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A comprehensive review of the non-timber forest product (NTFP) sector from 1980 to 2022 was undertaken. The study employed a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, incorporating explicit keywords. The results indicate that NTFPs underwent significant evolution, including research and development changes, particularly following the Rio de Janeiro summit. Most published research originated from the United States, accounting for 24% of the total; Brazil and India each contributed 10% of the published research. We included 316 potential research items: 262 articles, 19 book chapters, 27 review articles, and eight conference papers. The review analysis highlighted that NTFPs are crucial in meeting food requirements, obtaining specific medicinal resources, and acquiring material inputs for rural households, serving as a safety net during agrarian distress. NTFPs play a crucial role in promoting the development of the bio-economy. In low- and high-income nations with abundant bio-resources, NTFP value chains are increasingly pertinent for generating revenue, enhancing livelihoods, and reducing poverty in forest dependent communities. Further, the analysis emphasized that NTFP consumption, utilization, and sales occur at the household level, and its comprehensive assessment is challenging, leading to the need for a reevaluation of approaches that include value chain analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the manuscript "The Hidden and the Seen: Art as an Intersubjective Medium." The author used artwork in psychoanalytic treatment to explore exhibitionism. Additionally, this paper will explore the use of artwork to analyze the conversion of trauma into voyeurism. It highlights various ways to incorporate art, focusing on how a patient's fixation can be harmful, reparative, and pleasurable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critique surrounding climate finance is mounting against a backdrop of an escalating ecological crisis manifesting unequally across the globe. This paper uses learnings from racial capitalism to unpack the modalities of climate finance, using the Pacific region as an illustrative case. It argues that racial capitalism is enacted through modalities of climate finance, in part, by the erection of walls. One type of wall enacted by climate finance is epistemic: its definitions place it as the inherent object of Northern interventions. Moreover, financial walls are maintained through debt in climate finance, creating borders of deprivation through ongoing practices of indebting already burdened regions. The paper also highlights the way borders can manifest through regulation, in particular, through climate funds delineating arduous benchmarks of already burdened states. These walls contribute to the racialized process of creating 'sacrifice zones': places that have borne the cost of benefits accrued elsewhere, left without in a state of depletion. The paper explores the material futures that are being enacted by these modalities of climate finance through the case of climate migration. Yet these dystopian futures must not be taken for granted, rather, the walls which separate climate affected communities from hopeful futures must be dismantled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational maturity can inform decision-making, build strategy and underpin development. This paper argues that 'Governance Maturity Theory' (GMT) can act as a developmental modality for school Governing Bodies – and offers an alternative to disciplinary mechanisms such as inspections. Evidence generated by governors, Chairs, and Governance Professionals of Boards in England were used to map the value of inspections for developing school governance and to co-construct GMT. Grounded in organizational maturity theory and governmentality, the project developed two key findings. First, despite inspections driving much of what schools and Boards did, they had diminished the role of governance and had negligible value as either a developmental framework or for ascertaining the value of governors' work. Second, GMT could support Boards to build their decision-making and strategic leadership capabilities and drive their development. The paper concludes that GMT can enable Boards to resist the inspectorate's gaze and its notions of undemocratic 'good' governance and move towards mature strategic leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face a challenging landscape, struggling to secure funding and demonstrate impact in their early stages. This creates a Catch-22 situation, hindering their ability to gain traction. This paper explores these hurdles and showcases how the Abdullah Dzinamarira Foundation (ADF), a Zimbabwean NGO, navigated these challenges through resourcefulness. The paper outlines successful strategies adopted by ADF, including diversifying funding streams, forging strategic partnerships, and leveraging volunteers. These strategies allowed ADF to maximise the impact of limited resources while laying the groundwork for future sustainability. Looking beyond individual efforts, the paper emphasises the need for a shift towards institutional capacity building for new NGOs. Investing in their potential fosters a vibrant civil society and empowers local actors to deliver culturally appropriate solutions. The authors call for a collaborative approach, urging international NGOs, funders, and stakeholders to prioritise mentorship programs, online resources, and regional training hubs to equip new NGOs with the tools they need to thrive and become architects of positive change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals, through Goal 5 on Gender Equality, put gender as a focus at the heart of every endeavour. Yet with 2030 looming, across the globe, we have made insufficient progress towards gender equality. Despite a plethora of mentions of the aim to achieve gender equality in regional and international documents, progress is slow (see and ). What can be done? If transformative change is required, then a range of options needs to be explored. Could expanding exposure as to who studies gender be just one tool for building a pipeline of actors who take a gender lens when engaging with key issues, and speeding up progress towards the gender equality goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Goal 5)? How should we rethink the teaching of gender and development? My proposition is that gender should be mainstreamed in every course through a revised curriculum as a practical lever for change and to hasten progress towards