Effect of Resource Curse on Child Well-being in Resource-rich States, Specifically in Post-Soviet States

It was November of 2019, and I had just landed in my next country, the second resource-rich country I was visiting to collect data for my dissertation. I took a taxi from the airport to go to my hotel. The radio was playing Russian pop music. As we started to drive, I was shocked to see gleaming buildings, wide roads, lights, and mega-sized construction projects, all radiating out from the airport. I knew this particular country was rich, but I did not expect this much wealth. Everything was telling me that I was in a country with immense wealth; signs of it were everywhere. While looking around I could not hide my surprise and excitement. Noticing my reaction, the taxi driver responded, “Yes, we are a very rich country, we have all the minerals and expensive natural elements from Mendeleyev’s [periodic] table.” As we were driving, the news, in Russian, which I understood, came on the radio. The news anchor announced, “We continue reporting on the news that we woke up to yesterday, which shocked the whole nation. The mother of the five girls who burned to death behind locked doors is still in the hospital and in shock. She is still not fully conscious or able to talk about details.” As I heard this, I asked the driver what happened. Apparently, two able-bodied parents had come to the capital from one of the provinces of the country to seek work to support their five children. They found a place to live, but while out earning money—most probably through informal labor—they had to leave their children without supervision behind a locked door at home. The eldest of five children, all girls, was seven years old. The family did not know anyone who could be with their daughters, nor could they afford to send them to childcare or school. A fire started at the home, and the girls could not escape, so they burned to death. As I heard this story, we continued passing by an increasing number of mega-constructions, fancy buildings, and new bridges on the way to the hotel. I remembered an old saying we had in Azerbaijan, “the beggar sons of millionaires,” which referred to the millions of poor people during the first oil boom in Azerbaijan back in the early 1900s. Azerbaijan and this country I visited had similar histories, with similar outcomes. Oil wealth does not necessarily lead to shared prosperity and development. Moreover, as I was writing this introduction in 2022, the people of this country were mourning another tragedy—the arrests of 5,000 people and the deaths of 165 civilian protesters, who were killed on January 6, 2022, by their government, while protesting harsh living conditions and recent increases in fuel and food prices. In addition to inequality, oil- and gas-rich developing nations also tend to have less democracy and more government oppression. Why are so many people struggling and helpless in countries with oil and gas resources? As countries become richer, citizens should gain in social and economic well-being. Theoretically, countries with new wealth can create opportunities for vulnerable populations, especially for children. But that has not been the case for low-to-middle income (LMI) countries that are rich in natural resources such as oil and gas. These countries are victims of the resource curse, which is regressive development that occurs despite wealth coming from the exploitation of natural resources, especially oil and gas. These countries tend to have unequal economic development, strong autocratic regimes, and severe human rights violations. Social well-being is also affected negatively by the resource curse. The purpose of this dissertation research has been to extend resource curse theory to the study of child well-being in LMI resource-rich countries and to suggest a policy-level intervention to improve children’s well-being. Although the effect of the resource curse on the development of countries has been studied since the late 1980s, little attention has been paid to the situation of children from the perspective of the resource curse. But with resource-rich LMI numbering as many as 72—about one-quarter of all the nations on the planet—the question of truncated or diminished well-being of children in these countries is important to address. And it is also important to plan, design, test, and implement tailored interventions that can contribute to the improvement of the well-being of millions of children. Given this agenda, the following three papers have the purpose of (1) studying the situation of the well-being of children in resource-rich LMI countries worldwide, (2) focusing specifically on six post-Soviet countries, and (3) developing a policy or policies to break the resource curse, in this case focusing on one resource-rich LMI country. The first paper presents a new conceptual model to test the link between the resource curse and child well-being, using mixed-effects linear regression and then tests the mediation effect of social protection policies by using structural equation modeling analyses. Panel data for 18 years were entered into the models and analyzed in STATA 17 and SPSS 21. The sample size for the first paper was 137 countries, nearly all the LMI countries in the world. The results showed that dimensions of the resource curse such as oil, poverty of people, and democracy had a statistically significant relationship with child well-being. As oil rents (or net revenues) per capita increased, child well-being declined; and as income per capita and democracy increased, child well-being improved. The second paper compares three resource-poor post-Soviet countries—Georgia, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan—to three resource-rich post-Soviet countries—Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan—to test the relationship between the resource curse and child well-being. Using a mixed-methods research design, the paper examines the link between the two concepts, asking how and why the resource curse is associated with child well-being. For the quantitative part of the study, an analytical model like the first paper was employed to test the relationship in the six countries between the resource curse and child well-being. In the qualitative research, 65 interviews were conducted with key informants. Thematic and content analysis methods were used to analyze data in NVivo 21, and structural, descriptive, process, motif, emotion, evaluation, hypothesis, values, holistic, and provisional types of coding methods were used. The quantitative analyses found that oil and poverty affected child well-being in resource-rich post-Soviet countries, in line with the findings of the first paper. Strong civil society and political activism of citizens were contributing factors to the successful child well-being reforms in resource-poor countries. But measures of democracy and effective governance had the opposite impacts. Based on qualitative insights, the standard quantitative measures of democracy and effective governance may be overridden by the instability of government leaders and administrators. In short, shifting political regimes do not necessarily create institutional stability. This may be a contribution of the research, and a useful specification of resource curse theory. The qualitative results overall were more consistent with the results in the first paper. Overall, as expected, child well-being was not a priority for policymakers in resource-rich post-Soviet countries, compared to resource-poor post-Soviet countries. The findings of the second paper suggest that child well-being reforms may be more successful in resource-rich LMI countries when decision-makers pay attention to and invest in civil society and the political activism of citizens. The third paper proposes an intervention to improve the well-being of children in LMI countries with oil and gas resources, using Azerbaijan as a case study. The recommendations are based on the findings of additional qualitative studies conducted in Azerbaijan from 2017 to 2020. The sample for the studies was 39 key informants, such as ministers, deputy ministers, heads, and deputy heads of the national oil foundation, academics, and civil society representatives. The paper recommends diverting a portion of wealth coming from oil and gas revenues into individual child development accounts (CDAs), which are evidence-based asset-building accounts, which can be used for purposes such as postsecondary education or starting a business. Compared to the national oil reserve fund model, CDAs have a direct impact in building assets for children and households in resource-rich LMI countries, which can in turn lead to social and economic development. The national oil reserve fund model was developed in the 1970s to enable countries with oil and gas resources to save some or all that wealth for the future, but in reality, half of the resource-rich countries using this model failed to save oil and gas wealth, due to mismanagement of the funds and endemic corruption. Saving accounts at the individual and household level, in contrast, avoid government mismanagement of funds and corruption, and CDAs are a proven policy intervention to improve child well-being. Thus, diverting oil and gas revenues into CDAs may be a promising strategy for resource-rich LMI countries. The CDA design work for Azerbaijan could also potentially serve as a model for other resource-rich LMI countries that may choose to develop similar policies

