The Farming Fissure: A Study Exploring Agricultural Diversification in Onondaga County, New York

The development towards specialized, consolidated agriculture has prompted concerns over the strength of local food systems, through posing economic, environmental and social risk and threatening long-term resilience. One touted strategy to both tackle gaps in the local food system and support local farmers involves diversifying agricultural operations. However, diversification strategies have lacked contextualization in literature, and have not been examined through the lens of farmer perceptions. This mixed-methods study synthesized a local food assessment in Onondaga County, New York with in-depth interviews with farmers regarding diversification. Results highlighted social and institutional factors that contribute to varied perceptions about diversification, and distinct business models uncovered aligned with areas of over and underproduction in the local food assessment. These different business models were found to serve multiscalar agricultural systems yet all occupy local “place”, suggesting that opportunities to build resilience necessitate consideration of institutional context, and collaborative convergence of place-based, local-global networks

Ethnic entrepreneurs and online home-based businesses

Objectives The study considers how online home-based businesses offer opportunities for ethnic entrepreneurs to ‘break out’ of the traditional highly competitive and low margin sectors they are often associated with. Prior Work Previous studies have found a positive association between ethnic minorities high levels of entrepreneurship (Levie, 2007) and between home computer use and entrepreneurship in ethnic groups (Fairlie, 2006). Despite these associations, no previous studies have explored the formation of home-based or other online businesses by ethnic entrepreneurs. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring how online home-based businesses provide opportunities for ethnic entrepreneurs to form and operate businesses outside traditional sectors (Rath, 2002; Kloosterman, 2010). Approach The study adopts mixed embeddedness (Kloosterman et al, 1999) as a theoretical lens to guide interviews with 22 ethnic entrepreneurs who have started online home-based businesses in the UK. All interviews are recorded, fully transcribed and analysed by thematic coding using NVivo software. Results Our findings suggest two distinct groups of online home-based business ventures. The first consist of mainly entrepreneurs who have good IT qualifications and are using the internet to leverage these, such as running web design or networking businesses or selling computer hardware online. The second group had no IT expertise and saw the web as an opportunity to start a business based on retailing, design skills or other interests. The informants were emphatic that the unique characteristics offered by an online home-based business were instrumental in their decision and ability to form a business. We use the findings of the study to argue that the theory of mixed embeddedness should include notions of choice and agency by ethnic entrepreneurs and also that the entrepreneurs are not only subject to social, economic and institutional forces, but that their actions can positively influence these forces. Implications The findings suggest that online home-based businesses can offer new opportunities to ethnic entrepreneurs that allow them to move beyond being the passive subjects of social, economic and institutional forces. Value The study is of benefit to ethnic entrepreneurs seeking to start new ventures and provides a valuable evidence base for wider social debates about the role and contribution of ethnic groups to the economic and social fabric of the UK. The research also has important policy implications, for example, the efficacy and sustainability of entrepreneurship visas

The Impact of Expert Knowledge on User Behavior in Recommender Systems

Using experts in recommender systems can improve the accuracy of recommendations as well as other quality aspects of recommendations. Most studies have tested the impact of expert knowledge in offline tests. However, it is still unclear how user behavior changes when experts are used for recommendation in an online scenario. We therefore deploy a live recommender system based on rules built by employed experts on the video-on-demand platform of a large television network. We find that expert-built rules lead to a similar amount of clip views and platform visits as a standard recommender. However, experts have an influence on the consumed content, focusing users on a few popular categories

OCCUPATIONAL DIVERSIFICATION AND ACCESS TO RURAL EMPLOYMENT: REVISITING THE NON FARM EMPLOYMENT DEBATE

There is a growing feeling of urgency for enlarging the ambit of non-farm activities for accelerating the pace of rural development, battering the employment prospects, augmenting productivity and earnings, alleviating poverty and redressing urban problem. It is important to note that what was once deemed as a passive side-route for employment growth is now vociferously recommended as the pivotal plan of a rural development strategy. It is in this context that this paper examines in detail the notion of rural non-farm sector. It explore the theoretical linkages between agricultural sector and the rural non-farm sector and examines in detail the factors may cause diversification towards the rural non-farm sector.

