Women in Land Struggles: The Implications of Female Activism and Emotional Resistance for Gender Equity

Despite deeply engrained images of female domesticity and conventional gender norms, women are increasingly joining land struggles in Cambodia. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, my findings suggest that land rights activism in Cambodia has undergone a gendered re-framing process. Reasoning that women tend to use non-violent means of contestation and are less prone to violent responses from security personnel, nongovernmental organizations push women affected by land grabs and eviction to the frontline of protests. Moreover, female activists are encouraged to publicly display emotions such as sorrow and pain, in sharp contrast with the notion of feminine modesty. I critically question the women-to-the-front strategy and, drawing on Sara Ahmed's politics of emotions, show the adverse risks for female activists. Following that, I argue that the instrumentalization of female bodies and emotions in land rights protests perpetuates gender disparities instead of strengthening female agency in Cambodian society or opening up political space for women.In Kambodscha sind Aktivistinnen trotz tief verwurzelter Geschlechternormen und Vorstellungen von weiblicher Häuslichkeit zunehmend an Kämpfen um Land beteiligt. Mit der Begründung, dass Frauen eher zu Gewaltfreiheit tendierten und zugleich weniger Gewalt durch Sicherheitskräfte erführen, drängen Nichtregierungsorganisationen von Vertreibung und Landraub betroffene Frauen in die erste Reihe von Protesten. Die Ergebnisse meiner ethnografischen Feldforschung zeigen zugleich, dass Aktivistinnen dazu angehalten werden Emotionen, wie den erfahrenen Schmerz, öffentlich zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Dies steht im scharfen Kontrast zum vorherrschenden kulturellen Kodex, der Frauen zu Bescheidenheit und Zurückhaltung anhält. Ich hinterfrage die Neuausrichtung der Kämpfe um Land daher kritisch und zeige unter Bezugnahme auf Sara Ahmeds Konzept der Politik der Emotionen, mit welchen Risiken die Feminisierung von Landrechtskämpfen für kambodschanische Aktivistinnen verbunden ist. Ich argumentiere zudem, dass die Instrumentalisierung weiblicher Körper und Emotionen in Landrechtsprotesten Geschlechterdisparitäten in Kambodscha perpetuiert, statt die Stellung von Frauen und ihre politische Handlungsmacht in der Gesellschaft zu stärke

From Bullets to Banners and Back Again? The Ambivalent Role of Ex-combatants in Contested Land Deals in Sierra Leone

The rise of land deals poses unpredictable risks to war-torn societies, exposing them to the violent folds of the global economy. In Sierra Leone, commercial land leases have perpetuated the chieftaincy monopoly, further curtailed social mobility, and sparked particular resentment among youths and ex-combatants. Drawing on the concept of the “war machine,” I analyse how Kamajor militia fighters shape contestation against land deals and explore the attendant risks for remobilisation and conflict transformation. My findings, based on in-depth ethnographic field research, indicate that while aggrieved communities turn to Kamajor-run civil society organisations for support, Kamajor living in precarious conditions largely shy away from open contestation. While the historically close ties between the Kamajor and the chieftaincy have eroded in the wake of commercial land leases, complex patronage networks along with the moral setback encountered from the Special Court proceedings and tight surveillance thwart a more overt response. Yet, the Kamajor’s background support remains key to the struggle of anti-plantation and mining activists.Kommerzielle Landinvestitionen stellen insbesondere für Nachkriegsgesellschaften unvorhersehbare Risiken dar und setzen diese den Verwerfungen der Weltwirtschaft aus. In Sierra Leone tragen Plantagen- und Bergbauprojekte zur Perpetuierung der Macht lokaler Eliten bei, erschweren zunehmend die soziale Mobilität und führen insbesondere bei Jugendlichen und Ex-Kombattanten zu Frustration. Unter Bezugnahme auf das Konzept der war machine analysiere ich, wie die Kamajor-Milizionäre den Widerstand gegen kommerzielle Landinvestitionen im südlichen Sierra Leone mitgestalten. Zudem untersuche ich, inwiefern umkämpfte Landinvestitionen zur Remobilisierung von Ex-Kombattanten beitragen und Konflikttransformationsprozesse beeinflussen können. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf umfassender ethnographischer Feldforschung und zeigen einerseits, dass sich benachteiligte Gemeinden bevorzugt an die von Kamajor geführten zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen wenden, um Unterstützung zu erhalten. Andererseits scheuen insbesondere unter prekären Bedingungen lebende Kamajor, die von den Vorzügen der Landinvestitionen weitgehend ausgeschlossen sind, vor offenen Auseinandersetzungen zurück. Ich argumentiere, dass obwohl die historisch engen Beziehungen zwischen den Kamajor und den lokalen Chiefs im Rahmen der kommerziellen Landpachtverträge erodieren, komplexe Klientelnetzwerke in Verbindung mit der erfahrenen Demütigung im Sondergerichtsverfahren und die zunehmende Überwachung offenere Widerstandsformen verhindern. Dennoch bleibt die (indirekte) Unterstützung der Kamajor zentral für den Kampf der Antiplantagen- und Bergbauaktivisten und -aktivistinnen

