction monitoring, and will allow for automated feedback-driven searches in which the reaction conditions are repeatedly updated to improve e.g. yield or materials properties. The distinguishing feature of NorHTE which sets it apart from other HTE facilities worldwide is the inclusion of infrastructure for intermediate-scale chemical synthesis up to the 1-kg/day level, providing users with a complete solution that encompasses both chemical discovery and chemical manufacturing.

Norwegian Open Laboratory for High-Throughput Experimentation and Scale-up

I en tid med historisk og fremtidig oppvarming av kloden trenger vi modeller som kan predikere de fremtidige økologiske konsekvensene. For marine system består disse modellene ofte av en global klimamodell knyttet til ulike temperaturdrevne funksjoner som representerer biologiske og fysiologiske effekter. De fleste slike funksjoner er svært generelle og ofte basert på gjennomsnittsverdier på tvers av arter og system. Det er derfor sannsynlig at prediksjonene blir feil for en enkelt art eller region. Dessverre vet vi lite om hvor vanlige slike feil er, ettersom modellene nesten utelukkende brukes til å predikere fremtiden, og så godt som aldri fortiden.
I denne søknaden plukker vi ut sentrale modell-forventninger og skalerer dem ned til det regionale miljøet for ulike fiskebestander i norske farvann. Forventningene testes og analyseres ved hjelp av eksepsjonelt lange tidsserier, fysiologiske eksperiment og mekanistiske modeller for bioenergetikk og livshistorie.
Foreløpige resultater peker mot at flere fiskearter er mer fleksible, både fysiologisk og adferdsmessig, enn generelle modeller klarer å fange opp. Disse og fremtidige prosjektresultater vil bidra til å lage bedre prediksjoner, og forhåpentligvis også utvide forståelsen vår om hvordan temperatur virker og ikke virker på ulike biologiske prosesser.

In the face of global warming, state-of-the-art eco-physiological theories and their implementation in global models make sweeping predictions that high-latitude fish populations are imperilled from unavoidable physical-physiological mechanisms. These are often rooted in reproductive constraints, and at the base we find two main theories: 

1) The theory of thermal tolerance windows, predicting that spawning fish (with narrow tolerance) will encounter unavoidable thermal bottlenecks in a warming ocean. 
2) The theory of temperature-dependent physiological rates, predicting an unfavourable advancement of fish spawning time, causing offspring to fall out of sync with their zooplankton food – known as trophic asynchrony 

These are predictions, often drawn from controlled laboratory experiments, and in turn extrapolated to global models. But just as downscaling to regional specificities and higher resolution was necessary to improve predictive ability of earth system models, so a similar biological downscaling to particular ecosystems and species is required to assess predictions at the scale relevant for population processes and ecosystem dymanics.

In this project we will downscale these predictive theories for two test species - Atlantic cod and herring, among the best documented fish stocks in the world. Our previous publications and preliminary findings suggest that these species have remarkable plasticity in the timing of spawning, often opposite to that dictated by temperature, and in surprising synchrony with each other and with lower trophic levels.

Here, we pick key expectations from the high-profile literature on biological effects of ocean change and attempt to downscale these to local conditions for key high-latitude fish species using particularly long and detailed timeseries of biological data, remote sensing, high-resolution water column processes, individual behavioural observations, and biological models of bioenergetics and life histories.

Regional downscaling of eco-physiological theory. 
Confronting global predictions with local observations.

Midlene fra PESORDNING-PESORDNING fordelt på år

Midlene fra PESORDNING-PESORDNING fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra PESORDNING-PESORDNING fordelt på fagområde

Daglig leder og med-gründer

Midlene vi søker på fra Women TechEU skal investeres i å utforske og forske videre på noen av resultatene fra arbeidet i kvalifiseringsprosjekt RFF.

Arealize application for Women TechEU - 1st Open Call

This project examines why some returning refugees come to destabilize the peace process in their home country.  Despite considerable literature on refugee warriorism in exile, there is no analysis of their role upon return. Likewise, the challenge of rein tegrating refugee warriors does not figure on the policy agenda. In this research project we hypothesize that the post-return role of refugee warriors relates to five types of factors: 1) The nature of peace; 2) State support; 3) Cohesion; 4) Humanitarian  support; 5) Economic opportunities. We  conduct in-depth case studies to examine two phases each of refugee return in Afghanistan and Rwanda, and use this to further refine and operationalize the conceptual framework. Next, we apply systematically compar ative case methodology, analyzing the return narratives from all post-1989 cases where there were militarized refugee settlements.  We interact with quantitative studies on migration and conflict, both for case identification and conceptualization. The pr oject involves world-class scholars on migration and conflict from the USA, UK, Norway, Afghanistan and South Africa. It builds on an established partnership between PRIO and the Chr. Michelsen Institute and ongoing collaboration with the Centre on Migrat ion, Policy and Society at Oxford. The project will produce at least 3 articles for submission to international refereed journals, and a monograph by the project leader to be submitted to a major academic publisher.  In addition, the project will publish popular articles and present its findings to policy-makers.