Artist Space Development: Making the Case

Based on case studies, discusses the challenges advocates of artist space development face, the arguments they make to garner support, the strategic approaches they take, and what they achieve in making artist space a priority in community development

Collective action and property rights for poverty reduction: A review of methods and approaches

"While much attention has been given to examining various aspects of poverty, a number of studies have shown that institutional environment in which the poor exist conditions welfare outcomes, thus highlighting the inherently crucial importance of institutions for poverty reduction. The institutions of property rights and collective action are among those identified as playing a major role in the livelihood strategies of the poor. This paper highlights ways to operationalize the conceptual framework developed by Di Gregorio and colleagues (2008), which provides an analytical tool to study poverty through the institutional lens with a special focus on collective action and property rights. By emphasizing the multidimensionality of poverty, the authors advocate the importance of applying various approaches and tools to conceptualizing and measuring it. They also emphasize the crucial role that institutions of collective action and property rights play in poverty reduction and sketch out theoretical nuances and methods of examining such institutions. In addition, power relations and political context are seen to be of outmost importance in poverty-related studies; the authors provide suggestions on how to understand and operationalize various dimensions of power and institutional environment in research. Outcomes are approached from the evaluative standpoint, which moves beyond straightforward empirical measurement of certain indicators to a comprehensive analysis that would involve a range of methods and approaches to both the definition and measurement of criteria that affect the complex reality of the poor." authors' abstractCollective action, Property rights, Poverty reduction, evaluation, Vulnerability, Power, Institutions, Wellbeing,

ORGANIZATIONAL REFORM AND THE EXPANSION OF THE SOUTH’S VOICE AT THE FUND

What organizational reforms might increase the influence of developing member countries within the International Monetary Fund? In this paper we argue that a variety of organizational changes are both feasible and could substantially increase the ability of developing countries to articulate policy alternatives and advance change. We focus particularly on changes in the recruitment, training, career paths and deployment of the Fund’s staff. Our recommendations address two general issues. First, we explore ways to diversify the “intellectual portfolio” of the staff by drawing more effectively on hands-on knowledge of the concrete circumstances that shape policy outcomes in the South. More mid-career hiring of staff with practical experience inside developing country institutions could increase the degree to which the distinctive institutional circumstances of developing members are taken into account in formulating Fund policies and implementing them. Allocating a larger share of the Fund’s resources to research consulting contracts for researchers and institutions based in developing countries could also expand input of ideas that reflect the experience of member countries from the South. Second, large asymmetries in workload currently make it difficult for those working on the needs of developing members to formulate and advocate alternative policies. We suggest a number of ways in which even modest reallocation and addition of staff resources might create breathing space that would allow Executive Directors from developing countries to play a larger role in shaping the Fund’s policies.

Managing precarity? Civil society groups and donor retreat in the Eastern Caribbean

Money is a crucial, yet contested aspect of global development. This article focuses on the monetary flows connected to civil society organisations (CSOs). CSOs have traditionally been conceptualised at the bottom of vertical aid chains, exemplifying their dependence on international donors. The retreat of traditional donors from regions such as the Caribbean has the potential to alter the way CSOs operate and their engagement in development activities. Based on empirical research with CSOs in Barbados and Grenada this paper explores the perceived impact of donor withdrawal from the region and discusses three key strategies civil society groups employ in this context. The paper argues that despite feeling increasingly vulnerable, civil society groups are responding by continuing to creatively draw on diverse social, emotional and financial resources to manage this precarity. However, some of these efforts add to the insecurity felt by civil society groups further increasing their fragility. This paper then aims to add to the body of work that is re-evaluating different aspects of global development finance in changing financial times