Goal 5. The hope is that this paper can encourage conversation both in gender and development circles and the scholarship of teaching and learning, and prompt new lines of research and action towards rethinking the teaching of gender and development, which can then strengthen the knowledge base in the pipeline of political decision-makers and development actors. This paper is a call to action for the repositioning of gender at the heart of all studies – not as an elective or "boutique", but as core to every subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a feminist reflection of our experience teaching and learning feminisms with Pacific Islanders. We take as a starting point that feminism itself is encased in emotion. In the Pacific, some antagonise the term "feminism" as a foreign imposition and a "threat" to Pacific cultures. To others, feminism instils hope in the context of egalitarian aspirations framed within a development discourse. Some cautiously engage with feminist values, others embrace the notion passionately, generating multiple Pacific feminisms. Indirectly but instinctively, our approach to the teaching of feminism in this context has been to embark with students on a journey of experience and idea sharing and view it as an emotional journey. Acknowledging our positionalities, with their commonalities and differences, we examine the sentiments towards feminism embedded in postcolonial dynamics, as they manifest in our classrooms, and consider strategies for decolonial pedagogies of feminism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2020, the first woman Indigenous Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, was appointed in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mahuta has reinforced the message of taking a values-based Indigenous-centred approach to foreign policy and development. She has also recognised the mana of wāhine (the unique spiritual authority of women), "not defined by western feminist thinking, but the values that have long underpinned our culture, histories and traditions". Her appointment reflects the complicated intersections of Indigeneity, colonialism, Western feminist discourse, and foreign policy in a settler-hegemonic state, and the possibilities (and constraints) for reimagined futures. How, then, can the teaching of gender and development (GAD) be attentive to these politics of settler-colonialism in Aotearoa? How can the complexities of the colonial project be reflected in GAD, and how can GAD be responsive to settler-hegemonic and Indigenous spaces? This paper will explore these questions and look at GAD's role in perpetuating or unsettling settler-colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multifaceted dimensions of sport promotion, development, and integrity within the context of men's football in Europe. It specifically focuses on the impact of a newly introduced competition, the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Nations League (UNL), on these three dimensions. The study utilises a dataset comprising 1,058 games played over two distinct periods: 503 games from 2014–2016 (pre-UNL) and 555 games from 2018–2021 (UNL era). The primary areas of interest are competitive balance (CB) and competitive intensity (CI), measured at the intra-match (both CB and CI) and post-match (CB only) levels, and fairness. Regressions and statistical tests were conducted to explain the determinants of CB and compare CB and CI between both periods. The analysis reveals that CB deteriorated, primarily attributed to changing incentives for the strongest and weakest teams during Euro qualifying matches. By contrast, CI increased due to the UNL's replacement of most friendly games. While recent literature has raised potential fairness issues due to the establishment of the UNL, findings of this study suggest that the integrity of national men's football team competitions and games in Europe remained intact during this period. This article advances knowledge of CB and CI. Besides, it also provides empirical evidence that the UNL did not compromise the fairness of national men's football team competitions and games in Europe. By bringing CB, CI, and fairness together, this study highlights the crucial role of sports organisations in promoting and developing their sport, while also safeguarding its integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land for the Nagas in Northeastern India reflects the local, culturally shaped concepts of physical space, ethnic relations, and social identity. It embodies the political security and the symbolic universe that determine the interpersonal relations and distribution system between various regional groups. Based on an ethnographic exploration, the paper traces how land once imbued in traditions such as sacred lands, monolithic spaces, and ancestral properties are expropriated into state highways. It argues how these new roads become a kind of contact space where the interface between cultural differences, historical memories, and notions of modernity and traditions are conflated and negotiated. The paper seeks to document the issues pertaining to the (re)shaping and (re)configuration of ethnic landscapes through the intrusion of the roadscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary brings together thoughts on the papers in this special issue and integrates research on adolescent development, resilence, and positive youth experiences that promote character development. We apply the Protective and Compensatory Experieces (PACEs) framework to the papers in the special issue. We also discuss future directions for research and interventions promoting positive youth development and characters strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article aims to unpack global-local dynamics in education drawing on the cases of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and ASEAN Citizenship Education in Cambodia. By analysing recent education strategies and policies, curriculum framework, and textbooks, this paper unveils (a) to what extent have ESD and ASEAN citizenship been incorporated in education plans and policies, as well as curriculum and textbooks, (b) what changes are there in the discourses around each norm over time; and (c) how has the ministry appropriated these two norms similarly and differently to fit its agenda. These two cases highlight the fact that nation-(re)building has been, and still is, the key development agenda in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and this agenda works as a filter through which transnational norms are interpreted and appropriated. A