Going Home to Fight? Explaining Refugee Return and Violence

In this project we question how poverty can be alleviated through ecosystem-based management of natural resources. Alleviating poverty sometimes requires strategies which are inherently in conflict. This is particularly the case in economies based on natu ral resources. As one seeks to reduce poverty one risks aggregating it. For instance, in some fisheries and coastal communities poverty is commonly related to overuse and resource degradation of natural resources. Poverty is both the cause and effect of u nsustainable fisheries and coastal economies. Poor fishing people have no other available alternative than to continue what might be regarded as environmental destruction. For fisheries and coastal management, this involves a dilemma: As one aims to devel op a fishery, one may undermine its very basis. Fisheries development and management must therefore go hand in hand. Poverty alleviation must occur within safe ecological limits, i.e. be sustainable. Otherwise poverty will be sustained if not amplified. W e will study how poor communities in 11 different countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Central America and North America cope in order to maintain sustainable livelihoods through periods of resource crisis, and what conditions are essential to secure resili ence at individual, household and community levels. A particular focus will be on government and civil society institutions for collective action that exist at various scales. This will include their capacity for poverty alleviation, conflict resolution a nd resource stewardship. The project will draw on, and contribute to "sustainable livelihoods theory", "governance theory", "rural development theory", "integrated coastal zone management" and "ecosystem-based management". These theories emphasise socio-c ultural and institutional issues concerning rural development, such as coping strategies, social and ecological resilience, empowerment, social capital and trust.

Unravelling the Vicious Circle: Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Livelihoods in Small-scale Fisheries

Through the development of a series of comparative case studies in present-day Latin America, Africa, Europe and the former Soviet Union we propose to explore the way in which the current concerns for social responsibility in the international oil and gas  industry are transferred into concrete sub and national level development initiatives, as well as the results of these projects on local communities that neighbor and are dependent on the oil and gas industry. Agreement now exists amongst oil companies a nd governments that social responsibility depends on the introduction of strict governmental measures aimed at transparency and anti-corruption, but there remains little concern and knowledge about how best to avoid, or make up for, negative social and en vironmental impacts at the local level. 

We aim to study (ethnographically and qualitatively) the way in which knowledge and technology are transferred and controlled between different levels, how international policy contributes or inhibits the strength ening of transparency and governance of local and national institutions, and the tangible contributions this makes, or fails to make, to the improvement of local conditions of development and poverty reduction.

The project aims to study how the common ex ample of conflict from oil can be avoided, and to further identify and discuss the cases and circumstances where this has been possible. Recognition of the resource curse is not a claim that natural resource abundance is always or inevitably bad for econo mic growth and development. On the contrary, there are powerful historical examples of successful resource-based development in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It might be argued that the country case-studies chosen for this project represent the extremes of success and failure in this sense. The intent of this project is to question and explain the empirical basis of these judgments through qualitative and innovative multi-level field research.

Flammable Societies: The Role of Oil and Gas Industry in the Promotion of Poverty Reduction and Social Volatility

We study motives and explanations for network use in labour transactions in low income countries and the implications for employers, and in particular for the segment of poor unskilled workers. One explanation favoured among economists is that networks ar e vehicles for effective information transmission about vacancies. Alternatively, the high incidence of network use may reflect problems of asymmetric information and incomplete contracts. By engaging in labour transactions, employers and workers expose t hemselves to behavioural risk, and in connection with internal or international migration, these risks intensify. If operating on his own, a migrant may worry that he will not be paid as agreed, or that he may lose his job once an economic downturn sets i n. An employer may worry that the migrant is less diligent than he appears, or that he may soon leave. In contexts where labour laws are rarely enforced and worker opportunism is common, finding jobs or recruiting through networks becomes more attractive.  The downside is that entry into lower end labour markets becomes highly selective. Those lacking networks may face powerful mechanisms of exclusion. This project will develop theoretical models to study the incentive problems confronting workers and empl oyers and their variation across the skill-level of jobs, production technologies, industries etc. In a factory with piece rate pay for collective effort, workers may put pressure on their employer to recruit through their own networks. In a fixed wage sy stem, it is the employer that has an incentive to use employee referral to control moral hazard. Using primary data from detailed village and destination studies in India and Nepal, we will test alternative theoretical explanations for network use. The ul timate aim is to provide knowledge on mechanisms that may exclude the poor from these networks to be able to give advice on policy interventions that may improve the access of the poor to external labour markets.

