Approaches to post-war reconstruction and development: Lessons from Africa

Between 6 July 1967 and 15 January 1970, Nigerians fought a bitter Civil War. The economic and social life in the main theatres of war was totally disarticulated. Damage to physical assets and the infrastructure of the economy was considerable.With the end of the war came the need for urgent reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Federal and States' economy. This need led to the establishment of five different Four-year (1970–1974) Reconstruction and Development Plans. These were: the Second National Development Plan; East-Central State Programme of Post-war Reconstruction; Mid-Western State Development Plan; Rivers State Development Plan; and the South-Eastern State Development Plan. Essentialy, the objectives and priorities of these Plans were similar.The aim of this paper is to review these post-war rehabilitation, resettlement and reconstruction programmes as expressed in the various Development Plans for the period 1970–1974. An attempt will be made to determine the degree of success achieved in programme implementation and the extent to which people were considered as the central focus of the reconstruction efforts.     

When Less is More: Lessons from 25 Years of Attempting to Maximize the Effect of Each (and Often Only) Therapeutic Encounter

The three main findings of studies conducted by Hoyt, Rosenbaum, and myself during the years 1986–1990 at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, were

• 1 . Single session is the most common length of psychotherapy.
• 2 . The first session in psychotherapy is potentially the most therapeutic and often has the greatest influence on the outcome of therapy.
• 3 . Single session therapy (SST) is the most cost‐effective mode of therapy.

The fact that less is very often better in psychotherapy is by now one of the most validated and consistent findings in evidence‐based psychotherapy research. We now think of it as a very common, very useful way of conducting therapy, employing many different approaches and methods to address a wide range of presenting problems. In retrospect, 25 years later, I believe that the essence of single session therapy is still about being present in each and every session as a whole. The goal has always been to make the most of every therapeutic session, whether seeing a client only once or over a long period of time. In a personal communication in 1978, Haley (in Talmon, 1990) predicted that a ‘single interview could become the standard for estimating how long and how successful therapy should be.’ This article explains why it didn't happen.     

Structural adjustment and family policy in Africa: Lessons from Sudan

The economic strategy pursued by a country profoundly influences the well-being of families. This article uses a social accounting model of the Sudanese economy to compare the effects of two alternative development strategies on growth, employment, and income distribution. The first strategy considered is a conventional growth-oriented strategy emphasizing irrigated, export-oriented agriculture and modern, capital-intensive industry; the second one is a traditional agriculture-led development (TALD) strategy focused on enhancing equity and improving family nutrition by expanding food production. The study's findings for Sudan demonstrate that there is no necessary trade-off between growth and equity. The TALD strategy fosters income growth for the most vulnerable families while simultaneously maximizing aggregate growth. It also holds the prospect of enhancing family equity and increasing access to traditional institutions that provide support to families.World BankHer research interests encompass issues related to poverty and inequality in developing countries. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University.Before joining the World Bank, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut and acting head of the Department of Econometrics, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan. His research interests span development economics (growth, poverty, and equity), public finance, and economic transition in Eastern Europe. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.     

Social representations of history,wars and politics in Latin America,Europe and Africa

Abstract

This study analyzes how people perceive world history on three continents: Latin America, Europe and Africa. A total of 1179 university students form Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde were asked to evaluate world events and leaders in terms of their valence and importance. The results demonstrated that social representations of history show a Euro/North American-centric, long-term positive evaluation, recency, and socio-centric bias. Euro/North American-centric events and leaders were found to be rated as more important and were more positively perceived in general. Distant political events, like French or American Revolution, were considered to be more positive than XX century similar events, which supports the long-term positive evaluation bias hypothesis. The hypothesis on recency bias was partially substantiated. Confirming the existence of such bias, World War II was rated as more important than the previous XX century wars and revolutions. Socio-centric bias also received partial support. African participants rated Mandela as a more important leader than other participants did. Latin Americans rated Che Guevara less positively, which suggests that some leaders are generally idealized icons, not based on group belongingness. However, results did not bring support to the centrality of war hypothesis. Wars were indeed negatively evaluated and World War II was rated as an important and negative event. Nevertheless, war- and politics-related events were not perceived as more important than the Industrial Revolution, suggesting that people appraise the importance of long-term socioeconomic factors of history when responding to close-ended quantitative measures (vs. open-ended salience measures). Results are discussed in the framework of social representations of history.     

Puberty in the Last 25 Years: A Retrospective Bibliometric Analysis

Puberty research has been highly productive in the past few decades and is gaining momentum. We conducted an analysis of bibliographic data, including titles, abstracts, keywords, indexing terms, and citation data to assess the sheer numbers, audience and reach, publication types, and impact of puberty‐related publications. Findings suggest that puberty‐related publications are increasing in sheer numbers, and have reach in many fields as befits an interdisciplinary science. Puberty‐related publications typically have higher impact in terms of citations than the journal averages, among the journals that published the most studies on puberty. Limitations of the field and recommendations for researchers to improve the impact and reach of puberty‐related publications (e.g., clear conclusions in abstracts, highlighting the importance of puberty) are discussed.     

