DevISSues May 2021 Vol. 23 No. 1 Social Rage

MAY 2021 VOL . 23 – NO.1

Social Rage

From the Editorial Board Social Rage As young students, we thought of a state of limbo as like being trapped in a bar at the airport without a plane to catch. Frustrating, but what could you do? In relation to this pandemic, many of us follow a similar ‘wait and see’ attitude – generally following the suggested wisdom in a collective way. But there are others who will not accept this (e.g., recent Dutch riots concerning corona).

This makes us ask, what is that leads to such ‘Social Rage’? In what context does it just erupt? i.e., with ‘like-minded’ groups strongly presenting their repertoires of claims (actions) against an identifiable thing or opponent over something with political importance (Tilley 2010).

‘Social Rage’ is the theme of this DevISSues.

Colophon DevISSues is published twice a year by the International Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, the Netherlands Tel +31 (0)70 4260 443 or +31 (0)70 4260 419

In the case of Myanmar (Ra), the Spring Revolution is a clear culmination of historical frustrations with elites, colonial traditions and corruption. It is a ‘Rage against the Military’. The constraints of the pandemic could be tolerated, this continuing oppression could not. Yet, while the target seems clear, it is a rage involving various actions across many different social and economic groups.

Biekart (article on Dutch riots), presents a vastly different context and in this he ponders - what was the issue and who are the groups involved in recent social rage? Was it just lockdown induced social rights frustrations of certain (heterogeneous) groups or was it also the culmination of a growing disillusionment with political processes? This is also a case in which a left vs. right perspective on the pandemic is not so clear.

Fax + 31 (0)70 4260 799 www.iss.nl DevISSues@iss.nl Editor Jane Pocock Editorial Board Lee Pegler, Sunil Tankha, Sandra Nijhof Design Ontwerpwerk, The Hague Cover image Adapted from a photo

by Rico Vogels. Demonstration in

On the other hand, in Brazil (Leonardo and Adams), the processes involved in recent social rage appear (like in the USA) to be more identifiable.

Traditional, undemocratic and hierarchical social attitudes are personified in Bolsonaro. Economic and political crises, social inequalities, the pandemic and Bolsonaro’s necropolitical (death wish) stance to the precarious have led to a massive disaster. The Left is trying to regroup against this. However, many are house-bound (by choice) and/or are fearful of a vocal, regimesupporting group of anti-virus/ anti-lockdown protesters in public spaces.

Dutch city Eindhoven against the curfew, 24 Jan. 2021 Production De Bink Circulation 5,500 The text material from DevISSues

These are all cases which highlight the importance of the social justice and equity perspectives of institutes such as ISS/EUR. Getting our knowledge ‘out there’ is important, as is our desire to make a real impact via social engagement. Limbo cannot last forever!

may be reproduced or adapted without permission, provided it is not distributed for profit and is

We hope you find this DevISSues a useful, thought-provoking addition on these themes and our place in these debates.

attributed to the original author or authors, DevISSues and the International Institute of Social Studies.

ISSN 1566-4821. DevISSues is printed on FSC certified paper

Dr Lee Pegler, Chair, DevISSues

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Rector’s Blog A liminal space: Transformation to post-corona Being in a lockdown since December 2020, in one of our bi-weekly all-staff meetings I mentioned how I feel we live in a liminal space. Liminality is a concept based on the Latin word ‘limen’, threshold. The concept was developed by anthropologist Victor Turner* (1974) based on work by Van Gennep (1960, first published in 1909) on rites de passages.

Van Gennep distinguishes three stages in a rite de passage.

The 1st stage is separation, with groups moving from one stage (here: pre-corona) to a new stage (here: corona).

This 2nd stage is the transition or liminal stage: we no longer enjoy our previous status and circumstances and are not yet in the last stage when the rite de passage is completed (here: post-corona). A liminal phase is thus a period in-between; neither here nor there. It is, as Turner nicely describes, an ‘area of ambiguity, a sort of social limbo’ (1974, p. 57).

In this liminal space, our MA students follow online education, mostly from the student housing, and most teachers give their courses from home. We have all learned a lot in this liminal phase. A team of staff and students has now prepared concrete plans for off-line education and social activities, to start as soon as the number of infections goes down, the number of vaccinations goes up and possibilities of rapid and self-testing are increased.

In this liminal space, we built on discussions from last year’s Dies Natalis when three of our colleagues debated three global crises: COVID-19, climate change and racism as

Inge Hutter, Rector ISS

tackled by the Black Lives Matter movement. They discussed how these crises are interconnected, what changes we need to see in society, what local and global society will look like after corona and what individuals can do to build a ‘new’ post-corona society.

In the coming months, three conferences at ISS will take stock of current trends in development studies. In July, the 16th EADI conference will take place online, on the ever-more relevant theme of Peace, Solidarity and Social Justice. The conference is combined with the Development Dialogue, the annual European conference for PhD researchers in development studies. In August, the 8th Degrowth conference: Caring communities for Radical Change will focus on how we can confront contradictions between economic growth and our planet’s ecological boundaries, reflecting the importance of care as central to degrowth.

These conferences will bring us plenty of food for thought, plans and actions. For the present and the future. For the next stage of post-corona where - like in a good rite de passage - we will mourn our losses, take on all that we have learned in the liminal space and celebrate new beginnings. * Turner, Victor. ‘Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology’ Rice Institute Pamphlet - Rice University Studies, 60, no. 3 (1974), pp. 53-92. Rice University.

Contents

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COVID-19 and social discontent in the Netherlands

8

Social rage and politics in Brazil

14

ISS news

7 Where are they now?

22 ISS publications

11 Social rage in Myanmar

23 Student life

20 Staff-student dialogue

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Focus on ISS

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Kees Biekart is Associate Professor

On 20 January 2021 the Dutch parliament decided to introduce a night curfew from 9 pm to 4:30 am. The measure was taken to reduce COVID-19 infections caused by dinner parties and evening visits. The measure was expected to generate some protest; after all it was the first curfew in the Netherlands since the Nazi occupation in the Second World War. But very few expected the outburst of discontent in January 2021 in over twenty cities and villages throughout the Netherlands. This article tries to examine what happened, why and how, but also to what extent it was linked to social outbursts in other parts of the world.

of Political Sociology at ISS

COVID-19 and social discontent in the Netherlands T

he main contextual factor was of course the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the very outset of the virus outbreak in early 2020 people took to the streets to protest against restricting the freedoms of citizens. Groups initiating popular protests on squares in The Hague and Amsterdam used the banner ‘Virus Madness’ (later replaced by ‘Virus Truth’) or ‘Netherlands in Rebellion’, pointing at the innocence of the coronavirus as nothing more than a simple flu variety (‘invented by Bill Gates’).

