scholarly journals Roads to Change: Livelihoods, Land Disputes, and Anticipation of Future Developments in Rural Kenya

Author(s):  
Clemens Greiner ◽  
David Greven ◽  
Britta Klagge

AbstractThis article examines how rural roads relate to differences in livelihood patterns, attitudes toward social change, and land disputes in Baringo, Kenya. Although their direct use is limited for many residents, roads have a highly differentiating impact. While some households orientate themselves toward roads, those relying more on (agro-)pastoralist livelihoods avoid their proximity. Our findings suggest that better-off households are not the only ones that tend to live closer to roads, but that poorer households do as well. Rather than by socio-economic status, households living closer to roads can be characterized by higher degrees of formal education and also appear to be more open to economic and social change. Our data also highlight dynamics of land disputes in the face of ongoing large-scale infrastructural investments in Kenya’s previously marginal northern drylands.

1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-433
Author(s):  
René Lemarchand

Too often dismissed as a feudal backwater in a seething continent, the kingdom of Burundi has scarcely received the attention it deserves from social scientists. If not out of indifference, perhaps out of sheer consternation in the face of the contradictory policies followed by its successive governments, most outside observers have prudently avoided speculating on future developments in this part of Central Africa. This neglect is unfortunate on several counts, not the least being the sense of dismay of certain Burundi élites upon discovering that so few westerners are even aware of the existence of Burundi on the map of Africa. Nor is their rancour in any way assuaged when they realise that the term Watutsi conjures up in the public mind a form of exertion more akin to St Vitus' dance than to the realities of their national culture; and though it is plain that Burundi politics often tend to exhibit signs of disorderly convulsions, policy-makers here and abroad obviously need more in the way of explanation. Quite aside from policy considerations, however, the fact is that Burundi offers one of the most fascinating laboratories for the study of social change, as well as a unique opportunity to observe and analyse the forces which transform traditional orders into modern ones, or, perhaps more appropriately, which impede this transformation.


Author(s):  
Michael Germana

Ralph Ellison, Temporal Technologist examines Ralph Ellison’s body of work as an extended and ever-evolving expression of the author’s philosophy of temporality—a philosophy synthesized from the writings of Henri Bergson and Friedrich Nietzsche that anticipates the work of Gilles Deleuze. Taking the view that time is a multiplicity of dynamic processes, rather than a static container for the events of our lives, and an integral force of becoming, rather than a linear groove in which events take place, Ellison articulates a theory of temporality and social change throughout his corpus that flies in the face of all forms of linear causality and historical determinism. Integral to this theory is Ellison’s observation that the social, cultural, and legal processes constitutive of racial formation are embedded in static temporalities reiterated by historians and sociologists. In other words, Ellison’s critique of US racial history is, at bottom, a matter of time. This book reveals how, in his fiction, criticism, and photography, Ellison reclaims technologies through which static time and linear history are formalized in order to reveal intensities implicit in the present that, if actualized, could help us achieve Nietzsche’s goal of acting un-historically. The result is a wholesale reinterpretation of Ellison’s oeuvre, as well as an extension of Ellison’s ideas about the dynamism of becoming and the open-endedness of the future. It, like Ellison’s texts, affirms the chaos of possibility lurking beneath the patterns of living we mistake for enduring certainties.


Author(s):  
Richard Gowan

During Ban Ki-moon’s tenure, the Security Council was shaken by P5 divisions over Kosovo, Georgia, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Yet it also continued to mandate and sustain large-scale peacekeeping operations in Africa, placing major burdens on the UN Secretariat. The chapter will argue that Ban initially took a cautious approach to controversies with the Council, and earned a reputation for excessive passivity in the face of crisis and deference to the United States. The second half of the chapter suggests that Ban shifted to a more activist pressure as his tenure went on, pressing the Council to act in cases including Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Syria. The chapter will argue that Ban had only a marginal impact on Council decision-making, even though he made a creditable effort to speak truth to power over cases such as the Central African Republic (CAR), challenging Council members to live up to their responsibilities.


Author(s):  
Robert Leckey

Through the narrow entry of property disputes between former cohabitants, this chapter aims to clarify thinking on issues crucial to philosophical examination of family law. It refracts big questions—such as what cohabitants should owe one another and the balance between choice and protection—through a legal lens of attention to institutional matters such as the roles of judges and legislatures. Canadian cases on unjust enrichment and English cases quantifying beneficial interests in a jointly owned home are examples. The chapter highlights limits on judicial law reform in the face of social change, both in substance and in the capacity to acknowledge the state's interest in intimate relationships. The chapter relativizes the focus on choice prominent in academic and policy discussions of cohabitation and highlights the character of family law, entwined with the general private law of property and obligations, as a regulatory system.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442198970
Author(s):  
Maissaa Almustafa

The end of 2015 witnessed a global record in the number of forcibly displaced people fleeing because of wars and persecution. The unprecedented total of 65.3 million displaced individuals, out of which 21.3 million were refugees, was the highest number that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded since its establishment in 1950. During the same year and in the face of this large-scale crisis, only 107,100 refugees were admitted for resettlement through official resettlement programs, whereas 3.2 million people applied for asylum globally. And in spite of the fact that the majority of the world refugees are hosted in ten developing regions, the dominant narrative in the global media was about the “unauthorized” arrival of more than one million asylum seekers in Europe by sea during 2015. This paper argues that the unexpected nature of refugees’ arrivals has proven that refugees were supposed to be contained in their camps in the Global South, deterred from reaching the territories of the Global North, represented here by Europe. Thus, the paper proposes that these arrivals are rather reflections of a crisis of protection that developed in the Global South where containment and deterrence strategies against refugees from the Global South exacerbate their inhumane displacement conditions in home regions. In the same context, the paper discusses how international protection structures have been reconstructed to serve the same goals of containment and deterrence, with the ultimate aim of putting people ‘back in place’ with minimal access to protection and rights.


