Poverty is Bad: Ways forward in livelihood research

In this paper, we take the view that the essence of poverty is the fact that one or several basic conditions for generating a living are not being met. The conditions considered most vital for making a living are to a certain extent context specific and subject to (cultural and social) interpretation and evaluation

Poverty is Bad: Ways Forward in Livelihood Research

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Governing the Global Land Grab: Multipolarity, Ideas and Complexity in Transnational Governance

Since 2008, a series of new regulatory initiatives have emerged to address large-scale land grabs. These initiatives are occurring simultaneously at multiple levels of social organization instead of a single, overarching institutional site. A significant portion of this activity is taking place at the transnational level. We suggest that transnational land governance is indicative of emerging shifts in the practice of governance of global affairs. We analyze such shifts by asking two related questions: what does land grabbing tell us about developments in transnational governance, particularly with regard to North-South relations, and what do these developments in transnational governance mean for regulating land grabbing?Desde 2008, ha surgido una serie de nuevas iniciativas regulatorias para tratar acaparamientos de tierra a gran escala. Estas iniciativas están sucediendo simultáneamente a niveles múltiples de la organización social en vez de un lugar institucional predominante. Una porción importante de esta actividad está tomando lugar al nivel transnacional. Sugerimos que la gobernanza de tierras trasnacionales es indicativa de los cambios que están surgiendo en la práctica de gobernanza de los asuntos globales. Analizamos tales cambios haciendo dos preguntas relacionadas: ¿qué nos dice el acaparamiento de tierras sobre los desarrollos en la gobernanza trasnacional, particularmente con las relaciones norte-sur?, y ¿qué significan estos desarrollos en gobernanza trasnacional para regular el acaparamiento de tierras

Global investment failures and transformations : A review of hyped jatropha spaces

There was a heightened global interest in large-scale Jatropha cultivation for the past few decades, and this incited investment toward the crop in many developing countries. Many saw Jatropha as a green fuel that could possibly be an alternative to fossil fuel, which has adverse implications to deal with the impacts of climate change. However, Jatropha investments failed to meet global expectations, leading to unexpected social, environmental, and economic transformations in the investment spaces. This paper reviews and synthesizes the transformations and complexities in failed Jatropha spaces in six previous major Jatropha investment destinations across the world—Mexico, India, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Ghana—by employing qualitative data analysis. The findings generally show that, in all of the countries studied, promoters of Jatropha investments, including the central government and private investors, subscribed to a “wait-and-see” approach with positive expectations. The review revealed that the intended goal of establishing global Jatropha investments to serve as an alternative source of fuel failed because of the unexpected complexities of the hype, which dwelled much on the deferment option of the “wait-and-see” approach for global Jatropha investments. Failure of the investments along with unmet expectations led to land-use changes from Jatropha to the cultivation of other crops (often food crops) or total land abandonment. Although we are not totally pessimistic about the economic and production viability of Jatropha as a biofuel feedstock, we emphasize the importance of paying considerable attention to other feedstocks that might have a better future as alternatives to fossil-based energy for the deployment of sustainable bioenergy. Furthermore, our findings provide meaningful justification for policy- and decision-makers in the development space to tacitly reflect and appraise new investment initiatives or interventions before endorsemen

Global investment failures and transformations: A review of hyped jatropha spaces

There was a heightened global interest in large-scale Jatropha cultivation for the past few decades, and this incited investment toward the crop in many developing countries. Many saw Jatropha as a green fuel that could possibly be an alternative to fossil fuel, which has adverse implications to deal with the impacts of climate change. However, Jatropha investments failed to meet global expectations, leading to unexpected social, environmental, and economic transformations in the investment spaces. This paper reviews and synthesizes the transformations and complexities in failed Jatropha spaces in six previous major Jatropha investment destinations across the world—Mexico, India, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Ghana—by employing qualitative data analysis. The findings generally show that, in all of the countries studied, promoters of Jatropha investments, including the central government and private investors, subscribed to a “wait-and-see” approach with positive expectations. The review revealed that the intended goal of establishing global Jatropha investments to serve as an alternative source of fuel failed because of the unexpected complexities of the hype, which dwelled much on the deferment option of the “wait-and-see” approach for global Jatropha investments. Failure of the investments along with unmet expectations led to land-use changes from Jatropha to the cultivation of other crops (often food crops) or total land abandonment. Although we are not totally pessimistic about the economic and production viability of Jatropha as a biofuel feedstock, we emphasize the importance of paying considerable attention to other feedstocks that might have a better future as alternatives to fossil-based energy for the deployment of sustainable bioenergy. Furthermore, our findings provide meaningful justification for policy- and decision-makers in the development space to tacitly reflect and appraise new investment initiatives or interventions before endorsemen