Traversing Racial Distance in Hip-hop Culture: The Ethics and Politics of Listening

Hip-hop is often studied as a ‘political’ culture. Listeners, however, often contest the attachment of a political nature to hip-hop. After the ‘dilution’ of “real” hip-hop by record labels seeking to package the sound for mainstream consumption, is it fair to say that hip-hop retains political relevance? To address this question I make two moves. In the first, I approach hip-hop from a perspective that moves beyond lyrics, seeking to understand what the music ‘does’ rather than what it represents. In the second, I take this approach to the study of race in hip-hop culture, examining how phenotypical variation affects the affordances and subject-positions available to a given body in hip-hop culture. In approaching hip-hop through the materiality of racial difference, I find that the “political” in hip-hop emerges in moments of creative and ethical experimentation in the face of alterity

Plentiful magnetic moments in oxygen deficient SrTiO3

Correlated band theory is employed to investigate the magnetic and electronic properties of different arrangements of oxygen di- and tri-vacancy clusters in SrTiO$_3$. Hole and electron doping of oxygen deficient SrTiO$_3$ yields various degrees of magnetization as a result of the interaction between localized magnetic moments at the defected sites. Different kinds of Ti atomic orbital hybridization are described as a function of the doping level and defect geometry. We find that magnetism in SrTiO$_{3-\delta}$ is sensitive to the arrangement of neighbouring vacancy sites, charge carrier density, and vacancy-vacancy interaction. Permanent magnetic moments in the absence of vacancy doping electrons are observed. Our description of the charged clusters of oxygen vacancies widens the previous descriptions of mono and multi-vacancies and points out the importance of the controled formation at the atomic level of defects for the realization of transition metal oxide based devices with a desirable magnetic performance.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, continuation of arXiv:1408.310

Strengthening Pluralistic Agricultural Information Delivery Systems in India

The study on agricultural information flow has revealed that only 40 per cent farm households access information from one or the other source. The popular information sources among farmers have been reported to be fellow progressive farmers and input dealers, followed by mass media. The public extension system has been found to be accessed by only 5.7 per cent households. Only 4.8 per cent of the small farmers have access to public extension workers as compared to 12.4 per cent of large farmers. The sector-wise study on the type of information, sought has revealed that a majority of the farmers have sought information on seed (32-55%) in the cultivation sector; on health care (26-54 %) in animal husbandry; and on management and marketing (8-46 %) in fisheries. Regarding adoption of information by farmers, input dealers and other progressive farmers have depicted greater influence mainly due to easy and convenient access to these sources. The study has suggested promotion of farmers-led extension and strengthening of public extension services to improve coverage and efficiency of agricultural information delivery systems.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Employment, Income and Labour Supply Decision of Rural Households : An Economic Analysis of MGNREGS in Tamil Nadu

In India, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGMGNREGS) is one of the major rural development programmes. It provides guaranteed employment to the rural households for 100 days in a year. This paper has attempted to find out the employment status, income and labour supply decision of the participants and non-participants of MGNREGS in Tamil Nadu. It has also studied the household nutritional security of these households. The study has revealed that the number of migrants in the family, number of livestock units owned, and number of person-days employed in agriculture, nonagriculture and MGNREGS are significantly influenced by the household income of the participants and non-participants of MGNREGS. The analysis of household food-security has shown that the expenditure for all commodities, viz. leisure, cereals, pulses, oils, fruits & vegetables, milk, chicken and fish are positive and significant in the case of MGNREGS participants, whereas the expenditure variable is significant only for two commodities, viz. cereals and oils in case of MGNREGS non-participants. It shows that the MGNREGS participants consume more high-value commodities like milk, chicken and fish, as compared to MGNREGS non-participants. The labour supply decision of sample respondents has shown that the elasticity of labour supply with respect to wage rate is more than one in both participants and non-participants of MGNREGS, indicating that an one per cent increase in wage rate increases labour supply by 1.92 per cent and 2.36 per cent, respectively. In addition, as the number of dependents increases, the household increases labour supply to derive additional income to meet the increased household expenditures. An interesting and encouraging observation is that the scheme has reduced the migration of people from rural to urban areas.MGNREGS, employment, income, labour supply, Agricultural and Food Policy, J21, J22, H23, I31,