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poverty

Governing the poor in Harare, Zimbabwe : shifting perceptions and changing responses

Upphovsperson: Kamete, Amin Y.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Urban population, poverty, Urban policy, Governance, elections, Zimbabwe, Harare, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This is a study of the 'terrain of urban governance', using areas of Zimbabwe's biggest city Harare as case studies. It presents and discusses sets of perceptions of poverty and the poor which influence policy development and decision making among urban 'governors'. Kamete shows the effects of positive as well as negative perceptions of the poor. He also problematises more conventional understandings of poverty and includes into his own conceptual understanding dimensions of deficient access to participation and citizenship. He shows that the relationship between power and powerlessness among the poor is much more complex than is sometimes assumed. The urban poor in Harare - since the emergence of significant political opposition in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s - have become both an important and volatile instrument to be wooed and paid by populist politicians. At the same time - in their patterns of voting - they have been a mainstay of support for opposition to the ZANU-PF government at both local and central level.

'Legal Empowerment of the Poor' versus 'Right to the City' : Implications for access to housing in urban Africa

Upphovsperson: Vogiazides, Louisa
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Towns, Urban areas, Urbanization, Urban housing, poverty, Low income groups, Property rights, Empowerment Legislation, Research methods, comparative analysis, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The challenge of urban deprivation and exclusion in the urban South has given rise to varied and shifting policies and ideas. Two sets of ideas have gained great currency in recent years in international policy and academic circles. The Legal Empowerment of the Poor approach, rooted in neoliberal thinking, focuses on the legal rights of the urban poor as the means to secure access to basic services and needs. The Right to the City perspective, on the other hand, stresses issues of citizenship and the appropriation and uses of urban space. This Policy Dialogue analyses the different ideological and normative foundations of the two perspectives and discusses how they lead to different policy formulations. It then takes a closer look at how the two perspectives find expression in contemporary discussions on and approaches to access to housing in urban Africa. To this end, it compares what each approach identifies as the source of the problem and recommends as the policy solution.

Hanging by a thread : cotton, globalization, and poverty in Africa

Medarbetare: Moseley, William G. | Gray, Leslie
Utgivare: Athens, Ohio : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet; Ohio University Press
År: 2008
Ämnesord: poverty, cotton trade, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The textile industry was one of the first manufacturing activities to become organized globally, as mechanized production in Europe used cotton from the colonies. Africa, the least developed of the world’s major regions, is now increasingly engaged in the production of this crop for the global market, and debates about the pros and cons of this trend have intensified. This book illuminates the connectioins between Africa and the global economy. The editors offer a compelling set of linked studies that detail one aspect of the globalization process in Africa, the cotton commodity chain.

A democracy of chameleons : politics and culture in the New Malawi

Medarbetare: Englund, Harri
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet; Christian Literature Association in Malawi
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Malawi, Civil Society, Culture, Democratisation, Human rights, politics, poverty, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
After thirty years of autocratic rule under ”Life President” Kamuzu Banda, Malawians experienced a transition to multiparty democracy in 1994. A new constitution and several democratic institutions promised a new dawn in a country ravaged by poverty and injustice. This book presents original research on the economic, social, political and cultural consequences of the new era. The book engages with a culture of politics in order to expand the purview of critical analysis from the elite to the populace in its full diversity. A new generation of scholars, most of them from Malawi, cover virtually every issue causing debate in the New Malawi: poverty and hunger, the plight of civil servants, the role of the judiciary, political intolerance and hate speech, popular music as a form of protest, clergy activism, voluntary associations and ethnic revival, responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and controversies over women’s rights. Both chameleon-like leaders and the donors of Malawi’s foreign aid come under critical scrutiny for supporting superficial democratization. The book ends with a rare public statement on the New Malawi by Jack Mapanje, Malawi’s internationally acclaimed writer. Dismayed at the continuation of an ”oral culture of dictatorship”, Mapanje urges Malawians to confront their past in order to have a future that is free from fear and intolerance.Anyone interested in politics and culture in sub-Saharan Africa will find this book an important source of insight and detailed analysis for a comparative understanding of Africa’s democratization.

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