Showing papers in "Development and Change in 2000"
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that such an operationalization of development processes is based on inconsistent theoretical assumptions, and can easily lead to unproductive development interventions due to an inability to handle conflicts.
Abstract: In many popular intervention methodologies aimed at stimulating sustainable rural development (in the widest possible sense) the idea of ‘participation’ is a leading principle. This article will demonstrate that the process in which actors are supposed to participate is often thought of as being a process of planning, decision-making and/or social learning. It will be argued that such an operationalization of development processes is based on inconsistent theoretical assumptions, and can easily lead to unproductive development interventions due to an inability to handle conflicts. As an alternative it is proposed to use negotiation theory as a basis for organizing participatory development efforts. The implications of such a shift in thinking about participation are far-reaching: it requires new modes of analysis, and different roles, tasks and skills for facilitators of participatory processes.
412 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider theories of collective action in relation to the management of communal water resources in Nkayi District, Zimbabwe and argue that collective management of water supplies does exist but that it is more partial, changeable and evolving and less attributable to single factors than suggested in much of the literature.
Abstract: This article considers theories of collective action in relation to the management of communal water resources in Nkayi District, Zimbabwe. Taking a critical view of institutional explanations of common property resource management, it illustrates how the addition of social theory can enrich such approaches. The prevalence of rational choice premises in defining the problem of collective action and the persuasiveness of institutionalism in apparently offering solutions to it is questioned. The article rejects simple evolutionary theorizing about institutions in favour of an embedded approach that allows for complexity, for the social and historical location of collective action and for an examination of the interface between agent and structure. It is argued here that collective management of water supplies does exist but that it is more partial, changeable and evolving and less attributable to single factors than suggested in much of the literature.
354 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the social networks and power politics shaping forest exploitation with the aim of casting light on the politics of transition and scrutinize the unintended consequences of the international community's discourse of democracy good governance and sustainable development on forest access rights.
Abstract: Over the last decade forests have played an important role in the transition from war to peace in Cambodia. Forest exploitation financed the continuation of war beyond the Cold War and regional dynamics yet it also stimulated cooperation between conflicting parties. Timber represented a key stake in the rapacious transition from the (benign) socialism of the post-Khmer Rouge period to (exclusionary) capitalism thereby becoming the most politicized resource of a reconstruction process that has failed to be either as green or as democratic as the international community had hoped. This article explores the social networks and power politics shaping forest exploitation with the aim of casting light on the politics of transition. It also scrutinizes the unintended consequences of the international communitys discourse of democracy good governance and sustainable development on forest access rights. The commodification of Cambodian forests is interpreted as a process of transforming nature into money through a political ecology of transition that legitimates an exclusionary form of capitalism. (authors)
220 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the concept of jointness in India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme, understood as an engagement between the state (in this case the Forest Department) and people organized into "communities" with NGOs, where available, acting as the interface.
Abstract: This article examines the concept of ‘jointness’ in India’s Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme, understood as an engagement between the state (in this case the Forest Department) and people organized into ‘communities’, with NGOs, where available, acting as the interface. By examining the commonalities between older examples of joint or co-management of resources and current practices of joint forest management, the article challenges the notion that ‘jointness’ is a new feature of forest policy, or that it represents a resurgence of civil society against the state. Further, insofar as the basic agenda of the programme is pre-determined, it cannot be considered very participatory in nature. None the less, within the limited degree of choice that JFM allows, there is a new and joint construction of needs.
186 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the historical forces which shaped attitudes to game, while the second part considers the powerful institutional and economic forces which conspired to sideline these historically formed local views.
Abstract: CAMPFIRE programmes have been hailed internationally for the innovative ways in which they have sought to confront the challenges of some of Africa's most marginal regions through the promotion of local control over wildlife management. In Zimbabwe, CAMPFIRE has been cast as an antidote to the colonial legacy of technocratic and authoritarian development which had undermined people's control over their environment and criminalized their use of game. This article explores why such a potentially positive programme went so badly wrong in the case of Nkayi and Lupane districts, raising points of wider significance for comparable initiatives. Local histories and institutional politics need careful examination. The first part of the article thus investigates the historical forces which shaped attitudes to game, while the second part considers the powerful institutional and economic forces which conspired to sideline these historically formed local views. CAMPFIRE in Nkayi and Lupane was further shaped by the legacies of post-independence state violence in this region, and the failure of earlier wildlife projects. This range of factors combined to create deep distrust of CAMPFIRE, and quickly led to open confrontation.
