Endangered Youth? Youth,gender and sexualities in urban Botswana

Age is now recognised as a significant social cleavage in research on youth in the South. Using participatory urban appraisal methodologies, this article explores constructions of sexualities among urban youth in Botswana, a country that is currently experiencing an HIV/AIDS epidemic and high levels of teenage pregnancy. We argue that not only are young people sophisticated sexual beings, but that there is a need to adopt more holistic approaches to examining sexualities among them so as to appreciate that constructions of sexualities are multi‐faceted, highly diverse and heavily gendered. This appreciation must then be integrated into a multi‐sectoral policy approach that moves beyond information provision towards one that addresses changes in gender, cultural and sexual identities.     

Interview with Jeanne Hyvrard

Born in Paris in 1945, Jeanne Hyvrard published her first novel, Les Prunes de Cythère (Minuit), in 1975, and her subsequent work ranges from prose novels to short stories, poetry, essays, and experimental texts which exceed the bounds of conventional genre definitions. Hyvrard claims to be articulating the emergence of a new organisation of thought, la tierce pensée, which will enable us to understand and to manage the economic changes brought about by the increasing globalisation of trade and by technological advances. She is an economist by training, and her writing manifests a deep concern with relationships of production, exchange and consumption between individuals, at the heart of which is the possibility of a renewed ethical relationship between the self and the other. This ethical stance influences Hyvrard's thought on themes as diverse as psychology, gender, education, literature, environmentalism, and immigration; and her holistic vision of the world, as structured by networks of interconnected relationships, is now attracting growing critical attention, as it strikes a chord with contemporary concerns about the effects of economic and cultural globalisation.     

Australia's Indigenous Carbon Economy: A National Snapshot

Many Indigenous communities in Australia are well situated to provide greenhouse gas abatement and carbon sequestration benefits, but little is known about the factors affecting the capability of Australia's Indigenous organisations to participate in climate change mitigation strategies. This paper provides a ‘snapshot’ summary of certain aspects of Australia's Indigenous organisations' participation in carbon offset schemes. The snapshot provides insight into the degree to which Indigenous organisations are aware of carbon market opportunities in Australia, the level that these Indigenous organisations participate in or engage with carbon‐based economic enterprises, and the key pathways through which Indigenous carbon market opportunities are pursued. Analysis of data collected from a national survey conducted between 2011 and 2012 show that most obstacles to Indigenous participation in carbon offset schemes relate to land tenure arrangements; geographic and biophysical factors; low levels of requisite technical, human and financial resources; and appropriate recognition of Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsibilities. The snapshot also highlights the value of supporting regionally specific capacity‐building strategies to enable Indigenous people to participate in emerging carbon offset activities and the generation of associated ecosystem services. Cultural, socio‐economic or demographic factors that are also likely to influence the ability of many Indigenous communities to participate in carbon market opportunities are identified as important areas for further research.     

From Feminising to Engendering Development

Feminists have been crucial in challenging the gender-blindness of development discourse and practice. In the process, they have shaped the move from the feminisation to the engendering of development over the last three decades. This article explores this broad shift, focusing on the recent transformations within gender and development discourse and feminist approaches to development relating to diversity and representation, human rights, and the incorporation of men and masculinities within the development agenda, all set within the context of a globalising era. It highlights how women from the South have been critical in reshaping contemporary feminisms to celebrate difference and plurality and challenge Western hegemony. At the same time, feminists have also emphasised the commonalities among women in the name of addressing gender inequalities, evidenced in a recent upsurge in forging transnational alliances facilitated by the contradictory processes of globalisation.     

A LOGIC TREE EXTENSION OF THE CAPACITY SPECTRUM METHOD DEVELOPED TO ESTIMATE SEISMIC RISK IN OSLO,NORWAY

The city of Oslo, Norway, was affected by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake in 1904 causing widespread minor damage. The earthquake occurred around 100 km south of Oslo within the Permean rift structure that runs North-South along the Oslofjord, and deep clay deposits under the city contributed to the damages. A seismic risk scenario including soil amplification and buildings classifications has been conducted with two earthquake sources, one very close to the city and one near the 1904 epicenter. Both scenarios exhibit strong dependencies on the soft clays underlying large parts of Oslo. The results confirm the 1904 effects, but also show a strong dependency on the applied attenuation functions. All computations are based on the capacity-spectrum method, and the predefined pushover curves and vulnerability functions were adopted from the HAZUS code. With this basis, the computational scheme was developed independent from the GIS framework, and a weighted logic tree formulation was implemented for appropriate treatment of epistemic uncertainties.