The impacts of a cancelled large-scale agricultural investment on smallholder farmers’ land use and access

Large-scale agricultural investments have seen a rise in popularity over the years, promising economic growth, food security, and poverty eradication around the globe. Through the rising involvement of development aid agencies with private investors, the number of foreign large-scale investments in developing countries significantly increased. This development agenda is rooted in open market access and a globalized world in which rural areas should be included in fast growing economies. However, as much as operational deals are framed as success stories with positive outcomes for the region and people, opposing neoliberal market structures on rural economies of subsistence farming can pose severe problems. A multifaceted perspective is needed, and more features of large-scale investments have to be explored. This study aimed to investigate how the cancellation of such deals affected smallholder farmers in Bagamoyo region, Tanzania. By applying the theoretical concepts of power and knowledge combined with post-colonial theory, the focus of the study lays on the impacts cancelled deals have on farmers’ land use and access. Empirical data was gathered through qualitative research in the prior project area by directly talking to the project-affected smallholders from a sugar cane investment. The findings indicate that, long after cancellation, the effects of the investor remain and that rural communities, especially smallholders, are affected economically and mentally

The Local Relevance of Human Rights: A Methodological Approach

This paper proposes a methodology for examining the use and relevance of human rights in local communities as they quest to change their reality of poverty, social exclusion or marginalisation. The methodology draws on an innovative conceptual approach denominated ‘localising human rights,’ a process which takes the human rights needs and claims formulated by local people as a basis for further interpreting and elaborating human rights in the context of economic globalisation. This paper, through a literature review of interdisciplinary methodological approaches and participatory case studies, offers an introduction on how local communities’ use of human rights can be researched in the context of field studies.

Writing with Parents in Response to Picture Book Read Alouds

High-quality writing instruction needs to permeate elementary students’ in- and outside-of-school experiences. The aim of this research was to explore how teaching writing to parents may support home-school literacy connections. This qualitative case study explored parents’ experiences in interactive writing sessions. The descriptive coding and constant comparative analysis of transcribed parent writing sessions, field notes, and documents revealed three themes: (1) Writing Tips and Strategies, (2) Parent-Writers, and (3) Story Connections. The parent writing sessions facilitated parents’ understanding of how to support their elementary-age children’s writing development. Parents demonstrated a desire to support their children’s writing development, and they needed strategies to understand how to help. Parents applied suggestions as writers to support their children’s writing development at home. Collaborating with the children’s parents helped increase the likelihood the writing strategies gleaned from the writing clinic would be used within the children’s homes

Supervision & Facilitator Support

A manual designed for organizations which employ facilitators in different sites and who need to provide them with ongoing supervision and support. The manual provides information and activities which are based on the author’s experience organizing and supervising literacy programs in Bangladesh. The focus of this manual is to help you understand and implement an effective approach towards supervision and facilitator support. The manual provides a framework for exploring the principles of supervision and a series of activities to use in your program. Each activity is a step-by-step guide to help you collect information to design effective in-service training and support systems for the facilitators in your program. By the time you complete the manual, you will have developed a new support system tailored for your program. This manual is intended for literacy and nonformal education practitioners who are responsible for organizing classes and supervising facilitators. the activities can be used to start a new program or improve an existing program. Read the manual and think about how it applies to your work situation. Use the seven activities to create or improve an existing support system for the facilitators with whom you work. At the end of each activity there is a written assignment that asks you to reflect on your experience and write a brief paper. You may also be asked to compile and organize the information you have gathered in lists or charts. These assignments are important because they are part of your personal learning process and will help you develop a deeper understanding of your work in literacy education

Profile July 1985

July 1985 employee monthly newsletter printed for employees

Milwaukie Downtown Revitalization Project: The Milwaukie Storefront (Final Report)

The Milwaukie Storefront was a one year program intended as a catalyst for the downtown and to focus attention on the potential for improved business activity. The Storefront, initiated in September of 1983, served as a technical resource, and as a coordinator and facilitator of promotional events in downtown Milwaukie. This report describes the Storefront as an organization, looking at its structure and original purpose. A review of the individual projects is presented to demonstrate the range of Storefront activities. In drawing conclusions, the report looks at whether the Storefront was able to meet its expectations and cites the accomplishments and problems that were experienced. The report finally looks at the Storefront\u27s activities and applies them in a broader perspective to small town or neighborhood commercial revitalization programs

Embodying Design

Rethinking design through the lens of embodied cognition provides a novel way of understanding human interaction with technology. In this book, Christopher Baber uses embodied cognition as a lens through which to view both how designers engage in creative practices and how people use designed artifacts. This view of cognition as enactive, embedded, situated, or distributed, without recourse to internal representations, provides a theoretical grounding that makes possible a richer account of human interaction with technology. This understanding of everyday interactions with things in the world reveals opportunities for design to intervene. Moreover, Baber argues, design is an embodied activity in which the continual engagement between designers and their materials is at the heart of design practice. Baber proposes that design and creativity should be considered in dynamic, rather than discrete, terms and explores “task ecologies”—the concept of environment as it relates to embodied cognition. He uses a theory of affordance as an essential premise for design practice, arguing that affordances are neither form nor function but arise from the dynamics within the human-artifact-environment system. Baber explores agency and intent of smart devices and implications of tangible user interfaces and activity recognition for human-computer interaction. He proposes a systems view of human-artifact-environment interactions—to focus on any one component or pairing misses the subtleties of these interactions. The boundaries between components remain, but the borders that allow exchange of information and action are permeable, which gives rise to synergies and interactions