They accused the Dutch government of ruining the national economy by temporarily closing down small and medium enterprises. One of their spokespersons was a dance teacher from Rotterdam with 40,000 followers on Facebook.1 He led several protests during the summer of 2020, mobilizing a wide variety of people: from the elderly who felt most affected, yellow vests against cuts in government spending and anti-5G activists (blended with QAnon conspiracy followers), to a range of

others (farmers, event organizers, students) who were all unhappy and felt that their demands were unheard by the conservative government led by Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. But they also attacked public media for providing ‘fake news’. This prompted the national television broadcasting association NOS to take its logo off their trucks to prevent being attacked by protestors.

‘…these were the most notorious riots in 40 years, unseen since the wave of social unrest in Amsterdam of the 1980s…’

On the evening of Saturday 23 January, the first day of the curfew, the protest aggravated in the little northern fishing community of Urk. Hundreds of teenagers confronted the police with fireworks and stones, eventually leading to the burning down of a COVID-19 testing facility. Similar protests were held in Amersfoort, Rotterdam and IJmuiden.

The next day, Sunday 24 January, a protest was planned at Amsterdam’s Museum Square, but permission was withdrawn by the Green Left mayor as it was feared that too many people would participate, making it impossible to maintain social distancing.

The thousands of protesters who came anyway were moved away by police on horse-back. Special police units, often support by police dogs, arrested 190 people. The unrest soon spread to other major cities like Eindhoven, The Hague, Tilburg, Enschede, Helmond, Venlo and Roermond. In Eindhoven, the police could not prevent a group of rioters from smashing the windows of the monumental

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Burning car outside Eindhoven train station, 24 January 2021. ©Rico Vogels

Central Station building, setting fire to cars and looting a supermarket. 55 young activists were arrested, and throughout the entire weekend over two thousand people were fined for not respecting the curfew and/or social distancing rules.

On Monday 25 January the violent protests extended to a dozen other cities. In Enschede, the entrance of a hospital (where COVID-19 patients were recovering) was briefly under siege when protesters tried to enter, but ambulance personnel withstood the action. Police unions noted that these were the most notorious riots in 40 years, unseen since the wave of social unrest in Amsterdam of the 1980s triggered by the urban squatters movement. Football hooligans from several affected cities announced on social media that they would go out to help the police in city centres to ‘protect their city’ against the rioters, who ironically used exactly the same tactics as the hooligans usually used.

But of course, since football matches are now being played without any spectators,

even the football fans were frustrated and upset about the impact of the corona measures, albeit claiming the monopoly to use this type of violence against the police.

The president of the Dutch parliament sharply denounced the riots and the violence against police and health workers by saying ‘this is not the Netherlands we know, nor the Netherlands we aspire to’.

By Tuesday 26 January the authorities seemed to have found a way to curb the protests: special emergency laws were used and fast-track prosecution was introduced. That, combined with a generally critical response on social and public media, seemed to work: the protests faded out. This left observers and journalists with the big question: what had caused this outburst of discontent?

It certainly was not only the pandemic.

The Belgian sociologist Geoffrey Pleyers countered the suggestion that social

‘…leaving observers and journalists with the big question: what had caused this outburst of discontent?’ mobilizing decreased during the COVID-19, after a period of sharp increase up to early 2020.2 On the contrary: social movements flourished, albeit in a different manner. Examples are of course the Black Lives Matter marches and environmental protests, but also protests by citizens resisting new regulations by the central government.

One of these militant movements in the Netherlands is mobilizing the farmers, who are affected by new environmental regulations and fear that the future of their business is in danger. Unsatisfied

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with the government’s concessions, they mobilized hundreds of tractors to drive to The Hague where they paralyzed public life. Arguing that the prosecution of farmers was becoming similar to the holocaust, they forced their way into the provincial government building in the northern province of Groningen.

Not surprisingly, the extreme right-wing parties in parliament saw a great opportunity to side with these unsatisfied farmers, the producers of famous Dutch cheese and milk, on whom they had generally looked down before. Both the Freedom Party (led by Geert Wilders) as well as the Democratic Forum (led by Thierry Baudet) competed to express their loyalty to the farmers, as well as later to the virus deniers and the yellow vests.

However, soon after the curfew riots, both parties were the first to demand military forces onto the streets to restore order, illustrating the contradictory nature of their argument. This can be explained by the fact that important national parliamentary elections were approaching in mid-March.

Overall, it is clear that the composition of the anti-curfew protests was an eclectic

‘…the composition of the anti-curfew protests was an eclectic collective which cannot easily be characterized…’ collective which cannot easily be characterized either politically (left or right) or socially (in terms of class). It mobilized hooligans who were unable to see their football matches, extreme-right and racist fanatics linked to PEGIDA (also big in Germany), conspiracy believers, as well as groups opposing the dominance of pharmaceutical companies.3 Apart from the mission ‘to defend their freedom’, there was an important common tool that brough them together: social media. From Instagram and Facebook to Telegram and Whatsapp.

Some even suggested a gamification of violence as riots were a way to do live streamed gaming (where points could be gained).4 In a very short time span, social media mobilized thousands of angry protesters, some of whom may even have been inspired by the 6 January Capitol mob in Washington DC (given their

Demonstration in Eindhoven again the curfew, 24 January 2021. ©Rico Vogels

efforts to conquer a hospital).

The bottom line is that the protests represent a serious and widespread dissatisfaction with how our mainstream political system is dealing (or not) with its citizens. It has to be faced that many have turned their back on elected politicians and public (quality) media, searching for new truths, including wild conspiracies, in social media groups.

Since the emergence of populist politics in the Netherlands with Pim Fortuyn in the post-9/11 era and his dramatic murder by an animal rights activist in 2002, many people simply feel unheard.

The new public media term for these citizens is ‘wappies’, basically translated as those people that have lost nuance, who perpetuate their own paranoia and stick to their newly created and unrealistic worldviews. That may be the key message to Dutch politicians: the importance of also listening to those outside their elitist circles in order to find out what people really believe. In that sense, the parallel with the siege of the Capitol by Trumpist followers is certainly significant and therefore an alarming signal to the political elite in the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries.

