The role and relevance of non-government aid:a case study of Kenya

How effective are non-government organisations (NG0s) in their response to Third World poverty? That is the question which this thesis examines. The thesis begins with an overview of the problems facing Third World communities, and notes the way in which people in Britain have responded through NG0s. A second part of the thesis sets out the issues on which the analysis of NGOs has been made. These are: - the ways in which NGOs analyse the process of development; - the use of 'improving nutrition' and 'promoting self-reliance' as special objectives by NG0s; and - the nature of rural change, and the implications for NGOs as agents of rural development. Kenya is taken as a case study. Firstly the political and economic structure of the country is studied, and the natures of development, nutritional problems and self-reliance in the Kenyan context are noted. The study then focusses attention onto Kitui District, an area of Kenya which at the time of the study was suffering from drought. However, it is argued that the problems of Kitui District and the constraints to change there are as much a consequence of Kenya's structural underdevelopment as of reduced rainfall. Against this background the programmes of some British NGOs in the country are examined, and it is concluded that much of their work has little relevance to the principal problems which have been identified. A final part of the thesis takes a wider look at the policies and practices of NG0s. Issues such as the choice of countries in which NGOs work, how they are represented overseas, and their educational role in Britain are considered. It is concluded that while all NGOs have a concern for the conditions in which the poorest communities of the Third World live, many NGOs take a quite narrow view of development problems, giving only little recognition to the international and intranational political and economic systems which contribute to Third World poverty.

Representing religion in the European Union:a typology of actors

For the first time in the history of the acquis communautaire, the Lisbon Treaty institutionalises an ‘open, transparent and regular dialogue’ between European institutions and ‘churches, religions and communities of conviction’. Drawing on a comparative analysis of 120 religious and convictional actors which have been in contact with European institutions from 1957 until today, this article proposes four types of relations between religious/convictional representations and European institutions, namely, private–public, experimental, proactive and institutionalised. It argues that the Lisbon institutionalisation of religious dialogue enhances the public visibility of the European Commission and, most significantly, of the construction of the European political system.

An exploration of female leadership language:case studies of senior women in Bahrain

This is a multiple case study of the leadership language of three senior women working in a large corporation in Bahrain. The study’s main aim is to explore the linguistic practices the women leaders use with their colleagues and subordinates in corporate meetings. Adopting a Foucauldian (1972) notion of ‘discourses’ as social practices and a view of gender as socially constructed and discursively performed (Butler 1990), this research aims to unveil the competing discourses which may shape the leadership language of senior women in their communities of practice. The research is situated within the broader field of Sociolinguistics and the specific field of Language and Gender. To address the research aim, a case study approach incorporating multiple methods of qualitative data collection (observation, interviews, and shadowing) was utilised to gather information about the three women leaders and produce a rich description of their use of language in and out of meeting contexts. For analysis, principles of Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) were used to organise and sort the large amount of data. Also, Feminist Post- Structuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA) was adopted to produce a multi-faceted analysis of the subjects, their language leadership, power relations, and competing discourses in the context. It was found that the three senior women enact leadership differently making variable use of a repertoire of conventionally masculine and feminine linguistic practices. However, they all appear to have limited language resources and even more limiting subject positions; and they all have to exercise considerable linguistic expertise to police and modify their language in order to avoid the ‘double bind’. Yet, the extent of this limitation and constraints depends on the community of practice with its prevailing discourses, which appear to have their roots in Islamic and cultural practices as well as some Western influences acquired throughout the company’s history. It is concluded that it may be particularly challenging for Middle Eastern women to achieve any degree of equality with men in the workplace because discourses of Gender difference lie at the core of Islamic teaching and ideology.