Social networks, labour transactions and outcomes: A theoretical and empirical study of migrant workers, and their employers, in South-Asia.

For several decades governments in developing countries have placed spatial decentralization of responsibilities and resources to lower levels of government high on their political agenda. The principal objectives of decentralization have been down-sizing  of central governments, responsive service delivery and increased popular participation in community development to facilitate development in poor and disadvantaged areas. Over the last decade, however, decentralization as a conflict management tool, par ticularly in multi-ethnic societies, has come to the forefront not only in the form of federal solutions, but also in the form of local government reforms and regional autonomy schemes in unitary states. The objective of the study is to assess the conflic t escalating and conflict mitigating impact of decentralization in the context of three long-standing wars in Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines) where the government has introduced decentralization reforms and self-government schemes to meet dema nds from rebel groups. The proposed study seeks to assess whether and how decentralization helped in producing a "peace dividend" in the form of development of disadvantaged and poor regions, how decentralization met the demands of rebel groups, and how c ontextual factors impacted on the implementation of decentralization efforts. The study shall integrate a gender perspective and draw on UN Resolution 1325 in its analysis of gender issues. Norway has been involved in peace facilitation or in providing de velopment aid in the three countries and the study aims to assess donor support for decentralization and to summarize lessons learnt from the experiences of bilateral and multi-lateral donors in this area. The study will be carried out together with partn ers form Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and with associated European partners.

Decentralization as a strategy for resolving conflict?

The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of the interrelationships between human rights-based development and poverty reduction, on the one hand, and the forms and uses of power in developing societies on the other. It has a particular  focus on how the empowerment of community organisations may lead to the securing of human rights and poverty reduction. Yet, although human rights-based approaches to development have been increasingly adopted in the past decade, the centrality of power dynamics to processes of securing rights has only recently been put on the research agenda. Hence, there is a need for empirical research on the detailed interaction between human rights and power in specific contexts at local and national levels and this  project will to provide such empirically grounded studies.

The project aims to examine and compare struggles for human rights by non-governmental actors in Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal and Zimbabwe. It will examine the structures of power responsible f or the negation and denial of human rights, as well as how human rights-promoting organisations challenge such structures. The methodological approach is primarily qualitative, entailing in-depth studies of selected rights-promoting organisations within d istinct country contexts. Case-study countries have been selected on the basis of their differing political contexts with regard to degrees of the differential 'opportunity structures' for successful civic action.

Within each country case, we focus on me mber-based social movements and non-member based advocacy NGOs, and examine their interactions with different forms of power at local and national levels in their rights-promoting efforts. The research draws on a four-fold model of power - 'power over', ' power to', 'power with' and 'power within' - which incorporates power as domination (negative power) and power as increased capacity for social and political agency (positive power).

Rights, power and civic action: Comparative analyses of human rights-based approaches and civic struggle in development contexts

Peace agreements offer an opportunity for poverty alleviation. Wealth-sharing is often part of the negotiations to end civil wars, but the outcome often disappoints, both the aggrieved who had placed their hopes in rebellion and the international sponsors  of the settlement. 
This study focuses on wealth-sharing as a part of peacebuilding. We emphasize the path-dependent dynamics of the process, through three stages: the Promise (initial demands made by rebel groups), the Peace (negotiated peace agreement) , and the Payoff (implementation of wealth-sharing). Our three cases - Sierra Leone, Nepal and Sudan - allow us to compare between distributive and redistributive wealth-sharing schemes. In Sudan, policies regarding oil revenues are mostly distributive; l and reform is the dominant theme in Nepal, which is mostly redistributive; and in Sierra Leone demands were made for both types of wealth-sharing ? though only distributive policies have been implemented. 
The cross-disciplinary research team (history, so cial anthropology, economics & political science) is advantageous for a successful process-tracing methodology. We will track the words and actions of the principal parties (rebel groups, domestic elites, international organizations) through the above thr ee stages, documenting their necessary transformation as the challenges of wealth sharing and management become increasingly concrete.  Although difficult, we also intend to track the expectations and perceptions of the rebels? supporters in the broader p opulation, as negotiations in the three cases progress to the Payoff stage. By highlighting the phases where the promises of rebel groups, governments, and international actors are at their most salient (and most vulnerable to change), we will develop a g reater understanding of the dynamics of peacebuilding for the international community.
Field research will be done in three locations. Outputs are scholarly articles, a special journal issue and policy workshops.

