Search

Recent scholarship has contributed important insights into the political dynamics inherent in the process of making and showing participatory videos. As a research method and an instrument for social change, participatory video has both potential and limitations for overturning the power dynamics embedded within research and in development processes. This paper focuses on experiences of incorporating participatory video in land management projects in four countries in Africa. Along with other participatory methods, the videos represented an effort to include community perspectives and objectives into the research process. Analysis of participatory video has largely focused on examining the tensions and contradictions involved in the process of making participatory videos. There has been less focus on the content of the videos themselves and what it might suggest for empowerment, voice and representation. This paper attempts to address this gap by examining the implications of the narratives that emerge in five different videos. On the surface, the participants appear to repeat dominant national and global narratives about land degradation. However, the fact that farmers present themselves as experts on these topics and the ways in which they appropriate and reconfigure the dominant narratives, can be seen as an act of empowerment. In this way, they preclude the need for external intervention on how to manage their resources. This paper focuses on experiences of incorporating participatory video in land management projects in four countries in Africa. Along with other participatory methods, the videos represented an effort to include community perspectives and objectives into the research process. This paper examines the implications of the narratives that emerge in five different videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

In this paper, I explore the significance of Giovanni Arrighi's scholarship about the dynamics of capitalist accumulation and transformation in Africa and other "hostile" environments for critical agrarian studies. Specifically, I examine the relevance of his work for the analysis of multiple trajectories of agrarian change and social conflict in Uganda's countryside. By adopting synchronic and diachronic perspectives, the analysis here unveils the geographically uneven nature of transformation in the agrarian social structure in two distinct regions in Uganda: Buganda and Acholi. This complementarity allows us to grasp continuities and discontinuities in the processes of agrarian change and in the social struggles over the production and appropriation of surplus value in the longue durée. I argue that the agrarian social structure and the associated dynamics and forms of social conflict in the two regions massively diverged during the colonial period, while partially converging in the current era of neoliberal restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by theories of narrative identity, racial identity development, and notion of conscientização, this paper presents an interpretive analysis of Barack Obama's personal narrative. Obama's narrative represents a progressive story of self-discovery in which he seeks to develop a configuration of identity ( ; ) that reconciles his disparate contexts of development and the inherited legacy of racism and colonialism. A major theme of his story centers on his quest to discover an anchor for his identity in some community of shared practice. Ultimately, he settles on a distinctly cosmopolitan identity in which he can foster conversation across axes of difference both within himself and among diverse communities. I discuss the extent to which election of a candidate with this personal narrative of cosmopolitan identity reflects a shifting master narrative of identity politics within the United States, as well as implications for Obama's policy platform and governance style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the premise that cultural forces are at work in positively determining and sustaining the development process, this paper seeks to delineate the nature, dynamics and modalities of these forces and in so doing interrogate the tendency in development studies to dismiss culture as either a neutral factor or an impediment to the development process. The paper argues that the nonrecogni-tion and dismissal of cultural forces as positive elements in development limit proper and meaningful articulations of project design in the same way that disciplinary limitations in the definition and articulation of notions such as 'development,''achievement,' and 'progress' preempt proper and full accounting of African women's achievements. In grounding its arguments, the paper draws from the insightful elaboration of the behavioral aspect of cultural forces as contained in research on the economic psychology of African ethnic groups but goes further to focus on the structural and institutionalized aspects in the form of indigenous women's associations. Ultimately, by focusing attention on the cultural imperatives that guarantee successes in the development enterprise, the paper argues for a reimagining of social change (in theory and practice) not so much in terms of introducing and establishing new paradigms and structures but in terms of the intelligent refashioning of old structures to respond to new ideas and chart new directions. Although the paper focuses on African women and programs in Africa, the fundamental argument that undergirds it has a wider and more global application and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role of English in individual and societal development. According to estimates, more than 700 million children throughout the world are taught in English, a language that may not be used at all in the home or in the school community. At a recent science and mathematics education conference in a southern African country, for example, one paper after another revealed problems stemming from the use of English as the instructional language and from a lack of understanding of the importance of culture in African L2 classrooms. Despite over 15 years of work in this field, each new rather than applying current knowledge about language in education, teachers and policy makers seem to be confused by the language-in-education debate, which encompasses a variety of issues concerning which language to use for content instruction in the schools. Despite the fact that policy-practice connections are never direct, if professional knowledge about language in education is to inform teacher education and educational policy, TESOL professionals need to understand the issues.

