Broader Political (broader + political)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

Upland development policy, livelihood change and land degradation: interactions from a Laotian village

LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2007
G. Lestrelin
Abstract This study uses a local political ecology approach that examines the physical and social dimensions of land use and soil erosion and their broader political and socioeconomic environment in Ban Lak Sip, a village located in the uplands of the Luang Prabang Province in Laos. The study indicates that, despite an explicit government policy aimed at improving both socioeconomic and environmental conditions, the resulting livelihood change has in part led to a deterioration in working conditions with mixed impacts on the environment. While land degradation and economic transition appear to have driven villagers to rework the role and importance of the land in their livelihoods, this paper argues that the Laotian rural development policy has constrained the adaptation process and led to a significant intensification in labour and land use. In fact, Ban Lak Sip villagers have had to adapt both to actual land degradation processes and to a discourse on upland environmental degradation constructed by the Laotian State and international development actors. The results of this study have significant implications for the formulation of environmental policy and for land degradation research more widely. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Tackling Offending on Bail

THE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 2 2000
Anthea Hucklesby
During the early 1990s the problem of offending on bail attracted a great deal of attention from politicians, the police, the media and the general public resulting in new legislation aimed at tackling the problem. The bail provisions in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJ&PO Act 1994) were one of these initiatives. This Act, inter alia, removed the presumption of bail for defendants who have allegedly committed certain types of offences on bail and enabled the police to attach conditions to police bail. This article discusses the main findings of a research project commissioned by the Home Office to investigate the impact of some of these legal changes. The research found that the provisions had had little practical effect on the number of defendants who had allegedly committed offences on bail who were remanded in custody. It did, however, identify an increase in the number of such defendants who were granted bail with conditions. Changes were found in remand decisions for two groups of defendants: those charged with serious offences who already had a bail history and defendants charged with vehicle crime and burglary. It will be argued that these changes reflected broader political and media debate about offending on bail rather than the legal changes incorporated into the CJ&PO Act 1994. [source]

NATURE, MARKETS AND STATE RESPONSE: THE DROUGHT OF 1939 IN JAPAN AND KOREA

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Janet Hunter
drought; hydroelectricity; Japan; Korea; rice production Large areas of Northeast Asia experienced drought in 1939. Agricultural production in Korea decreased significantly, but the drought did not cause famine in Japan despite its dependence on rice imports from Korea. The paper analyses the impact of the 1939 drought on the markets for rice and electricity in Japan. The authorities were ill-prepared for such a disaster but willing to use it for the purpose of covering for other problems. The drought thus accelerated the move of Japan's economic system towards a managed economy. A lower total rainfall in Japan in 1940 did not generate similar problems, suggesting that the broader political, economic, and social context is crucial to the identification of short-term climatic fluctuations as crises. [source]

The Seed of Freedom: Regional Security and the Colombo Plan

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 1 2000
Daniel Oakman
Established in 1950, the Colombo Plan was a comprehensive program of foreign aid provided to South East Asian nations. In this article I argue that the Colombo Plan had a much broader political and cultural agenda, and cannot be understood from a humanitarian perspective alone. By exploring some of the cultural, ideological and political underpinnings of the scheme I illustrate that, as part of a comprehensive foreign policy, it is best understood as being motivated by international security priorities and the need to ally domestic cultural concerns. Although the Colombo Plan was inherently defensive, it also proved to be something of a progressive force which prepared the ground for a much closer relationship with (and within) the Southeast Asian region. [source]