1 Interview with Willem Engel in Algemeen Dagblad, 4 July 2020.

2 Pleyers, G. (2020) ‘The Pandemic is a battlefield: Social movements in the COVID-19 lockdown’, Journal Of Civil Society.

3 Interview with Jelle van Buuren in NRC Handelsblad 26 januari 2021.

4 Maartje Bakker in De Volkskrant, 29 January 2021.

ISS Alumni

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Where are they now?

Garima Shrivastava

Oluwatoyin Olabisi

Sylvia Saborio

Study programme MA in Development Studies, Major in Human Rights Gender and Conflict Studies: Social Justice Perspectives with specialization in Women and Gender Studies Year of graduation 2018 Country of origin India Current occupation Programme Manager Monitoring and Evidence for Change, Asia Pacific Research and Resource Centre for Women (ARROW) What made your time at ISS special? ISS helped me develop a critical understanding of issues. Being taught by some of the most brilliant minds was a truly enriching experience. I met some of the most beautiful people from across the world.

Each moment was special and I am truly grateful for that.

What is your most memorable moment at ISS? I thoroughly enjoyed all lectures, however the most memorable was the last session of the Making of Development class.

What does ISS mean to you now? Having studied at ISS makes me proud. It makes me feel strong and the friends I made at ISS are like an extended family now.

Study programme MA in Development Studies, Major in Human Rights, Gender and Conflict Studies: Social Justice Perspectives Year of graduation 2014 Country of origin Nigeria Current occupation Executive director women & girls’ capabilities & empowerment organization What made your time at ISS special? The opportunity to interact with a diverse group of students.

What is your most memorable moment at ISS? When I had to rewrite my development essay on environment.

What does ISS mean to you now? The institution that made me.

Study programme National Development Planning Year of graduation 1972 Country of origin Costa Rica Current occupation Member of the National Board of Regulation and Supervision of the Financial System (Costa Rica) What made your time at ISS special? It set me on an international, multicultural, interdisciplinary career path of public service which included the United Nations, World Bank, InterAmerican Development Bank and academia.

What is your most memorable moment at ISS? The frequent discussions on all sorts of economic development issues with my mentor and friend Kurt Martin over endless cups of coffee and bottles of wine.

What does ISS mean to you now? The ISS/Netherlands experience showed me what a successful society looks and feels like in terms of that delicate balance between individual freedom and social responsibility, which I have been in pursuit of ever since.

Joan Wilhemina Scott-Manga Study programme MA in Development Studies, specialization in Women and Development Year of graduation 1998 Country of origin Sierra Leone Current occupation Retired (United Nations) What made your time at ISS special? My exposure to the diversity of people and cultures from all over the world. I also gained a lot of knowledge which strengthened my capacity, making me more innovative in my thinking which better shaped my perception on a whole range of issues.

What is your most memorable moment at ISS? The environment at ISS was very conducive to my studies.

There was a lot of socialization amongst students which was great. ISS staff were very friendly and supportive. I loved the city of Den Haag: quiet and peaceful.

What does ISS mean to you now? ISS means a lot to me because it gave me tools to be more creative and innovative in dealing with development issues and building on my career as a development worker, both at the national and international level.

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Social rage and politics in Brazil J

air Bolsonaro’s name went global.

As a traditionalist, the Brazilian president sees himself as a saviour and governs the country by creating chaos with statements disparaging, for instance, the relevance of the corona pandemic or the pain caused to people by the loss of loved ones to COVID-19.

Such statements flood mainstream and social media, so any room for a relevant political agenda is lost. The public debate converges onto his image and voice.

Bolsonaro is also a traditionalist in the sense that he believes in the legend of a long lost, Christian, pure Brazil soiled by the enemy, i.e., the Left, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party) and the communists. For Bolsonaro, a communist is anyone in any given situation who enters the radar of the name-and-shame scheme set up in the core of the government that the media calls the Hate Cabinet (o Gabinete do Ódio). If this sounds familiar it’s because it comes from the same source that sustains Putin (Alexander Dugin), upheld Trump’s insurrectionists (Bannon, QAnon, OathKeepers etc), made Brexit possible and has been shaking the European Union’s political pillars since, at least, 2013. This is the president’s profile, but also the backdrop to current social rage in Brazil.

Bolsonaro was inaugurated in January 2019, promising to destroy the legacy of ’40 years of communist rule’ in Brazil.

For that purpose, he called for a Nova Política (New Politics), which was translated concretely as no room for

institutions in the setting up of the political agenda: no parliament, no political parties, no trade or workers unions, no civil society, no judiciary: only a direct relationship with the people.

From the day he was elected (November 2018), democratically representative institutions faced the threat of being excluded from setting the political agenda. However, his Nova Politica was soon shown to have no content or tool able to advance any agenda other than actually fulfilling its promise of destroying public policies in key areas such as social security, labour, human rights, the environment, education and foreign relations. While the traditionalist wrecking-ball strikes in the thick dust raised by the President’s statements, other powers take the stage and contribute to the uncertainty about who sets the political agenda. Brazil’s Supreme Court has been a political protagonist since the mid-2000s, when a war against corruption started with the Federal Police and the Prosecutors’ Office working

together on wide-ranging investigations that affected the whole political spectrum, a scandal called Mensalão. This evolved into lawfare against the centre-left government when operations were captured by a far-right political project within the so-called LavaJato Operation,1 a tropical version of the Italian Mani Pulite.

Brazil has rarely been a democratic state in the sense that people and government are submitted to the rule of law and that adult citizens are granted effective participation in political decision-making processes, with freedom of thought, speech, association and political representation. The longest period of Brazilian democracy-building was between 1988 and 2016. In 2013, public demonstrations evolved from a rightwing surge, with far-right groups flooding the streets and threatening the stability of the young democracy whose demise started with the successful escalation of a regime change plot against the then incumbent president (Rousseff, removed

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Gavin Adams is an

Caio Leonardo B.

artist and activist

Rodrigues is a lawyer

reporting on public

commenting on and

demonstrations in

monitoring

Brazil.

decision-making processes in Brazil.

world and a deadly slow pace of vaccination. Unemployment, famine, widespread bankruptcy, supply-chain erosion; they all add up to an economic and social disaster. The Minister of Economy insists on maintaining a fiscally conservative policy, while reality calls for public spending to maintain the economy and avert famine. Coming back to any sort of normalcy is not on the horizon.

‘Nova Politica was soon shown to have no content or tool to advance any agenda other than actually fulfilling the promise of destroying public policies…’ from office in 2016). This was followed by the now publicly exposed LavaJato lawfare strategy against the major opposition leader, Lula. He was arrested in 2018, a few months before the presidential election, preventing him from running for a third presidential mandate.