The Payoff of Promises: Articulating, Negotiating and Implementing Wealth Sharing

Why does an end to armed intra-state conflict often not entail an end to violence and economic insecurity? This research project engages with a vital question facing policy-makers and development practitioners in post conflict situations: how to win the p eace. The core aim of the research project is to investigate how the economic agenda of former combatants and commanders interacts with implementation of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) strategies and to what extent DDR strategies impa ir or facilitate economic recovery. The links between DDR and the emergence of dominant economic actors in post conflict periods are under-researched. Arguably, however, this aspect constitutes a crucial variable for understanding why many states fail to achieve economic and political stability after the declared end to conflict. 

The proposed research project will be network based and will centre on empirical assessments in four Central/South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka and Georg ia. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) University of Tromsø will work alongside network members from the Centre for Conflict Resolution University of Bradford, The Department of Politics and International Relations University of Oxford, The Small Arms Survey (SAS) research project at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) University of Geneva, and the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL). 

The establishment of t his network will give good internationalisation opportunities for the Norwegian researchers and their respective institutions. By way of workshops and guest fellowships, leading members in the field of peace and conflict studies will also be brought to No rway. This will yield particular benefits for the Master programme in Peace Studies at CPS University of Tromsø and the 48 students affiliated with the programme.

Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) and implications for post-conflict economic recovery

The linkage between area protection and poverty in Africa is a highly controversial topic. On the one hand, conservationists argue that protected areas constitute major tourist attractions and thereby provide one of the most important sources of foreign r evenues in real and potential terms. Thus, establishment of protected areas are seen as an important means to reduce poverty. On the other hand, opponents point to the restrictions in resource use that protected areas impose on local people, and they ther efore hold conservation to be increasing rather than reducing poverty. Furthermore, during the last years, arrangements for benefit-sharing with local people adjacent to protected areas have become usual. Proponents of these arrangements argue that they p rovide win-win situations between conservation and poverty alleviation, while critics hold the benefit-sharing to be unsubstantial while the costs for local communities are high. The main research aim of the PAPIA project is to generate research knowledge  on why protected areas lead to poverty or poverty alleviation. The project will identify factors and mechanisms contributing to positive and negative relationships between conservation and poverty alleviation. Conservation and poverty will be examined th oroughly through a design with selection of two suitable cases of national parks in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively. Furthermore, empirical data on the practices of the four cases will be examined in comparison to elements of relevant discourses and nar ratives: A discourse analysis will be conducted of debates regarding conservation and poverty on international level, and a component of narrative analysis will be carried out on the cases among actors on national and local level. Scenario building consti tutes the last component of PAPIA. This will be draw from all the previous components, and it will enhance the relevance of the project for planning and decision-making.

Protected Areas and Poverty in Africa (PAPIA)

This project focuses on the causes of peace. It seeks to investigate which contexts facilitate the existence of domestic capabilities for peaceful conflict management and why. Capabilities for peaceful conflict management may save many countries from the large human and economic costs of war. Research by the applicant has revealed that particular characteristics of civil-military relations, dialogue traditions and adherence to cultural concepts of nonviolence in some cases have constituted such capabiliti es, like in Madagascar.
The project investigates how historical conditions; political system and political culture; rapid economic growth and emerging socio-economic inequalities affect civil-military relations and civil society's behavior in political cr isis situations, and thus the potential for domestic capabilities for peaceful conflict management. It includes 1) a literature study; 2) a comparative study of four cases with high political instability that have managed to avoid armed conflict over long  time - Ecuador, Madagascar, Tunisia and Venezuela; 3) a quantitative study of peaceful conflict management and prolonged political crisis; and 4) contrastingly, a study of peacebuilding in a culture of violence, in Haiti. In the comparison of the four ca ses, Alexander George's method of structured, focused comparison will be applied, and the focus will be on civil-military relations and the behavior of civil society in situations of political crisis. The analysis of Haiti will draw on the learnings from the comparative study. The purpose of the Haiti study is to investigate how the absence of domestic capabilities for peaceful conflict management influences the efforts on dialogue and peacebuilding.

