scholarly journals Beyond Disciplinarity

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 309-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Bompani
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Critical Social Science ◽  
Single Discipline ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Investigative Process

The increasing public role of religion in Sub-Saharan Africa and the consequent studies that are emerging on the topic, force us to rethink how to interpret, approach, categorize and understand religion in the public. The pervasiveness of religion, and the impossibility of simply inscribing it within a single discipline pushes us to reconsider our approaches, methodologies and theories. Focusing on the emergence of “Religion and Development” (RaD) as a sub-discipline within the discipline of Development Studies, the article will show how the creation of “focused transdisciplinarity”, embedded in critical social science, can be an answer to the need of engaging with the multilayered nature of religion without compromising rigor and while still benefiting from methodologies and theories developed within a defined discipline. The article argues that a “focused transdisciplinary approach” allows research to navigate complexity and engage with issues while constantly reminding us of the origins of the investigative process in which the study is conducted.

scholarly journals Circular Bioeconomy Research for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Innovations, Gaps, and Actions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiferaw Feleke ◽  
Steven Michael Cole ◽  
Haruna Sekabira ◽  
Rousseau Djouaka ◽  
Victor Manyong
Keyword(s):  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
International Institute ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Sub Saharan

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has applied the concept of ‘circular bioeconomy’ to design solutions to address the degradation of natural resources, nutrient-depleted farming systems, hunger, and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over the past decade, IITA has implemented ten circular bioeconomy focused research for development (R4D) interventions in several countries in the region. This article aims to assess the contributions of IITA’s circular bioeconomy focused innovations towards economic, social, and environmental outcomes using the outcome tracking approach, and identify areas for strengthening existing circular bioeconomy R4D interventions using the gap analysis method. Data used for the study came from secondary sources available in the public domain. Results indicate that IITA’s circular bioeconomy interventions led to ten technological innovations (bio-products) that translated into five economic, social, and environmental outcomes, including crop productivity, food security, resource use efficiency, job creation, and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Our gap analysis identified eight gaps leading to a portfolio of five actions needed to enhance the role of circular bioeconomy in SSA. The results showcase the utility of integrating a circular bioeconomy approach in R4D work, especially how using such an approach can lead to significant economic, social, and environmental outcomes. The evidence presented can help inform the development of a framework to guide circular bioeconomy R4D at IITA and other research institutes working in SSA. Generating a body of evidence on what works, including the institutional factors that create enabling environments for circular bioeconomy approaches to thrive, is necessary for governments and donors to support circular bioeconomy research that will help solve some of the most pressing challenges in SSA as populations grow and generate more waste, thus exacerbating a changing climate using the linear economy model.

Rome, Religion, and Christian Emperors

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-139
Author(s):  
Mattias P. Gassman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Competing Ideas ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Public Decision

The controversy over the altar of Victory shows how pagans and Christians expressed competing ideas on the public role of religion in an increasingly Christian empire. In 382, Gratian revoked funding from the Roman state priesthoods and removed the altar from the Senate house. Following Gratian’s death in 383, the Senate appealed to his brother, Valentinian II, through the urban prefect, Symmachus, whose communiqué was successfully countered by Ambrose of Milan. Recent scholarship has favoured Symmachus’ account, which it sees as an appeal for religious tolerance, and argued that the affair was decided by the power politics of a child emperor’s unstable court. In response, this chapter argues that Symmachus was actually trying to exclude the emperor’s Christianity from public decision-making. All religions may, for Symmachus, lead to God, but the old cults are Rome’s divinely appointed defence, as well as the bond between Senate and emperors. Ambrose put Valentinian’s duty to God at the heart of his appeal. Ambrose’s Senate contained many Christians, and Ambrose was bound to resist an emperor who endorsed pagan sacrifices (the closest either work comes to explicit political gamesmanship). Together, their works show how malleable Rome’s public religion still was, more than seventy years after Constantine embraced Christianity.

Wall of Separation? Debating the Public Role of Religion

2000 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
James M. Penning ◽  
Mary C. Segers ◽  
Ted G. Jelen
Keyword(s):  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Role Of Religion

The Role of Public Population Institutions on Fertility Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. May
Keyword(s):  
Fertility Decline ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic Dividend ◽  
The Public ◽  
Population Policies ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract The UN Population Division currently projects the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will reach 4 billion by the end of this century, unless we see a sharp decline in the region’s fertility rates. Although the region has embarked on its demographic transition, this process is occurring at a slower rate than in the rest of the developing world and seems to be stalling in several countries. The economic benefits that would follow from an acceleration of the fertility decline are now widely recognized but the SSA leadership is only slowly changing its attitude towards population issues. This paper’s discussion of SSA population growth focuses on fertility, and the identification of factors that may lead to fertility decline, with particular attention to the direct influence of public institutions. These are the public institutions dealing with family planning programs or those designed to prepare and implement population policies and/or monitor the demographic dividend. Reviewing the experience of these institutions in the SSA context allows us to suggest ways to strengthen them with the view of accelerating the fertility transition in the region, opening a demographic window of opportunity, and capturing a first demographic dividend.

scholarly journals Relationship between Public Debt Burden and Health Expenditure in Sub-Saharan African Countries: The Role of Institutional Quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rusmawati Said ◽  
Abdullahi Sani Morai
Keyword(s):  
Public Debt ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Debt Burden ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Relationship

The historically lower level of public health expenditure of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries could be partly explained by the mounting debt burden of this region. This consumes a sizable proportion of their domestic resources to debt servicing and potentially decreases their overall budgetary allocations to various sectors in the economy and health expenditure in particular. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach on a sample of 43 sub-Saharan African countries, we examined the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure highlighting the role of institutional quality for the period 2000 – 2014. The empirical result confirms that the relationship between public debt burden and health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa is negative. Interestingly, however, the marginal effect of the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure has shown that such a negative relationship turns out to be positive when the quality of the institutions is at maximum. This suggests that the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa is a function of institutional quality.  Therefore, to minimize the negative impact of public debt on health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa, governments should take determine stand to minimize its debt accumulation and intensify efforts toward the improvement of institutional quality in the region comprehensively.

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