The post‐Stalinist present and the Australian past

Abstract

Since 1979, housing reforms in China have been seen as successive state efforts to improve urban governance. The idea is that the state has all along failed to deliver housing efficiently and equitably through the work units and that it is believed that only through the recommodification of housing could the housing problem be ultimately resolved. The housing monetarization policy (HMP) was thus launched in 1998 to replace the long-standing in-kind housing subsidy under the old welfare housing system. The policy aims at providing workers with cash subsidies as part of their wage package to enable them to buy or rent their homes from the market. The purpose of this paper is to explain the implications of the HMP through a neoliberal urbanization perspective. Through the case study of Guiyang, it is argued that while the HMP is successful in improving certain historical housing inequalities, it does not primarily aim at eradicating housing inequalities. HMP has in fact led to more rather than less horizontal inequities. In addition, it is argued here that a market housing system is leading towards increasing urban poverty, greater social polarization and spatial segregation. To improve governance, China needs to keep neoliberal urbanization in check and pay serious attention to its adverse consequences during economic transformation.     

Local plant use and traditional conservation practices in Nhema communal area,Zimbabwe

Abstract

This article is based on a study that was carried out in Nhema communal area in Midlands Province, Zimbabwe, with the main objective of documenting local plant use and traditional conservation practices. Data collected through household semi-structured and open interviews showed that 46 plant species in 40 genera and 24 families were mainly used for firewood, construction wood, food and traditional medicine. Other minor uses included using plant species for making mats, rope and shading. Firewood and construction wood ranked as the most important tree products used. The preferred plant species included: Julbernardia globiflora (Mutondo); Brachystegia spiciformis (Musasa); Terminalia sericea (Mususu); Brachystegia boehmii (Mupfuti); Combretum imberbe (Mutsviri); Combretum molle (Mubondo) and Burkea africana (Mukarati). Some of the highly preferred species, considered to be declining in the local environment, included Adenium obesum (Chisvosve); Azanza garckeana (Mutohwe); Brachystegia boehmii (Mupfuti); Brachystegia spiciformis (Musasa); Burkea africana (Mukarati); Combretum imberbe (Mutsviri); Combretum molle (Mubondo); Dalbergia melanoxylon (Mukonashanhu); Diospyros mespiliformis (Musuma); Elephantorrhiza goetzei (Ntorani); Julbernardia globiflora (Mutondo); Phragmites australis (Shanga; Poulzozia hypoleuca (Munanzwa); Pterocarpus angolensis (Mubvamaropa); Terminalia sericea (Mususu) and Uapaca kirkiana (Muzhanje). Highly preferred and declining species were characteristically large trees and shrubs. Local people are aware of the need to conserve plant resources in order to protect the environment and avoid the extinction of these rare species.Traditional conservation practices have substantially contributed to the conservation of plant species in Nhema communal area. The protection of indigenous timber, fruit trees, trees with social and cultural significance, the use of deadwood for firewood, the use of eucalyptus trees as construction wood and the occurrence of sacred woodland areas represented some of the traditional conservation techniques employed in Nhema communal area. These local practices demonstrate the dynamism and significance of African indigenous knowledge systems.     

Traditional health practitioners' practices and the sustainability of extinction-prone traditional medicinal plants

ABSTRACT

For centuries, traditional health practitioners (THPs) have used their indigenous knowledge (IK) in conserving medicinal plants and environments in order to maintain sustainability. Medicinal plants have played an important role in the healthcare system of Africa. With the rapid environmental, social, economic and political changes occurring in many areas inhabited by rural people, the danger exists that the loss of biodiversity from habitat destruction and unsustainable harvesting practices will cause some species to become extinct, threatening the availability of medicinal plants on a regional level. This article presents the findings of research conducted to investigate the sustainability of the harvesting practices of THPs, with specific reference to extinction-prone traditional medicinal plants in the study areas of the Limpopo province, South Africa. The main aim of the study was to determine the natural habitat of extinction-prone traditional medicinal plants, combining the insight of THPs with the ultimate goal of guiding research for the conservation, propagation and cultivation of traditional medicinal plants. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and data were collected using in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that the THPs’ practices are shaped by historical processes and local cultural values, social norms and their management strategies, which are influenced by a broad range of factors.     

How the World Bank manages social risks: implementation of the Social Risk Mitigation Project in Turkey

This paper aims to assess the World Bank’s social risk management approach to poverty by focusing on the implementation details of the Social Risk Mitigation Project in Turkey, a World Bank project that depends on this approach. The paper looks at the approach through the concept of neoliberal governmentality, as an attempt to produce responsible poor citizens during a period when the responsibility for providing social services is transferred to the market and the family. By using field research it demonstrates that, with the intervention of local factors, several unintended consequences emerge in the implementation of a social risk management project. The article concludes that these outcomes, although not planned or intended, have all been instrumental in depoliticising poverty and the poor in the country. Moreover, in spite of all the problems and dissatisfaction, thanks to the Bank’s own portrayal, this project has contributed to the image of the Bank as a development institution that achieves successes in its fight with poverty.     