Domestic Capabilities for Peaceful Conflict Management

This post-doctoral project examines conditions for effective implementation of the provisions on farmers' rights in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which is crucial for maintaining the global plant g enetic heritage and for poverty alleviation. The focus is on strategies of Civil Society Organisations (CSO), as these are central actors in many developing countries, pushing for and shaping policies on farmers' rights, and initiating projects for the pu rpose. It is vital to identify the patterns of CSO influence that contribute to the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes for the effective realisation of farmers' rights.

In this project, the influence of CSOs on these processes will  be analysed in three developing countries where progress in farmers' rights has been achieved: India, the Philippines, and Zambia. The achievements will be analysed with regard to their effectiveness in terms of the realisation of farmers' rights combine d with their relevance for poverty alleviation, before the influence of CSOs on these results will be analysed in detail. The patterns of CSO influence will be identified and the conditions for these patterns determined as basis for an analysis of the sco pe for generalisation with regard to other developing countries.

Whereas research on regime implementation has focused on industrialised countries, CSO studies have been anchored in civil society literature. This project seeks to bridge the two bodies of  theory in a development context. For civil society research it is important to understand the influence of international regimes, and for regime implementation research it is crucial to grasp civil society theory. The project will contribute to theory de velopment in both fields, while at the same time being instrumental for policy makers and CSOs in developing countries, for the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA and for donors in the North.

Farmers' Rights related to Agrobiodiversity as a Means of Poverty Alleviation: Strategies of Civil Society Organisations

Severe poverty is now seen by many as the most burning ethical issue of our time. In recent years, human rights-based approaches (HRBA) to poverty reduction have become particularly popular among UN agencies, bilateral donors and NGOs. Behind this increas ed interest, however, lies a multitude of voices, interests and perspectives that draw upon very different conceptual understandings of poverty, rights, and the relationship between the two. By focusing on an ethical understanding of the relationship betw een rights and poverty, we wish to critically examine the following three interrelated hypotheses: 1) in the process of 'operationalisation' - from global theory to national practice - much of the substance in HRBA will be lost; and global issues that imp inge substantially on poverty, such as trade, capital flows and migration, will be omitted from the agenda; 2) the HRBA, like other approaches before it, will be drained of political power and prove to be difficult to implement at national, and local leve ls; 3) the issue of international accountability and unfair transnational power relations that negatively affect the poor - both intra and internationally - will remain unaddressed. The study will focus primarily on three key UN agencies which have been a t the forefront of developing and using the HRBA (UNDP, UNICEF and OHCHR) and three countries in Africa (South Africa, Uganda, Malawi) and three countries in Asia (India, Vietnam and Bangladesh). In each continent, we have selected one country (South Afri ca and India) that not only has a strong state but also a relatively well-established record (compared to others on the same continent) at protecting and promoting HRBA to poverty reduction.

Ethics, Rights and Poverty: Global Theory and National Practice

Research on Islamism tends to give precedence to the violent and militant movements. The argument developed in the recent literature is that Islamist rebellion and violence is a product of political exclusion accompanied by repression from the state. To o ur knowledge, there have not been systematic attempts at analyzing whether the opposite scenario, political inclusion into state institutions, moderates the political behaviour and ideology of Islamist movements. We assume that the state is central as the  difference between conflict and peace may be related to the establishment of certain institutions such as democratic decision-making. By approaching the issue of moderation of Islamist movements, this research will not only be academically important, but  carry significant policy implications for reducing the level of political violence in the Middle East.

The principal aim of this project is to conduct a multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the impact of political inclusion on Islamist movements in  Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Sudan. Our research question is whether political inclusion moderates Islamist movements. More specifically, we will investigate: (1) whether political inclusion has moderated or radicalized the Islamic Action Front in Jord an, Hizbollah in Lebanon and the National Islamic Front in Sudan in terms of both political behaviour and ideology. (2) the political transition and parliamentary accommodation of Palestinian Hamas. (3) how political inclusion of the Islamic Action Front and the National Islamic Front has impacted on women's rights in Jordan and Sudan.

