Study of rural leadership and implications for community participation and development in the health and family planning programs in Bangladesh

The vast majority of Bangladesh are poor and are unable even to provide for the most basic human needs. These are the landless and marginal farmers of Bangladesh. They constitute 70% of the rural population, which in turn constitute about 90% of the country's population.^ Effective development of Bangladesh would largely mean the development of the landless and marginal farmers. Past efforts of development in this section of the population, including that of the government, have not succeeded. One of the development goals of the government of Bangladesh is to improve the quality of life of the rural population through health and population control measures. Overpopulation, malnutrition and diarrhea are the major impediments to socioeconomic development in Bangladesh.^ The current study was designed to identify whether there is effective opinion leadership among the marginal and landless peasants affecting decisions on acceptance or nonacceptance of family planning methods and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) in the selected rural areas of Bangladesh. The study was conducted in eight randomly selected villages with funding from the Ministry of Health and Family Planning, government of Bangladesh. One hundred twenty-five opinion leaders were interviewed after they were identified by 408 rural couples owning land less than 2 acres and wives' age below 50. The study was conducted in two phases; couples' interview preceded that of the leaders.^ Findings of the study reveal that the opinion leaders influencing adoption of health and family planning among the landless and marginal farmers belong to the same class. Theses opinion leaders own land much less than the rich farmers and the formal leaders in the rural areas. Majority of these of opinion leaders are friends, neighbors and relatives, some are other persons who are businessmen and professionals like doctors, while the rest few are the field workers of health and family planning. Source of influence as a factor contribute most in differentiating use and non-use of family planning and ORT among both couples and leaders. The most frequent sources of influence referred by the couples and the leaders are the field workers of health and family planning, followed by the peer opinion leaders (friends, neighbors, relatives) and spouse.^ The opinion leaders do not differ much from the poor couples on land holding, a strong indicator of economic status, they however differ considerably on social factors such as family planning practice, education, and exposure to mass media.^ The study suggests that future development efforts in Bangladesh have to ensure community participation by the landless and marginal farmers and opinion leaders belonging to their class. ^

Public management and regional development

Este trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar los elementos de la gestión pública del desarrollo regional a partir de las condiciones del desarrollo regional y las nociones de desarrollo local y desarrollo sustentable. Bajo estas premisas se avanzan planteamientos esquemáticos en torno a la gestión pública del desarrollo local

Public management and regional development

Este trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar los elementos de la gestión pública del desarrollo regional a partir de las condiciones del desarrollo regional y las nociones de desarrollo local y desarrollo sustentable. Bajo estas premisas se avanzan planteamientos esquemáticos en torno a la gestión pública del desarrollo local

Public management and regional development

Este trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar los elementos de la gestión pública del desarrollo regional a partir de las condiciones del desarrollo regional y las nociones de desarrollo local y desarrollo sustentable. Bajo estas premisas se avanzan planteamientos esquemáticos en torno a la gestión pública del desarrollo local

Transport Sector and Regional Price Differentials: A SCGE Model for Chinese Provinces

With regression formulas replaced by equilibrium conditions, a spatial CGE model can substantially reduce data requirements. Detailed regional analyses are thus possible in countries where only limited regional statistics are available. While regional price differentials play important roles in multi-regional settings, transport does not receive much attention in existing models. This paper formulates a spatial CGE model that explicitly considers the transport sector and FOB/CIF prices. After describing the model, performance of our model is evaluated by comparing the benchmark equilibrium for China with survey-based regional I-O and interregional I-O tables for 1987. The structure of Chinese economies is summarized using information obtained from the benchmark equilibrium computation. This includes regional and sectoral production distributions and price differentials. The equilibrium for 1997 facilitates discussion of changes in regional economic structures that China has experienced in the decade.

Integrating periurban agrarian ecosystem services into spatial planning to cope with urban pressure

According to Corine Land Cover databases, in Europe between 1990 and 2000,77% of new artificial surfaces were built on previous agrarian areas. Urban sprawl ¡s far from being under control, between 2000 and 2006 new artificial land has grown in larger proportion than the decade before. In Spain, like in most countries, the impact of urban sprawl during the last decades has been especially significant in periurban agrarian spaces: between 2000 and 2006, 73% of new artificial surfaces were built on previous agrarian areas. The indirect impact of this trend has been even more relevant, as the expectations of appreciation in the value of land after new urban developments reinforce the ongoing trend of abandonment of agricultural land. In Madrid between 1980 and 2000 the loss of agricultural land due to abandonment of exploitation was 2-fold that due to transformation into urban areas. By comparing four case studies: Valladolild, Montpellier.Florence and Den Haag, this paper explores if urban and territorial planning may contribute to reduce urban pressure on the hinterland. In spite of their diversity, these regions have in common a relative prosperity arising from their territorial endowments, though their landscapes are still under pressure. The three last ones have been working for years on mainstream concepts like multifunctional agriculture. The systematic comparison and the analysis of successful approaches provide some clues on how to reconsider urban planning in order to preserve agricultural land. The final remarks highlight the context in which public commitment, legal protection instruments and financial strategies may contribute to the goals of urban, peri-urban or regional planning about fostering agrarian ecosystem services