Change and continuity in youth transitions in Eastern Europe: Lessons for Western sociology*

This paper argues that the evidence from research among young people in post‐communist countries vindicates and should consolidate confidence in the Western sociology of youth's conventional transitions paradigm which seeks links between social origins, routes and destinations. Contrary to claims about postmodern fluidity, individualisation, and a blurring of traditional structural boundaries, the expected links between origins, routes and destinations have persisted throughout the transformation of the former communist countries. The relevant evidence also confirms the primacy of education‐to‐work and family/housing life stage transitions. Other aspects of young people's lives – their uses of leisure, levels and patterns of social and political participation, and socio‐political attitudes, for example – become meaningful and explicable only when set in the context of the routes that individuals’ lives have taken, and the stages that they have reached, vis‐à‐vis their school‐to‐work and family and housing transitions. The paper proceeds to argue that the exceptionally thorough changes that are still in process in East‐Central Europe and the former USSR reveal with exceptional clarity the processes whereby young people's life chances are structured in ways that are not of the individuals’ own making. It has been, and it remains, possible to observe how young adults learn from their own youth life stage transition experiences and, where applicable, use the assets that they acquire or retain, to advantage their own children thereby structuring the opportunities that confront all members of subsequent cohorts of young people. Finally, it is argued that the sociological approach being advocated is uniquely able to use the evidence from young people as a window through which to identify the impact of the ongoing macro‐changes in former communist countries among different socio‐demographic groups in the wider populations.     

Reflections on Intergenerational Policy in Europe: The Past Twenty Years and Looking into the Future

This article will start from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-sponsored meeting on intergenerational programs in Dortmund, Germany, in 1999, as this was an awareness-raising moment for intergenerational programs in Europe. The connection between lifelong learning and intergenerational learning as one reason for the increased interest for intergenerational programs in the creation of European policy are discussed and connected to demography, health, aging, and well-being in policy. Therefore recent actions and reports from a European perspective are analyzed in order to reflect over the social and cultural factors that can have an impact and influence the intergenerational field in Europe in the future.     

Women from the Middle East and North Africa in Europe: understanding their marriage and family dynamics

The aim of this article is to assist the understanding of social workers in Europe of marriage and family dynamics among women from Middle East and North African countries who have moved to Europe. The focus of this article is on husband selection processes and family dynamics after marriage in Egypt, which is used as a case study reflecting culture and norms surrounding marriage in this region. This article reports on the findings of doctoral studies which examined marriage patterns and family dynamics in North Africa and in particular in Egypt where more in-depth data were available. The authors reflect issues surrounding values and process of marriage not only in terms of the implications for practice with social work clients or service users, but also in relation to the potential of women from this region who may join the social care workforce.     

Editorial: Ten Years After: The Third Sector and Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Suburban wildlife: Lessons,challenges, and opportunities

The United States, as well as most developed and many developing nations worldwide, is becoming increasingly urban and suburban.Although urban, suburban, and commercial development account for less than one percent to just over 20% of land use among states, 50–90% of the residents of those states can be classified as urban or suburban dwellers. The population of the U.S. as a whole has risen from being > 95% rural in the 1790s to about 80% urban-suburban today. With these changes in land use and demographic patterns come changes in values and attitudes; many urbanites and suburbanites view wildlife and nature differently than rural residents. These are among the challenges faced by wildlife biologists and natural resource managers in a rapidly urbanizing world. In 2003, we convened a symposium to discuss issues related to suburban wildlife. The papers presented in this special issue of Urban Ecosystems address the lessons learned from the early and recently rapidly expanding literature, the challenges we face today, and the opportunities that can help deal with what is one of the biggest challenges to conservation in a modernizing world.     

Lessons from the Public Sphere: Listening,Adversity, and Learning

As many scholars have discussed, when addressing divisive social issues many people immediately assume an adversarial posture, thus lessening the chance for productive dialogues about these issues and lessening the likelihood that people will listen to each other. One area that is keenly affected by our “argument culture” is the classroom; after all, students have been well-conditioned in the “adversary method” before reaching college classes. While some conflict is necessary for growth and learning, when that conflict blocks ideas and discussion, that conflict is not productive. Therefore, in order to make classroom interactions productive and to promote listening, practices by a group from the public sphere—The Public Conversations Project (the PCP)—can be used as a model for encouraging productive dialogues in the college classroom.     

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series, August 1st-31st 1997. Published September 25th 1997

In this issue Kenya Violence – Political Tool? 12783 South Africa De Klerk Retires 12786 Algeria GIA Loses Support? 12790 Angola Ball in UNITA’s Court 12792 Congo Pointe Noire Readies 12794 Rwanda US Involvement 12797 — Contents 1 Continental Alignments 12777 2 Internal Developments 12779 3 National Security 12790 4 Overseas Relations 12801 5 Social and Cultural 12804 Rates 12805 Index 12806     

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series, March 1st-31st 1997. Published April 25th 1997

In this issue Nigerai Local Elections 12610 Shell Workers Hostage 12620 Burundi Coup Plot? 12616 Sierra Leone Sankoh Ousted 12621 Somalia A Perspective 12623 Sudan Opposition Advances 12624 FESPACO Innovation v. Tradition 12630 — Contents 1 Continental Alignments 12602 2 Internal Developments 12603 3 National Security 12614 4 Overseas Relations 12627 5 Social and Cultural 12630 Rates 12633 Index 12634