The moderation of Islamist movements

The National Statistical Office of Malawi (NSO) is in 2006-7 conducting their National Census of Agriculture and Livestock (NACAL) as a very large survey (30,000 households in 6000 villages). The NACAL comprises a module for collecting data on land tenure  and trust based collective action designed by the project group. In connection with this the project seeks funding to 
*Undertake intensive studies of 8 villages in order to validate the interpretation of the NACAL questions and to do in depth comparison s of family, marriage and gender relations to land and land distribution. Study differences in land management among matrilineal-matrilocal, matrilineal-patrilocal, and patrilineal-patrilocal family systems in the 3 regions of Malawi. 
*Undertake standard ised experiments to determine levels of generalised trust in the different villages and analyse this in relation to agricultural economic activity as recorded in NACAL
*Analyse the finalised NACAL data to determine the impact of land scarcity on land mana gement decision of village headmen and lineage elders. The following questions are of particular interest: 
o	Land scarcity and transactions in land: Will land scarcity increase or decrease the volume of informal transactions in land (renting, letting, bo rrowing, lending, buying, selling)
o	Land scarcity and trust based cooperation: Will land scarcity increase or decrease the level of trust based cooperation?
o	Land scarcity and inequality: Will land scarcity increase inequality in access to land and land  based resources? 
o	Land scarcity and size of land holdings. Will a longer history of land scarcity affect the way land devolves on new generations by reducing the number of subdivisions?

Land reform, trust, and customary land rights in the socio-economic transformation of Malawi

An increasing amount of research is being done on the means of peacebuilding, but there is a lack of research and debate on its aims. This is unfortunate not only from a scholarly, but also from a political point of view. In recent years critique has been  directed towards the political premises of peacebuilding operations. This critique centres on questions of power, culture and gender that complicate the picture of peacebuilding as a discrete activity of pure altruism. The persistence of these questions reveals a set of ethical issues that are reducible neither to the practice of peace operations nor to their legality. It is the aim of the proposed project to chart and clarify these ethical dimensions as a basis for the theory and practice of peacebuildi ng. The aim of this project is to generate such a process by establishing a conceptual, empirical and practical basis for debating the ethical dimensions of international peacebuilding interventions. This will be done over three years through three phases , hallmarked by three workshops. The phases are: 1) conceptual investigations of the ethics of peacebuilding; 2) Case-studies focusing on ethical dimensions of current missions; 3) the establishment of an ethical framework for peacebuilding policy, with c oncrete policy-recommendations. Throughout this process, an international network on peacebuilding ethics will be created, including relevant researchers, politicians, practitioners, consultants, and bureaucrats.

Liberal Peace and the Ethics of Peacebuilding
Towards the integration of ethics in peacebuilding research

Despite high levels of unemployment South Africa?s welfare system is premised on full employment. HIV prevalence is highest among majority black African population, which also has the highest rate of unemployment (especially women) and the lowest per capi ta income. 
Low levels of schooling, few specific skills and lack of employment opportunities make them especially vulnerable to changes in health status. In order to keep a maximum of support and income, a variety of strategies and trade offs are applica ble.This has an important bearing on the kinds of policies and interventions that are most likely to cushion the epidemic?s impact. Unemployed women who have their health restored by HAART may find themselves in a difficult labour-market position.  They c ould thus face a terrible choice: not to take HAART and keep the disability grant: or take HAART, live longer but without an income. The proposed study would allow us to investigate this potentially very serious problem, and will add to a relatively scarc e amount of knowledge on how basic social services in very poor settings affect women?s decision making regarding health, nutrition, infant feeding, fertility and work.The research is organised in three main components: (1) a follow-up of an on-going surv ey of HIV-infected people (majority women=where we will investigate health-seeking behaviour, social support, adherence to HAART, experience of stigma, as well as awareness and knowledge of social grants, (2) a qualitative in-depth study of HIV-infected m others designed to obtain information on ideas of social grants, BIG, roll-out of HAART, health, nutrition and strategies that are applied to maximize income and (3) qualitative explorative  focus group discussions with key stakeholders on topics related to prevention and mitigation with regard to relevant social policies and programmes for HIV-infected people.

Poverty reduction strategies in a public health pespective.  Social grants, HIV/AIDS and the role out of HAART in South Africa

