Gender and rural livelihoods in Kenya

This article considers the implications for gender relations of different rural livelihoods. While many rural areas in Kenya have been drawn into intensive commercial production, others, formerly dependent on remittances from migrant labour, have seen these diminish. Recent empirical studies of gender and livelihoods in Kenya are compared. Commercial production and the drying up of remittances set up quite different processes in rural households. These may lead to greater corporateness, to conflict or even to fragmentation. The outcome depends on the potential rewards of co‐operation, but also on domestic authority relations and on ideologies of common or divided interest.     

Malaysia’s Federal System: Overt and Covert Centralisation

In recent decades, many countries have implemented decentralisation drives to increase efficiency and responsiveness. However, Malaysia is an exception. Its federal system is more than 50 years old and, rather than decentralising, the country has pursued a sustained centralisation drive. The cause dates back to the pre-independence period, when the nationalist elite, the British and the traditional rulers negotiated the structure of the future government. The first two parties wanted a strong central government, but had to factor in pre-existing political structures centred on the rulers. The result was a federal system with a powerful central government and state governments with diminished responsibilities. Since independence, the ruling coalition founded by the nationalist elite has remained in power at the federal level. Enabled by the constitution’s “top-heavy” design and its unbroken tenure, the coalition has implemented a continuous centralisation drive. Further catalysts – but not causes – have been the implementation of the New Economic Policy and creeping authoritarianism. The centralisation drive has been pursued through a variety of tactics, including: appropriating state government responsibilities; altering incentive structures; privatising state government-owned assets; and “organisational duplication.” Recent policies look to continue this, precluding the potential benefits of a functioning federal system.     

Positioning independent community media: Findings from a case study of six small South African newspapers

Abstract

This article brings defining aspects of ‘community media’ – as proposed by a group of media stakeholders – into dialogue with research findings from a study on small ‘independent media’. One significant difference between the two media sectors is that the former is usually understood as being driven by commune-style ownership and community control, and the latter by private ownership and profit-driven control. We argue that perceptions constructed by this difference potentially marginalise small independent media organisations. It may compromise their access to funding as well as obscure how, and how much, they contribute to their communities. We find that the six South African small independent newspapers in this research meet defining criteria for ‘community media’. Research findings on issues such as social responsibility, participatory democracy, media diversity and the generation of skills and wealth demonstrate how the principles and practices of the two media sectors overlap. So we propose ‘independent community media’ as a more inclusive and appropriate concept and term for small community-oriented publications, irrespective of their ownership profiles or relationship to profit. Independence is also examined – particularly how the newspapers balance editorial independence with outside control: this reveals inequitable practices currently threatening some newspapers’ survival and success.     

India 2014: Facebook ‘Like’ as a Predictor of Election Outcomes

Michael Hill and Lian Kwen Fee The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) 285 pp.

Junko Kato, The Problem of Bureaucratic Rationality: Tax Politics In Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

Joachim Glaubitz, Between Tokyo and Moscow: The History of an Uneasy Relationship, 1972 to the 1990s. (London: Hurst and Company, 1995), pp. XII, 308.

A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947–1977 (London: Hurst and Company, 1994).

James Manor (ed.), Nehru to the Nineties : The Changing Office of Prime Minister in India (London : Hurst and Company, 1994), pp. 261.

Shimon Peres, The New Middle East. (Longmead: Element Books Limited, 1993), pp. 224.

R.B. Jain and Heinz Bongartz (eds.), Structural Adjustment, Public Policy and Bureaucracy in Developing Societies. (New Delhi: Har‐Anand Publications, 1994), pp. xvi, 424.

Hendri Supriyatmono, Nasution: Dwifungsi ABRI dan Kontribusi Ke Arah Reformasi Politik (Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press, 1994), 190 pp.     

Violent Life Events and Social Disadvantage: A Systematic Study of the Social Background of Various Kinds of Lethal Violence,Other Violent Crime,Suicide, and Suicide Attempts1

ABSTRACT

Open sanctions and changes in conceptions of rehabilitation are changing qualification requirements in the field of prison and probation services. In particular, the significance of social interaction between employees and offenders has emphasized. This study examines this issue from the viewpoints of social constructionism and discourse analysis. Research material was collected by interviewing 11 Finnish Criminal Sanction Agency employees who prepared and enforced supervised probationary freedom. According to the results, social interaction was structured from different points of view and linked to differently constructed identities in the interviewees’ speech. Professional interaction and a confidential employee–offender relationship were viewed as a means to create occupational safety and prevent security risks, and also to support offender’s rehabilitation. In addition, employees used a discourse of daily interaction and support which emphasized the significance of everyday encounters with the offender. Employees were able to overcome the tension between support and control by flexibly combining the discourse of supervision with the discourse of daily interaction and support, which enabled them to support the offender without being a rehabilitation professional. The study reveals the central role of social interaction, which creates challenges for education, and the development of an organizational culture in prison and probation services.     

A detailed mechanistic fragmentation analysis of methamphetamine and select regioisomers by GC/MS

A novel ring-substituted methamphetamine regioisomer, N,alpha,4-trimethyl phenmethylamine, was synthesized in order to study the validity of proposed structures for various mass spectrometry (MS)-derived peaks in a methamphetamine fragmentation pattern. While other research efforts have studied aspects of methamphetamine in detail, a full fragmentation study has not been reported previously. In addition to showing molecular structures represented by fragment peaks, mechanisms for selected processes are detailed. An empirically derived procedure to easily determine by simple spectral peak pattern recognition the geometry of dimethyl- or ethyl-substituted immonium ions (RRC = N+ RR) where m/z = 58 is outlined. These results are platform independent for electron ionization (EI) instruments, but have also proven to be helpful in explaining spectral peaks observed in spectra from ion trap systems. The spectrum for the synthesized methamphetamine regioisomer was accurately predicted using this methodology. While this approach is useful in some casework, the converse may be more useful: when an unexpected or unusual peak pattern arises in a spectrum, being able to analyze it to determine the structure of the molecule. This paper gives an analyst the means to begin such retro-synthetic analyses.