Local Environmental Change and Society in Africa

ISBN-13: 9789401721059 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 203 str.

M. a. Salih

Opis

Social and natural scientists are currently obsessed with globalization, but this has not been matched by an equal interest in the societal consequences of local environmental change. Attention has thus been withdrawn from community and locality and transferred to global processes, with an indifference to the reality of those at the receiving end of the social, economic and political problems that globalization create. Local reality is obscured and conditions are imposed that are often insensitive to or even distort local needs, resource management, and production systems.
The case studies presented here illustrate how environmental degradation has contributed to the distortion of local institutions and economies, thus denying local communities the right to live in a productive and healthy environment. The contributors highlight the seriousness of the difficulties involved in conflating national policies and local reality, and imposing global policy instruments on local communities.
Understandably, the case studies demonstrate that local communities resist putting their faith in environmental policies and plans imposed on them by global or national institutions that often deprive them of access to and control over their local environment.

Spis treści

Preface; A.G.M. Ahmed. 1. Introduction: Elements of Local Environmental Change and Society; M.A.M. Salih. 2. Human Health and Irrigation Development in Kenya; S.W. Mwangi. 3. Choice and Use of Rural Water Supply Systems: Environmental and Socio-Cultural Dimension; W. Nyaoro. 4. Technology Change and Gender: Irrigated Agriculture and Peasant Women in Eastern Uganda; Z. Gariyo. 5. Agricultural Land Management for Sustainable Production, Swaziland; P.S. Maro. 6. Price and Market Liberalisation Effect on Household Food Security: A Gender Sensitive Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Uganda; H. Manyire. 7. Structural Adjustment, Energy Crisis and Environment: A Comparative Gender Study of Rural and Urban Households; F. Peter. 8. Air Pollution in Addis Ababa: The Predicament of `Chile Sefer'; E. Aberra. Note on Contributors. Index.