Browse results
Therefore, everyone involved in language policy, education, economics and development, geography, development or area studies and African studies will benefit from such a holistic and innovative overview.
Therefore, everyone involved in language policy, education, economics and development, geography, development or area studies and African studies will benefit from such a holistic and innovative overview.
- Volume I: SADC
- Volume II: EAC & ECCAS
- Volume III: ECOWAS
- Volume IV: AMU & COMESA
These volumes of the series focus primarily on language-in-education policies (LiEP). The book series aims to describe and analyse the diverse challenges of LiEP for the entire African continent using a standard structure for each chapter to ensure readability. Book chapters will be mainly contributed by authors based in Africa.
Abstract
Over the past few years, China–Africa engagements have intensified, manifesting in an escalation of Chinese small-scale entrepreneurs investing in African countries. Nevertheless, there is little research on everyday workplace encounters, management styles and labour dynamics in these businesses. This study fills this lacuna by examining labour and management practices in Chinese-owned SME s in Zimbabwe, and how local employees experience and perceive Chinese management styles and practices. We employed an ethnographic qualitative methodology, conducting interviews and informal conversations. Secondary data came from newspaper and civil society reports. The findings revealed that workplace regimes in Chinese SME s are complex and ambivalent, marked by precariousness, conflict, contestation and conviviality. The findings also highlighted meagre salaries, job insecurity, long working hours and unfair dismissals. We argue that the socio-spatial context of work in Chinese SME s in Zimbabwe is imbued with complex power dynamics driven by divergent cultural interpretations of work and being a worker.
Abstract
South African land matters today emanate from the past racially based land dispossession of black communities, which furthered white settler capitalism. Post-apartheid regimes have developed many policies to reverse this legacy, but with little effect. Political parties have blamed the Constitution for the slow pace of land reform, arguing for the need to amend it to clarify ‘expropriation without compensation’. Based on a broad literature review, this article suggests some political, economic and social lessons for South Africa’s land reform. It aims to understand how other countries have dealt with land acquisition for land reform and urban housing development projects, the post-acquisition stage and the reasons for failure and success of some land reforms. This article calls for an alignment of land stakeholders, inclusion of urban land in land reform policies and increasing the powers of provincial officers to improve support for beneficiaries and the subdivision of large farms.
Abstract
Since independence in Africa south of the Sahara, deadly internal conflicts have wracked the region more than any other in the world. Some of these conflicts transcended national boundaries because external states became involved in supporting rebel movements. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of this international dimension of civil conflict. It develops a framework—unholy alignment, referring to the cooperative relationship between states and rebels—to examine how external support leads to the onset and intensification of civil conflict. I argue that external state support augments rebels’ capabilities to intensify violent demands that threaten the target government. I use data from secondary sources through historical process tracing and observation of congruence, and the case studies method, to explore three instances of Rwanda’s cooperative relations with rebels between 1994 and 1999, to show how they shaped civil wars in the DRC.
Abstract
Changes in forestry policies in Cameroon have often been initiated by different stakeholders in line with their respective interests, political and/or economic power, capacities and views. Consequently, communities, and especially women, inhabiting forest areas have faced difficulty using and managing forests, for cultural, social, economic and institutional reasons that limit their rights regarding the forest. This paper argues that institutional changes in Cameroon around ownership, use and management of forest resources have had far-reaching impacts on women who are dependent on these forests. We use secondary and primary data to support our analyses. Our findings reveal that over time, forestry reforms in Cameroon have been gender-blind or gender-neutral, with no clauses in forestry reforms that consider women’s vulnerabilities, needs and responsibilities. These reforms continue to impose secondary roles on women. By using gender-inclusive success stories from Nepalese forest communities, this research presses on policymakers to be more gender-inclusive when enacting forestry policies. Raising awareness and enforcing accountability that supports women will both improve the standards of living for everyone in forest communities and enhance sustainable forest management.
Abstract
My dissertation is about everyday police work, the effects of police reform and the state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (drc). Despite the role of the police in state–society relations, in Congo and the wider region that role remains under-explored. My thesis asks in what ways police practices and encounters with the public reproduce, sustain or collapse Congo’s state. Based on a year of immersive field work during which I followed police officers from the classroom via the station to the street, I argue that officers make police work possible through their everyday performativity that draws on, combines and subverts rationalities of three entangled governmentalities. The resulting Craft of the Congo Cop lies in the ability to reconcile colliding governmentalities and project the state as a temporary yet convincing effect of authority. From this inherently contingent performative process, the state in Congo emerges as a composite of temporary and fast-changing effects.
Abstract
Dryland ecosystems are globally widespread and have a large impact on the global land carbon sink. Yet a detailed optimisation of dynamic vegetation models for these ecosystems is lacking. This works contributes to resolving this problem. Based on data from our own field work, we parameterised two dynamic vegetation models to dryland conditions, specifically the Sudano-Sahel region. The optimised parameterisation enables the models to realistically simulate carbon and water fluxes measured at several fluxtower sites across the region, as well as several satellite data products. Using these models, we then studied how climatic factors and soil texture may influence the functioning of dryland ecosystems. By using and tuning dynamic vegetation models for simulating dryland vegetation, this work provides a unique insight into dryland ecosystem functioning.