Land Tenure and Biodiversity: An Exploration in the Political Ecology of Murang'a District, Kenya

2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fiona D. Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Relationship

This paper situates the relationship between biodiversity and land tenure in the complex interrelationships between the local and the global. Through a case study of Murang’a District, Kenya, it explores how power is exercised through struggles to define rights to land in highly complex situations of legal plurality and how these struggles in turn interrelate with issues of land management, including biodiversity. Gender, cross-cut by class, is a deeply contested arena of social differentiation, and the outcome of struggles for land, labor, and the product of labor have significant implications for the maintenance of biodiversity.

Kämpfe um Bergbau und die Möglichkeiten demokratischer Transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (189) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.

scholarly journals Resituating the political in cultural intermediary work: Charity sector public relations and communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942199423
Author(s):  
Anne M Cronin ◽  
Lee Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Cultural Intermediary ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Drawing on a case study of public relations in the UK charity sector, this article argues that cultural intermediary research urgently requires a more sustained focus on politics and the political understood as power relations, party politics and political projects such as marketization and neoliberalism. While wide-ranging research has analysed how cultural intermediaries mediate the relationship between culture and economy, this has been at the expense of an in-depth analysis of the political. Using our case study as a prompt, we highlight the diversity of ways that the political impacts cultural intermediary work and that cultural intermediary work may impact the political. We reveal the tensions that underpin practice as a result of the interactions between culture, the economy and politics, and show that the tighter the engagement of cultural intermediation with the political sphere, the more tensions must be negotiated and the more compromised practitioners may feel.

THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF ‘INCURSIONS’: LIVESTOCK, PROTECTED AREAS AND SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS IN THE MARA REGION OF KENYA

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bilal Butt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Domestic Animals ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
Mara Region

ABSTRACTAcross the world, the presence of domestic animals in protected areas (PAs) is considered an ‘incursion’ that threatens the economic and ecological viability of these areas. Dominant narratives about incursions inaccurately describe the relationships between people and PAs because they lack adequate contextualization. In this paper, I rely on a political-ecological framework to argue for an alternative narrative. Through a case study from a PA in southern Kenya, I demonstrate how incursions are instead modern co-productions that arise from the intersections between changing political geographies of resource control and variable animal geographies of resource utilization – thus clarifying a long-standing debate about the presence of domestic animals in PAs. I rely on direct empirical and supporting evidence from place-based studies to illustrate the spatial and temporal differences in resource access strategies of wildlife and livestock within and outside the PA. I contrast these against changing land tenure and resource management policies to highlight how livestock movements into PAs are patterned in ways that reflect the changing nature of PA management, the material conditions of the landscape, and the agency of animals. Through these investigations, this paper provides a more accurate and nuanced explanation for livestock movements into PAs.

scholarly journals Writing with Automated Machines: Between Translation and Sabotage

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Ana Marques
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Evolution Of Technology

A generative text is a system constituted by non-conscious and conscious cognizers, digital and analogue processes, and mathematical and linguistic modes of representation. But how do algorithms cognize? And how is meaning constructed in a system where authorial intentions and readers’ experiences and interpretations are mediated by algorithmic agents? Through the analysis of How It Is In Common Tongues (Cayley and Howe, 2012), I intend to discuss the tensions that arise from the encounter between algorithmic and human cognition, and between the regimes of information and expression. Drawing on Katherine Hayles’ view on the cognitive non-conscious and Claude Shannon’s information theory I will start by establishing a distinction between information and meaning, between communication and expression, and between the regimes of information and of the literary. To reflect on the political ecology of digital mediation (situated in the informational regime of cybernetics), I will consider Matteo Pasquinelli’s perspective on the co-evolution of technology and economics, and discuss how algorithmic cognitive processes embody and reinforce the structures of contemporary cognitive capitalism. Finally, I will discuss the strategies of resistance enabled by aesthetic approaches to computation, such as the ones explored in this case study.

scholarly journals Socio-economic determinants of best land management practices adoption in highly anthropized areas: case study of Dan Saga and Tabofatt village clusters in Niger republic

Agro-Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
S. Saidou ◽  
D.G. Iro ◽  
J.M.K. Ambouta
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Erosion Control ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Agroforestry Practices

The objective sought by this study is to highlight the socio-economic determinants that could be helpful in scaling up of best land management practices in high demographics areas. Indeed, a survey was carried out in Dan Saga and Tabofatt two villages’ clusters in order to identify the driver factors which explain the high adoption of best land management practices in these areas. The data were collected from 200 farmers (100 from each cluster), randomly chosen. The survey addressed the likelihood of farmer to use agroforestry practices and or erosion control practices, on the basis of four socioeconomics variables: the educational level of farmer (Instr), the distance between their farm and habitation (Prox), the possession of Harnessed Cultivation Unit (HCU) and the land tenure status (Land). Data were subjected to an analysis by statistical modeling of logistic regression. The results show that agroforestry technology is predominated in Dan Saga cluster (90% of citation for agroforestry practices) compare to Tabofatt cluster where people use mostly erosion control practices (76% of citation for erosion control practices). Among the socioeconomics variables, three main factors significantly influenced the adoption of best land management; the educational level of peasants, the modality of land tenure by purchase and by inheritance and the possession of harness unit. In addition, the main land management technologies perform a high profitability compare to state of inaction. These results could serve as a lever for scaling up of regreening policy in other degraded areas of Sahel’s region.

