scholarly journals Rural Uncommoning

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Nicola J. Bidwell
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Community Networks ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Communal Identity ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Rural Governance ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Local Telecommunications

Shared use of small-scale natural commons is vital to the livelihoods of billions of rural inhabitants, particularly women, and advocates propose that local telecommunications systems that are oriented by the commons can close rural connectivity gaps. This article extends insights about women's exclusion from such Community Networks (CNs) by considering ‘commoning’, or practices that produce, reproduce and use the commons and create communality. I generated data in interviews and observations of rural CNs in seven countries in the Global South and in multi-sited ethnography of international advocacy for CNs. Male biases in technoculture and rural governance limit women's participation in CNs, and women adopt different approaches to performing their communal identity while using technology. This situation contributes to detaching CNs from relations that are produced in women's commoning. It also illustrates processes that co-opt the commons in rural technology endeavours and the diverse ways commoners express their subjectivities in response.

scholarly journals The Political Defence of the Commons: The Case of Community Networks

2020 ◽  
pp. 560-574
Author(s):  
Félix Tréguer ◽  
Melanie Dulong de Rosnay
Keyword(s):  
Community Networks ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Advocacy ◽  
Regulatory Capture ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Grassroots Initiatives ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Building Community ◽  
Telecom Sector

This article reflects on experiences of political advocacy which have been led by Community Networks activists in Germany, France and Spain to support the sustainability of bottom-up initiatives aiming at building community-owned telecom infrastructures, or “telecommons”. While pointing to the diversity of action repertoires used by various Community Networks across Europe, the article points to the potential of these instances of political advocacy to democratise both telecommunications and policy-making in the telecom sector, an area that is prone to both eviction of small actors and regulatory capture by special economic interests. It also suggests that their repertoires offer a set of reproducible tactics available to very small actors without dedicated advocacy staff or budget. Speaking to the inventiveness of grassroots initiatives, the article concludes by analysing the potential and pitfalls of political advocacy for small-scale social movements working for the political defence of the commons, and communities which are under risk of enclosure and capitalist co-optation.

scholarly journals Drama of the commons in small-scale shrimp aquaculture in northwestern, Sri Lanka

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eranga Kokila Galappaththi ◽  
Fikret Berkes
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Shrimp Aquaculture ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Commons

scholarly journals Expansion of the Waste-Based Commodity Frontier: Insights from Sweden and Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Gutberlet ◽  
Torleif Bramryd ◽  
Michael Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Waste Incineration ◽  
Global South ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Sustainable Technologies ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
The Impact

Waste is a valuable commodity and remains a livelihood source for waste pickers in the global South. Waste to Energy (WtoE) is often described as alternative to landfilling, as it provides cheap fuel while making waste disappear. In some European cities, this method has evolved into an impediment, slowing down the adoption of more sustainable technologies and waste prevention. These plants typically strain municipal budgets and provide fewer jobs than recycling and composting, thereby inhibiting the development of small-scale local recycling businesses. We applied the idea of ‘waste regime’ with an interdisciplinary and situated lens to provide insights to the following questions: How do different political developments in Brazil and Sweden, frame and reframe waste incineration and energy recovery, in the context of sustainability and waste management on local, regional and national levels? What forms of resistance against WtoE exist and what are the arguments of these protagonists? We evaluated the impact of WtoE and compare it with other waste management options with regard to CO2 balances and general environmental and social impacts. We conclude by suggesting more socially and environmentally appropriate ways of waste management, particularly for the context of global South cities.

scholarly journals Agricultural Investment Corridors in Africa: Does Smallholder and Women's Participation Count?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Smalley ◽  
Emmanuel Sulle ◽  
Ngala Chome ◽  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Euclides Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Investment ◽  
Development Finance ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Complex Projects ◽  
Meaningful Engagement ◽  
International Donors

Agricultural development corridors and clusters are highly complex projects that have been driven in Africa by agribusiness and mining corporations, host governments, international donors and development finance institutions. There is interest in whether these projects can support inclusive agribusiness. Evidence shows that involvement of small-scale economic actors in such initiatives is often impeded by a failure to grant them participation or a voice. We therefore investigated if and how recent corridors and clusters in Africa have been able to achieve the meaningful engagement of small-scale economic actors, with a focus on smallholders, including pastoralists, and the women among them.

scholarly journals The Impact of Indonesian Law No. 6/2014 on Women’s Political Participation in the Politics of Kelurahan: A Study on Kelurahan’s Community Empowerment Institution (LPMK) in Salatiga, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 283
Author(s):  
Ani Purwanti ◽  
Dyah Wijaningsih ◽  
Fajar Ahmad Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Urban Counterpart ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Village ◽  
Women Participation

In Indonesia, decentralization and democratization have prompted the issue of women’s representation to be brought upon local and small-scale communities. One of the examples is the Indonesian Law No.6/2014 (the Village Act) in which the affirmative action for women’s participation is mandated in village’s representative body. Later, the same action is implemented in the urban counterpart to village’s rural that is Kelurahan, with the same Act –mutatis mutandis-. This article explores the implementation of Law No. 6/2014’s affirmative action to the kelurahan’s representative body, the Community Empowerment Institution or Lembaga Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Kelurahan (LPMK) in Salatiga. Acknowledging that there are fundamental differences between village and kelurahan, we found that such a maneuver has caused policy and practical inconsistencies where gender equality clause is omitted and the organization’s structure remains unreformed. Thus, it seems that the implementation of affirmative action for women participation in kelurahan’s politics has been withered before blooming.

scholarly journals The contribution of small-scale, privately owned tropical aquaculture to food security and dietary diversity in Bolivia

Food Security ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Irwin ◽  
Mark S. Flaherty ◽  
Joachim Carolsfeld
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Fish Consumption ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Dietary Preferences ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Tropical Aquaculture ◽  
The Impact

Abstract New aquaculture systems are emerging in new contexts around the world in part due to aquaculture’s perceived development benefits. However, linkages between aquaculture and food security in these systems are unclear. This study investigated the impact of emerging small-scale, business-oriented fish culture in central Bolivia on the food security and dietary diversity of aquaculture producers (n = 40) and workers (n = 26) in the value chain and compared them to local non-aquaculture farmers (n = 40). Three pathways were investigated: fish consumption, household income, and women’s participation. Food insecurity was widespread and did not vary in a statistically significant way between groups, but a trend toward greater food security amongst aquaculture producers was observed. Dietary diversity was highly homogenous, with the notable exception of high fish consumption amongst producers. Aquaculture was related to higher income, and income has a modest positive effect on food security for aquaculturists and non-aquaculture farmers, but not aquaculture value chain workers. Income did not have an effect on dietary diversity. Women’s involvement in aquaculture was correlated positively to productivity, profitability, and size of operation, while male-only aquaculture was negatively correlated to these. The value chain generated employment, especially for women, but average wages were higher for men. The research provides important insight into aquaculture-food security linkages by showing that the introduction of small-scale business-oriented aquaculture systems can provide nutritious products for regional consumption and can have positive effects on food security but is not sufficient to change local dietary preferences more broadly.

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