136 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine several key dynamics which are helping to legitimate the neoliberal agenda of the 1990s, including the distribution of state largesse to manipulate electoral capitalism, the rise of an informal sector in the Anatolian Tigers, promotion of the seductive attractions of the market, and an antipolitical reform populism adopted by political actors to exploit popular disillusionment with the political system.
Abstract: This article focuses on the political economy of Turkey in the 1990s to illustrate the importance of analysing economic variables that intersect with the quality of political democracy. In 1989, the debt-ridden state moved to systematically and completely deregulate Turkey’s financial markets. Together with the ongoing processes of liberalizing commodity markets and integrating with global capital markets, financial liberalization was expected to achieve fiscal and monetary stability, stimulate business confidence to invest in productive sectors, produce stable growth, encourage privatization and control inflation. However, the new hegemony of the capital markets has gone hand-in-hand with deteriorating macroeconomic performance, a worsening income distribution, the discrediting of politics and its isolation from society. The authors examine several key dynamics which are helping to legitimate the neoliberal agenda of the 1990s. These include the distribution of state largesse to manipulate electoral capitalism; the rise of an informal sector in the ‘Anatolian Tigers’; promotion of the seductive attractions of the market; and an antipolitical reform populism adopted by political actors to exploit popular disillusionment with the political system.
132 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the dominant explanations of the failure of forest management in Indonesia within the public discourse of the late New Order period by taking a narrow view of the issues public discourse during the New Order (1966-1998).
Abstract: This article explores the dominant explanations of the failure of forest management in Indonesia within the public discourse of the late New Order period. Drawing on a review of salient literature and relevant case studies the major part of the article discusses the underlying historical institutional and political causes of the failure of the state property regime. By taking a narrow view of the issues public discourse during the New Order (1966-98) avoided discussion of the structure of property relations and the power relations that supported them. However the forest fires of 1997-98 and the ensuing ecological crisis have revealed that the forest policy that allocated property rights over vast areas of the nations forests to well-connected conglomerates and politico-business families was inequitable and lacked legitimacy. While new legislative initiatives open up possibilities for co-management the reforms so far barely engage with the underlying structure of property rights. These issues will need to be more thoroughly addressed if Indonesia is to tackle the bitter legacy of the Suharto period. (authors)
124 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the way in which community-based forestry is constructed and understood among government policy makers and suggest that the new discourse of community based forestry policy in the Philippines is still shaped by efforts to maintain centralized control over forest management and a political economy orientated towards commercial timber production using the principles of "scientific management".
Abstract: Community-based forestry management is emerging as an important component of forest policies in the developing world. Using the Philippines as a case study this article critically examines the way in which community-based forestry is constructed and understood among government policy makers. The author suggests that the new policy discourse of community based forestry policy in the Philippines is still shaped by efforts to maintain centralized control over forest management and a political economy orientated towards commercial timber production using the principles of "scientific management". While timber production and the technical aspects of forest management are emphasized social and environmental considerations remain neglected. (authors)
115 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the interpretation of these fires by the Indonesian government, international donors, environmental activists and local farmers, and explore the contexts and consequences of these discourses of disaster, and specifically investigate the central role of remote technology.
Abstract: During the extended El Nin˜o drought of 1997–8, fires devastated Indonesia’s forests, creating a vast shroud of smoke that reached as far as mainland Southeast Asia. This article examines the interpretation of these fires — their causes, damages and solutions — by the Indonesian government, international donors, environmental activists and local farmers. It explores the contexts and consequences of these discourses of disaster, and specifically investigates the central role of remote technology — a ‘hegemonic’ representational tool, in some circumstances creatively appropriated to serve new democratic agendas. A narrow focus on remotely sensed data is not strictly a methodological but also a political choice, one which obscures alternative experiences of disaster and produces solutions that do not address long term social and political processes leading to the fires. What is missing from most current analyses of the fires, and from remote assessments in general, is a textured understanding of social landscapes and the role they play in creating fire hazards.