comparison between the two cases also highlights that the ministry strategically utilises time to achieve their best interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data collection in resource-constrained environments, particularly in the Global South, is challenging for a variety of philosophical, theoretical, methodological, and ethical reasons. Challenges may involve using research approaches designed in the Global North that are not appropriate when using data from the social and cultural contexts in the Global South. Adopting a reflective approach, this paper examines research projects in Bangladesh, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda and highlights the challenges encountered on these projects. Along with the problems, attempted ameliorations are discussed, and insights are offered on how the authors overcame these challenges. The paper posits that these challenges can be mitigated by adopting contextualist methodology resulting in theories that are based on local social and cultural processes. The paper proposes that a critical realist-philosophical approach and methodology are appropriate because of contextual specificity and the innate ability to alleviate problems associated with the Global North methodology and generalisable theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MCS initiative was first introduced in 2013. Since then, two MCS papers have been published: the first proposing a structured approach to consider the impact of drug substance physical properties on manufacturability and the second outlining real world examples of MCS principles. By 2023, both publications had been extensively cited by over 240 publications. This article firstly reviews this citing work and considers how the MCS concepts have been received and are being applied. Secondly, we will extend the MCS framework to continuous manufacture. The review structure follows the flow of drug product development focussing first on optimisation of API properties. The exploitation of links between API particle properties and manufacturability using large datasets seems particularly promising. Subsequently, applications of the MCS for formulation design include a detailed look at the impact of percolation threshold, the role of excipients and how other classification systems can be of assistance. The final review section focusses on manufacturing process development, covering the impact of strain rate sensitivity and modelling applications. The second part of the paper focuses on continuous processing proposing a parallel MCS framework alongside the existing batch manufacturing guidance. Specifically, we propose that continuous direct compression can accommodate a wider range of API properties compared to its batch equivalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a process, containerization in Africa is still on-going. In the last decades, a number of new port projects have emerged in parallel with the reorganization of services by shipping companies. To reflect these changes, this paper studies several questions on the geographic differentiation of maritime connectivities across the continent as well as on the longitudinal trends in maritime connectivities in relation to evolving economic, trade and logistical contexts. To this end, we propose a synthetic visualization of the country-level containerized links using the Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Indicator (LSBCI). The resulting graph, obtained through Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), shows that West Africa and East Africa appear as relatively separated subsystems, mediated by several countries in the Northern and the Southern parts of Africa. Between 2006 and 2016, West Africa, initially tied to Europe and America, is increasingly tied to Asia. Our results show major improvements in the maritime connectivity of Morocco, Djibouti and several West African ports. Conversely, most of mainland East African countries stagnate or decline. Connectivities have not converged across the continent. In some cases changes in maritime connectivity mostly result from variations in vessel size. We explore a method to identify these situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 shock resulted in a large number of people becoming newly poor in Bangladesh, for whom recovery was slow and difficult. In response, BRAC implemented a nationwide program – credit, business planning support, and mentoring – targeting the economic recovery of the new poor. This paper estimates its impact using a mixed method and finds that the program had a significant positive effect on employment, income, and assets, indicating a faster economic recovery of program participants. The learnings from this program can have major policy implications for future disaster responses targeting livelihood recovery, specifically during the time-sensitive transitory phase from relief to long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy interventions for tourism sustainability transitions are carried out in destinations worldwide. Yet, how decision-making processes and strategies could adversely affect communities and regions is an increasingly raised question, particularly following the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism destinations. Drawing on the transitions and justice literature, this paper explores what sustainability policies and rapid government interventions signify for impacted tourism communities. This paper uses Boracay island in the Philippines as a case study, a destination which has been subject to an extensive policy intervention ordered by the national government from 2018 onwards. The Boracay case indicates that a short and radical policy intervention did benefit the island, but that it could have been more societally beneficial if principles and policies of just transitions were more explicitly addressed. Key findings of this paper, based on an analysis of stakeholder views collected through interviews, questionnaires, and policy documents, reveal that the structural absence of dialogue and limited socio-economic support measures resulted in an island community that felt substantially ignored, unfairly treated, and sceptical about future actions. With the just transition lens, this paper offers practical and methodological guidance in reconciling tourism sustainability transitions with justice challenges. We conclude that the just transition lens provides important insights and lessons for transitioning tourism destinations towards environmentally sustainable futures in a socio-economically