Rural Poverty Dynamics, Agricultural Productivity and Access to Resources

The objectives of this paper are: measure the prevalence of rural poverty in 1997 and 2000, based on the nationwide Tegemeo survey; categorize households according to whether they were above the poverty line in both 1997 and 2000, entered into poverty or exited from poverty between 1997 and 2000, or were above the poverty line in both years; identifies the household-level and community-level factors associated with rural poverty through econometric analysis; and the implications of these results for the design of appropriate poverty reduction strategies. Such analysis is intended to guide donor programs and interventions designed to attack the roots of chronic poverty.Food Security, Food Policy, Kenya, Rural Poverty, Food Security and Poverty, Productivity Analysis, Q18,

Ecologia política como etnografia : um guia teórico e metodológico

Algumas das mais importantes transformações recentes no paradigma ecológico são a elaboração de sínteses transdisciplinares entre as ciências sociais e naturais, a proposta heurística da simetria epistemológica e o diálogo metodológico com os estudos da complexidade. Essas transformações servem como base para discutir os aportes da antropologia ao novo campo de pesquisa da ecologia política. Após a delimitação do subcampo da "etnografia dos conflitos socioambientais", as práticas específicas da etnografia multiator, que identifica e diferencia os agentes sociais e os "agentes naturais", e do uso de múltiplos níveis espaciais e temporais de análise são delineadas. O artigo termina com uma breve discussão dos usos acadêmicos, críticos e públicos da ecologia política. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTSome of the most important recent transformations in the ecological paradigm are the development of transdisciplinary syntheses between the social and natural sciences, the heuristic proposal of epistemological symmetry and the methodological dialogue with complexity studies. These transformations form the groundwork for a discussion of the contributions of anthropology to the new field of study of political ecology. After the delimitation of the sub-field of the "ethnography of socioenvironmental conflicts," the specific practices of multi-actor ethnography, which identifies and differentiates between social and natural agents, and of the use of multiple spatial and temporal levels of analysis are delineated. The article ends with a brief discussion of the academic, critical and policy implications of political ecology research

Women\u27s perception of fashion comparing viewers and non-viewers of evening soap operas : the cultivation effect

The cultivation effect is defined as the distorted view of reality which results from the heavy viewing exposure to a certain type of programming content. The assumption behind the cultivation hypothesis is that the more hours an individual exposes himself or herself to a particular type of program content. the more the individual\u27s view of reality will be consistent with the reality shown in the program. It is no mystery that for the past half-century, millions of Americans have made the broadcast soap opera a daily habit. In response to the heavy interest exhibited by this strong audience, social scientists have begun to systematically study this area of broadcast programming. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between women\u27s perceptions of how other women dress based on their amount of viewing exposure to nighttime dramas. ln addition, this study will investigate the relationship between viewing exposure and the use of nighttime dramas for fashion information, and the importance of dressing like the characters in the nighttime dramas

The Seven Chambers of Prince Prospero

The Seven Chambers of Prince Prospero is a multi-movement programmatic work inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. In Poe’s short story, Prince Prospero throws a lavish masquerade within his castle while the world outside suffers a deadly plague referred to as the “Red Death.” In Prospero’s castle exist seven peculiar chambers, each one a different color, in which partygoers mingle and celebrate life in the face of death. In this piece, each of the seven rooms are depicted with short character pieces, concluding with a musical interpretation of the dramatic narrative described in Poe’s short story

Cartesian Clarity

Clear and distinct perception is the centrepiece of Descartes’s philosophy — it is the source of all certainty — but what does he mean by ‘clear’ and ‘distinct’? According to the prevailing approach, what it means for a perception to be clear is that its content has a certain objective property, like truth. I argue instead that clarity is at least partly a subjective, phenomenal quality whereby a content is presented as true to the perceiving subject. Clarity comes in degrees. Any weak degree of clarity, available to the senses, can be merely subjective, since what it presents as true may not actually be true. But complete clarity, available to intellectual perception, has an objective dimension, since what it presents as true is always some truth, some bit of reality. Further, I argue that the other perceptual qualities that Descartes identifies — obscurity, confusion, and distinctness — are all defined in terms of clarity. Of particular note is the fact that distinctness is not a positive feature to be added to clarity: a distinct perception is just a completely clear perception

Attributing Creativity

Three kinds of things may be creative: persons, processes, and products. The standard definition of creativity, used nearly by consensus in psychological research, focuses specifically on products and says that a product is creative if and only if it is new and valuable. We argue that at least one further condition is necessary for a product to be creative: it must have been produced by the right kind of process. We argue furthermore that this point has an interesting epistemological implication: when you judge a product to be creative--attributing creativity--you are not just judging it to be new and valuable. Even if you did not witness how it was produced, you are also making a judgement about how it was produced

Color in context: psychological context moderates the influence of red on approach- and avoidance-motivated behavior.

A basic premise of the recently proffered color-in-context model is that the influence of color on psychological functioning varies as a function of the psychological context in which color is perceived. Some research has examined the appetitive and aversive implications of viewing the color red in romance- and achievement-relevant contexts, respectively, but in all existing empirical work approach and avoidance behavior has been studied in separate tasks and separate experiments. Research is needed to directly test whether red influences the same behavior differently depending entirely on psychological context. The present experiment was designed to put this premise to direct test in romance- and achievement-relevant contexts within the same experimental paradigm involving walking behavior. Our results revealed that exposure to red (but not blue) indeed has differential implications for walking behavior as a function of the context in which the color is perceived. Red increased the speed with which participants walked to an ostensible interview about dating (a romance-relevant context), but decreased the speed with which they walked to an ostensible interview about intelligence (an achievement-relevant context). These results are the first direct evidence that the influence of red on psychological functioning in humans varies by psychological context. Our findings contribute to both the literature on color psychology and the broader, emerging literature on the influence of context on basic psychological processes

Sustainability Leadership For The Energy Transition: A Case Study Of Role-Playing To Enhance Authentic Learning

To lead the energy transition, effective sustainability leadership requires a spectrum of skills, knowledge and understanding across technical, financial and even political disciplines. An innovative, authentic learning initiative has been designed and implemented in which Master of Sustainable Energy students conducted team-based role-playing activities, responding to a realistic, hypothetical energy policy scenario in the form of a government announcement and other mock collateral. Groups were assigned the personas of a range of industry stakeholders and prepared presentations (and accompanying media statements and position papers) for a mock online media conference. The initiative leveraged the diversity of the cohort, enabling constructive interactions and an appreciation of the impacts of energy policy on a variety of organisations and wider society. Entry and exit surveys affirmed that participants gained a deeper understanding of key issues, constraints, alternative views and approaches involved in navigating the policy pathways to sustainability. The teaching staff also observed a high level of student engagement. Challenges of group dynamics and teaching effort were felt to be outweighed by the benefits reaped by students, particularly in terms of deeper conceptual knowledge and an understanding of perspectives in the energy transition. The case study also found that the online nature of the media conference enhanced student innovation and engagement. The framework of the case study may nudge other educators towards greater use of role-playing activities in sustainability leadership pedagogy