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We explore the notion of "sacrifice zones" to reflect critically on the trade-offs between Science & Technology (S&T) policy and inclusive development in South Africa. We draw evidence from one of the country's flagship projects, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, currently under construction in the semi-arid Northern Cape. The SKA embodies a key tension in the country's S&T policy, that between the promotion of astronomy, based on national and global priorities (the development of science), and the advancement of local development concerns (science for development), in which the dominant assumption is that local interests are either subsumed or superseded by national and global public goods. Given the extent to which the priorities of local residents have been overlooked in the name of the greater good, we argue that a fruitful way of recasting this relationship is to regard the region around the telescope as astronomy's terrestrial "sacrifice zone"; this opens up an important space for engaging with issues of mitigation. We conclude by raising questions about who should take responsibility for mitigating the trade-offs in policy and practice, if a more sustainable and inclusive development agenda in the areas affected by the SKA is a real concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses topics related to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope development project in Karoo, South Africa.

The establishment of an astronomy reserve around the core site of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope marks the beginning of an epochal shift away from commercial sheep farming in the upper Karoo. In this article, I reflect on the significance of this 'astronomy revolution' by exploring the ways in which land is central to dynamics of identification, shaping social hierarchies and development expectations. The article uses archival and ethnographic sources to explore the case of Carnarvon. It contextualises the current land-use change to astronomy in the social history of the town, addressing the set of events that marked an earlier epochal change: the transition from communal to commercial sheep farming, often called the 'merino revolution'. The history of land alienation accompanying this earlier transition resurfaces in current claims lodged through the post-apartheid land restitution programme, which intersect in complex ways with the current land-use change to astronomy. The article identifies a central tension in the 'astronomy revolution', which undermines claims to redress local historical inequalities while promoting identification with a broader national and global development priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article poses questions about astronomy and its local, national and global developmental impacts, drawing on ongoing research around the internationally networked Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope in South Africa. The relationship between progress in global science and technology and societal change has traditionally been framed through western-centric notions of progress imbued with universalism; the field of astronomy exemplifies this approach, with its assumptions of an inherently positive correlation between its science and loosely defined notions of 'development'. We problematise this assumption through an analysis of the multiple notions of development at different scales of analysis in the SKA. We argue that large astronomy projects such as the SKA are best understood as dense assemblages of science, infrastructure, human agency and politics, in which historically rooted local concerns are marginalised in the name of the national or global public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the debate about land conflicts in Africa and explores how people and social groups claim, negotiate and legitimate access to land and local resources through the construction of political repertoires drawing on history. Empirically, the article discusses a historical land conflict in Thyolo, southern Malawi, and presents details about a recently established rural movement known as the People’s Land Organisation (PLO). The lens of territoriality is used to contextualise current rural radicalism within the history of the tea economy, and to highlight strategies to establish or maintain control over undeveloped or underdeveloped land. By suggesting that land conflicts embody broader competition for shares of public authority, the article concludes that territorial strategies drawing on alternative views of history are central to the formulation and legitimation of land claims in the Malawian tea economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses contemporary agrarian transformation in southern Ethiopia from the perspective of how policies of agricultural commercialisation engender new patterns of rural social differentiation and politicisation of the land issue in the rural setting. By presenting a case of biofuels production through contract farming in Wolaita, the paper sheds light on the historical trajectory of agrarian transformation to elucidate the tensions of the current project of commercialisation. The article concludes that commercialisation of smallholder agriculture is a crucial feature of the country's strategy for socio-economic and political transformation and constitutes one of the main defining aspects of the self-declared ‘developmental state’ in Ethiopia. The current trajectory in Wolaita sees tangible rural social differentiation for the first time since the 1975 land reform. Beyond the success or failure of individual cases, commercialisation reflects two main layers of tension, present also elsewhere in Ethiopia's rural areas. The first has to do with the relationship between bureaucratic centralism and economic liberalisation; the second emerges from the implications of rural social stratification to the redefinition of the ruling elite's political consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]