responsible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the effects of historical and contemporary ethnolinguistic diversity on socio-economic development in Afghanistan. Using a dataset of Afghan provinces, we find that historical ethnolinguistic borders are strongly associated with income, provision of public goods, and political preferences in Afghanistan. Pashtun areas exhibit higher levels of income and public goods provision as well as political support for the incumbent. There has been a persistent rule of Pashtun leaders in Afghanistan during the last three centuries. Furthermore, we instrument measures of contemporary ethnolinguistic diversity by the diversity of archaeological sites that belong to different ancient and medieval empires. We argue that higher levels of contemporary diversity are likely to induce lower levels of conflict, higher levels of income and trust, and lower levels of individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing popularity of fusing adventure, humanitarianism, and travel has received attention from scholars within the fields of leisure and tourism studies, particularly regarding widespread activities such as volunteer tourism. Fewer have examined the phenomenon that we refer to as endurance philanthropy, in which participants journey long distances under challenging conditions to increase awareness and raise funds for specific causes. As more and more people become attuned to the idea, it is essential to interrogate the power dynamics and development discourses that frame such campaigns. To begin this necessary conversation, this paper investigates one subset of the endurance philanthropy movement: participants who have journeyed from North America to Central America to raise money and awareness for causes situated within the destination region. Using the lenses of spectacle and critical development, we analyze online media produced both by and about these journeyers. Our findings highlight key themes that weave across and through these events: actions not words, expedition completed, grit and determination, and donor commitment. We argue that these events – while emphasizing solidarity and advocating for social change – ultimately undermine the potential for such transformation due to the spectacular, individualizing, and apolitical characteristics of the campaigns. This results in the reproduction of neoliberal self-help models of progress, which reinforce the status quo and downplay larger structural issues that keep poverty and inequality in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to critically analyse the development dichotomies and socio-ecological concerns inherent in a controversial megaproject in Kerala – the Semi High-Speed Rail Corridor, also known as the Silverline Project – through a political ecology lens. The mainstream discourses of development in an extractivist political economy focus on economic growth and technological advancement without a critical social and ecological security assessment. Megaprojects are presented as dream projects and symbols of modernity, even when fragmentation and degradation of socio-ecological systems are apparent. The paper explores the multiple strategies used by the State to legitimising the project, which includes overriding or diluting the regulatory framework for conservation, greenwashing, manipulative reductionism etc. It argues that an inclusive development discourse should go beyond perceiving environment and development as a binary opposition and thrive for a critical and reflexive conceptualisation and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses developmental perspectives on shame. To create a context, the paper begins with examples of the close connection of the emotion of shame and the body, the issue of the "social emotions," and culture as an influencer of shameful experience. The bulk of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the developmental origins of emotions, particularly shame, in the child-caregiver relationship beginning in infancy and elaborated and modified over time. A clinical example of a child analytic case is given to illustrate some of the author's points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current student development theories are mostly grounded in the experiences of domestic students in North America. The increasing portion of the international students in the post-secondary student population has created a glaring gap for a unique theory of international student development. A unique theory for international student development, with a focus on their intercultural learning experiences, will serve as a necessary theoretical foundation for international student programmes and services that are offered in most hosting universities of international students as an overlay on top of general student services. Through a critical review of existing literature, this paper endeavours to develop a coherent theory of international student development that endorses a critical and post-structural approach to the key issues of intercultural identity, intercultural competence and intercultural adaptation for international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the constitutive impact of the 'international' on the sociopolitical transformations in Syria and Libya through the lens of the theory of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD). The conventional and numerous critical analyses of Syrian and Libyan sociopolitical change suffer from a Eurocentric and stagist understanding of development. This paper argues that development problems can be better conceptualized with an interactive framework made possible by the UCD theory. In this context, we focus on how the expansion and consolidation of capitalism through the dynamics of UCD have concretely shaped the process of sociopolitical transformation in Syria and Libya to shed light on how the international and the local have articulated to produce the socioeconomic and political outcomes in these two states. We conclude by arguing that the theory of UCD provides an alternative conceptualization in explaining the specific development trajectories in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on EU trade policy by introducing insights from the political economy literature on development to the study of how EU trade liberalisation affects development in trading partners. Drawing on a comparison of EU trade liberalisation with Moldova and Georgia, we argue that the type of coalition between public and private actors in partner countries' top export sectors determines which firms benefit from better market access to the