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Political Boundaries (political + boundary)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences66%

Selected Abstracts

Federal Restructuring in Ethiopia: Renegotiating Identity and Borders along the Oromo,Somali Ethnic Frontiers

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2010
Asnake Kefale
ABSTRACT When the Ethiopian state was reorganized as an ethnic federation in the 1990s, both ethnicity and governance experienced the impact of the change. Most importantly, ethnicity became the key instrument regarding entitlement, representation and state organization. For the larger ethnic groups, fitting into the new ethno-federal structure has been relatively straightforward. In contrast, ethnic federalism has necessitated a renegotiation of identity and of statehood among several smaller communities that straddle larger ethnic groups. It has also led to the reconfiguration of centre,periphery relations. This contribution discusses how the federal restructuring of Ethiopia with the aim of matching ethnic and political boundaries led to renegotiation of identity, statehood and centre,periphery relations among several Somali and Oromo clans that share considerable ethno-linguistic affinities. [source]

Defending Byzantine Spain: frontiers and diplomacy

EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 3 2010
Jamie Wood
The centrality of the Reconquista in the historiography of medieval Spain has meant that there has been little examination of the evidence for interaction on and across political boundaries in pre-Islamic Spain. This article re-examines existing theories about the defence of the Byzantine province of Spania that had been established by Justinian in the 550s and was taken by the Visigoths in 625. The two existing and opposing models for the extent, defence, and , therefore , the importance of the province to the empire do not explain the evidence convincingly. Rather, a fluid zone of interaction was established in which diplomacy and ,propaganda' was the primary means by which opposition was articulated. [source]

From plan to practice: Implementing watershed-based strategies into local, state, and federal policy,

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 4 2000
Alice L. Jones
Abstract Planners are becoming increasingly interested in watershed-based plans as a way to more accurately reflect the natural landscape processes that cross the borders of political jurisdictions. Although developing plans that cross political boundaries is a relatively simple matter, establishing the transboundary authority necessary to implement such plans is often a much different matter. We investigated the regulatory mechanisms under which a watershed-based storm-water management plan could be implemented in the Big Darby Creek, Ohio, USA, a national scenic river currently facing critical threats from nonpoint sediment- and pollutant-loaded storm-water runoff in the rapidly urbanizing portions of the watershed. The watershed encompasses portions of 7 counties, 11 incorporated areas, and 26 townships, each of which has some authority over land use and storm water. The transboundary options explored include creation of a storm-water utility, creating a conservancy district, or an independent approach requiring all jurisdictions in the watershed to simultaneously adopt a series of storm-water ordinances. We evaluated these options on a number of characteristics, including their relative ability to control runoff quality and quantity, the locus of political control and enforcement authority under each, funding considerations, and the likelihood of acceptance given the region's existing political realities. Although a central authority such as a conservancy district or storm-water management district would likely be most effective in protecting water quality, the long tradition of local controls on land use makes this politically infeasible. Thus, we argue that a watershed-based protection plan for the Darby region will require the simultaneous independent approach. The case study of the Big Darby suggests that the successful implementation of watershed-based plans may be more dependent on the plan's political savvy than its technical superiority. [source]

Adopting Lead-Free Electronics: Policy Differences and Knowledge Gaps

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
Julie M. Schoenung
For more than a decade, the use of lead (Pb) in electronics has been controversial: Indeed, its toxic effects are well documented, whereas relatively little is known about proposed alternative materials. As the quantity of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) increases, legislative initiatives and corporate marketing strategies are driving a reduction in the use of some toxic substances in electronics. This article argues that the primacy of legislation over engineering and economics may result in selecting undesirable replacement materials for Pb because of overlooked knowledge gaps. These gaps include the need for: assessments of the effects of changes in policy on the flow of e-waste across state and national boundaries; further reliability testing of alternative solder alloys; further toxicology and environmental impact studies for high environmental loading of the alternative solders (and their metal components); improved risk assessment methodologies that can capture complexities such as changes in waste management practices, in electronic product design, and in rate of product obsolescence; carefully executed allocation methods when evaluating the impact of raw material extraction; and in-depth risk assessment of alternative end-of-life (EOL) options. The resulting environmental and human health consequences may be exacerbated by policy differences across political boundaries. To address this conundrum, legislation and policies dealing with Pb in electronics are first reviewed. A discussion of the current state of knowledge on alternative solder materials relative to product design, environmental performance, and risk assessment follows. Previous studies are reviewed, and consistent with their results, this analysis finds that there is great uncertainty in the trade-offs between Pb-based solders and proposed replacements. Bridging policy and knowledge gaps will require increased international cooperation on materials use, product market coverage, and e-waste EOL management. [source]

Feminisms, Islamophobia and Identities

POLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2005
Haleh Afshar
There has been a tendency of late to conflate all Muslims as belonging to a single nation and aspiring to a single political aim. This effect has been achieved by some authors so as to accommodate Islamophobia, but by others to generate a sense of inclusive unity that encloses all Muslims. We contend that in the post 9/11 climate of Islamophobia women wearing the scarf, the mohajabehs, are making a political choice. They are publicly branding themselves as Muslims at a time when such a label carries the potential fear of making them vulnerable to open hostility. But the Islam that they embody is distinct and different from the stark, gendered divides envisaged by protagonists on both side of the Islamophobic divide. The unity demanded by some of the highly vocal and visible Islamic groups marginalises the contestations posed within these groups by women who may be described as feminists. The specificities demanded by those who envisage Islam primarily as an antagonistic political force in the UK are very different from the flexibility that many women envisage. They aspire to belong to the Umma or people of Islam, conceptualised as crossing ethnic, racial, geographical and political boundaries, an identity that is primarily inclusive rather than exclusive. The multiplicities of identities of many mohajabehs sit more easily within the permeable unbounded umma than the constrained gendered boundaries of the combative male political Islamism. [source]

Northumbria's southern frontier: a review

EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 4 2006
Nick Higham
Northumbria's southern frontier was arguably the most important political boundary inside pre-Viking England. It has, however, attracted little scholarly attention since Peter Hunter Blair's seminal article in Archaeo-logia Aeliana in 1948, which later commentators have generally followed rather uncritically. This essay reviews his arguments in the light of more recent research and casts doubt on several key aspects of his case: firstly, it contests his view that this boundary was fundamental to the naming of both southern and northern England and its kingdoms; secondly, it queries the supposition that the Roman Ridge dyke system is likely to have been a Northumbrian defensive work; thirdly, it critiques the view that the Grey Ditch, at Bradwell, formed part of the frontier; and, finally, it argues against the boundary in the west being along the River Ribble. Rather, pre-Viking Northumbria more probably included those parts of the eleventh-century West Riding of Yorkshire which lie south of the River Don, with a frontier perhaps often identical to that at Domesday, and it arguably met western Mercia not on the Ribble but on the Mersey. It was probably political developments in the tenth century, and particularly under Edward the Elder and his son Athelstan, that led to the Mercian acquisition of southern Lancashire and the development of a new ecclesiastical frontier between the sees of Lichfield and York on the Ribble, in a period that also saw the York archdiocese acquire northern Nottinghamshire. [source]