Legal Manoeuvres and Violence: Law Making,Protest and Semi‐Authoritarianism in Uganda

This article explores the interplay between violent protest and the making of laws in Uganda. It advances two main arguments. First, since multipartyism was restored in 2005, the Ugandan government has repeatedly drafted intentionally contentious new laws in part to provoke, divide and politically manipulate opposition. Implementing these laws has often not appeared to be a priority; rather, drafting, debating and (sometimes) passing them represent tactical ‘legal manoeuvres’ geared towards political gain. Second, I argue that these manoeuvres can be linked to another trend since 2005: the rise in urban‐based protests and riots, which have often become violent and resulted in aggressive crackdowns by the state. In bringing these trends together, this article argues that the use of legislative processes as part of a strategic repertoire to destabilize political opposition has exacerbated unrest, especially among urban dwellers. Moreover, in response to rising protest the government has engaged in further legal manoeuvring. The analysis suggests that the semi‐authoritarian nature of the regime in power, where the symbolic importance of the legislature and relatively free media contend with fundamentally authoritarian tendencies at the centre, is propagating this cycle of legal manoeuvres and violence.     

Resource Accessibility and Vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh: Caste and Non‐Caste Influences

Coastal Andhra Pradesh in southern India is prone to tropical cyclones. Access to key resources can reduce the vulnerability of the local population to both large‐scale disasters, such as cyclones, and to the sort of small‐scale crises that affect their everyday lives. This article uses primary fieldwork to present a resource accessibility vulnerability index for over 300 respondents. The index indicates that caste is the key factor in determining who has assets, who can access public facilities, who has political connections and who has supportive social networks. The ‘lower’ castes (which tend to be the poorest) are marginalized to the extent that they lack access to assets, public facilities and opportunities to improve their plight. However, the research also indicates that the poor and powerless lower castes are able to utilize informal social networks to bolster their resilience, typically by women's participation with CBOs and NGOs. Nevertheless it is doubtful whether this extra social capital counterbalances the overall results which show that — despite decades of counteractions by government — caste remains a dominant variable affecting the vulnerability of the people of coastal Andhra Pradesh to the hazards that they face.     

Social Mobilization in Protest of Trans‐boundary Highway Projects: Explaining Contrasting Implementation Outcomes

Trans‐boundary highways have increasingly complemented trade agreements as instruments of global economic integration, and both have incurred political protest. This article presents a comparative analysis of two recently proposed trans‐boundary highway projects, the Trans‐Texas Corridor from Mexico through Texas to Oklahoma in the USA, and the Inter‐Oceanic Highway in the southwestern Amazon where Bolivia, Brazil and Peru meet. The analysis focuses on the similar political contexts, justifications and funding models, as well as the contrasting political responses and implementation outcomes. The findings reveal important differences in the two cases, even among their ostensibly similar aspects, which are necessary to provide an adequate explanation as to why social mobilization stopped one project but not the other. The analysis bears implications for the social‐political study of trans‐boundary infrastructure as an instrument of economic globalization.     

Information Entropy of Non‐Probabilistic Processes

We derive an expression for the entropy of non‐probabilistic distributions encountered in spatial and mathematical mappings. The entropy of non‐probabilistic distributions can be formulated using probabilistic notions of the hypothetical random redistribution of finite information. We show that the discrete approximation to the information content of spatial maps can be based on the discrete hypergeometric distribution. The resultant “associative” entropy is distinct from the Shannon entropy for probability distributions and addresses several shortcomings of the current entropy paradigm as applied to spatial analysis. The associative entropy statistic is distributed approximately as a chi‐squared random variable under limitations of variation. We formulate a univariate logical equivalent of the associative entropy statistic, freeing the paradigm from the degrees of freedom constraint to which it has been traditionally shackled. This entropy has application in spatial analysis and fuzzy set theory. The associative entropy is based on the concept of proportional information and is related to the Getis G‐statistics of spatial association and the Chi‐squared statistics of sample means. We explore the utility of the theory when applied to spatial distribution of vegetation in New Brunswick, Canada. The limitations and implications of the entropy expression are discussed and suggestions are made for future applications of the theory. This work is part of the development of an information theory framework for the analysis of landscape patterns of animal habitat.     

Mothers and Non‐Mothers: Gendering the Discourse of Education in South Asia

This essay brings together and complicates three stories within South Asian education history by gendering them. Thus modern education was actively pursued by mothers for their sons; indigenous education should be understood as continuing at home; and women were crucial actors in men's reform and nationalism efforts through both collaboration and resistance. Gendered history should go beyond the separate story of girls and women, or the understanding of women as mothers and mothers as the nation, to see these three processes as gendered. The paper argues for the coming together of historical and anthropological arguments and for using literature imaginatively.     

