Preference heterogeneity, neighbourhood effects and basic services: logit kernel models for farmers’ climate adaptation in Ethiopia

Author(s):  
Stefano Mainardi
Author(s):  
Caroline Schaer

Purpose – The number of poor and informal urban settlers in the world is rapidly growing, and they are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate. Therefore, understanding the nature and sustainability of locally adopted coping and adaptation strategies are key, yet still under-researched areas. Design/methodology/approach – Based on ethnographic research conducted in two poor, flood-prone municipalities in Pikine/Dakar, this paper identifies such coping and adaptation strategies and examines their prospects for maladaptation. Findings – The paper shows that poor urban dwellers are not mere passive spectators of climate change. With the very limited resources they have at their disposal, it is found that local actors respond to perennial flooding with very diverse strategies, which have varying degrees of success and sustainability. A key finding is that local coping and adaptation strategies are mainly maladaptive because they divert risks and impacts in time and space and have detrimental effects on the most vulnerable. Unless there is a broad assimilation of all groups in decision-making processes locally, individual and even collective coping and adaptation strategies may easily put the most vulnerable households at greater risk. The findings reveal that community-based adaptation is not a panacea per se, as it may not, by itself, compensate for the lack of basic services and infrastructure that is forcing the urban poor to cope with disproportionate levels of risk. Originality/value – The paper, hence, contributes to address a central question in scholarly debates on climate adaptation, vulnerability and disaster risk management: Are local coping strategies a stepping stone towards adaptation or are they on the contrary likely to lead to maladaptation?


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Yiftachel

This article examines the evolving relations between Israel and the indigenous Bedouin Arab population of the southern Beer-Sheba region. It begins with a discussion of theoretical aspects, highlighting a structural conflict embedded in the ‘ethnocratic’ nature of nation-building typical of ‘pure’ settler states, such as Israel. The place of the Bedouin Arab community is then analyzed, focusing on the impact of one of Israel's central policies—the Judaization of territory. The study traces the various legal, planning and economic strategies of Judaizing contested lands in the study area. These have included the nationalization of Arab land, the pervasive establishment of Jewish settlements, the forced urbanization of the Bedouin Arabs, and the denial of basic services to Bedouins who refuse to urbanize. However, the analysis also finds a growing awareness among indigenous Arabs of their being discriminated against on ethnic grounds, and the emergence of effective resistance. In recent years, this has resulted in a deadlock between state authorities and the indigenous peoples. The case of the Bedouin Arabs demonstrates that the ethnocentric settler state is weakening and fragmenting, partially at least, due to its own expansionist land, planning and development policies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Philip Brick ◽  
Kent Woodruff

This case explores the Methow Beaver Project (MBP), an ambitious experiment to restore beaver (Castor canadensis) to a high mountain watershed in Washington State, USA. The Pacific Northwest is already experiencing weather regimes consistent with longer term climate projections, which predict longer and drier summers and stronger and wetter winter storms. Ironically, this combination makes imperative more water storage in one of the most heavily dammed regions in the nation. Although the positive role that beaver can play in watershed enhancement has been well known for decades, no project has previously attempted to re-introduce beaver on a watershed scale with a rigorous monitoring protocol designed to document improved water storage and temperature conditions needed for human uses and aquatic species. While the MBP has demonstrated that beaver can be re-introduced on a watershed scale, it has been much more difficult to scientifically demonstrate positive changes in water retention and stream temperature, given hydrologic complexity, unprecedented fire and floods, and the fact that beaver are highly mobile. This case study can help environmental studies students and natural resource policy professionals think about the broader challenges of diffuse, ecosystem services approaches to climate adaptation. Beaver-produced watershed improvements will remain difficult to quantify and verify, and thus will likely remain less attractive to water planners than conventional storage dams. But as climate conditions put additional pressure on such infrastructure, it is worth considering how beaver might be employed to augment watershed storage capacity, even if this capacity is likely to remain at least in part inscrutable.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Merrill ◽  
Jack Kartez ◽  
Karen Langbehn ◽  
Frank Muller-Karger ◽  
Catherine J. Reynolds

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-517
Author(s):  
Abdel Rahman Ahmed Abdel Rahman

Public bureaucracies, a general term including government agenciesand departments in the areas of public utilities, social services, regulatoryservices, security, and law enforcement, are indispensable to our welfare;we need them for the provision of these basic services. To provide theseservices, bureaucracies need such resources as power and money. Thepower of bureaucracies is compounded by their virtual monopoly of technicalexpertise, which puts bureaucrats at the forefront of public policymaking.Indispensable to our welfare though they are, public bureaucracies alsopose a potential threat. In view of the technical knowledge they have andtheir consequent important role in policy making, they may dominate publiclife. In other words, they may develop into a power elite and, as a result,act as masters of the public rather than as its servants. More disturbingly,they may not use the public trust to serve the public or respond to its needs.Still more disturbingly, they may breach the public trust or abuse the powerentrusted to them.All of these possibilities have given rise to a widespread fear ofbureaucracy. In some societies, this fear has reached pandemic levels.Fear of bureaucracy is not unwarranted; there is a consensus and concernin administrative and academic circles that the degree of bureaucraticaccountability has declined in both developed and developingcountries. A central issue with public bureaucracy has always beenhow to make it behave responsibly or in the public interest. Despite aplethora of mechanisms for ensuring administrative responsibility orbureaucratic responsiveness, many public bureaucracies may still be unresponsive and unaccountable ...


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document