100 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how environmental problematics are produced and interpreted using case material from West Africas humid forest zone and explore problems with "discourse" perspectives which produce analytical dichotomies which confront state and villager and scientific and local knowledge.
Abstract: This article considers how environmental problematics are produced and interpreted using case material from West Africas humid forest zone. Examining the experiences of several countries over the long term it is possible to identify a deforestation discourse produced through national and international institutions. This represents forest and social history in particular ways that structure forest conservation but which obscure the experience and knowledge of resource users. Using fine-grained ethnography to explore how such discourse is experienced and interpreted in a particular locale the article uncovers problems with "discourse" perspectives which produce analytical dichotomies which confront state and villager and scientific and "local" knowledge. The authors explore the day-to-day encounters between villagers and administrators and the social and historical experiences which condition these. Instances where the deforestation discourse becomes juxtaposed with villagers alternative ideas about landscape history prove relatively few and significant while the powerful material effects of the discourse tend to be interpreted locally within other frames. These findings present departures from the ways relations between citizen sciences and expert institutions have been conceived in recent work on the sociology of science and public policy. (authors)
94 citations
TL;DR: In most parts of the developing world, the urbanization process has been dominated by rural-urban migration and the growth of existing cities, however, case-studies in China's Fujian Province suggest that this process can also be achieved mainly by in situ transformation in rural areas as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In most parts of the developing world, the urbanization process has been dominated by rural‐urban migration and the growth of existing cities. However, case-studies in China’s Fujian Province suggest that this process can also be achieved mainly by in situ transformation in rural areas. Such in situ transformation of rural areas has been driven mainly by two forces, the development of township and village enterprises (TVEs) and the inflow of foreign investment; and facilitated by the relevant policies adopted by the Chinese government since 1978. The former has been very effective in the transformation of rural employment structure, while the latter has brought many physical changes to the previously rural landscape. Being mutually complementary, these two ways of rural transformation have not only benefited and urbanized the rural areas, but kept many farmers in their hometowns, replacing the dominant role of rural‐urban migration and the growth of existing cities in the urbanization process.
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretically informed analysis of the interactions between rubber tappers and environmental organizations in the establishment and implementation of extractive reserves in Rondonia Brazil is presented, showing that these alliances have so far been more successful in enabling political rather than economic empowerment.
Abstract: Extractive reserves are important initiatives in tropical forest zones which seek to integrate conservation of natural resources with development and human welfare objectives. Increasingly in such initiatives empowerment of local communities is seen as both a means of achieving this integration and as an end in itself. This article presents a theoretically informed analysis of the interactions between rubber tappers and environmental organizations in the establishment and implementation of extractive reserves in Rondonia Brazil. It distinguishes two dimensions of empowerment--political and economic--and examines how the alliances between organizations have impacted differentially on the two dimensions. The analysis suggests that these alliances have so far been more successful in enabling political rather than economic empowerment. Advances in political empowerment are shown in the short-term at least not to have resulted in improvements in livelihood conditions of poor forest dwellers. (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, the changing role of forests and the practices of peasants toward them in a Costa Rican rural community are analyzed, drawing on an analytical perspective of political ecology, combined with cultural interpretations.
Abstract: This article analyses the changing role of forests and the practices of peasants toward them in a Costa Rican rural community, drawing on an analytical perspective of political ecology, combined with cultural interpretations. The study underlines the complex articulation of local processes and global forces in tropical forest struggles. Deforestation is seen as a process of development and power involving multiple social actors, from politicians and development experts to a heterogeneous group of local peasants. The local people are not passive victims of global challenges, but are instead directly involved in the changes concerning their production systems and livelihood strategies. In the light of historical changes in natural resource utilization, the article underlines the multiplicity of the causes of tropical deforestation, and the intricate links between global discourses on environment and development and local forest relations.
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed study of forest use and dependency conducted in two Karen villages was conducted, showing that the state's efforts to reduce the Karen's forest dependency, or even to evict them from the forests, are not leading to the stated objective of conservation.