Globalisation of Concern III : Essays on Climate Justice, Education, Sustainability and Technology

In this third collection of essays under the title of Globalisation of Concern, Aidan G. Msafiri addresses the pressing topical subjects of our time providing ethical orientations on the ethics of land justice and sustainability, the role and relevance of education and the developments of technology and cyberspace in societies. The Christian, African and global perspective of this book makes it an important source for students and decision-makers in all sectors of society. A book of reflection and hope

Following the Man of Sorrows: A Theology of Suffering for Spiritual Formation

Suffering. Salvation’s conduit. People are often reluctant to talk about suffering, unable to find words. This reluctance usually lasts until, in the midst of crisis, the only way ahead is through suffering. In these crises, people typically reach out to caregivers— pastors and priests, counselors and social workers. But what if the same reluctance affects these caregivers? What if they, too, are often unable to find adequate words? Jesus—Man of Sorrows—makes plain the imperative of taking up our cross. How is this accomplished? This dissertation offers an answer, a theology of suffering focused on spiritual formation—formation into the image of a suffering God. Emerging from lived experiences in valleys of adversity, this formational theology offers conceptual and practical ways to narrate biographies of adversity, then help others give sorrow words and grow, thus taking up our cross. Chapter one introduces the challenges of approaching suffering in theological and formational language, and deciding what is both relevant and necessary. Chapter two provides a brief survey of suffering as formative in the biblical narratives, where it emerges as a formative theme and a prerequisite to glory. A five-type taxonomy in chapter three facilitates an examination of various views of suffering in Christian faith as relational postures to Jesus—Man of Sorrows. These perspectives offer a kaleidoscope of multiple postures, each insufficient by itself to give a full picture of suffering’s role in formation. Chapter four utilizes trauma psychology as a paradigm for constructs of growth through suffering. xiii Chapter five considers language, culture, and the arts—universal lenses mediating the perception of suffering and caregiving. Finally, chapter six offers a new survey tool to assess relational postures, a graphic illustration of posttraumatic growth, a story arc approach to suffering, and a list of biblical parallels suggesting formative metaphors

Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises

Lying on the border between eastern and western Christendom, Orthodox Karelia preserved its unique religious culture into the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was described and recorded by Finnish and Karelian folklore collectors. This colorful array of ritulas and beliefs involving nature spirits, saints, the dead, and pilgrimage to monasteries represented a unigue fusion of official Church ritual and doctrine and pre-Christian ethnic folk belief. This book undertakes a fascinating exploration into many aspects of Orthodox Karelian ritual life: beliefs in supernatural forces, folk models of illness, body concepts, divination, holy icons, the role of the ritual specialist and healer, the divide between nature and culture, images of forest, the cult of the dead, and the popular image of monasteries and holy hermits. It will appeal to anyone interested in popular religion, the cognitive study of religion, ritual studies, medical anthropology, and the folk traditions and symbolism of the Balto-Finnic peoples