All this gave way to the ascension of a far-right leader that set off the ongoing process of incapacitating the Brazilian political system to build a political agenda or to respond to any relevant public issue in an informed and capable way.

Enter the pandemic. Bolsonaro first denied the existence of any pandemic (‘It’s just a little flu’), then went on to deny

the relevance of the rise of the number of deaths (’Everybody dies’), going on to say, as death rates escalated, that he was not a grave-digger, so he had nothing to do with the deaths. Meanwhile, governors and mayors decided to adopt restrictive measures, even lockdowns. Here, Bolsonaro took a gamble, positioning the economy over health: work is freedom; death cannot stop the economy. He positioned himself as the champion of those who cannot resort to homeworking. His gamble was that the pandemic would be short and with little impact, thus putting the governors and mayors to ridicule. But now Brazil has one of the highest death rates in the

Fear, political hatred and apathy, not revolt, define the Zeitgeist. Brazilian streets have nevertheless seen some political activity. The Bolsonaristas gleefully embraced a negationist stance in the face of COVID-19 and defied restrictions to mobility and economic activity. They staged demonstrations, car parades and even laid siege to politicians’ residences and institutions. That makes them the visible force confronting not the inactive central government, but rather state and city authority restrictions including curfews, the wearing of masks and, especially, lockdowns.

In early March 2021, criminal procedures against former president Lula were dismissed and he got his political rights back. He came out of prison with a message that struck large on the national soul. As a response, at the end of March Bolsonaro tried to enact a putsch, changing the heads of the military in an attempt to cement their support. The military, however, simply accepted the change but continued to keep Bolsonaro in line. The president is now dependent on old-fashioned centrist politicians who

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are moderates in terms of decisionmaking, but immoderate in their appetite for power and privilege.

Until the decision to release Lula, the agenda of the Left was focused on feminism, racism, human rights and defending Lula. It was unable to directly oppose Bolsonaro’s positions and policies because of the extreme level of polarization in the public debate, in which any opinion expressed by a leftist voice is immediately disenfranchised.

Effective opposition to Bolsonaro in parliament came, and still comes, from his own political base, which attempts to limit his radicalism. Support for Bolsonaro is stark among followers of the Theology of Prosperity3 and still comes from strident social voices on the right, namely neo-pentecostals – business owners, militarists, couriers/uber drivers and truck drivers.

As whole sectors of the economy collapse, a heavy influx of the newly unemployed pour into delivery services, swelling the pool of cheap unskilled

‘Effective opposition to Bolsonaro in Parliament … comes from his own political base, which attempts to limit his radicalism.’ muscle on wheels. There is a significant presence of antifa couriers among them, autonomist anarchists. They are active among the precariat but have no institutional representation or support.

Though relatively low in number, they are very active, militant and historically ready to confront. Truck drivers, for their part, are fragmented, but Bolsonaristas at heart. Yet the surge in diesel prices makes them a political threat.

The Left has opted to organize solidarity networks and are out in the favelas and among the workers and the destitute.

Movements such as the Squatters’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto), the Landless Movement (Movimento dos Sem Terra), favela self-help organizations, Mães de Maio, sectors of the popular Catholic Church

All illustrations are of public demonstrations in São Paulo. Instigated by discussions and political agents that did not make the headlines, Gavin Adams tried to identify the new actors and their agendas, noting down messages in banners, flags, speeches, chants and T-shirts, recording elements of visual culture that indicate social origin, alliances and enmities that impact political action and discourse. ©Gavin Adams

and many other non-institutional workers’ associations have built solidarity networks and are very active out there with the grassroots.

In the most recent poll, Lula appears to be topping the 2022 presidential election race, while a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee in the Senate is about to be created to investigate Bolsonaro’s disastrous response to the pandemic. His allies intend to use the same committee to expose cases of corruption in the states and municipalities, creating an ever-growing political tension between central and regional governments, while cases of famine, homelessness, poverty and bankruptcy escalate: the proverbial powder keg lies under a knot of raging sparks.

1 A group of public prosecutors unveiled a corruption scheme at Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant. For years, the country was shaken by weekly news reports of politicians of all colours and top executives of major companies going to jail.

2 A form of Pentecostalism believing that faith can lead to riches.

3 Pastors of the Gospel of Wealth.

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Social rage in Myanmar Earlier this year, on 1 February, the Tatmadaw – the name of the Myanmar military in Burmese – threw the country into one of its darkest moments in history with yet another coup. For the third time, 33 years after the second coup in 1988, the Tatmadaw has sparked intense outrage from the public.

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T

his time it has led to the launch of a ‘Spring Revolution’ (as it is popularly called in Myanmar) that has spread to all corners of the country: from the snow-capped mountains in the north, to the dry plains in the centre and the vivid blue sea in the south, the torch of public resistance and revolution has been lit and continues to burn despite intensifying repression. The impact of the coup in its most destructive power is extending deep into the roots of a diseased political system, breaking apart the old alignments that have long held it in place since it was originally forced onto the country as part of the colonial legacy.

The current crisis in Myanmar is not a black and white situation but requires a broader contextual understanding. It is not only a conflict between the National League of Democracy (NLD) and Tatmadaw. Myanmar is a country long infected with unresolved political

Previous page: Coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing. ©Doi Ra Right: Multi-ethnic demonstration. ©Doi Ra

grievances since gaining independence from the British in 1948 – a situation that has had a huge impact, including armed conflicts, on many parts of the country for over 70 years. Currently, there are over 200,000 internally displaced persons in the country and many more refugees abroad. The so-called ‘democratic political transition’ in 2011 was tied to the 2008 constitution which ensured perpetuation and consolidation of military power within the country. The Aung San Suu Kyi-led government maintained the same power structure and failed to move towards building peace and delivering transitional justice.

A very clear example was when Aung San Suu Kyi defended the military against charges of committing genocide against the Rohingyas made by Gambia at the International Court of Justice in 2020.

Her government aligned with the interests of the elite class which has accumulated immense wealth by

partnering with Myanmar military officials at the cost of dispossessing the rural population of their lands and livelihoods.

Her popularity, however, did not wane and her party won a landslide victory in the November 2020 election, again under somewhat flawed conditions.

The 1 February military coup caused a great shock, especially to the people from the central regions, home to the Bamar, the largest ethnic group. The Bamar had never before directly experienced the savagery of the Tatmadaw, in contrast to those ethnic minority groups from the areas affected by armed conflict.