Abstract: The analysis of ‘ambiguous lands’ and the people who inhabit them is most revealing for understanding environmental deterioration in Thailand. ‘Ambiguous lands’ are those which are legally owned by the state, but are used and cultivated by local people. Land with an ambiguous property status attracts many different actors: villagers hungry for unoccupied arable lands in the frontiers; government departments looking for new project sites; and conservation agencies searching for new areas to be protected. This article shows, first, how two types of ambiguous land — state-owned but privatelycultivated land, and communal lands — were created. It then examines how the Karen, one of the hill peoples living on the ambiguous lands, have been struggling to survive between the forces of capitalistic development and forest conservation. Using a detailed study of forest use and dependency conducted in two Karen villages, I argue that the state’s efforts to reduce the Karen’s forest dependency, or even to evict them from the forests, are not leading to the stated objective of conservation. Finally, I draw some wider implications with reference to James Scott’s thesis on state simplification.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of scientific forestry and tree theft in a Mexican community showed that tree theft and scientific forestry co-evolved during a period of concessions and continue under co-management.
Abstract: Community forestry is thought to diffuse the kind of tensions over access to resources that frequently make centralized forest management systems based on the principles of scientific forestry ineffective and conflictive. Centralized systems often create resistance as communities whose vegetation management practices have been declared illegal by forest bureaucracies anonymously contest the restrictions imposed on them by "stealing" trees and committing "arson". These restrictions are intimately related to the requirements of scientific forestry however so co-management strategies relying on scientific forestry might also engender various forms of internal resistance such as tree theft. Local interpretations of justice in access to resources together with community social structures and the distribution of resources can result in internalized resistance rendering community-based resource management ineffective. In a Mexican community case study scientific forestry and tree theft co-evolved during a period of concessions and continue under co-management. This system creates an arena where anonymous individual resistance like tree theft can give way to forms of protest more likely to result in legitimate and effective forest management systems. (authors)
TL;DR: The authors discusses the problems of analyzing African urban unemployment drawing in particular on a recent International Labor Organization report and presents evidence from long-term research on migrants in Harare which casts doubt on the extent to which net in-migration is a major factor contributing to unemployment in contemporary economically adjusting sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract: Unemployment is a major problem in urban centers in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of policies associated with structural adjustment programs has frequently meant major formal job losses in both the public and private sectors. Although it is widely recognized that there has been a major (further) shift into the informal sector it is also often claimed that "unemployment" rates have greatly increased. When it is also assumed that net rural-urban migration has continued at a rapid pace this is believed to be a significant contributor to the rise in unemployment. However because "unemployment" and "underemployment" are hard to measure and to keep discrete when studying urban Africa it is apparent that there is much confusion over current levels and trends in unemployment. This article discusses the problems of analyzing African urban unemployment drawing in particular on a recent International Labor Organization report and presents evidence from long-term research on migrants in Harare which casts doubt on the extent to which net in-migration is a major factor contributing to unemployment in contemporary economically adjusting sub-Saharan Africa. (authors)
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the intersection between class and state is closer than even critical studies of state-society relations have posited, and that the state can within certain limits be brought to serve interests other than those of the dominant classes.
Abstract: Much development literature concerned with state-society relations operates with a simplistic state-people dichotomy. In contrast this article focuses on the intersection between state and society and argues that this plays an important part in class reproduction in "civil society". This issue is explored with reference to the role of the local state in class reproduction in the Indian countryside. The focus is on the means by which rural social groups negotiate access to the local state and discourses surrounding the state. The balance of colonization co-option and opposition that characterizes the relationship between dominant rural classes and local state officials/institutions is examined against the impact of the rise of a populist low class party. It is argued that the intersection between class and state is closer than even critical studies of state-society relations have posited. Moreover the state can within certain limits be brought to serve interests other than those of the dominant classes. (authors)
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue for a careful historical investigation of the manner in which scientific managerial knowledge emerges in the field of forestry, focusing on the specific period in the history of Bengal (1893-1937) when scientific forestry was formalized and institutionalized.