The National Museum of China: Building Memory, Shaping History, Presenting Identity

In March 2011, the National Museum of China, a union of the former Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolution, opened to the public at Tiananmen Square, the heart of the Chinese Nation. The transition to a modern museum complex was fast, ambitious and, to a certain extent, drastic: Only 20% of the original building was kept; 80% is new structure. Thus the museum expanded on a gigantic scale from 65,000 m² to almost 192,000 m², currently constituting the largest museum in the world. It presents itself with a new look and new displays. Although the architects of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) were officially commissioned in 2004, the approved design and the entire building project experienced fundamental changes right up until the opening of the museum in 2011. This thesis undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the redesigned National Museum of China, its current significance, its role as a cultural institution and as a representative of the Chinese nation. Chapter One (Framing the Subject: Origins and Concepts) introduces general museum concepts and the historic development of the National Museum of China. Chapter Two (Building Memory: The Architectural Form) examines the current architecture and its influence in the creation of memory and memorial culture. Chapter Three (Shaping History: The Presentation of the Collection) investigates the new presentation of the collection as well as continuities and changes in the display of the official master narrative. An appendix includes comprehensive results of various visitor surveys and statements of the museum staff from 2003, 2007 and 2011. This study presents the latest transformation of one of the most important cultural institutions of the People's Republic of China

„Wie erforschen wir Konflikte?“ : Herausforderungen ethischer Feldforschung im Kontext von Ressourcenkonflikten

Feldforschung in Konfliktkontexten geht mit besonderen Herausforderungen einher, wie der sensiblen Natur erhobener Daten, Sicherheitsrisiken für lokale Gemeinden, Aktivist_innen und Forscher_innen oder dem Risiko bestehende gesellschaftliche Polarisierungen zu ver-stärken und damit die Transformation von Konflikten zu erschweren. Anhand unserer For-schung über Ressourcenkonflikte wollen wir mit diesem Beitrag eine breitere Debatte zu den ethischen Herausforderungen von Feldforschung zu Konflikten im Globalen Süden im deutschsprachigen Raum anstoßen. Wie lässt sich Feldforschung in diesem Feld ethisch und nachhaltig durchführen? Wie gehen wir mit den Privilegien als weiße, europäische For-scher_innen und mit den einhergehenden Erwartungen an uns um? Wie lassen sich Prinzi-pien von Do no harm und Do good praktisch umsetzen? Wir arbeiten zunächst die englisch-sprachige Debatte auf, diskutieren daran anknüpfend kritisch unsere eigenen Erfahrungen in Kambodscha, Senegal und Sierra Leone entlang des Forschungsprozesses (Zugang zum Feld, Datenerhebung, Verwendung der Daten) und machen abschließend konkrete Vorschlä-ge, wie die Ausbildung von Nachwuchswissenschaftler_innen hinsichtlich der Vorbereitung auf die Feldforschung in Deutschland verbessert werden kann

Development and international validation of custom-engineered and code-free deep-learning models for detection of plus disease in retinopathy of prematurity: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness, is diagnosed through interval screening by paediatric ophthalmologists. However, improved survival of premature neonates coupled with a scarcity of available experts has raised concerns about the sustainability of this approach. We aimed to develop bespoke and code-free deep learning-based classifiers for plus disease, a hallmark of ROP, in an ethnically diverse population in London, UK, and externally validate them in ethnically, geographically, and socioeconomically diverse populations in four countries and three continents. Code-free deep learning is not reliant on the availability of expertly trained data scientists, thus being of particular potential benefit for low resource health-care settings. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used retinal images from 1370 neonates admitted to a neonatal unit at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, between 2008 and 2018. Images were acquired using a Retcam Version 2 device (Natus Medical, Pleasanton, CA, USA) on all babies who were either born at less than 32 weeks gestational age or had a birthweight of less than 1501 g. Each images was graded by two junior ophthalmologists with disagreements adjudicated by a senior paediatric ophthalmologist. Bespoke and code-free deep learning models (CFDL) were developed for the discrimination of healthy, pre-plus disease, and plus disease. Performance was assessed internally on 200 images with the majority vote of three senior paediatric ophthalmologists as the reference standard. External validation was on 338 retinal images from four separate datasets from the USA, Brazil, and Egypt with images derived from Retcam and the 3nethra neo device (Forus Health, Bengaluru, India). FINDINGS: Of the 7414 retinal images in the original dataset, 6141 images were used in the final development dataset. For the discrimination of healthy versus pre-plus or plus disease, the bespoke model had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0·986 (95% CI 0·973-0·996) and the CFDL model had an AUC of 0·989 (0·979-0·997) on the internal test set. Both models generalised well to external validation test sets acquired using the Retcam for discriminating healthy from pre-plus or plus disease (bespoke range was 0·975-1·000 and CFDL range was 0·969-0·995). The CFDL model was inferior to the bespoke model on discriminating pre-plus disease from healthy or plus disease in the USA dataset (CFDL 0·808 [95% CI 0·671-0·909, bespoke 0·942 [0·892-0·982]], p=0·0070). Performance also reduced when tested on the 3nethra neo imaging device (CFDL 0·865 [0·742-0·965] and bespoke 0·891 [0·783-0·977]). INTERPRETATION: Both bespoke and CFDL models conferred similar performance to senior paediatric ophthalmologists for discriminating healthy retinal images from ones with features of pre-plus or plus disease; however, CFDL models might generalise less well when considering minority classes. Care should be taken when testing on data acquired using alternative imaging devices from that used for the development dataset. Our study justifies further validation of plus disease classifiers in ROP screening and supports a potential role for code-free approaches to help prevent blindness in vulnerable neonates