Following the coup, the ethnic Bamars now fully realize that the Tatmadaw has no place in the country if Myanmar is to have any chance of progressing towards a better future. They can no longer ignore the fact that the reconciliation strategy used by Aung San Suu Kyi is futile. The ethnic minorities from the ongoing conflict-affected areas had to make an urgent decision about whether to join the Bamars in the movement against the military. For them, the recent coup did not bring much change to their reality as many of their customary territories had already been seized by the military and they lived in constant risk of a coup. For many years they have lived in isolation as the Myanmar military assaulted their villages and killed, raped and tortured their people with impunity. Despite this history, they reject the attempt by the Tatmadaw to view this recent coup as a fight merely between the NLD and Tatmadaw but see it in its broader anti-democratic context.

Generation Z youth are the driving force of the Spring Revolution. They come from different classes including rich, middleincome and poor families from both urban and rural areas who grew up during a relatively open political environment, unencumbered by a past fear imposed during the era of the military rule. It is these young people who are now sustaining the street protests despite ruthless crackdown by the military and police force. They defend themselves with self-made shields, dubious quality helmets, plastic eye goggles and worn-

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Mass demonstrations in Yangon. ©Doi Ra

‘Myanmar is a country long infected with unresolved political grievances since gaining independence from the British in 1948…’ out face masks. Their weapons against the real guns and bombs used by the Tatmadaw are Molotov cocktails and slingshots. Although most of these young people can be described as NLD supporters, their dedication to the revolution transcends allegiance to a particular political party or a political figure: they simply cannot accept the country falling back into the hands of a dictator. They are continuing the street protests, knowing that they are risking their lives in order to prevent the military from crushing the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and pushing forward the Spring Revolution as an urgent international theme. The CDM also includes public servants employed by the state and working in state institutions (schools, universities, hospitals), infrastructure (railways) and bureaucracies (ministries and administrative agencies), as well as workers from key private sectors such as banking, energy, transportation and manufacturing, who are refusing to go to work.

So far, a significant portion of the workforce from both public and private

sectors have joined CDM. This movement represents an unprecedented collective political movement by government staff; from senior all the way to junior ranking.

The public sector has barely survived the chronic underfunding, mismanagement and corruption that it suffered under the military regime in the 1980s and 1990s.

During that era, senior positions were generally filled by those with connections to the Myanmar military but without any appropriate qualifications. The political transition from 2011 onwards led to a significant inflow of development funding from the international community, the largest portion of which went into the revitalization of the public sector. Doctors and nurses, who first initiated CDM, became the frontline fighters in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and while the exhaustion caused by the pandemic was bearable, the coup was not. These frontline workers are finding it impossible to maintain their commitment to public service under the dictatorship.

To date, the strongest civilian resistance can be seen in the peri-urban areas populated by migrant workers coming

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from impoverished parts of the country and the central regions which have not previously been affected by armed conflict. Indeed, in the past the people living in these regions had few demands.

When the terms of the political transition were determined by the military in 2010, people in these regions did not strongly protest because they took the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and many other key political figures as the first move towards a positive future. They also did not strongly object when the Aung San Suu Kyi-led government chose to reconcile with the army generals and their cronies. Poor peasants, on the other hand, waited impatiently as they demanded the return of their lands which had been grabbed by the military in the past; and the struggling rural and urban working people waited for the trickle-down benefits of the economic reforms. This is why the recent coup has angered the people so much: despite the colossal level of wealth expropriated from the country, the military and its cronies still want more. Rage against the military can be seen in the civil disobedience movement, the boycott against militaryowned products, calls to build a new army and the call for ‘social punishment’ to be imposed on the immediate family and close relatives of the new illegitimate, military-installed government. So far over 700 people have lost their lives and more than 2,000 people have been arrested, yet there is no sign on the horizon that the revolution will end any time soon. ’The last fight’, as it is called, has become a solidarity fight against the military with the force of resistance anchored in the young from various social classes and in the formidable Civil Disobedience Movement.

All the ethnic groups, including those from both conflict and non-conflict affected areas, have now converged with one aim.

The darkest moment unleashed by the coup has given birth to a revolution which cuts across social identities, social classes and generation. And because of that, we must win and we will win.

Doi Ra is a PhD researcher at ISS

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ISS news

ISS news alumni awards EUR events PhD projects research staff students

New online course on Effective Engagement of Civil Society in Development teaching Developed by the Task Team CSO, this online course is designed to build awareness on the need to engage civil society organizations in development processes.

More details on coursera.org

Closer ties between ISS and research centres in Colombia and the UK collaboration ISS has signed cooperation agreements with the Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Sobre Desarrollo in Colombia and with the Institute of Development Studies in the UK. The agreements will facilitate the exchange of students and faculty and allow for closer teaching and research collaborations.

ISS news

Dr Khayaat Fakier new PCC chairholder research As new Prince Claus Chair holder, Dr Fakier will focus on putting care at the centre of equity and development.

Alumnus Abdoulaye Mar Dieye new Special UN Coordinator for development in Sahel alumni

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New books

Andrew Fischer appointed affiliate of Global Research Programme on Inequality staff He was appointed on the basis of his work on inequality and the imperative for global, national and local redistribution in development.

Thea Hilhorst appointed member of Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) staff The KNAW is a prestigious advisory body to the Dutch government and membership is considered a great tribute to a scientific career. Thea Hilhorst was selected for her commitment to research policy, practice and activism.

In his role as Special Coordinator for development in the Sahel, Abdoulaye Mar Dieye will lead collective efforts to implement the UN integrated strategy for the Sahel and its Support Plan for a scaled-up UN development response for the Sahel.

Elizabeth Ngutuku wins best thesis award awards In its recent annual award ceremony, Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities awarded ISS alumna Elizabeth Ngutuku the Best Thesis Award 2020 for her PhD research into children's experience of poverty and vulnerability in Kenya.

Alternative Ideas from 10 (Almost) Forgotten Economists In her highly readable new book, Professor Irene van Staveren applies the ideas of ten renowned economists to real world economic problems, directly or indirectly related to the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis.

Examining the globalized supply and demand for rare earth metals research Dr Jojo Nem Singh has set up a new research project examining the globalized supply and demand for rare earths, with a particular focus on rare earth mining as a tool for economic development.

Pandemic Economics Pandemic Economics

by Professor Peter van Bergeijk reflects upon the certainty of a new pandemic in the future and the need to prepare ourselves for it.