Kony2012 was a viral Internet video that attracted unprecedented online interest in promoting a campaign to arrest the leader of an African militant group. The current research considers the social psychological bases of social media-based collective action. In three cross-sectional surveys ( N = 304) collected before, on, and after the key action date of 20 April 2012, we consider the nature (opinion based or global) and function (emergent or transforming) of social identity in modern forms of social action. Multigroup structural equation modelling showed that Kony2012 action was best captured by an emergent opinion-based social identity. Moreover, the same factors that predicted Kony2012 action generally also predicted engagement in new repertoires of protest (involving the use of social media) and an observable traditional socio-political action (signing a letter to a government minister). The results suggest that there is no sharp dividing line between traditional and new forms of collective action and that both may be understood as valid expressions of collective selfhood. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collection on the past and future of social-development analysis provides an opportunity to reflect and connect. This article reflects on a ten-year-old book called Rethinking Social Development and connects it with a recent study of Poverty Reduction Strategy processes in Africa. It argues that the recent work fills a gap in the empirical basis of the book, adding force to its main arguments—about dominance, agency and diversity in development—while also speaking to some unresolved issues: about the place of macro-institutional analysis, the limits of ‘actor orientation’ and the generation of practical theory. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article adopte une perspective mondiale sur la base des travaux d'Amin, Frank et Wallerstein pour comparer les aspects de la lutte des classes urbaines en Afrique et en Afrique Latine. Le développement de pays spécifiques (Mexique et Nigéria) est décrit, avec une discussion plus détaillée des villes de Monterrey et de Kano. L'analyse est faite sur une base historique et cherche à établir que la nature de la lutte des classes urbaines s'explique dans une grande mesure par la façon dont une région est incorporée à l'économie mondiale. Les changements de relations entre les états semi-périphériques et une capitale multinationale située dans un état-noyau peuvent s'bpérer avec succés de point de vue de ce dernier, mais tis entrainent une intensification de la lutte des dasses qui gomme les avantages gagnés par les classes locales alliées ainsi à la capitale. Dieser Artikel greift eine sich auf die Werke von Amin, Frank und Wallerstein stützende Weltsystemperspektive auf, um einige Aspekte des stdtischen Klassenkornflikts in Afrika und Lateinamerika zu vergleichen. Die Länder, deren Entwicklung beschrieben wird, sind Mexiko und Nigeria, wobei sich die Diskussion besonders mit den Städten Monterrey und Kano beschäftigt. Die Analyse stützt sich aufhistorische Grundlagen und versucht zu beweisen, dass das Wesen des städtischen Klassenkonflikts weitgehend durch die Art der Einverleibung einer Region in das Weltwirtschaftssystem erklärt wird. Änderungen in den Beziehungen zwischen Halb-Randstaaten und internationalem Kapital, das sich in zentralen Staaten befindet, mag nach Ansicht der letzteren erfolgreich sind, aber kann zu einer Intensivierung der Klassenkämpfe führen, welche die Vorteile der ortsansssigen, mit solchem Kapital verbundenen Schichten negieren. Este artculo adopta una perspective mundial basada en las obras de Amn, Frank y Wallerstein para comparar aspectos del conflicto de clases urbanas en Africa y Ladnoamérica. Los países específicos cuyos desarrollos se describen son México y Nigeria, con una discusin detallada de las ciudades de Monterrey y Kano. El análisis está basado en la historia, tratando de establecer que la naturaleza del conflícto de clases urbano se puede explicar sustancialmente por la forma como una región se ha incorporado al sistema econmico mundial. Cambios en las relaciones entre estados en la semiperiferia y la capital multinaconal, ubicada en estados céntricos, pueden tener éxito desde el punto de vista de ésta, pero conducen a una intensificación de la lucha de clases que cancela las ventajas obtenidas por las clases locales que están aliadas con semejante capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the social implications of rural African development one must first understand the relation between traditional social organization and economic structure in primitive and peasant communities. Case studies show that unsuccessful development occurs where an increase in production for sale is unaccompanied by technological and cultural innovations: traditional economy and society are forced to change without new modes of integration being formed, and without sustained growth in income forthcoming. Successful development requires mutually reinforcing innovations in economy, technology, and culture which induce sustained growth in income over successive generations, and integrate the local community with the region, the nation and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writers on peasant societies usually assume that such societies are post-tribal. Peasants are often further characterized as living in transitional social structures. Accepting the relative veracity of the view that peasants belong to post tribal societies in transition, one has to remember that this is rather a process which stretches over many centuries, and more specifically that peasant societies are deeply rooted in the tribal past. They exist within this past in various embryonic states, only later to emerge as a different type of society. While acquiring their own specific traits, which are different from both tribal and urban-industrial societies, peasant cultures and peasant societies usually contain many elements inherited from tribalism. Regardless of the society under consideration, one cannot draw a dear line as to where tribal societies end and peasant societies begin. This article discusses some aspects of societal change in modernizing rural Africa. The African people have been dependent on the environment and natural conditions, but never in their past were African peasants placed in a position of subservient dependency upon landlords.

The article discusses the social changes that have occurred in Africa over the years. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ushered in a new era in world history. The rise of the West with its developing industrial way of life heralded a change in the existence of mankind, the consequences of which have not yet run their full course. Industrialism brought with it urbanism, a new kind of urbanism from that of the old, and the impact of this new type spread over the face of the earth, reaching some places earlier than others. The phenomenon of urbanism is nothing new in Africa, for some of the oldest cities in history existed there. A major object of this new urbanization is the social organization of the African, for the life of the modern African as lived by his forefathers is being changed considerably. In the old and traditional African configuration the members were socially linked to one another. The African philosophy of living is based principally on the group, rather than on the individual. One's activities are coordinated in a pattern that is approved by the group.

The involvement of American social science in the problems of emerging African nations, in my opinion, represents an important encounter, for two reasons ‐ (a) the social changes in Africa carry the very real possibility of precipitating, within the next five to ten years, a major international crisis . . . (b) American public opinion is seriously unaware of the issues which constitute this fact, and (c) it is a social responsibility of social scientists to participate in translating these realities about the developing peoples into popular awareness and understanding. Second, I shall try to show that a careful survey of the considerable social science research and literature on Africa and the other emerging countries has, within the past five years, amounted to a veritable explosion in the development of political science, economics and psychology. This makes for a substantial eclipse of sociology and anthropology, two disciplines which have remained substantially aloof from studies of the development process. While of course a host of other interesting hypotheses have been raised, one can say that, by and large, the sociological theory being used in comparative political research has thus far yielded a variety of interesting models and taxonomies as guides for subsequent study. Apter's mobilization (Ghana), reconciliation (Nigeria), and modernizing autocracy (Ethiopia or Liberia) systems as developmental types is another such model. It is remarkable that these models about power and authority have pointed only to governmental structures. The need is for sociologists to generalize these conceptions via the study of the variety of nongovernmental social systems as well. (2nd from last paragraph.) Institute for Behavioural Research. York University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]