EU, as indicated by their ability to increase their exports. We show that liberalised trade with the EU tends to contribute to achieving the EU's declared objective of inclusive development if the presence of inclusionary development coalitions ensures that a broad range of firms is enabled to increase their export capacities through a mechanism that we call 'inclusive empowerment'. Otherwise, trade liberalisation contributes to exclusive development, benefitting big, mostly foreign firms, or, at worse, consolidating rent-seeking practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper answers calls from the food regime scholarship for a closer analysis of the implicit rules, transitions, and regional scales of food regimes. Drawing on archival materials from the Japanese colonial administration and Sino-American agricultural cooperation, interviews with key actors, and secondary sources, this paper examines instances of agricultural knowledge production and exchange. We suggest that beyond the profound influence of the US in the postwar food regime, the nuances and historical and regional specificity of agricultural scientists' life stories and individual technological imaginaries can 'scale up' through the translation of agrarian knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the proposed relocation of Indonesia's capital city from Jakarta to Kalimantan. With its population of over 10 million, Jakarta faces environmental challenges such as severe traffic congestion and air pollution. This study used mixed methods and triangulation of data collection to investigate the capital's relocation challenges and the prospects of the nations development. The methods include interviews with key informants in selected government agencies and non-governmental agencies, as well as content analysis of relevant secondary data and information. The results contribute to our understanding of the socioeconomic, political, and environmental impacts of relocating a capital city in an archipelagic country like Indonesia. The paper concludes that the proposed new capital's location in Kalimantan offers a more sustainable alternative with the potential for economic growth and ecological preservation. It could serve as a symbol of national identity and a representation of the nation's advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The setting up by the African Union of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which should govern matters relating to, inter alia, trade in goods and services, investment, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, and competition policy is a step in the right direction. However, this paper argues that the limited inclusion of informal economy actors such as informal cross border traders (ICBTs) appears to undermine the potential of the AfCFTA as the architecture for inclusive socio-economic development in Africa. The paper advances the need for African countries to craft policies which are sensitive to and respond to the circumstances of ordinary people on the ground and not a wholesale application of policies such as neoclassical integration theory, the outcome of which deserts ordinary people. Such policies must be transcendental to the extent of being informed by views from the ground, which does not appear to be the case with the AfCFTA on the score of ICBTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word "talent" is used across many sport disciplines – to describe an athlete's prowess (i.e. "he is talented"), as a term for what is sought after during assessment and selection (i.e. talent selection camps) or in reference to players to be developed (i.e. "a group of talents"). While the term has received research attention regarding its definition and criteria, its utility in practical settings is often debated. In this paper, we review several areas of concern researchers have raised for using the term "talent" and why this matters in the context of athlete development. While the notion of talent continues to resonate with coaches, scientists and practitioners, we suggest several areas for future research and recommendations for the use of this controversial term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict generates uncertainty and a supply of violent actors willing to contract their services to third parties that makes identifying motivation for civilian victimisation difficult. In this paper, I examine how elites not only have opportunities to capitalise on violence during war for developmental interests, but also take advantage of the fog of war to lump all cases of victimisation under a clear overarching narrative of political contestation rather than repression for economic interests. I build on the literature of developmental violence in conflict to assess two cases of dam construction by the Public Enterprises of Medellin (EPM) in Antioquia, Colombia between 1995 and 2018: Hidroituango and Porce II. I argue that civilians opposing the dams were associated with one of the armed groups in the territory and elites dismissed their victimisation as a product of competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents. This conflict narrative obscures other potential realities and precludes deeper investigation into the ambiguous motivations behind attacks, even as the victims themselves may challenge and present counternarratives of developmental violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land reforms have been implemented in many parts of the world because of both justice and the attractive developmental policy objectives of improving poor people's welfare – as the prime beneficiaries. Land reform also facilitates rural economic growth. In some parts of the world, like China and India, there is evidence that land reform has been effective in poverty reduction and in enabling economic growth. However, in other parts of the world, like South Africa, the impact of land reform has been very minimal mainly due to poor policy implementation, which entails inadequate support structures. Using an integrative literature review approach and key policy documents on South Africa's land reform, this article dissects this policy–practice gap in South Africa's land redistribution policy and proposes that land redistribution be implemented by a private independent entity to reduce state bureaucracy and inefficiencies and, in turn, improve execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of overconfidence and misjudgement of merit on the decision to enter a winner-take-all market. Through a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in Panama's