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ISS news

PhD defences PhD

In Memoriam Benno Ndulu ISS Honorary Fellow Benno Ndulu sadly passed away in February at the age of 71.

A leading African economist, he inspired generations of African researchers in economics through his passion for teaching and research. ISS awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Professor Ndulu in 1997 in recognition of his contributions to Capacity Building and Research on Africa.

Olasunbo Odebode ISS alumna Dr Olasunbo Odebode (Sunbo) recently passed away at the age of 57.

She graduated twice from ISS: from the MA programme specializing in Women and Development in 1998 with a PhD in 2004. Originally from Nigeria, Sunbo worked for the United Nations in various capacities, mostly as a gender specialist.

Chasan Ascholani ISS alumnus Chasan Ascholani from Indonesia passed away at the end of 2020. Chasan was in the Rural Livelihoods and Global Change programme in 2005-2006.

Kenji Kimura (3 March 2021) Transnational systems of care and women's labour migration: A study of Indonesian domestic workers to and in Malaysia

Huei-Ling Lai (25 February 2021) Placing sustainability: Geo-historical entanglements of grassroots innovations and place-making politics in Taiwan

Samantha Melis (17 December 2020) Constructing disaster response governance in post-conflict settings: Contention, collaboration and compromise

Valeria Lauria (15 December 2020) Beltways of agency: Drivers, modalities and outcomes of Chinese engagement in Ethiopian infrastructure investments

Kumba Digdowiseiso (14 December 2020) Essays on fiscal decentralization: Evidence from developing countries with special focus on Indonesia

Adwoa Gyapong (9 December 2020) Political dynamics of global land grabs: Exploring the land-labour nexus on Ghana’s eastern corridor

William Orie (7 December 2020) Obstacles to financing facing micro, small, and medium-sized firms in Suriname: A study from a small-state perspective

Farzana Misha (2 December 2020) The effect of integrated safety net programs in Bangladesh and Uganda

Alumna Malty Dwarkasing new director of Suriname business association alumni

Civic Innovation receives science communication grant research

ISS alumna Malty Dwarkasing is the new Director of the Association of Companies in Suriname.

Representing the interests of Surinamese business owners, this is the first time that it has had a female director.

The grant was awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for the group’s work on transformative science communication.

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©Samantha Melis

Focus on ISS

Knowledge for change: getting our Research InSightS out Research InSightS was launched a year ago as the ISS platform to share knowledge based on ISS research. To celebrate its 1-year anniversary, this article describes how InSightS came into being as part of ISS’ ambitions to contribute to social justice and a more equitable world.

I Adinda Ceelen is Knowledge Broker and Research Communications Advisor at ISS

SS prides itself on the societal relevance of its research. In 2017 an external committee classified ISS’ research as world leading/excellent in terms of relevance for society,1 noting that there is a ‘deep commitment across the Institute to linking quality research to critical social and economic issues’.

While our academic community is highly diverse - comprising researchers engaged in a combination of fundamental research, applied research and ‘scholar-activism’

– it is united in its pursuit to study, understand and examine responses to critical challenges related to global development and social justice. The ambition to engage in societally relevant research is intrinsically motivated and forms a key part of ISS’ DNA but is now further reinforced by extrinsic drivers.

The drive for impact Societal relevance and impact are playing an increasingly important role in

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Focus on ISS

institutional research quality assessments.

ISS academics are engaged in an interesting internal2 conversation about this, including what societal relevance means, how it relates to impact and how relevance and impact in research are determined. One of the issues raised was whether societal relevance and impact ‘always go hand-in-hand’ or whether ‘research can be societally relevant without making an impact?’

The two are not the same; one could reasonably argue that research can be societally relevant without making an impact. But this evokes the question whether striving for societal relevance is enough. Or does an institute like ISS – with a mission to contribute to social justice and a more equitable world – have the obligation to actively strive for its research to contribute to change and have impact?3

‘Not only is it important to ask questions and find the answers, as a scientist I felt obligated to communicate with the world what we were learning.’ – Stephen Hawking ISS sits at the intersection of academia and international development. Within both sectors impact sits high on the agenda, with accountability as a common driver. Within international development, actors funded by donors generally need to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work. Meanwhile, universities - often recipients of public funding – are under increasing pressure to ensure that their activities are in touch with society and responsive to societal challenges and needs. Erasmus University Rotterdam, of which ISS is a part, is no exception and has taken up the challenge, given its current Strategy 2024: Creating Positive Societal Impact.

But both sectors also seem to be wrestling with impact. Generating impact, whether through research or development projects, is anything but

simple and straightforward. In addition to complex definitions and their inter­ changeable use, it is also challenging to develop appropriate theories of change or impact pathways and to meaningfully measure impact (not least due to the attribution challenge). Focusing on academia, impact-oriented research requires dedication, hard work as well as a different modus operandi, while the environment is not yet conducive. In that regard, a welcome development within the Dutch context is the Recognition and Rewards initiative which aims to also develop a career profile for academics around societal impact.

Sharing Research InSightS for change While the impact discussion is complex and work in progress, what is definitive is ISS’ commitment to producing solid, societally relevant research that has ‘the potential to drive action’ (ISS Strategy 2018-2022: Energized, Embedded, Engaged). So how can ISS as a development studies institute maximize the societal relevance and transformative potential of its research?

The most important part of the answer relates to research design and execution.

For example, researchers can engage in dialogue with research partners and

participants to gauge whether the research responds to societal needs and make adjustments as necessary. A second and related part of the answer is concerned with effectively sharing and discussing the research and its findings throughout the research process. After all, how can ISS-generated research drive action if other actors – including potential allies in ISS’ quest for social justice and equity - are not aware of its existence?

To facilitate this, Research InSightS was launched to make knowledge grounded in ISS research accessible and available to others. Though its content may speak to academic communities, InSightS was developed for communities beyond academia such as civil society organizations, NGOs, policymakers, citizens and others that are interested in or working on global development and social justice.

Research InSightS provides a glimpse of the multitude of research initiatives at ISS and shares key findings. With accessibility as a fundamental principle, each item presents the most important information from a research initiative in a bite-size and non-academic format. So, no academic papers, but findings that are translated into videos, infographics,

Focus on ISS

one-pagers, policy briefs, interviews and research briefs amongst others. ‘insight [noun]: a clear, deep and sometimes sudden understanding of a complicated problem or situation’ (Cambridge dictionary) A quick scroll through Research InSightS reaffirms how closely ISS research links to contemporary social, environmental and economic challenges, both globally and locally. It covers a broad variety of topics, such as oil pollution in the Amazon, degrowth, migration, wellbeing of migrants in the Netherlands, sexual and reproductive health and rights, humanitarian aid, frugal innovation and more.

