Agriculture and Industry: a Case-Study of Capitalist Failure in Northern Nigeria

1980 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Allen

Discussion of industrial activity in capitalist Third-World countries has usually centred on a series of dualistic frameworks, most recently the opposition between the so-called ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ sectors of an economy. Such dichotomies attempt to divide the activities of labour as cleanly as possible into two groups sharing common characteristics. The categories that emerge – modern/traditional, large/small-scale, formal/informal – overlap to a considerable degree because, in effect, they all attempt, with varying crudity, to compare the socio-economic characteristics of those dominant capitalist enterprises which are based on intensive capital, high-level technology, and a large scale of production, with those activities in the economy which are not based on such features. As such, the second category tends to have both negative and residual components.

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1265-1272 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Chen ◽  
Y. Zhong ◽  
G. Wei ◽  
Z. Shen

Abstract. The identification of priority management areas (PMAs) is essential for the control of non-point-source (NPS) pollution, especially for a large-scale watershed. However, previous studies have typically focused on small-scale catchments adjacent to specific assessment points; thus, the interactions between multiple river points remain poorly understood. In this study, a multiple-assessment-point PMA (MAP-PMA) framework was proposed by integrating the upstream sources and the downstream transport aspects of NPS pollution. Daning River watershed was taken as a case study in this paper, which has demonstrated that the integration of the upstream input changes was vital for the final PMAs map, especially for downstream areas. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this research recommended that the NPS pollutants could be best controlled among the upstream high-level PMAs when protecting the water quality of the entire watershed. The MAP-PMA framework provided a more cost-effective tool for the establishment of conservation practices, especially for a large-scale watershed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 486-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Tukamuhabwa ◽  
Mark Stevenson ◽  
Jerry Busby

Purpose In few prior empirical studies on supply chain resilience (SCRES), the focus has been on the developed world. Yet, organisations in developing countries constitute a significant part of global supply chains and have also experienced the disastrous effects of supply chain failures. The purpose of this paper is therefore to empirically investigate SCRES in a developing country context and to show that this also provides theoretical insights into the nature of what is meant by resilience. Design/methodology/approach Using a case study approach, a supply network of 20 manufacturing firms in Uganda is analysed based on a total of 45 interviews. Findings The perceived threats to SCRES in this context are mainly small-scale, chronic disruptive events rather than discrete, large-scale catastrophic events typically emphasised in the literature. The data reveal how threats of disruption, resilience strategies and outcomes are inter-related in complex, coupled and non-linear ways. These interrelationships are explained by the political, cultural and territorial embeddedness of the supply network in a developing country. Further, this embeddedness contributes to the phenomenon of supply chain risk migration, whereby an attempt to mitigate one threat produces another threat and/or shifts the threat to another point in the supply network. Practical implications Managers should be aware, for example, of potential risk migration from one threat to another when crafting strategies to build SCRES. Equally, the potential for risk migration across the supply network means managers should look at the supply chain holistically because actors along the chain are so interconnected. Originality/value The paper goes beyond the extant literature by highlighting how SCRES is not only about responding to specific, isolated threats but about the continuous management of risk migration. It demonstrates that resilience requires both an understanding of the interconnectedness of threats, strategies and outcomes and an understanding of the embeddedness of the supply network. Finally, this study’s focus on the context of a developing country reveals that resilience should be equally concerned both with smaller in scale, chronic disruptions and with occasional, large-scale catastrophic events.


Author(s):  
Angela Nastevska ◽  
Jovana Jovanova ◽  
Mary Frecker

Abstract Large scale structures can benefit from the design of compliant joints that can provide flexibility and adaptability. A high level of deformation is achieved locally with the design of flexures in compliant mechanisms. Additionally, by introducing contact-aided compliant mechanisms, nonlinear bending stiffness is achieved to make the joints flexible in one direction and stiff in the opposite one. All these concepts have been explored in small scale engineering design, but they have not been applied to large scale structures. In this paper the design of a large scale compliant mechanism is proposed for novel design of a foldable shipping container. The superelasticity of nickel titanium is shown to be beneficial in designing the joints of the compliant mechanism.


Author(s):  
Ilda Vagge ◽  
◽  
Gioia Maddalena Gibelli ◽  
Alessio Gosetti Poli ◽  
◽  
...  

