Coup Coup Land : A Comparative Study of the Coups of Fiji

A thesis presented on the political history of Fiji from cession to Britain in 1874 compares and analyses the country’s four political coups. A military coup occurred in 1987 by Lt. Col Sitiveni Rabuka. Six months later he staged a self-coup. In 2000 George Speight staged an armed civilian coup or putsch, and in 2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama, head of Fiji’s military forces, overthrew the government of Laisenia Qarase. This paper is an internal comparison of the four coups of which the aim is to examine why coups occur in Fiji. The conclusion is that the level of influence of the country’s traditional paramount chiefs is a strong causal factor in events leading to the political overthrows. Issues such as ethnicity, constitutionalism, democracy, traditionalism, and modernity make the study of the Fiji coups complex. All of the major actors involved have been present or have been somehow linked to each coup. Questions of leadership arise as do issues regarding pluralism and multiculturalism. These issues are discussed in this paper. The end result is that if the question of traditional leadership is not addressed within a democratic framework then Fiji will continue to have coups.

Small-Scale Farmers Land Use and Socioeconomic Situation in the Mount Elgon District in Northwestern Kenya : A Minor Field Study - Combined Field Mapping and Interview

This Minor Field Study was carried out during November and December in 2011 in the Mount Elgon District in Western Kenya. The objective was to examine nine small-scale farming household´s land use and socioeconomic situation when they have joined a non-governmental organization (NGO) project, which specifically targets small-scale farming households to improve land use system and socioeconomic situation by the extension of soil and water conservation measures. The survey has worked along three integral examinations methods which are mapping and processing data using GIS, semi structured interviews and literature studies.   This study has adopted a theoretical approach referred to as political ecology, in which landesque capital is a central concept. The result shows that all farmers, except one, have issues with land degradation. However, the extent of the problem and also implemented sustainable soil and water conservation measures were diverse among the farmers. The main causes of this can both be linked to how the farmers themselves utilized their farmland and how impacts from the climate change have modified the terms of the farmers working conditions. These factors have consequently resulted in impacts on the informants’ socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore it was also registered that social and economic elements, in some cases, were the causes of how the farmers manage their farmland. The farmer who had no significant problem with soil erosion had invested in trees and opportunities to irrigate the farmland. In addition, it was also recorded that certain farmers had invested in particular soil and water conservation measures without any significant result. This was probably due to the time span these land measures cover before they start to generate revenue.  The outcome of this study has traced how global, national and local elements exist in a context when it comes to the conditions of the farmers´ land use and their socioeconomic situation. The farmers atMt.Elgon are thereby a component of a wider context when they are both contributory to their socioeconomic situation, mainly due to their land management, and also exposed to core-periphery relationships on which the farmers themselves have no influence.

Multimodalt skrivande i praktiken : Sex lärares beskrivningar om och hur det multimodala skrivandet på Åland sker samt deras upplevelser av och attityder till multimodalt skrivande

Huvudsyftet med denna empiriska studie har varit att undersöka om och hur några lärare på Åland praktiskt arbetar med multimodalt skrivande i årskurs 4-6, samt deras upplevelser av och inställning till det multimodala skrivandet i skolan. Det multimodala skrivandet har i denna studie definierats som att skriftlig, visuell och auditiv teckenvärld kombineras på ett eller annat sätt. Skrivuppgifter där text kombinerats med bild och ljud är exempel på detta. Genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer visar studien att det multimodala skrivandet förekommer relativt ofta, främst det som innefattar text och bild. Dessutom förekommer både analoga och digitala multimodala skrivuppgifter i undervisningen. Det visar sig att möjligheterna är många med lärare som generellt är positiva till det multimodala skrivandet i skolan. Det är snarare lärarna själva som begränsar den multimodala skrivundervisningen på grund av egen osäkerhet. Den digitala tekniken kan stundtals också ställa till med bekymmer. Vidare visar studien att lärare behöver utveckla och förstå att den multimodala skrivprocessen är en integrerad process där helheten är det centrala. Lärare behöver även utveckla den multimodala skrivkompetensen eftersom den granskande aspekten av texters budskap är lika viktig som att låta olika teckenvärldar samspela. Trots en obekanthet med begreppet så inkluderar lärare multimodalt skrivande i sin undervisning.