Rituals of Rebellion: Cultural Narratives and Metadiscourse of Violent Conflict in Iron Age and Medieval Denmark

Abstract

Despite modern notions of cultural homogeneity in southern Scandinavia, substantial ethnic differences characterized its Iron Age and early Medieval populations. Creation of a unified state from earlier social formations ignited rifts leading to social disorder, rebellion, and uprising during a transitional era when upper and lower classes felt these changes most sharply. Ethnohistoric evidence preserves a record of ritualized public performances by state and local leaders, revealing relationships that shifted between fear, negotiation, challenge, and defiance. This is compared against archaeological evidence of widespread, rapid changes in settlement organization in some regions, and relative stability in others, interpreted as outcomes of unsuccessful and successful challenges to state authority. Groups electing to use violent conflict in challenging the state, who also had histories of inter-group interaction, were better able to preserve autonomy than those attempting legalistic arguments and 'rational' negotiations. Data are interpreted in light of ethnographic case studies and contemporary social theory.     

Skeletal and Surgical Evidence for Acute Osteomyelitis in Non‐Adult Individuals

Osteomyelitis is a non‐specific infection of the bone and bone marrow. In the past acute osteomyelitis (AO) led to high mortality especially in non‐adults. Nevertheless, its diagnosis in archaeological populations is rare. Documented individuals with known cause of death offer a unique opportunity to study this condition. This article aims to describe the bone lesions in non‐adults diagnosed with AO at the Coimbra University Hospital (CUH) and now belonging to the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection (CISC). Moreover, mortality rates and demographic profiles for individuals aged ≤18 years old and diagnosed with AO in the CUH, between 1923 and 1929, were also determined. The 5 (1%) non‐adults in the CISC with AO listed as cause of death were selected for this study, and their bones were analysed macroscopically and radiologically. The skeletal remains of one individual revealed a small area of new bone formation in the shaft of the left femur. Radiography of this bone showed a radio‐opaque area in the diaphysis. The other four individuals show evidence of surgical treatment, responsible for many cases of disability in the past. In the 7‐year period under analysis, 122 juveniles were diagnosed with osteomyelitis and admitted for surgery at the CUH, 43 (35.2%) of which were diagnosed with AO. Sixty‐five per cent of the cases of AO occurred between the ages of 8 and 15 years, with boys twice as frequently affected as girls, and lower limb bones were involved in 91% of AO cases. AO was responsible for 76.9% of the deaths. This study of pre‐antibiotic non‐adults may help to recognize skeletal signs of AO and their surgical treatment in unidentified skeletal remains. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Screening Climatic and Non‐Climatic Risks to Australian Catchments

Emerging and future climatic change across the Australian continent has been identified as a significant threat to the successful sustainable management of the nation's water resources. However, the impacts of climate change must be viewed within the context of past, present and future climatic variability and human agency. A qualitative screening‐level risk assessment was undertaken for Australia's 325 surface water management areas by aggregating a suite of six relevant risk indicators. Four indicators addressed the antecedent conditions upon which future climate change will act. These included 50‐year trends in rainfall, the status of surface and groundwater development, and catchment condition. Two indicators addressed future drivers of supply and demand; specifically, projected changes in runoff and population. The results indicate that the management challenges currently experienced in Australia's population centres and key agricultural areas such as the Murray‐Darling Basin are likely to increase in future decades. Furthermore, the geographic distribution of net risk, inclusive of multiple biophysical and socioeconomic drivers, is more extensive than is suggested by consideration of surface water development and availability alone. Comparison of at‐risk catchments with the spatial distribution of various social and environmental assets identified a high degree of overlap among catchment risk and human populations, water storages, irrigated agricultural land, and wetlands of international significance. This suggests that the catchments of the greatest value are also those judged to be at greatest risk. Though considerable work remains in evaluating the security of Australia's water resources to climatic and other stressors, this study provides a first‐order scheme for prioritising the risks to which catchments are exposed and an assessment of how some key drivers are likely to interact to drive risk.     

Polychromy Analysis on Cypriot Archaic Statues by Non‐ and Micro‐Invasive Analytical Techniques

The polychromy of limestone and terracotta statues from Cyprus attributed to the sixth to fifth centuries bc is analysed using non‐ and micro‐invasive techniques in order to shed light on the use of pigments during the studied period. The strengths and limitations of these methods for the present application are discussed. The identified pigments are iron‐containing compounds (red, yellow, green earths and iron–manganese black). No copper‐containing compounds were detected on the studied objects, despite the wide availability of copper minerals in Cyprus.     

After the Nicaraguan Non‐Payment Crisis: Alternatives to Microfinance Narcissism

This article argues against ‘microfinance narcissism’ and calls for a re‐politicization of the microfinance paradigm. The dominant verdict on microcredit has undergone a damning transformation, from ‘magic bullet for poverty reduction’ to ‘cause of suicide’. Nowadays, both radical critics and mainstream voices deplore microcredit's negative impact on micro‐entrepreneurs. They argue for a reorientation where credit is targeted at established small and medium‐sized enterprises, particularly in rural areas. The crisis in microfinance worldwide, including burgeoning protests, are viewed as proof of the commercial derailment and/or misplaced faith in microfinance's positive social and economic impact on the poor. This article engages with this debate through a study of the Nicaraguan micro‐finance crisis. It challenges existing analyses that pin the crisis on agricultural over‐indebtedness, lack of due diligence, or Sandinista populist politics. Illustrating the dangers of neglecting the diverse nature of microfinance, it reveals the paradoxical outcomes of the crisis: a refocus on the urban at the expense of agricultural credit for small and medium enterprises and a consolidation of the power of national processing elites. Nicaragua's Non‐Payment Movement is also shown to be both a product of elite manipulation and an expression of legitimate resistance to an industry that turns a blind eye to the manner in which markets and politics constrain clients’ potential.     