From global workers to local entrepreneurs: Sri Lanka’s former global factory workers in rural Sri Lanka

Abstract

Working in Sri Lanka’s urban free trade zones (FTZs) introduces Sri Lanka’s rural women to neoliberal ways of fashioning selves, which subsequently not only shape village entrepreneurial activities but also initiate negotiations in kinship, marriage, domestic arrangements, and community relations. The knowledges and networks that they develop while at the FTZ allow former workers to connect with global production networks as subcontractors, making them part of the cascading system of subcontracting that furthers the precarity of regular FTZ work. This article explores how these former workers manipulate varied forms of capital – social, cultural and monetary – to become local entrepreneurs and community leaders, while simultaneously initiating changes in rural social hierarchies and gender norms. When neoliberal economic restructuring manifests within local contexts it results in new articulations of what it is to be an entrepreneur and what it is to be a worthy, young, married woman. Overall, the paper sheds light on the fragmented and uneven manner in which neoliberal ethos take root in rural South Asia.     

A Century of Green Lessons: The Contribution of Nature Conservation Regimes to Global Governance

This paper reviews the lessons learned over the past 100 years in international management and conservation of the Earth's natural heritage and biological resources (fauna and flora), in the face of growing threats of degradation and extinction. The focus is on the effectiveness of intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions – in terms of agenda-setting, regime formation, implementation and compliance, and reactions to non-compliance. Among specific case histories analysed are the ivory trade ban, the whaling moratorium, and attempts at establishing an international forest regime. Innovative governance features highlighted in the field of global living resource management include active NGO participation, the use of selective economic incentives and disincentives (e.g. multilateral or bilateral trade sanctions), and a number of judicial enforcement remedies for both species-based and area-based conservation agreements. The paper concludes by assessing the prospects of transition from the paradigm of 'permanent sovereignty over natural resources' towards new concepts of public trusteeship and stewardship.     

Tourism and the politics of the global land grab in Tanzania: markets,appropriation and recognition

This paper examines how tourism as a form of land use and economic development is a critical site of struggle over the meaning of neoliberalism, landscape and land rights in northern Tanzania. I examine two tourism arrangements in Loliondo: joint ventures between expatriate-owned ecotourism companies and predominately Maasai villages; and the leasing of a hunting concession on village lands by the central government to a powerful foreign investor from the United Arab Emirates. Despite the fundamental role of foreign investors in appropriating resources and surplus value from regional landscapes in each of these cases, I argue that the Maasai in Loliondo see contemporary land grabbing as firmly situated in state claims to property and territory. The Maasai in Loliondo have come to think of the market, expressed through their direct relationships with ecotourism investors, as the most promising space to legitimize and secure land rights and access to resources. Loliondo, an area in northern Tanzania bordering the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, has become one of the most important sites for tourism development in Tanzania. This region is home to the iconic Maasai people, who practice pastoralism and are part of what attracts tourists to Tanzania. These Maasai face increased pressure to assert their local vision of a landscape and their ability to commoditize it. I situate current land struggles within the political economy of tourism in Loliondo and show how different articulations of market–state–community become both materially and symbolically meaningful. Ultimately, I argue that the Maasai retain faith in market-based relationships in spite of increasingly limited room to maneuver.     

Identification of Indian Crocodile Species Through DNA Barcodes

The biodiversity of India includes three crocodile species, Crocodylus palustris, Crocodylus porosus, and Gavialis gangeticus, whose status is threatened due to bushmeat crisis and illegal hunting. The crocodilian conservation management requires novel techniques to help forensic analysts to reveal species identity. DNA barcoding is a species identification technique, where a partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene is used as a marker for species identification. Herein, the DNA barcoding technique is evaluated for three Indian crocodiles by analyzing an approximately 750‐bp barcode region. The alignment result shows interspecific variations between sequences for discrimination of the three Indian crocodiles leading to species identification. The phylogenetic analyses also substantiate the established crocodilian relationships, which add further advantage to use this DNA barcoding approach for Indian crocodiles. This study provides preliminary evidences for the use of DNA barcoding technique in the identification of Indian crocodile species.     

对生态文明是“第四大文明”论的几点质疑——兼论生态文明与《环境保护法》的修订

生态文明建设是党的十八大报告中对社会主义社会建设的最新要求,也是新时期生态环境法治建设的航向标。然而有法学学者在研究生态文明的过程中,将生态文明描绘为非人类向往的,是人类无奈选择的,适应性的,非人类创造性的第四大文明。笔者认为该论是对生态文明根本的误读,不利于展开正确的法学研究,应当予以分析并澄清。