Urbanismo y reproducción social. Una introducción a su historia.

La historiografía ha presentado tradicionalmente la planificación urbana como una técnica progresista que, nacida en el contexto de los reformismos del siglo XIX, tiene por objeto principal la mejora de la calidad de vida a través del tratamiento del espacio urbano y la ordenación del territorio. Sin embargo un estudio detallado de la articulación histórica entre planificación urbana, economía política de la producción de espacio y dinámicas de evolución y cambio de las formaciones sociales revela un escenario muy distinto. Este trabajo sintetiza los planteamientos de la tesis Urbanismo y reproducción social. La planificación territorial de la multitud. A través de una serie de estudios de caso, esta investigación presentó la planificación urbana y territorial como un dispositivo gubernamental encargado de regular espacialmente la reproducción social de las clases subalternas en beneficio de los bloques hegemónicos. Prestando especial atención al efecto de la planificación sobre la vida cotidiana y a través de una historiografía social reflexiva y crítica, se muestra cómo la multitud fue paulatinamente desposeída de recursos materiales, capitales sociales y representaciones colectivas a medida que sus prácticas cotidianas fueron reescritas, recodificadas, reterritorializadas. Historians have traditionally pictured town planning as a progressive technique. Born in the context of nineteenth-century reformist policies, its aim would have been to improve the quality of life through the regulation of urban development and the urban fabric. However a close study of the relationship between town planning, the politics of space and the dynamics of evolution and change of social formations reveals a very different scenario. This work summarizes the main findings of the PhD thesis Urbanism and social reproduction. The territorial planning of the multitude. Through a series of historical case studies, this research showed how town and regional planning evolved to become a governmental dispositif in charge of the spatial regulation of social reproduction. Paying special attention to the effect of planning over everyday life and subaltern classes, and deploying a critical, reflexive social historiography, the thesis described how the multitude was dispossessed of material resources, social capitals and collective imaginaries as its practices were spatially re-written, re-coded, re-territorialised.

Assessing priorities for allocation of donor liver grafts: survey of public and clinicians

Objectives: To compare the priorities of the general public, family doctors, and gastroenterologists in allocating donor livers to potential recipients of liver allograft.

Notebook on geography, navigation, mensuration, and other subjects, ca. 1723-1743

This heavily illustrated notebook contains entries on the following topics, among others: geography; mensuration; navigation and the history of navigation; "the use of Gunter's Scale in plain sailing;" compasses; quadrants and their use; "the refraction of the stars observed by the famous Tycho Brahe;" the latitude and longitude of coasts in America, Europe, and Africa; oceans and islands; mountains and "burning mountains" (volcanoes); rivers and lakes; forests and deserts; maps and sea charts; and the uses of geometry and other measurements by carpenters, joiners, painters, glaziers, masons, and bricklayers. Many pages contain navigational problems and their detailed solutions, as well as chronologies of global exploration and lists of all known rivers, mountains, and other geographic features across the world, many with vivid descriptions. The last pages of the notebook contain entries made in December of 1743 regarding celestial measurements Prince took in Stratford, Connecticut, where he was staying with his brother.

Disclosure of Leniency Materials: A Bridge between Public and Private Enforcement of Antitrust Law. Research Paper in Law 08/2013, December

The disclosure of leniency materials held by competition authorities has recently been under the spot. On the one hand, these documents could greatly help cartel victims to prove the damage and the causation link when filing damage actions against cartelists. On the other hand, future cartelists could be deterred from applying for leniency since damage actions could be brought as a result of the information submitted by themselves. Neither the current legislation nor the case law have attained yet to sufficiently clarify how to deal with this clash of interests. Our approach obviously attempts to strike a balance between both interests. But not only that. We see the current debate as a great opportunity to boost the private enforcement of antitrust law through the positive spillovers of leniency programmes. We hence propose to build a bridge between the public and the private enforcement by enabling a partial disclosure of the documents.