By sharing knowledge, InSightS is part of ISS’ efforts to produce societally relevant research that can drive action.

Strategies and realities Though research accessibility is important, effectively positioning research for use necessitates coupling this with well thought-through strategies that give careful consideration to functionality and timeliness. It requires greater scrutiny of ‘fundamental questions such as who the knowledge produced through the research reaches, at what time, and with which purpose’.4 Early identification and integration of clear change objectives into the research process is key, as is early engagement of targeted audiences so that the strategies are fit-for-purpose.

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‘…we also need to acknowledge that change is a highly complex and non-linear process that involves a multitude of different actors with their own interests.’

Simultaneously, we also need to acknowledge that change is a highly complex and non-linear process that involves a multitude of different actors with their own interests. For example, who says that knowledge, even if and when it reaches those in decisionmaking positions, will be directly used to inform policy and practice? Sometimes the accessibility of research – no matter how rigorous or timely – is not the problem. Because research uptake is not only a matter of facts and reason; it’s also a matter of power and politics.

Power and politics of knowledge The famous Latin phrase ‘scientia potential est’ means knowledge is power. Yet there is ample evidence that producing and emitting knowledge on its own does not necessarily bring about change. However, when combined with action and partnerships, knowledge might stand a better chance.

So we need to think about what we must do ‘to make our commitments to a more equitable and sustainable world real’ and about how we can ‘best collaborate to co-generate and mobilize evidence in ways that ultimately make a difference to people’s lives’, as suggested by Professor Melissa Leach.5

As a graduate school for critical social science, it suits us to also look critically at ourselves. For example by being ‘humble about our own assumptions and positions’ (ibid), by acknowledging the ‘politics of knowledge’ and by reflecting on powerful and thought-provoking questions that relate to both the critiques of academia in the ivory tower as well as to the decolonization discourse. This includes questions such as whose knowledge we are talking about, how that knowledge is produced (including the potential existence of ‘academic or cultural snobbery’) and whether we are potentially replicating existing power inequalities and/or further intensifying growing segregation in society.

Struggling in solidarity Producing research that meaningfully contributes to social justice and equity is challenging, and the complexity may even be daunting and discouraging at times. But if we are truly in solidarity with those who are left behind and truly committed to contributing to global development and a more equal world, we will appreciate that often ‘change comes through continuous struggle’ (Martin Luther King Jr) and not shy away from struggling ourselves as we reflect upon and determine how we as an engaged institute can best play our part.

1 This was part of a research quality assessment (RQA).

RQAs are executed every 6 years in line with the Standard Evaluation Protocol developed under the auspices of the Dutch Academy for Sciences, the Dutch Research Council and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands.

2 Huijsmans, R. and E. Mills (2019) ‘What determines societal relevance’ ISS blog BlISS, 10 January 2019.

3 In the blog post, societal relevance was defined as ‘the quality or state of being closely connected and appropriate’ and impact as ‘a noticeable effect or influence’.

4 Hilhorst, D., L. Swartz and A. Ceelen (2021) ‘Positioning Academia | Let’s talk about it: embedding research communication in transformative research’ ISS blog BlISS, 13 February 2021.

5 Leach, M. (2021) ‘Positioning Academia | Development must change in the face of injustice and inequality’ ISS blog BlISS, 9 February 2021.

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Staff-student dialogue

Experiences of Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants during the COVID-19 crisis* Recent MA graduate Bezawit Fantu Woldeyesus and Dr Zemzem Shigute Shuka explore the vulnerabilities of the Eritrean and Ethiopian community in The Hague.

Bezawit (B): I had the opportunity to take part in this project funded by ISS under the Local Engagement Facility.

As project leader, can you tell us about the project?

Zemzem (Z): Sure. Conversations with members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean community in The Hague revealed some of the vulnerabilities that they were facing, including lack of access to information, inability to support children

with online education and home schooling, and the psychological stress of not being able to socialize with friends and fellow members of their community.

We wanted to explore these vulnerabilities systematically and draw up policy advice based on the findings.

One objective of the project relates to the health, education and economic experiences of the community. The second objective was to explore social

interaction within the household and between individuals, particularly how the pandemic was affecting intimate partner violence and household decision-making.

We also wanted to investigate support mechanisms targeting migrant communities and further explore solidarity and support here and to the countries of origin.

B: Indeed, and we found that one of the major impediments faced by migrants is

Staff-student dialogue

language. This came up repeatedly in our interviews. For example, there are cases of parents taking their children to school, even though schools had been closed several days previously. These parents had not understood the information shared in various news outlets, which is provided in Dutch with an English translation.

Furthermore, many migrants had problems logging in to online systems to, for example, apply for unemployment benefit. They assumed the government would know that they were out of a job and initiate the transfer of unemployment benefit automatically. Some went for several months without any income because of this.

Another challenge was self-isolation. It is almost impossible for migrants living in camps in the Netherlands to implement the measures to protect themselves from COVID-19 as they often live in very close quarters. One interviewee told us that she shares living space with seven others: no matter what precautions she takes, she can’t be sure that the other seven people won't bring the virus to her.

And many migrants in the Netherlands worry about their loved ones back home.

Their hearts and thoughts are torn between home and the places where they currently reside.

Z: Our findings also show that there is heterogeneity in the economic effects, related particularly to type of work and migration status. For example, those with secure jobs faced no financial effects but those with a non-permanent job lost a substantial portion of their income. On the other hand, people in some specific jobs, such as food delivery, saw their income increase.

The analytical framework that we used to explain these heterogeneous effects is intersectionality. Migrants are not homogenous; they differ in terms of employment, family situation, gender, education, language and so on.

B: In terms of social interaction within the household and community, I would

like to specifically touch upon the experiences of women. For example, working mothers took on extra tasks when paid childcare and schooling moved from the paid economy back to the unpaid economy of household chores. Our findings also show that cases of intimate partner violence increased during the lockdown. This may have been due to financial stress or to increased tensions brought on by spending so much time inside.

Z: This transfer of the burden of care from the paid to the unpaid economy was also seen in relation to home schooling where we again see intersectionality between the economic conditions and educational achievement of parents. Experiences were not only related to the language barrier, but also to limitations in providing equipment for children, for example in a family with several children but only one computer. A dedicated helpdesk for migrants played an important role here in contacting municipalities on behalf of parents to access available support.