dynamic and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem, the study addresses a research gap by exploring the interplay between overconfidence, institutional factors, and entrepreneurial activities. The findings confirm the role of overconfidence as a determinant of market entry and reveal that overconfidence primarily empowers individuals already embedded in entrepreneurial net- works, regardless of their destructiveness. These results suggest that in the presence of weak institutions, overconfidence does not promote entrepreneurship but rather motivates those with pre-existing entrepreneurial networks to open new ventures. However, this situation has the potential to exacerbate inequalities, especially if these ventures make only marginal contributions to overall social output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Wild Coast communities received the attention of a globally networked mining company, which is supported by the state to extract minerals from ancestral lands. Deploying the political ecology approach and the "sacrifice zones" notion, this paper reflects critically on the struggle of local communities to resist such externally initiated, state-supported, and industry-drivenprojects. It draws evidence from the attempt by a mining company to extract minerals in the area, the attempt by the state to construct the N2 toll road, and the attempts by Shell South Africa to explore oil and gas in the Wild Coast coastline. In all these cases, the state envisages that the projects will bring inclusive development, much to the chagrin of local communities who want to preserve their ancestral lands for economic, spiritual, and cultural reasons. The paper argues that the state's position in the Wild Coast is aligned with the broader imposition of "development" projects in purportedly weaker communities, albeit with exaggerated spinoffs, while ignoring the local environment, priorities, cultures, traditions, religion, concerns, and views. Given the way the state and industry prioritise the "imposed development" over the local context, this paper uses the experiences of communities in the Wild Coast to interrogate the essence of development, and the nature of the state. This paternalistic conduct of the state to decide on behalf of local communities is inherently flawed, in that it creates an impression that there is a symbiotic relationship between externally initiated "development" projects and local interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper briefly reviews major theoretical and clinical changes in American psychoanalysis since its beginning in the early twentieth century. The immigration of European analysts in the 1930s and 40s was of major significance. Infant development research promoted a shift towards the importance of object relations, reducing the importance of the Oedipus complex. The increasing focus on narcissism and borderline personalities is discussed, as well as the applications to dynamic psychotherapy. Dogma dissipated with increasing latitude in theory and clinical work within "classical" psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the institutional development of the Olympic movement in the Philippines from the American period to the contemporary era as it operates within the values of 'Excellence, Respect and Friendship' of Olympism. Using Bowen's document analysis as a qualitative tool, the paper highlights the institutional changes and policy reforms in the Philippine sports governance in the development of the Olympic movement with emphasis on the promotion of athlete welfare in the Philippines. As an added dimension, the paper offers a passing review of the recent Olympic athletes' protest in the Philippines and analyses the underlying assumptions of Filipino athletes' passivity on social issues. Furthermore, the paper examines the significance of the Philippines Olympic Committee (POC) Athletes' Commission in addressing the athletes' rights and welfare as it interrelates and aligns itself with the goals and objectives of the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission. More importantly, the paper proposes an Input-Process-Output-Outcome/Result (IPOOR) Model to measure the success of the POC Athletes' Commission qualitatively in terms of the three levels of analysis espoused by the IOC Athlete's Commission namely, input, output, and results, as ways forward in the promotion and development of the strategies, programmes, and projects of the Philippine Olympic movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and its potential to unleash the development of women in Africa. The envisaged benefits of the AfCFTA include increased trade diversification, regional integration, enhanced human security, increased foreign direct investment and technological advancement. Despite optimism about the prospects of the agreement as a local innovation spearheaded by the African Union, pessimists raise questions about the extent of stakeholder engagement. The agreement must be gender-responsive to enhance outcomes for women cross-border traders. The paper concludes that the lack of gender sensitivity confirms the need to address the specific needs of African women, especially those involved in informal cross-border trade. Hence, for AfCFTA, the policy focus should be on ensuring the formalisation of women who participate in informal trade, thus helping increase access to markets, information and growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the perceptions of rural communities in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa, towards sustainable heritage tourism development. It aims to comprehend local attitudes by analysing community views, recognising benefits and challenges, and assessing the potential for sustainable practices. The study, utilising a quantitative approach through a structured survey, reveals diverse opinions among rural residents. While acknowledging tourism's positive economic and cultural prospects, concerns arise about environmental impact and traditional lifestyle disruptions. The paper's significance lies in its distinct focus on rural communities, expanding beyond urban-centric research. It enriches the sustainable tourism discourse by presenting local perspectives and suggesting strategies aligning community aspirations with tourism development goals. Overall, the research highlights the necessity of involving and empowering rural communities, advocating for context-specific approaches that harmonise tourism growth with the preservation of rural heritage. This study provides crucial insights for policymakers and stakeholders