The authors, with the awareness that climate change affects and changes the landscape, wanted to investigate how these changes are occurring within the metropolitan area of Tehran. Trying to keep a holistic method that embraces different disciplines, reasoning from large scale to small scale, the authors tried to study the main problems related to water scarcity and loss of green spaces. Subsequently they dedicated themselves to the identification of the present and missing ecosystem services, so that they could be used in the best possible way as tools for subsequent design choices. From the analysis obtained, the authors have created a masterplan with the desire to ensure a specific natural capital, the welfare of ecosystem services, and at the same time suggest good water management practices. It becomes essential to add an ecological accounting to the economic accounting, giving dignity to the natural system and the ecosystem services that derive from it.


Author(s):  
Anjan Pakhira ◽  
Peter Andras

Testing is a critical phase in the software life-cycle. While small-scale component-wise testing is done routinely as part of development and maintenance of large-scale software, the system level testing of the whole software is much more problematic due to low level of coverage of potential usage scenarios by test cases and high costs associated with wide-scale testing of large software. Here, the authors investigate the use of cloud computing to facilitate the testing of large-scale software. They discuss the aspects of cloud-based testing and provide an example application of this. They describe the testing of the functional importance of methods of classes in the Google Chrome software. The methods that we test are predicted to be functionally important with respect to a functionality of the software. The authors use network analysis applied to dynamic analysis data generated by the software to make these predictions. They check the validity of these predictions by mutation testing of a large number of mutated variants of the Google Chrome. The chapter provides details of how to set up the testing process on the cloud and discusses relevant technical issues.


Author(s):  
Hans-Jörg Schmid

This chapter discusses how the Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model explains language change. First, it is emphasized that not only innovation and variation, but also the frequency of repetition can serve as important triggers of change. Conventionalization and entrenchment processes can interact and be influenced by numerous forces in many ways, resulting in various small-scale processes of language change, which can stop, change direction, or even become reversed. This insight serves as a basis for the systematic description of nine basic modules of change which differ in the ways in which they are triggered and controlled by processes and forces. Large-scale pathways of change such as grammaticalization, lexicalization, pragmaticalization, context-induced change, or colloquialization and standardization are all explained by reference to these modules. The system is applied in a case study on the history of do-periphrasis.


1974 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hinchliffe

The term ‘labour aristocracy’ first appeared in the literature on African economic development in 1968,1 although African wage labour had previously been described as a privileged elite on many occasions. I wish to question the accuracy and relevance of the type of calculation upon which these descriptions are based, and to present the situation which prevails today in Northern Nigeria, using detailed survey data on the earnings of rural farmers, urban workers, and those employed in small-scale enterprises.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yajian Zhang ◽  
Willie Tan

Purpose It is widely recognized that large-scale public–private partnership (PPP) projects require an effective coordination mechanism among various stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into how this may be achieved through the leading small group (LSG), which is a distinctive informal Chinese institution for coordination among various public agencies. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study using secondary data and five in-depth interviews with two staff members from the developer and three government officials involved is used to probe into how the LSG functions during the various development phases of the Yangzhou Teda Waste-to-Energy project. Findings The main finding is that, conditional on its capacity, the LSG coordinated various public agencies to promote fast project implementation and ensure its smooth operation by making high-level decisions, facilitating quick permits and approvals, and mitigating the risks. However, formalization and participation from other stakeholders are needed to ensure good governance. Research limitations/implications Because it is an exploratory case study, the findings cannot be readily generalized. Further research can be done to compare the performance of LSGs in different Chinese cities and PPP projects. Practical implications It is supposed that this paper can provide implications of designing effective coordination mechanisms for managing large-scale PPP projects. Originality/value This paper provides an account of the LSG as a distinctive Chinese coordination mechanism that has been rarely studied.


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 02011
Author(s):  
Cristian-Gabriel Alionte ◽  
Daniel-Constantin Comeaga

The importance of renewable energy and especially of eolian systems is growing. For this reason, we propose the investigation of an important pollutant - the noise, which has become so important that European Commission and European Parliament introduced Directive 2002/49/CE relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. So far, priority has been given to very large-scale systems connected to national energy systems, wind farms whose highly variable output power could be regulated by large power systems. Nowadays, with the development of small storage capacities, it is feasible to install small power wind turbines in cities of up to 10,000 inhabitants too. As a case study, we propose a simulation for a rural locality where individual wind units could be used. This specific case study is interesting because it provides a new perspective of the impact of noise on the quality of life when the use of this type of system is implemented on a large scale. This option, of distributed and small power wind turbine, can be implemented in the future as an alternative or an adding to the common systems.


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