Abstract: Informed by debates on development discourse local knowledge and the history of colonial conservation this article argues for a careful historical investigation of the manner in which scientific managerial knowledge emerges in the field of forestry It makes its case by focusing on the specific period in the history of Bengal (1893-1937) when scientific forestry was formalized and institutionalized The processes and conflicts through which local knowledge gets encoded as scientific canon have to be understood to generate effective managerial devolution in participatory projects This requires an engagement with public understandings of science as practice that arises from a dynamic critique of static and undifferentiated notions of development discourse or local knowledge (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of the 1994 Forestry Law suggests that the success of future policies will depend on the willingness of actors to defend their interests the balance of power at the time and the ability of the Executive Branch to mediate among the different interests in each case.
Abstract: The formulation of Cameroons 1994 Forestry Law was influenced by the World Bank the Government of Cameroon and French politicians as well as by logging companies and individual Cameroonian politicians. Their actions were motivated by development objectives direct material interests and political concerns. However as the result of a flawed formulation process conflicting interests and weak government administrative capacity the law has not been fully implemented and may not be. An analysis of the 1994 Forestry Law suggests that the success of future policies will depend on the willingness of actors to defend their interests the balance of power at the time and the ability of the Executive Branch to mediate among the different interests in each case. (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of research and development (R&D) in conferring technological maturity and assessing the progress Malaysian manufacturing has made in this regard is discussed, while multinationals have transferred many aspects of production, they have been slow in transferring R&D expertise.
Abstract: Propelled largely by direct investment via multinationals, Malaysia’s manufacturing sector has grown rapidly and is changing its output-mix. In 1992, the share of high-tech products in Malaysian manufacturing exceeded that of Japan, Korea or Taiwan. However, this ‘maturity’ was acquired without a strong research base. This article provides a framework which looks at the role of research and development (R&D) in conferring technological maturity and assesses the progress Malaysian manufacturing has made in this regard. The authors find that while multinationals have transferred many aspects of production, they have been slow in transferring R&D expertise. Neither has indigenous innovation filled this gap. Consequently, the long-term sustainability of the industrial transformation process in Malaysia is in jeopardy. The article concludes with suggestions for corrective policies.
TL;DR: The role of social institutions in guiding decisions regarding the use of technologies in soil and water conservation has been explored in this article, where the authors identify concepts on which the cultural economy is based and uses these ideas to analyse institutions that affect the choice of soil and Water conservation technologies.
Abstract: Soil and water conservation interventions in Africa have had a chequered history, calling into question the way in which soil and water conservation technologies have been studied in the past. This article draws on a case study from eastern Burkina Faso to explore an area usually ignored by soil and water conservation studies — the role of social institutions in guiding decisions regarding the use of technologies. It looks at soil and water conservation through the historical development of what the authors call the ‘cultural economy’, that is, a system of exchange in which a market economy has mixed with pre-existing forms of exchange. The approach adopted by the authors identifies concepts on which the cultural economy is based and uses these ideas to analyse institutions that affect the choice of soil and water conservation technologies. The article shows how this approach leads to a reconceptualization of the ways in which soil and water conservation technologies are to be considered.
TL;DR: A critique of Stiglitz's paper and the premises underlying any attempt to reposition an international banking agency can be found in this article, where the authors highlight what is missing from the proposed paradigm, bearing in mind the World Bank's new "holistic development framework".
Abstract: While in the position of Chief Economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz produced a string of papers, one of which proposed moving beyond the ‘Washington consensus’ to a ‘new development paradigm’, which he hoped the World Bank would espouse. This article offers a critique of that paper and the premises underlying any attempt to reposition an international banking agency. In particular, it focuses on Stiglitz’s attempt to jettison ‘conditionality’ and his argument that developmental assistance should seek to foster socio-economic transformation and not be about ‘projects’. It also considers the ramifications of the call to make the World Bank ‘the knowledge bank’. Finally, it highlights what is missing from the proposed paradigm, bearing in mind the World Bank’s new ‘holistic development framework’.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the nature and contents of the right to development by virtue of which every individual is entitled to a process of economic, social, cultural and political development in which all human and fundamental freedoms can be realized.