2008 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Woolliams ◽  
O. Matika ◽  
J. Pattison

SummaryLivestock production faces major challenges through the coincidence of major drivers of change, some with conflicting directions. These are:1. An unprecedented global change in demands for traditional livestock products such as meat, milk and eggs.2. Large changes in the demographic and regional distribution of these demands.3. The need to reduce poverty in rural communities by providing sustainable livelihoods.4. The possible emergence of new agricultural outputs such as bio-fuels making a significant impact upon traditional production systems.5. A growing awareness of the need to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production.6. The uncertainty in the scale and impact of climate change. This paper explores these challenges from a scientific perspective in the face of the large-scale and selective erosion of our animal genetic resources, and concludes thai there is a stronger and more urgent need than ever before to secure the livestock genetic resources available to humankind through a comprehensive global conservation programme.


2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Ciancio

Powered toothbrushes were first introduced on a large scale in the early 1960s. However, because of a clear lack of superiority compared with manual brushes, and problems with mechanical breakdowns, their sales decreased significantly. However, recommendation for their use continued in special populations with dexterity and cognition problems. The 1990s ushered in an era of new technology, and studies began to suggest superiority of some powered brushes, particularly those using oscillating-rotating or counter-rotational actions. Some studies have shown interproximal cleansing abilities superior to those of manual brushes and yielding results similar to those achieved with the use of a manual brush and floss. Both controlled and open-labeled studies have suggested that electric brushes improve gingival health with patients who routinely used manual brushes prior to using these new powered brushes, and safety has been clearly established. In recommending powered toothbrushes, practitioners should familiarize themselves with the products available, with the clinical studies supporting their benefits compared with manual brushes, their safety and ease of use, and the patient's economic status.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
K. Vasumathi ◽  
Raja Vadivu G. Nadana ◽  
E.M. Nithiya ◽  
K. Sundar ◽  
M. Premalatha

Microalgae, the photosynthetic microorganism growing abundantly in marine and aquatic ecosystems, are potential source for biological sequestration of CO2. The carbon uptake differs in the presence of other nutrients, light intensity etc. The biomass yield of Scenedesmus arcuatus var capitatus was studied based on the Face Centred Central Composite design (FCCD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for nitrate, phosphate and carbonate under different conditions (laboratory, room and sunlight conditions). Various pre-treatments (osmotic shock, autoclaving, microwave and ultrasonication) were employed to find the best method for maximum lipid yield. The biomass yield reached a maximum of 1 g/L under sunlight conditions of nitrate concentration 500 ppm and carbonate 2000 ppm. The laboratory conditions resulted in a biomass yield of 0.59 g/L at 500 ppm nitrate, 1000 ppm carbonate and 250 ppm phosphate. Under room conditions, the yield was very low (0.11 g/L). Osmotic shock resulted in higher lipid yield than the other pre-treatment methods. The ability of Scenedesmus arcuatus to uptake high carbon under sunlight conditions and to adapt to high light intensity and fluctuations in light intensity concludes that this species is suitable for large-scale open pond cultivation for CO2 sequestration and production of metabolites.


TERRITORIO ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Alvaro Domingues

- The article explores megastructures in relation to their impact on local transport networks and nodes. The area examined is Portugal, where the recent construction of giant shopping malls, industrial estates and logistics centres has in turn led to large-scale infrastructures that have been superimposed on a settlement pattern consisting, in many cases, of urban agglomerations serviced by rural roads. The resulting landscape reveals a juxtaposition of completely different elements in terms of both scale and impact, often the outcome of urban zoning projects intruding on fragmented urbanisation. The resulting image is one of scattered settlement patterns. Behind these phenomena one can see the effects of splintering urbanism. The difficulty in coordinating, in time and space, the decisions made and actions taken by a wide variety of individuals and institutions is becoming increasingly more complex.


2012 ◽  
Vol 215 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Homuth ◽  
Alexander Teumer ◽  
Uwe Völker ◽  
Matthias Nauck

The metabolome, defined as the reflection of metabolic dynamics derived from parameters measured primarily in easily accessible body fluids such as serum, plasma, and urine, can be considered as the omics data pool that is closest to the phenotype because it integrates genetic influences as well as nongenetic factors. Metabolic traits can be related to genetic polymorphisms in genome-wide association studies, enabling the identification of underlying genetic factors, as well as to specific phenotypes, resulting in the identification of metabolome signatures primarily caused by nongenetic factors. Similarly, correlation of metabolome data with transcriptional or/and proteome profiles of blood cells also produces valuable data, by revealing associations between metabolic changes and mRNA and protein levels. In the last years, the progress in correlating genetic variation and metabolome profiles was most impressive. This review will therefore try to summarize the most important of these studies and give an outlook on future developments.


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