In a world in which there is an increasing need for re/settle people  torn apart by conflict, it is critical to create the basis for durable development, by providing a sustainable physical settlements and a socially and economically viable community. The  challenges involved with this situation have become a critical component of development in many regions of the world e.g. the Balkans, and  Africa.Thus this project sets out;:1) to examine the meanings and forms that property takes and to explore their i mplications for and impacts on the development and making of settlements particularly in situations of conflict and post-conflict; 2)from lessons learned to assist international donors; especially Norway given its deep commitment to development aid, to re duce the economic, social and cultural vulnerabilities that threaten the process of rebuilding and in turn development; 3) to provide important insights in helping to resolve both academic and practitioner debates about the impact of property titling in t he making of settlement; 4) to create a sustainable international network of scholars and practitioners dedicated to providing through better physical and social interventions appropriate and durable strategies for both rebuilding settlement and resettlem ent in post-conflict situations. Our research will be based on three cases one each from Kenya, South Africa and Bosnia; each case will examine the affects of various forms of property and their affects on the social relationships, community morphology, s ustainability, community involvement, and issues that relate to potential conflict. The three cases were chosen to examine different aspects of property relations and their impact on sustainable settlement in both conflict and post-conflict situations at a number of settlement scales and at different moments of settlement rebuilding.From this research we hope to generate lessons learned with which to guide future action.

Property, Possession and Conflict in Re/Building Settlement

The police in low-income countries are among the most corrupt sector of their governments, sporadic evidence indicates. In this project we seek to estimate the extent of police corruption and explain its variation. Here the interaction between police beha viour and crime, some of which is violent, is important. The effect of police corruption on crime has further consequences.  In  part 1) of the project the point of departure will be the study by Soares, Azfar and Gurgur, who estimate the size  of  police  corruption and its strength of interaction with crime for all the countries where crime statistics allow. Building on existing research, the wider interaction with inequality, GDP levels and growth and poverty will be traced.  2) Consists of a number of case studies where changes in crime patterns are described and analysed against the major background of the case?s relevant set of conflict history, and institutional pattern and change.3) consists of an as detailed analysis of the police organisation, an d its recent changes the public sources and eventual direct access to the police force allows. Together they will be the first major research-based analysis of low-income country police and its relation to development in decades.

Violence, poverty and police corruption

While much attention has been devoted to Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform - its causes, manifestations, and impacts on Zimbabwean society - comparatively little has been written about the fates of those who left the country because of the conflict. In pa rticular, the processes by which they entered and settled into rural communities in neighbouring countries remains unresearched. Nor has attention been given to what has been learned from the Zimbabwean experience by South African white farmers, especiall y in those areas adjoining Zimbabwe. The aim of this study is to reveal the stories of the commercial farmers and farm workers that left Zimbabwe as a result of the conflict and to trace the process of their settlement into communities in Mozambique, Sout h Africa, and Zambia, the three main recipients of the migrants. 

An underlying theme of the research is the extent to which one particular crisis, and the migration it spawns, breeds new conflicts in the areas into which migrants settle, and the conditi ons under which conflict-driven migration also may spawn positive effects in terms of agricultural production and rural development. A further issue is how the recent migration of farmers and farm workers can be seen in relation to historical events in a region traditionally characterised by extensive population movements.

We believe this project will culminate in important lessons related to conflict, migration, ethnicity, citizenship, state formation, and rural development. The research will shed light  on the processes by which an historically privileged ethnic minority adapts to and in turn affects societies that are also struggling with histories of racial discrimination, civil war, poverty, and tensions over access to land and natural resources, and  how a generation of naturalised Zimbabweans cope with the sudden condition of statelessness.

In the Shadow of a Conflict: Impacts of Zimbabwe's Land Reform on Rural Poverty and Development in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia

The ending of wars is often followed by continued or new forms of violence in the affected states. Partly masked by the commonly used prefix "post-conflict", such violence - whether associated with ex-combatants, organized crime, disaffected warlords, rec riminating agents of the state or post-war marginalized groups - seems widespread but poorly understood. This project aims to increase our theoretically informed knowledge about the causes, agents and manifestations of such violence, as well as patterns o f transformation. We will seek explanations in the legacies of the war as well as the nature of the peace being established. 

The project has three parts. We shall (1) develop an empirically based, typological analysis of post-war violence; (2) examine i n depth violence associated with one type of agent; warlords, with case studies of Afghanistan and Lebanon; (3) assess the effectiveness of strategies to consolidate peace in the aftermath of civil wars, with a focus on judicial and financial incentives a nd case studies from Angola, DR Congo and Sudan. The project will use qualitative methods developed in political science and anthropology. 
The research builds on the accumulated knowledge of post-conflict peacebuilding developed during the past 15 years of international efforts to promote peace and stability in war-torn societies. The challenge of understanding and addressing post-war violence remains substantial. By approaching these issues in a systematic and comparative framework, this research will c ontribute to both theory and policy. 