Gender Education Gaps among Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Groups in Bolivia

This article studies gender education gaps among indigenous and non‐indigenous groups in Bolivia. Using the National Census of Population and Housing 2012 and an estimation method analogous to difference‐in‐differences, the study finds that the intersection of gender and indigenous identity confers cumulative disadvantage for indigenous women in literacy, years of schooling and primary and secondary school completion. While gender education gaps have become narrower across generations, there remain significant differences within indigenous groups. The Aymara have the largest gender gap in all outcomes, despite having high overall attainment rates and mostly residing in urban centres with greater physical access to schools. The Quechua have relatively smaller gender gaps, but these are accompanied by lower attainment levels. The article discusses the possible sources of these differentials and highlights the importance of taking gender dynamics within each indigenous group into greater consideration.     

Non‐Market Institutions in Economic Development: The Role of the Third Sector

In an article published in this journal in 2005, Dorward et al. argued that non‐market institutions are particularly effective in addressing market failures in the high‐transaction cost institutional environment which is often characteristic of low‐income countries. This comment develops additional theoretical underpinnings of this argument by exploring differences in the capacity for addressing market failure of for‐profit firms, on the one hand, and third sector organizations representing a major type of non‐market institutions, on the other. It is argued that while for‐profit firms address market failures by facilitating market exchange, third sector organizations do so by replacing exchange with self‐sufficiency. This recourse to self‐sufficiency is reflected in the important role of third sector organizations in economic development in low‐income countries.     

‘We’re moving out’: Youth Out‐Migration Intentions in Coastal Non‐Metropolitan New South Wales

This article discusses youth out‐migration on the non‐metropolitan New South Wales Eastern Seaboard. High levels of in‐migration and counter‐urbanisation, typical of many coastal non‐metropolitan towns in NSW, mask the out‐migration of youth. There are relatively few 15–24 year olds in the coastal communities of non‐metropolitan New South Wales, because many youths out‐migrate to larger centres, for a range of reasons. Out‐migration also demarcates a life transition away from school life, adolescence and the parental home. This paper draws from research with senior high school students in one coastal town – Coffs Harbour – where such trends have been particularly apparent. It examines the propensity for youth out‐migration and discusses how young people articulate their migration intentions. Young people's perceptions of their current and future prospects feature prominently in their discourses about intended migration, although this research also demonstrates that the life courses of regional youth are unorthodox and diverse in nature.     

Non‐osseous calcaneonavicular coalition in the Portuguese prehistoric population: report of two cases

This paper reports articular surface defects detected in three foot bones. These were exhumed from Portuguese collective burial places, Hipogeu de São Paulo II (artificial cave, Almada) and Necrópole da Serra da Roupa (shelter, Columbeira) dated to the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. Other aetiologies were presented, but non‐osseous calcaneonavicular coalition proved to be the most probable explanation for the unusual morphology detected in two calcanei and one navicular bone. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multilateral Development Finance in Non‐Western Thought: From Before Bretton Woods to Beyond

Recent initiatives of China and other emerging powers to create new multilateral development lending institutions (MDLIs) are often portrayed as efforts to build upon and/or reform an idea pioneered by Western officials during the Bretton Woods negotiations. However, recent literature has shown that support for MDLIs also had deeper non‐Western roots in the pre‐Bretton Woods era. What led thinkers outside the West to propose MDLIs in that earlier period? How might their ideas be relevant to current non‐Western initiatives to create new MDLIs? This article addresses these questions with a special focus on the ideas of China's Sun Yat‐sen (1866–1925) and Peru's Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre (1895–1979). Although their intellectual journeys were quite distinct and their specific proposals differed, these two thinkers advocated the creation of MDLIs for similar reasons that stemmed from their anti‐imperialist sentiments. Their ideas find some echoes in current non‐Western initiatives.     

“Skilled,Cheap, and Desperate”1: Non‐tenure‐track Faculty and the Delusion of Meritocracy

Over the past 25 or so years, geographers have produced sophisticated critical tools to examine systems like patriarchy, racism, and heteronormativity. However, they have not used those critical tools to examine the problem of institutional hierarchy in the academy. There are many kinds of institutional hierarchy, but the paper focuses on one particular structure: the difference between tenure‐track and non‐tenure‐track faculty. I call for much greater critical reflection on the existence and experience of non‐tenure‐track faculty in geography. I argue that it is essential to undermine the structures and assumed wisdom of the hierarchy, for the sake of non‐tenure‐track faculty, the discipline, and the academy as a whole. Destabilizing the structures requires multiple strategies. I argue that one key strategy is for non‐tenure‐track faculty to tell their stories, to offer their critical perspective from the lower rungs of the hierarchy. The last part of the paper is an autobiographical account designed to give a better idea of how one such story might look.