This paper seeks to examine the challenges that face the university press in Africa in general and South Africa in particular. It will start by examining the state of the university press in Africa... Show moreThis paper seeks to examine the challenges that face the university press in Africa in general and South Africa in particular. It will start by examining the state of the university press in Africa, the state of the university press in South Africa, the challenges that face university presses, such as the declining purchasing of scholarly monographs by university libraries since the budgets of most university libraries are now spend on subscribing to expensive journals and serials, poorly paid academic staff that does not purchase scholarly books, poor teaching and research infrastructure where the course pack has replaced the monograph in the classroom, a generally under-developed market, a weakly developed reading culture, short print-runs which are not economically viable, lack of distribution hubs such as bookshops and lack of intra-Africa book trade. Whereas in the past scholarly publishers could sell between 1000 and 1500 copies of a monograph, today they sell between 200-300 copies. Since publishing small print runs is not economically viable due to economies of scale, scholarly publishers are caught between a declining market and high costs involved in publishing small print runs. It will further examine the role that research institutes and science councils play in scholarly publishing and lastly it will examine the opportunities that new modes of communications offers to scholarly publishers. Show less
Op Mauritius is 90% van de landbouwgrond beplant met suikerriet en wordt nu ook geïnvesteerd in de productie van bio-ethanol - een veelgevraagde biobrandstof op basis van suiker. De... Show moreOp Mauritius is 90% van de landbouwgrond beplant met suikerriet en wordt nu ook geïnvesteerd in de productie van bio-ethanol - een veelgevraagde biobrandstof op basis van suiker. De toeristische ontwikkelingen en verstedelijking slokken het land echter op. Kleine suikerboeren verkopen hun kostbare grond; grote suikerconcerns zoeken hun heil op het vasteland. Show less
Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van 2012
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 40 (2012).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 40 (2012). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic... Show moreThis book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart. Show less
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 39 (2012).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 39 (2012). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Farming as a primary source of income has failed to guarantee sufficient livelihood for most farming households in developing countries, and agricultural development policies have largely produced... Show moreFarming as a primary source of income has failed to guarantee sufficient livelihood for most farming households in developing countries, and agricultural development policies have largely produced little improvement, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diversification into off-farm activities has become the norm. While the poverty and inequality effects of off-farm income have been analyzed in different developing countries, much less empirical studies have been conducted on the impact of off-farm income on agricultural production and efficiency. Using survey data from rural Nigeria, this article examines the effect of off-farm income on farm output, expenditure on purchased inputs and technical efficiency among farm households. The results indicate that off-farm income has a positive and significant effect on farm output and demand for purchased inputs. Though the result does not establish that off-farm income improves technical efficiency, there is a slight efficiency gains in households with off-farm income. The findings of this study challenge the notion that participation in off-farm activities may lead to a decline in own-farm agricultural production, due to competition for family labour between farm and off-farm works. Rather, they tend to suggest that there are indeed elements of complementarities and positive spill-over effects between the farm and off-farm sectors of rural the economy. Removing credit market imperfections and upgrading rural infrastructure could enhance the development of both sectors simultaneously. Show less
There are regions in the world where socio-economic deprivation, ecological marginality, political exclusion, poverty and violence all seem to converge. The cases presented in this book describe... Show moreThere are regions in the world where socio-economic deprivation, ecological marginality, political exclusion, poverty and violence all seem to converge. The cases presented in this book describe various violent conflicts in rural Kenya and aim to understand spatial insecurity while searching for explanations beyond the mainstream narratives that blame poverty, ethnic diversity, resource scarcity or rapid cultural transition for violent conflicts. 'Spatial insecurity' is a societal context that people themselves shape, make use of, exploit and suffer from. The overall conclusion is that 'ethnic identity' can no longer be used as a refuge behind which violent conflict can be justified. Show less
Even if 'good governance' goals have dominated public policy in postcolonial polities in the last decades, their politics and public administration often continue to be marked by authoritarianism,... Show moreEven if 'good governance' goals have dominated public policy in postcolonial polities in the last decades, their politics and public administration often continue to be marked by authoritarianism, nepotism and corruption - the very practices good governance policy was to eradicate. In this article, we try to account for this apparent intractability of 'poor' and, occasionally, outright 'bad' governance. First, we argue that what appears as 'bad' governance to those embracing conventional, essentially Weberian, 'good governance' conceptions, may in fact be 'good' governance after all. Practices of political clientelism or patronage may reflect and accord with widely shared cultural beliefs about good and legitimate governance. Second, we show that the predominance of personalism and unofficial relationships that characterizes political clientelism may combine with modern bureaucracy in ways that drastically subvert the type of 'good governance' embodied by traditional moral economies of patronage. We dissect the logics of neopatrimonialism, a type of regime in which ruling elites use the state for personal enrichment and profit from a public administration that is patently unstable, inefficient, nontransparent and that fails to distribute public resources to large segments of the population. Third, we argue that the pragmatic survival strategies to which 'ordinary' citizens resort in response to such neopatrimonial neglect often, and ironically, entail the direct engagement with - rather than an outright distancing from -neopatrimonial politics. Show less