shaping effective and inclusive strategies for sustainable heritage tourism development in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we pay tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Gavin W. Jones and his outstanding contributions to the scholarship on marriage. Following a chronological assessment of his large body of work on marriage, we reflect on Gavin’s general approach to research changing marriage patterns within and across diverse regions of Asia. His approach to studying marriage went beyond the conventional demographic focus on examining shifts in age at first marriage. He showed how examining shifting patterns across different, yet interrelated aspects of marriage offered an important window to understand the broader complexities of economic and socio-political change in the region; showing why there is much more to demography beyond counting births, deaths, and migration. As two generations of demographers, we reflected how his work and approach to research continue to influence our research and engagement with the region. Gavin’s legacy extends beyond demography and Indonesian/Malay studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review has focused on the different applications of PVC which makes PVC to be a fundamental component in our daily life. PVC has posted its footsteps in several fields including construction, automotive, health care, electronics, Gardening and agriculture, textiles, packaging and sports equipment. This article deals with a detailed explanation of the necessity of PVC in the above fields. Beginning with the timeline of the birth of plastics eventually leading to the discovery of PVC, this article speaks about the importance of such a substance in each field that could pave the way for the development of human lifestyle. Quoting different slogans and statements of great personalities in between could help the readers to enhance their interest to go through each topic. The advantages and disadvantages of the usage of PVC in each field is also mentioned which could impinge a thought of an alternative modification to compensate for the needs. This article shall prove to be a great tool to understand about the unavoidable necessity of PVC in our daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas previous research has acknowledged the significance of capacity building for development, there is little research on the capacity building typologies for local economic development (LED) actors at the local level. Adopting the community capitals framework, this study attempts to fill this gap by examining the LED capacity-building typologies and challenges in Ghana. Data for the study was collected through in-depth interviews with local government officials and LED experts in Ghana. The findings revealed six capacity building typologies and three LED capacity building challenges. This study argued that LED capacity building is an indispensable element in the development of local economies. It is recommended that these LED capacity typologies be used to develop a comprehensive LED capacity building framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern and material development in the name of progress has always hindered and displaced a few specific communities like tribal, Adivasis, or indigenous people in India. In a developing country like India, most modern projects are implemented following the Nehruvian model of development, often criticised as 'flawed.' Once constructed, while much fuss and hype are made about such 'Modern' projects, the sufferings and plight of the surrounding local communities are often neglected, and their voice remains unheard. Analysing Orijit Sen's graphic narrative River of Stories (1994, 2022), this article focuses on the 'visuality of inauspicious' in the form of constructing the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the country. The Dam displaced several Adivasis, and their society also 'dislodged from its ideal state' (Sen 2018, 110) and caused environmental degradation in the surrounding areas. This article underscores how the usurping of the villager's land in the name of modernity, development, and national progress evokes the process of colonisation and its associated violence. The article also explores the environmental movement in the form of 'Environmentalism of the Poor' that rose against this project, and while analysing the movement, I discuss in detail how the villagers adopted an eco-conscious and Gandhian non-violent approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student housing represents a contentious local policy issue in university cities in North America and beyond, related to both the conversion of existing housing to student rentals and the development of private purpose-built student accommodations. Yet little research has considered the variety of approaches municipalities across an urban system have adopted to address student housing issues through land-use planning and their subsequent influence on development patterns. Through an analysis of planning documents in all 15 Ontario urban areas with a primary campus of the province's 20 public universities, we identify four broad approaches. These range from minimal intervention to covertly restricting student housing development, directing student housing away from established neighborhoods, and enabling high-density redevelopment of a residential district to accommodate students. Municipalities' approaches reflect local context, notably their relationship to the province's regional growth management plans. Case studies demonstrate how each approach has shaped purpose-built student accommodation development locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the context of rising contestations to the Liberal International Order (LIO), it is crucial to highlight the contribution of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to international institutions and global governance, particularly considering its peripheral position in the world order. The Triple Nexus Approach (TPA), adopted in 2016, promotes a coordinated effort in providing humanitarian assistance and aid for development by integrating them with peace endeavours. The LAC region has provided political and conceptual contributions to each TPA component, providing alternative perspectives on multilateral governance in humanitarian action, development and peacebuilding, emphasising the pursuit of collective and context-specific outcomes for crisis prevention. Focusing on the period from the early 21st century to 2019, a time when the Triple Nexus theoretical structuring publications