Who owns the land? Social relations and conflict over resources in Africa

Using case studies drawn from the authors' own and others’ research, this working paper describes and compares some of the ways land conflicts reflected, intensified or reshaped struggles over authority within and between families, local communities, institutions and states in post-colonial Africa. In the past, many Africans gained access to land through membership in a social group, rather than freehold ownership. In recent decades, with rising demand for land, urgent questions arose about land tenure and debates over land transactions often turned on issues of authority. Who was entitled to sell, lease, mortgage or bequeath land or land use rights to others, and who could decide? Coinciding with Africans’ struggles to work out the conditions of their own self-government following the end of colonial rule, rising competition over land intersected with conflicts over authority and obligation at all levels of social interaction. This essay will focus on processes of ‘privatisation from below’, asking how smaller-scale commercial acquisitions figure as sources of wealth and/or threats to livelihood in different economic and political contexts.Das Working Paper beschreibt und vergleicht einige der Formen, wie sich Kämpfe um Autorität in und zwischen Familien, lokalen Gemeinschaften, Institutionen und in Staaten im postkolonialen Afrika in Konflikten um Land widerspiegelten, intensivierten oder veränderten. Dabei bezieht sich die Autorin auf Fallstudien aus ihrer eigenen und anderer Forschung. Früher bekamen viele Afrikaner_innen Zugang zu Land eher über die Mitgliedschaft in einer sozialen Gruppe als über individuelles Eigentum. In den letzten Jahrzehnten, mit der wachsenden Nachfrage nach Land, kamen wichtige Fragen in Hinblick auf Landbesitz auf und Debatten über Landtransaktionen widmeten sich zunehmend dem Thema Autorität. Wer war berechtigt Land oder Landrechte zu verkaufen, zu verpachten, zu verpfänden oder zu vererben und wer konnte das entscheiden? Die gleichzeitige Suche nach den Bedingungen einer eigenen Regierungsweise nach Ende der Kolonialherrschaft führte dazu, dass sich die zunehmende Konkurrenz um Land mit Konflikten um Autorität und Zwang auf allen Ebenen der sozialen Interaktion verband. Dieser Artikel betrachtet Prozesse der ,Privatisierung von unten‘ und fragt danach, wie kleinere kommerzielle Aneignungen als Basis für Wohlstand und/oder Bedrohung der Lebensgrundlage in verschiedenen ökonomischen und politischen Kontexten fungieren

Capitalism and underdevelopment in Africa: a critical essay

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 4

Custom, class, and the "informal" sector: or, why marginality is not likely to pay

African Studies Center Working Paper No.

Teachers Developing Exemplary Inquiry Practices

If students are to be successful in the ever-changing scientific world they need to be taught how to think critically, to manipulate materials, and to gather evidence to build knowledge. Most teachers fall short in providing students the inquiry instruction described in the Next Generation Science Frameworks (National Research Council, 2011). This study examined three elementary science teachers’ processes as they developed inquiry practices over time. The Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol (EQUIP) was used to gather quantitative and qualitative evidence of the teachers’ inquiry practices in terms of four factors, Curriculum, Instruction, Discourse, and Assessment. A chronological analysis was used to examine the teachers’ professional development and curriculum experiences in relation to their teaching practices. The results showed that all three teachers did change their practice, although the changes varied among cases. For each case, multiple factors influenced the teachers’ development. There was a strong positive correlation between the quality of the teachers’ inquiry practices and the time spent in curriculum-contextualized professional development. This research indicates that when teachers are supported with curriculum and professional development over extended periods, they develop exemplary inquiry practices. Three recommendations are provided for those interested in implementing science education reform

Property rights and rural resource management: the case of tree crops in West Africa

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 12

Brief for Respondents. County of Los Angeles v. Mendez, 137 S.Ct. 1539 (2017) (No. 16-3690), 2017 WL 696103

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the legal framework set out in Grnham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), apply to actions by police that foreseeably create a need for the use of force? 2. In an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, where a house search that violates the Fourth Amendment results in the shooting of an innocent resident who did not know that the intruders were sheriff’s deputies, does a resident’s nonculpable response to the intrusion constitute a superseding cause that bars relief for the residents’ injur

Response of the bacterial community associated with a cosmopolitan marine diatom to crude oil shows a preference for the biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons

Emerging evidence shows that hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB) may be commonly found associated with phytoplankton in the ocean, but the ecology of these bacteria and how they respond to crude oil remains poorly understood. Here, we used a natural diatom-bacterial assemblage to investigate the diversity and response of HCB associated with a cosmopolitan marine diatom, S. costatum, to crude oil. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed a dramatic transition in the diatom-associated bacterial community, defined initially by a short-lived bloom of Methylophaga (putative oil-degraders) that was subsequently succeeded by a distinct groups of HCB (Marinobacter, Polycyclovorans, Arenibacter, Parvibaculum, Roseobacter clade), including putative novel phyla, as well as other groups with previously unqualified oil-degrading potential. Interestingly, these oil-enriched organisms contributed to the apparent and exclusive biodegradation of substituted and non-substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), thereby suggesting that the HCB community associated with the diatom is tuned to specializing in the degradation of PAHs. Furthermore, the formation of marine oil snow (MOS) in oil-amended incubations was consistent with its formation during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This work highlights the phycosphere of phytoplankton as an underexplored biotope in the ocean where HCB may contribute importantly to the biodegradation of hydrocarbon contaminants in marine surface waters

The Role of Encoding Strategy in Younger and Older Adult Associative Recognition: A Think-Aloud Analysis

Older adults have especially poor recognition memory for word pairs, and recent research suggests this associative deficit manifests primarily in older adults’ higher rates of false alarms compared to younger adults. This could result from older adults either failing to generate meaningful (deep) mediators at study, or failing to benefit from having generated deep mediators at test. Younger and older adults performed a recognition memory task for words and word-pairs. A think-aloud analysis of their spontaneous encoding strategies (e.g., repetition, shallow mediators, and deep mediators) revealed that generation of deep mediators did not differ between younger and older adults, and was associated with high hit rates for items and associates in both age groups. However, generation of deep mediators was inversely related to false alarm rates in younger adults but not older adults. A trial-level analysis of encoding strategies and recognition responses revealed that younger adults benefited from having generated deep mediators when presented with corresponding recombined pairs at test as shown in their lower false alarm rates. In contrast, older adults who generated deep mediators during study (e.g., to blanket-figure) did not benefit from having done so when they encountered the corresponding recombined pairs at test (blanket-summer and district-figure): Their false alarm rates to pairs at test were unrelated to generation of deep mediators at study. These results suggest that many older adults have difficulty retrieving their mediators when presented with recombined pairs at test, older adults’ mediators are not distinct enough to individuate intact pairs from recombined pairs at test, or some combination of both

The Grizzly, January 22, 1991

Student Activism Rises Across the Country • Caught in the Crossfire: Iraqi Speaks on the War • What to Look for in the Gulf War • Taking War to Heart • Limerick Prepared • Saddam Hussein Must be Stopped • Ruminations of a Confused Mind • How has the War Affected You?https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1267/thumbnail.jp