scholarly journals Research and Teaching as Actions Supporting the Specificity of a Territory: Developing a Design and Pedagogic Strategy for the Abandoned Mining Landscapes of Sardinia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pier Francesco Cherchi ◽  
◽  
Marco Lecis ◽  
Marco Moro ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Joint Venture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
East Side ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Natural Landscapes ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

This paper illustrates a case study of teaching and research applied to the abandoned mining landscapes of the Sulcis area, located in the south-east side of Sardinia, one of the poorest in Europe. Although the region’s critical condition in the present, the area is nevertheless extremely rich in fascination and history. It offers unique natural landscapes, mostly pristine, a variety of archeological sites and, as mentioned, the ruins of the mining installations. All of this makes fore-seeable a concrete possibility of regeneration for the area, based on tourism, one of the island primary resources. The local institutions of Sulcis started a partnership with the University of Cagliari aiming to pursuit not just a practical and economical outcome in the immediate present, more a cultural and deeper rescue with a wider perspective. In the following pages, we present our academic activities in this mark and how we managed to guarantee fruitful superpositions of pedagogy, design, and research in our work within this kind of cooperation.Our focus is, therefore, the relationship between researching and teaching activities and the actions in support of the territory, pursued in a joint venture with the political institution. During these experiences, we defined a strategy to intercross these different layers, bringing the real and concrete dimension into our classroom, sharing our work with the students, and, at the same time, transferring the fruits of the teaching experiences to the territory. The correspondence between these two levels is not free of ambiguity and contradictions, however, we are convinced that it might show very important and fruitful outcomes.

The limits of power: the political ecology of the Spanish Empire in the Greater Southwest

Antiquity ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 66 (250) ◽  
pp. 153-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Sheridan
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
New World ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
The Political ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
History Of

The Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most dramatic cultural and biological transformations in the history of the world. Small groups of conquistadores toppled enormous empires. Millions of Native Americans died from epidemic disease. Old World animals and plants revolutionized Native American societies, while New World crops fundamentally altered the diet and land-tenure of peasants across Europe. In the words of historian Alfred Crosby (1972: 3),The two worlds, which God had cast asunder, were reunited, and the two worlds, which were so very different, began on that day [I1 October 14921 to become alike.

The Freedom of the Press

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-133
Author(s):  
Maggie Gray
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Community Arts ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter engages with important strands of scholarship on comics work, arguing for a critical comics studies that attends to the political economy, social relations, and material processes of production. It examines the relationship between struggles over the organization of cultural labor and the forms of value inscribed in comics, via the case study of a specific site of British comics production that reimagined how comics work could be organized and the artistic value comics could have– the cooperative Birmingham Arts Lab Press (1969-1982) and its Ar:Zak imprint. Bringing together archival inquiry and participant interviews, wider historical research into the arts lab, alternative press, community arts and underground/alternative comics movements, and Marxist political and aesthetic theory, this chapter analyzes how struggles for an autonomous, democratized, participatory creative practice that took place within this context of comics production were embodied in the material and visual form of the comics made.

scholarly journals Exploring the Contradiction in the Ethos of Urban Practitioners under Neoliberalism: A Case Study of Housing Production in Chile

2020 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2097168
Author(s):  
Francisco Vergara-Perucich ◽  
Camillo Boano
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Housing Production ◽  
The Relationship

This article problematizes the relationship between the ethos of urban practitioners and the ideology of neoliberalism to show how neoliberalism has transformed urban design to make it an efficient mechanism for capital accumulation. The method used in the article is based on archival research and statistical analysis in addition to a comparative housing sample in Chile from the Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental (Environmental Assessment System). What emerges from such unpacking is a severe contradiction stemming from the clash between urban practitioners’ ethical responsibility in developing good cities and the neoliberalist goal of merely increasing the profitability of spaces. The article discusses the political and ideological dimensions of neoliberal urbanisms and the effects of neoliberalism in everyday urban practice of making in neoliberal urbanisms and discusses how to separate urban design practices from the profit-oriented ethos.

scholarly journals The political ecology of land management in the oil palm based cropping system on the Adja plateau in Benin

2012 ◽  
Vol 60-63 ◽  
pp. 91-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.H. Yemadje ◽  
T.A. Crane ◽  
P.V. Vissoh ◽  
R.L. Mongbo ◽  
P. Richards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
The Political
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