Assessment of physical and hydrological properties of biological soil crusts using x-ray microtomography and modelling

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are formed by aggregates of soil particles and communities of microbial organisms and are common in all drylands. The role of BSCs on infiltration remains uncertain due to the lack of data on their role in affecting soil physical properties such as porosity and structure. Quantitative assessment of these properties is primarily hindered by the fragile nature of the crusts. Here we show how the use of a combination of non-destructive imaging X-ray microtomography (XMT) and Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) enables quantification of key soil physical parameters and the modeling of water flow through BSCs samples from Kalahari Sands, Botswana. We quantify porosity and flow changes as a result of mechanical disturbance of such a fragile cyanobacteria-dominated crust. Results show significant variations in porosity between different types of crusts and how they affect the flow and that disturbance of a cyanobacteria-dominated crust results in the breakdown of larger pore spaces and reduces flow rates through the surface layer. We conclude that the XMT–LBM approach is well suited for study of fragile surface crust samples where physical and hydraulic properties cannot be easily quantified using conventional methods.

Identifications with an ‘aesthetic’ and ‘moral’ diaspora amongst Tamils of diverse state origins in Britain

This chapter employs Pnina Werbner's notion of diasporas as moral communities of suffering and co-responsibility, as well as aesthetic communities of shared transnational consumption of culture and performance of ritual, and relates this to the case of Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in Britain. Sri Lankan Tamil migrants I interviewed towards my research imagine membership of a Tamil diaspora as based on personal (or familial) experiences of suffering in the Sri Lankan civil war, which acts both to create bonds with other Sri Lankan Tamils, and to distinguish from Tamils of other state origins (Indian, Singaporean etc.) despite cultural commonalities (Werbner's aesthetic diaspora). Conversely, many of the non-Sri Lankan Tamil migrants I interviewed imagined these boundaries in more flexible terms, and claimed membership of the 'community of suffering' in ways which did not necessitate personal experience, but rather privileged symbolic constructions of the ethnic community, and an interpretation of historical and current events in India, Sri Lanka (and other sites of Tamil population) as components of a single narrative of Tamil victimhood.

The uncertainty of identity toolset:analysing digital traces for user profiling

People manage a spectrum of identities in cyber domains. Profiling individuals and assigning them to distinct groups or classes have potential applications in targeted services, online fraud detection, extensive social sorting, and cyber-security. This paper presents the Uncertainty of Identity Toolset, a framework for the identification and profiling of users from their social media accounts and e-mail addresses. More specifically, in this paper we discuss the design and implementation of two tools of the framework. The Twitter Geographic Profiler tool builds a map of the ethno-cultural communities of a person's friends on Twitter social media service. The E-mail Address Profiler tool identifies the probable identities of individuals from their e-mail addresses and maps their geographical distribution across the UK. To this end, this paper presents a framework for profiling the digital traces of individuals.

The contradictions and complementarities of combining ERP systems with enterprise 2.0 supported informal systems

The chapter discusses both the complementary factors and contradictions of adopting ERP based systems with enterprise 2.0. ERP is characterized as achieving efficient business performance by enabling a standardized business process design, but at a cost of flexibility in operations. It is claimed that enterprise 2.0 can support flexible business process management and so incorporate informal and less structured interactions. A traditional view however is that efficiency and flexibility objectives are incompatible as they are different business objectives which are pursued separately in different organizational environments. Thus an ERP system with a primary objective of improving efficiency and an enterprise 2.0 system with a primary aim of improving flexibility may represent a contradiction and lead to a high risk of failure if adopted simultaneously. This chapter will use case study analysis to investigate the use of a combination of ERP and enterprise 2.0 in a single enterprise with the aim of improving both efficiency and flexibility in operations. The chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the combination of ERP with enterprise 2.0 based on social-technical information systems management theory. The chapter also provides a summary of the benefits of the combination of ERP systems and enterprise 2.0 and how they could contribute to the development of a new generation of business management that combines both formal and informal mechanisms. For example, the multiple-sites or informal communities of an enterprise could collaborate efficiently with a common platform with a certain level of standardization but also have the flexibility in order to provide an agile reaction to internal and external events.