Abstract: The Right to Development as established in the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development has now been recognized, through an international consensus arrived at in Vienna in 1993, as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights. That has not, of course, settled all the controversy regarding the nature and the content of the Right to Development, but the inter-governmental debate has shifted more to the methods of implementation of that Right. This article reviews the nature and contents of the Right to Development by virtue of which every individual is entitled to a process of economic, social, cultural and political development in which all human and fundamental freedoms can be realized. It spells out a programme for implementation of the Right, step by step, through national efforts supported by international co-operation. While the states are primarily responsible for realizing this Right for their citizens, the international community has the obligation of enabling the states to do so. A mechanism is proposed through international compacts to design, promote and monitor the process of implementation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used empirical data to intervene in women environment and development and ecofeminist debates regarding womens environmental knowledge, highlighting the local complexities of environmental knowledge possession and control with reference to gender and other variations in agricultural participation decision-making.
Abstract: Taking the Jharkhand region of India as a case study this article uses empirical data to intervene in “women environment and development” and ecofeminist debates regarding womens environmental knowledge. The article first outlines the adoption of gender/environmental issues into development planning and considers the dangers of overestimating womens agroecological knowledge and assuming that they can easily participate in development projects. It then highlights the local complexities of environmental knowledge possession and control with reference to gender and other variations in agricultural participation decision-making and knowledge transfers between villagers natal and marital places. Particular emphasis is placed on the economic sociocultural and ‘actor’ related factors that supplement gender as an influence on task allocation decision-making knowledge distribution and knowledge articulation. The article concludes that given the sociocultural constraints women face in accumulating and vocalizing environmental knowledge simplistic participatory approaches are unlikely to empower them. Instead more flexible site-specific development initiatives (coupled with wider structural change) are required if opportunities are to be created for women to develop and use their agroecological knowledge. (authors)
TL;DR: The authors examines the implications of economic uncertainty for rural markets and the livelihoods of female traders through a case study of a community in northern Ghana caught in the throes of a structural adjustment-driven privatization initiative.
Abstract: This article examines the implications of economic uncertainty for rural markets and the livelihoods of female traders. It does so through a case study of a community in northern Ghana caught in the throes of a structural adjustment-driven privatization initiative. In order to fully comprehend the nature of the economic uncertainties in which rural economic actors are enmeshed and the manner in which they resist engage or engender these conditions two theoretical lenses are interposed. One focusing on structural dissolution and an overall process of rural and especially female disempowerment is drawn from recent approaches to African political economy. The other gleaned from the field of economic anthropology attends to the agency and knowledge of rural entrepreneurs in the face of unstable and imperfect market conditions. By bringing together these different analytic traditions the critical significance of uncertainty within the complex process of rural economic transformation and reproduction becomes evident. Rather than functioning as a diagnostic of economic crisis and insecurity uncertainty can be a strategic resource integral to the constitution of markets livelihoods and economic coalitions. Such a perspective privileging the institutional potentials of local social practice makes apparent the forceful role played by female traders in the structuring of rural marketing systems even in the face of externally-induced and sometimes dramatic shifts in material conditions. (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the institutional dynamics of range management in two different villages in Ningxia, in order to understand the problems of over-grazing and desertification in the country's pastoral areas.
Abstract: China’s economic reforms have exacerbated the problems of over-grazing and desertification in the country’s pastoral areas. In order to deal with rangeland degradation, the Chinese government has resorted to nationalization, or semiprivatization. Since the implementation of rangeland policy has proved very difficult, however, experiments with alternative rangeland tenure systems merit our attention. In Ningxia, in northwest China, local attempts have been undertaken to establish communal range management systems with the village as the basic unit of use and control. Some of these management regimes are under severe stress, due to large-scale digging for medicinal herbs in the grasslands. This digging has resulted in serious conflicts between Han and Hui Muslim Chinese, during which several farmers have been killed. It is against this backdrop that this article explores the institutional dynamics of range management in two different villages. RANGELAND DEGRADATION AND LAND TENURE IN CHINA The problems of rangeland degradation, over-grazing and desertification have become issues of serious concern for the Chinese government since the start of the economic reforms in 1978. The central government has recognized the environmental problems sparked by the economic reforms, as well as the widening rural‐urban income gap, which is aggravated by a degraded ecological environment. Dealing with these problems is regarded as essential to solving rural poverty in the long term. Rangeland degradation and desertification occur mainly in the arid, poverty-stricken areas in the northwest of China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia). To date,
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how these broader changes have affected struggles between household members over obligations to support the household in the Zarmaganda region of western Niger and found that women and subordinate males invoke Islamic law to protect their individual wealth in times of grain deficit.
