Ever since the Internet became a widespread medium of mass communication in the 1990s, its influence on democratic development has been a central issue.

New and relatively unrestricted ways to access and disseminate information were and still are seen as a means of undermining control mechanisms in authoritarian societies. More than a decade later, and in the light of the so-called ‘Facebook revolution’ in the Arab world, the authors in this volume seek to approach the impact of the Internet from different perspectives, beyond over-optimistic expectations of change in democratic practices. The focus hereby lies on Southeast Asia, with its unique variants of (semi-)authoritarian regimes, and includes often neglected aspects such as the reactions of authoritarian regimes towards these new challenges, the inter-connectedness of the ‘online’ and the ‘offline’ worlds, as well as the disparate development and usage of IT infrastructure in the region.

During the last decade transitional justice has become the pivotal concept for dealing with violent pasts in many developing countries. It reaches beyond the purely normative dimensions that had previously been covered by the judicial systems of modern Nation States. While transitional justice has a wide range of practical applications on the international level, as well as in many post-conflict nations, at the same time academic research on the topic has grown almost exponentially. However, some crucial issues have been disregarded because, at times, they are considered to be beyond the boundaries of the notion of transitional justice. The authors in this volume seek to shed light on some of these.

This special issue aims to align some of the core concerns within development studies with other fields of enquiry where ‘nature’ and ‘ecology’ plays a vital role to reveal mechanisms of uneven development. The contributors of this volume attribute unequal exchange as a key mechanism that drives uneven development. In doing so, they emphasise biophysical units as a measure, and thus refer to ‘ecological’ unequal exchange as it occurs within the world economy and international trade relations. In most of these analyses, biophysical units such as mass, energy, land and time are proposed as a measure as opposed to the classical monetary units to explain unequal exchange and environmental justice. An increased cross-fertilisation of development studies with other interdisciplinary approaches engaged with similar concerns is suggested.

Seit der Jahrhundertwende hat sich die politische Landkarte Lateinamerikas entscheidend verändert. Unterschiedlichste soziale Bewegungen, aber auch eine Reihe von progressiven Regierungen stellen das neoliberale Herrschaftsprojekt offen in Frage und suchen gleichzeitig nach gesellschaftlichen Alternativen. Diese Transformationsprozesse werden anhand ausgewählter Länderbeispiele (Mexiko, Brasilien, Bolivien, Ekuador, El Salvador) dargestellt. Die Analysen zeigen nicht nur die Verschleißerscheinungen neoliberaler Hegemonie, sondern auch die Komplexität und Heterogenität der gegenwärtigen Umbrüche. Zwar hat insgesamt eine spürbare Veränderung der lateinamerikanischen Kräfteverhältnisse zugunsten der subalternen Kräfte stattgefunden. Die zukünftige Entwicklung der Region ist damit jedoch noch längst nicht entschieden.

Solidarische Ökonomie sucht nach Alternativen zu einem finanzmarktgesteuerten Kapitalismus, wobei die wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten auf neuen Werten und Konzepten fußen sollen. Der Aufbau einer alternativen Wirtschaft scheitert jedoch oft, weil die kapitalistischen Marktlogiken nicht ausgeschaltet werden können. Aus diesem Grund ist die Frage zu beantworten, welche Markt- und Staatselemente erforderlich sind, um jene Gesellschaftsveränderung zu ermöglichen, die mit einer Solidarischen Ökonomie einhergeht. 

Solidarity Economics wants to offer alternatives to a capitalism governed by financial markets by building economic activity upon new values and concepts. However, the construction of an alternative economy often fails in its attempt to disable capitalist logics of markets. The question of which elements of state and market are necessary to facilitate the social transformation that goes along with a Solidarity Economy is therefore crucial.