Another relevant factor is parental education. Parents who were educated were able to help their children with online education. Other children fell behind and had to attend summer school to catch up.

B: The support provided by the Dutch government was uniform to all those eligible. All business owners received one-off support when their businesses

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were shut down and individuals who lost their job because of COVID-19 could claim unemployment benefit. Although most people appreciated this support, almost all of them confirmed that it was not enough.

Z: We have interesting findings related to the support and solidarity provided by migrants to each other. The helpdesk established by a group of organizations led by settled migrants is one example.

Another example is the mobilization of close to €28,000 by the Ethiopian embassy and the Ethiopian Professionals Network to support the fight against the pandemic in Ethiopia. A similar effort was reported by the Eritrean community.

Between individuals living here, there was help in terms of grocery shopping and even lending money.

When it comes to NGOs, I would like to mention Pharos, which reached out to vulnerable communities through ‘cultural mediators’: community members who disseminate information on healthcare in various languages to migrant communities.

B: Before we finish, I’d like to highlight that although the virus appears to be uniform and universal, our findings show that ‘people in the world are riding the same storm, but they are doing so in very different boats’ (Norman 2020**).

COVID-19 has not only revealed vast inequalities but has also accelerated deeply entrenched injustices.

‘We … wanted to investigate support mechanisms targeting migrant communities and further explore solidarity and support here and to the countries of origin.’

* The full edited transcript of this conversation is reproduced on DevISSues online. ** Norman, J. (2020) 'Gender and Covid-19: the immediate impact the crisis is having on women', British Policy and Politics at LSE.

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ISS publications

Development and Change

Working Papers

Development and Change is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the critical analysis and discussion of current issues of development. It was established by the ISS in 1969, in response to the perceived need for a multidisciplinary journal dealing with all aspects of development studies.

The ISS Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit comments and generate discussion. The series includes academic research by staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and award-winning research papers by graduate students.

Volume 52, Number 2, March 2021 Peasant Production in India: How the ‘Need Economy’ Facilitates Accumulation Anirban Dasgupta Diffuse Drivers of Modern Slavery: From Microfinance to Unfree Labour in Cambodia Nithya Natarajan, Katherine Brickell, Laurie Parsons Trajectories of Hybrid Governance: Legitimacy, Order and Leadership in India Miriam Wenner Multiple Temporalities of Household Labour: The Challenge of Assessing Women's Empowerment Gregory L. Simon, Cody Peterson, Emily Anderson, Brendan Berve, Marcelle Caturia, Isaac Rivera Portfolios of Social Protection, Labour Mobility and the Rise of Life Insurance in Rural Central Vietnam Minh T.N. Nguyen Special Collection: Decolonizing Open Access in Development Research Introduction: The Politics of Open Access — Decolonizing Research or Corporate Capture?

Kate Meagher Conceptualizing, Financing and Infrastructuring: Perspectives on Open Access in and from Africa Angela Okune, Sulaiman Adebowale, Eve Gray, Angela Mumo, Ruth Oniang'o One Door Opens: Another Door Shuts?

María Faciolince, Duncan Green Bibliodiversity at the Centre: Decolonizing Open Access Monica Berger Review Essay The Agony and the Ecstasy of Motherhood Himani Bannerji

The political economy of the next pandemic Peter A.G. van Bergeijk ISS Working Paper Series 678 Public capital and income inequality: Some empirical evidence Yanbai Li, Syed Mansoob Murshed, Elissaios Papyrakis ISS Working Paper Series 677 ‘Assisted’ and ‘voluntary’ return? Implementation of AVRR schemes in Afghanistan Rabia Salihi ISS Working Paper Series 676 COVID-19 in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Precarity, conflict and disaster coping mechanism Christo Z. Gorpudolo and Agnes C. Akello ISS Working Paper Series 675 Does research on economic sanctions suffer from publication bias? A meta-analysis Binyam A. Demena, Gabriela Benalcazar Jativa, Alemayehu S. Reta, Patrick B. Kimararungu and Peter A.G. van Bergeijk ISS Working Paper Series 674 Perspective of localization of aid during COVID-19: Reflecting on the tensions between the top-down and bottom-up responses to the health emergency in Haiti Yuki Fujita and Angela Sabogal. ISS Working Paper Series 673 Labour security and agency within the Orange Juice Value Chain (OJVC) in Brazil Renata Nunes Duarte, Lee Pegler and Katiuscia Moreno Galhera ISS Working Paper Series 672 Weapons of discontent? Sketching a research agenda on social accountability in the Arab Middle East and North Africa Ward Vloerberghs and Sylvia Bergh ISS Working Paper Series 671 Passion, precarity and inequality? Working conditions of urban dancers in Colombia Angela M. Sabogal Camargo ISS Working Paper Series 670 COVID-19 in Zimbabwe: Exposing government flaws and testing people’s resilience James K. Muorwel and Lara Vincent ISS Working Paper Series 669 Social entrepreneurship: Pathways to scale Bruna Lessa Bastos and Georgina M. Gómez ISS Working Paper Series 668 COVID-19: A biopolitical odyssey Christina Sathyamala ISS Working Paper Series 667 Strengthening community resilience in conflict: Learnings from the Partners for Resilience programme Dorothea J. M. Hilhorst, Marie-José Vervest, Isabelle Desportes, Samantha Melis, Rodrigo Mena Flühmann and Roanne van Voorst ISS Working Paper Series 666 Adding human security and human resilience to help advance the SDGs agenda Des R. Gasper, Richard Jolly, Gabriele Koehler, Tamara A. Kool and Mara Simane ISS Working Paper Series 665

Student life

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STUDENT LIFE Left: Deputy Rector for Education Affairs, Professor Karin Arts, welcomes new MA students to ISS. Photo by Darren Baradhan.

Below: ISS students, PhD researchers and staff in solidarity with Myanmar's Civil Disobedience Movement against the military junta.

Photo by Sebastian Reyes.

Maasai Warrior in Den Haag: Unforgettable moments of snow. Photo by Emmanuel Gabriel Jacob.

The ISS Welfare Office surprised students with an Easter gift – just look at the wonderfully creative results! Thanks to Amina, Nathalia, Hoa, Natalia and Veronica.

At last! Live teaching after a year online. Photo by Mark Lammerts.

WORLD-RANKED

2021 QS ranking for Development Studies programme

#1 #12

in the European Union

worldwide