emerged, it is highlighted how contestations to the LIO and the changing world order have impacted global governance norms, creating opportunities for emerging and peripheral countries to shape post-liberal rules. This allows Global South countries to set self-determined development objectives and make a meaningful contribution to global rule-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formally launched by the United Nations (UN) in 2016, the so-called Triple Nexus has been adopted by several international donors that have intervened in Tunisia since the fall of its authoritarian regime. Faced with the state's limited capacity to address critical post-revolutionary challenges such as escalating poverty and radicalisation, external actors – spanning multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organisations – have endeavoured to tackle humanitarian, development and security issues to promote stability and support the fragile democratisation process in the country. In this context, Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) initiatives have gained prominence as a means to concurrently address diverse challenges associated with the 'lack of social development', including marginalisation and the absence of social cohesion – identified as catalysts for radicalisation and instability. In contrast with these stated objectives, fieldwork spanning 2015 to 2019 across various regions of Tunisia reveals that the international donor discourse on SSE, entrenched in a neoliberal approach and government securitisation strategies, exacerbates economic insecurity and amplifies marginalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is on the role of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in bridging the disconnection in donor assisted projects and electoral administration and the perceptions of state institutions in an interface with donor support, electoral dynamics and democratisation in the municipality. The study on the perception of the BCMM on donor support and democratisation is to ascertain the reciprocal relations the BCMM have with donors, including government and stakeholders in an election and the local community where they operate. This paper argues that donor support to a large extent induces democratisation but no political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of its people remained in poverty, and in a state of inequality and unemployment without real prospects for a better life. Although the state policies ensures and facilitates inter alia the free market economy, the deregulation of public institutions and state sponsorship of infrastructural development, the citizens in the local communities have been mostly impoverished as a result of their inability to access fully the benefits that were supposed to have been administered to them by sub-state institutions and donor managers. The study utilized the qualitative research approach and data was analysed through content analysis. The emerging findings indicate that donor conditionalities promote good governance, transparency and free and fair representation. The findings further shows that donor support in the municipality reduces poverty through academic skills training, vocational skills training, Agricultural entrepreneurship and Agro-processing. Nevertheless, the paper is of the view that the municipality and local communities are at a tipping point with regard to what can only be described as unequal and exploitative relationship between donor elites and community voters. The outcome of this paper and recommendations has great implications and influence for municipal officials, Communities voters, policy makers, Departments and Ministries, the Independent Electoral Commission, Social institutions, organizations and economic managers and administrators in developing countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a first step to analysing sub-sector variation in firms' learning and the types of leads or lag in industrial regulation in the Indian health industry, one of the world's largest and broadest suppliers in critical generics, vaccines, and diagnostics. Sub-sector variation in an industry's learning and regulation trajectory has received relatively little attention in economic development literature and has potentially important consequences for the design of the industrial policy. Our argument rests on the transfer of complexity of learning in a sub-sector to generic industrial regulations. The paper appeals to evolutionary and institutional (E-I) approaches in economics, which have made significant contributions in improving the understanding of how firms learn, and applies a qualitative heuristic focused on co-evolving institutional domains to extract some insights from the dynamics of the diagnostics and devices sector. The paper finds that although firms continue to learn and innovate, persistent regulatory challenges to firms are generated by the misapplication of industrial policies to diagnostics and devices that were intended for pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Our findings suggest sub-sector specific changes are needed on value priorities for policy design, use, and regulation of diagnostics and devices in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Touristic security – the practice of securing tourists to sustain tourism – has become a highly pertinent and powerful global security practice. Many organisations, governments, industry stakeholders, consultants, and scholars claim touristic security to be a 'win-win' security practice supportive of global sustainable development for all. But is this true? This paper interrogates this claim in two steps. First, it sets out an international political sociology inspired approach to theorising security as a global practice shaped by and shaping of the continued coloniality of power, and, second, it uses this approach to select, connect, and analyse diverse critical studies of tourism for the emergence, enactment, and consequences of touristic security in the Global South. Put together, the critical studies of tourism analysed suggest that touristic security is a neoliberal security practice that centres international – often white Western – tourists' fears and vulnerabilities, and, following, that it is (re)producing the coloniality of inequalities, insecurities, and immobilities. Far from a 'win-win' security practice, then, critical studies of tourism imply that touristic security is feeding into an endless process of (in)securitisation that is antithetical to global sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)