The social life of placebos: proximate and evolutionary mechanisms of biocultural interactions in Asante medical encounters

The Social Life of Placebos is an interdisciplinary study of the evolution of placebogenic responses – beneficial ones activated by psychosocial triggers -- and their elicitation in Asante medical contexts. Based on an extensive literature review in social, cultural, and medical studies and over 26 months of intensive research in rural Ghana, West Africa, it examines the therapeutic efficacy of Asante medical encounters by analyzing rites of care-giving within an evolutionary framework. Section 1 investigates why evolutionary processes appear to have made human physiology susceptible to psychosocial manipulation, what the health consequences of that susceptibility are in modern environments, and how culturally specific expectations and healing rituals might dampen or amplify that susceptibility. Because of key transitions in human evolution, the fitness consequences of sociality have increased rapidly and created the conditions whereby endogenous mechanisms have become responsive to sociocultural conditions. This explanation helps us better understand why culturally specific rituals can elicit powerful beneficial (placebo) and adverse (nocebo) physiological responses. Using a mixed methodology of physiological data and ethnographic case studies collected from hundreds of Asante medical encounters, Section 2 illuminates evolutionary and proximate processes in Asante contexts of care-giving and healing rituals in detailed chapters on pain, emotion, and stress. It examines the social and cultural resources and techniques that Asante health practitioners rely on for pain management in contexts where no pain medication is available. It analyzes the biocultural interactions that can take place when healers modify patient perceptions, emotions, and expectations. The dissertation concludes with biometric evidence that Asante indigenous ritual healing ceremonies actually promote significant entrainment and relaxation effects

THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Festschrift for Tekeste Negash

none2Modern African Historiography State and Society Reflection on Basis Themes in African Studies and MethodologiesopenLars Berge; Irma TaddiaLars Berge; Irma Taddi

From Prophet to Pharisee: An Analysis of Arizona Christian Politicians, Political Theory, and Theology

abstract: Contemporary Christian American politicians have diverse identities when integrating their faith with their political ideology and have developed their worldviews and interpretive schemas and have defended, enacted, and given meaning to their positions, knowingly or unknowingly. There are two distinct theoretical clusters which are a result of an already existing dichotomy. This ideological divide happens along the philosophical notions of individualism or communitarianism, libertarianism or egalitarianism, capitalism or collectivism, literalism or hermeneutics, orthodoxy or praxis. One cluster, Institutional Christianity, exerts a dominating influence on the political and cultural landscape in the US, particularly during the last ten years, and could be considered a hegemonic discourse; while the other, Natural Christianity, serves as the counter-hegemony within a political landscape characterized by a two party system. This study explores the relationship of these dichotomous clusters with contemporary Arizona Christian politicians. Using a phenomenological, qualitative study, interviewing sixteen Arizona Christian politicians, this study yielded ten themes, and binary meaning units within each theme, that describe the essence of politicians' faith and political behavior as they intersect. Finally, this study found, as reported by each subject, what political perspectives generally created a sense of dissonance with one's faith and what perspective exhibited a unified sense of congruence with their faith and political behavior.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Justice Studies 201

The Role of Water in Shaping Futures in Rural Kenya: Using a New Materialities Approach to Understand the Co-productive Correspondences Between Bodies, Culture and Water.

Using mixed methods and multiple sites, this thesis reflects on how water acts as a connective material through which socio-cultural, ritual, economic, and ecological relationships are formed and played out. By adopting a New Materialities approach the brute physicality of relationships is drawn into the foreground to illustrate the agency of materials and people as they co-produce each other together. By focusing on water’s behaviours, this thesis demonstrates that distinctions typically placed between people and other materials are problematic and consequently require reconsideration. Therefore, in rejection of a human exceptionalist focus, this thesis attempts to level the representational ‘playing field’ between bodies and water so as to bring water into discourse as multi-species ethnographies have done for other entities. My research is geographically situated in both rural Wales and an outlying location in the Eastern Coastal Province of Kenya where creeping desertification is increasingly troubling subsistence for a group of Giriama horticultural-pastoralists. It examines the socio-economic, cultural and material consequences of regular piped water flowing into a community that until 2015 relied exclusively on a climatically governed water supply, alongside a series of phenomenological experiences had with water in Wales. I establish the role water plays in co-constructing Giriama authenticity and social life whilst simultaneously producing what can be loosely called an ‘ethnography’ of water. In combination, this thesis demonstrates how the material behaviours of water reveal it to be an active agent that co-produces the materiality, and the behaviours, of being human. The Wenner Gren Foundation supported the fieldwork for this research, under the title The Role of 'New' Water in Shaping and Regulating Futures in Rural Kenya