The project is a collaboration of scholars from the Chr. Michelsen Institute, King's College London, the London School of Economics, the International Peace Research, Oslo, with counterparts in Afghanistan (CPAU in K abul) and the American University in Beirut. Co-managers are Astri Suhrke and Mats Berdal. The project includes 1 Ph.D. thesis (Samset).

Violence in the Post-Conflict State

Contemporary peace processes in developing countries are commonly elite-focused and use developmental interventions to depoliticise contentious issues and achieve negotiated peace pacts. These characteristics raise concerns regarding the links between dev elopment and peace and regarding the means and prospects of reworking state/society-relations in a democratic direction. The objective of the project is to address these concerns through a comparative analysis of conflict resolution and democratisation in  Aceh and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami disaster. 

The research will address three main research questions:
1. How and to what extent has reconstruction/development been linked to processes of conflict resolution and human rights based democratisation ?
2. How and to what extent have the parallel processes of reconstruction/development and conflict resolution generated political transformations among the main state and non-state stakeholders to the conflict?
3. How and to what extent have the parallel processes of reconstruction/development and conflict resolution been related to a process of human rights based democratisation?

The project will be conducted by a core research team consisting of Olle Törnquist, Kristian Stokke and Gyda Marås Sindre at the University of Oslo, working in close collaboration with researchers at Gadjah Mada University and Demos in Indonesia and the Social Scientists? Association in Sri Lanka.
 
The project will be conducted as a three-year research project, moving from an initial formulation of a comparative analytical framework in the first stage (2006), through a second stage with emphasis on fieldwork (2006-2007), to a final stage of analysis, writing and dissemination of results (2007-2008). The principal output from t he project will be in the form of academic articles in international journals, one co-authored monograph published internationally and one Ph.D. dissertation in political science.

Conflict resolution and democratisation in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami: A comparative study of Aceh and Sri Lanka

Autochthony is the hallmark of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, the controversial status of the Banyamulenge in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and it is also the centrepiece of the so-called 'Mandingo-issue' in Liberia. The current obses sion with autochthony has facilitated a debate in which land issues became particularly vulnerable to the politics of identity and belonging. One important asset in such situations is the ability to stake your claim to land from the position of being auto chthonous, e.g. as the ?son of the soil?, whereas your counterpart is presented as a 'newcomer', an 'immigrant' and a ?stranger?. In such a situation, claiming citizenship is of primary importance because although citizenship does not entitle you to resou rces, it entitles you to enter the struggle for resources. Such conflicts take place within a delimited territory where two or more groups have ?shared? the land for a period of time. Due to a combination of political and economic factors the compromise u pon which their co-habitation was built is no longer sustainable. New modes of deciding who have rights to land must therefore be established. In some cases, the conflict can be dealt with by referring to a contract, but in our cases this is rarely possib le as rights to land are often based on a combination of lineage-based claims and ad-hoc user rights. In such a situation, the exclusion of others from the land based on a claim that they are not autochthonous to the area in question may be a viable strat egy. As the cases of Côte d'Ivoire, Eastern Congo and Liberia shows the results of such perceived and real processes of marginalization and poverty can be disastrous. Our contribution to this debate is therefore to conduct cross-country comparisons based on a sample of approximately 2000 households. This will enable us to produce more systematic information about how the politics of autochthony is actually played out within the context of land rights disputes.

Poverty and marginalisation in Central and West Africa: autochthony and land rights

The project focuses on global poverty and international inequality. For the measurement of both, it is necessary to adjust for price level differences across countries - in order to obtain comparable real income figures. The methods underlying this Purcha sing Power Parity (PPP) adjustment are however disputed, and this creates uncertainty about trends in poverty and inequality over time. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy between poverty figures and economic growth figures for poor countries; either are poverty figures too pessimistic, or growth figures too optimistic. The project will therefore examine the development of prices in poor countries, and how changes in prices affect our measures of inequality and poverty.  International price data will be c ombined with data on openness to trade and other country data, in order to assess the extent of price divergence or convergence, the determinants of such convergence, and the implications for poverty measurement. Theoretically, this analysis will draw on recent research on economic geography and international trade, that may contribute to explaining why some markets remain segmented with large price differences, even in the presence of increased international integration. The ambition of the project is to  contribute to a better understanding of why poor countries have lower price levels, how this changes with development, how it is affected by globalisation, and how it affects poverty as well as poverty measurement.

PESORDNING-PESORDNING

Arealize application for Women TechEU - 1st Open Call

Awarded: NOK 49,999

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PESORDNING-PESORDNING

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