Abstract: Over the past twenty-five years, Sahelian households have experienced recurrent harvest failure and greater reliance on remittances from migratory wage labour. Household subsistence has become less dependent on household grain stores and more on the liquidation of individual wealth stores. This study investigates how these broader changes have affected struggles between household members over obligations to support the household in the Zarmaganda region of western Niger. As the land-derived leverage of male patriarchs has declined and household dependence on individual wealth stores has increased, domestic budgeting has become more contested. Household heads make case-by-case moral claims on other household members during times of grain shortage. Women and subordinate males invoke Islamic law, which accords primary provisioning responsibility to the household head, to protect their individual wealth in times of grain deficit. This article investigates the nature of these budgetary struggles, showing how individuals’ decisions to contribute individual wealth to support the household are best understood as highly situated, affected not only by the specific material conditions of the household but also the interplay of the moral, structural, and individualistic imperatives that derive from one’s position within the household. Using reconstructed livestock wealth histories for the members of fifty-four households in western Niger, this study investigates the material consequences of these struggles. Male heads of corporate households, the historic managers of the household’s land and agricultural labour, have lost wealth relative to their wives and married male subordinates since the drought of 1984.
TL;DR: The authors examined how state conceptions of jurisdiction, property and boundary-making in coastal areas accomplish the distortion and fragmentation of the coastal and marine spaces of Torres Strait Islanders in northern Queensland, Australia, and of the Cree and Inuit peoples of James and Hudson Bays in northern Que´bec, Canada.
Abstract: This article uses two case studies to illustrate the subjection of indigenous peoples’ marine territories to a ‘double jeopardy’ of exclusion — jurisdictional and proprietary — through the legal and administrative practices of European ‘settler’ states in Australia and Canada. While the fiction of terra nullius as a legal rationale for refuting indigenous rights of property and governance has steadily eroded in recent decades, its counterpart mare nullius has proven, so far, more resistant. The authors examine how state conceptions of jurisdiction, property and boundary-making in coastal areas accomplish the distortion and fragmentation of the coastal and marine spaces of Torres Strait Islanders in northern Queensland, Australia, and of the Cree and Inuit peoples of James and Hudson Bays in northern Que´bec, Canada. Assumptions of land–sea continuity underlie these peoples’ cultural constructions of coastal and marine environments. In examining the progress that each has made in reasserting ownership and control of coast and sea, it seems that recognition and reinforcement of their institutions for managing marine spaces and resources offer the best prospect for reconnecting fractured jurisdictional domains, and for bringing about social equity, environmental protection, and self-determined regional development.
TL;DR: Kumar et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the notion that Kerala state in southern India remains a (comparative) bastion of female equality as shown by normal sex ratios at birth and by child survival while fertility declines.
Abstract: This paper examines the notion that Kerala state in southern India remains a (comparative) bastion of female equality as shown by normal sex ratios at birth and by child survival while fertility declines. Studies have shown that much of India seems to be moving towards increased male bias during fertility and mortality declines and socioeconomic development. This is reflected in the increased masculinity of sex ratios at birth resurgent female infanticide and persistent excess female child mortality. While most studies point to Tamil Nadu to illustrate this trend they suggest that Kerala remains an exception. In Kerala data suggest that fertility decline has been accompanied by the rise of female disadvantage in infant/child mortality. Furthermore there are two factors associated with worsening female demographic disadvantage in the rest of India--the rise of dowry customs and the marginalization of women from paid employment--that are now seen in Kerala. In general the paper has drawn attention to recent gender gaps in demographic indicators and to declining womens status in Kerala state.
TL;DR: The authors describes the ways in which the Japanese forest is exploited as a tourist resource, and examines the problems that arise in this process of recommoditizing a timber forest into a tourist forest.
Abstract: Timber plantations make up nearly half the Japanese forest area. However, in recent decades domestic timber has been displaced by imports. The decline of Japanese forestry forms the background to the emergence of forest tourism whereby domestic forests become important sites for the recreational leisure of Japan’s urban middle class. This article describes the ways in which the Japanese forest is exploited as a tourist resource, and examines the problems that arise in this process of recommoditizing a timber forest into a tourist forest.