Pre-hospital assessment of the role of adrenaline : measuring the effectiveness of drug administration in cardiac arrest (PARAMEDIC-2) : trial protocol

Despite its use since the 1960s, the safety or effectiveness of adrenaline as a treatment for cardiac arrest has never been comprehensively evaluated in a clinical trial. Although most studies have found that adrenaline increases the chance of return of spontaneous circulation for short periods, many studies found harmful effects on the brain and raise concern that adrenaline may reduce overall survival and/or good neurological outcome. The PARAMEDIC-2 trial seeks to determine if adrenaline is safe and effective in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This is a pragmatic, individually randomised, double blind, controlled trial with a parallel economic evaluation. Participants will be eligible if they are in cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital environment and advanced life support is initiated. Exclusions are cardiac arrest as a result of anaphylaxis or life threatening asthma, and patient known or appearing to be under 16 or pregnant. 8000 participants treated by 5 UK ambulance services will be randomised between December 2014 and August 2017 to adrenaline (intervention) or placebo (control) through opening pre-randomised drug packs. Clinical outcomes are survival to 30 days (primary outcome), hospital discharge, 3, 6 and 12 months, health related quality of life, and neurological and cognitive outcomes (secondary outcomes). Trial registration (ISRCTN73485024)

Consumption of fruits, vegetables and fruit juices and differentiated thyroid carcinoma risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.

Fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake is considered as probably protective against overall cancer risk, but results in previous studies are not consistent for thyroid cancer (TC). The purpose of this study is to examine the association between the consumption of fruits, vegetables, fruit juices and differentiated thyroid cancer risk within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. The EPIC study is a cohort including over half a million participants, recruited between 1991 and 2000. During a mean follow-up of 14 years, 748 incident first primary differentiated TC cases were identified. F&V and fruit juice intakes were assessed through validated country-specific dietary questionnaires. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox regression models adjusted for potential confounding factors. Comparing the highest versus lowest quartile of intake, differentiated TC risk was not associated with intakes of total F&V (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.68-1.15; p-trend = 0.44), vegetables (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.69-1.14; p-trend = 0.56), or fruit (HR: 1.00; 95% CI: 0.79-1.26; p-trend = 0.64). No significant association was observed with any individual type of vegetable or fruit. However, there was a positive borderline trend with fruit juice intake (HR: 1.23; 95% CI: 0.98-1.53; p-trend = 0.06). This study did not find any significant association between F&V intakes and differentiated TC risk; however a positive trend with fruit juice intake was observed, possibly related to its high sugar content

The importance of different frailty domains in a population based sample in England

Background: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of frailty and relative contribution of physical/balance, nutritive, cognitive and sensory frailty to important adverse health states (falls, physical activity levels, outdoor mobility, problems in self-care or usual activities, and lack of energy or accomplishment) in an English cohort by age and sex. Methods: Analysis of baseline data from a cohort of 9803 community-dwelling participants in a clinical trial. The sample was drawn from a random selection of all people aged 70 or more registered with 63 general practices across England. Data were collected by postal questionnaire. Frailty was measured with the Strawbridge questionnaire. We used cross sectional, multivariate logistic regression to estimate the association between frailty domains and known correlates and adjusted for age. Some models were stratified by sex. Results: Mean age of participants was 78 years (sd 5.7), range 70 to 101 and 47.5% (4653/9803) were men. The prevalence of overall frailty was 20.7% (2005/9671) and there was no difference in prevalence by sex (Odds Ratio 0.98; 95% Confidence Interval 0.89 to 1.08). Sensory frailty was the most common and this was reported by more men (1823/4586) than women (1469/5056; Odds Ratio for sensory frailty 0.62, 95% Confidence Interval 0.57 to 0.68). Men were less likely than women to have physical or nutritive frailty. Physical frailty had the strongest independent associations with adverse health states. However, sensory frailty was independently associated with falls, less frequent walking, problems in self-care and usual activities, lack of energy and accomplishment. Conclusions: Physical frailty was more strongly associated with adverse health states, but sensory frailty was much more common. The health gain from intervention for sensory frailty in England is likely to be substantial, particularly for older men. Sensory frailty should be explored further as an important target of intervention to improve health outcomes for older people both at clinical and population level.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.08/14/41/DH_/Department of Health/United Kingdom Project number 08/14/41/Health Technology Assessment Programmepre-print, post-print, publisher's version/PD