‘Once a miner,always a miner’: Poverty and livelihood diversification in Akwatia,Ghana

This paper offers an alternative viewpoint on why people choose to engage in artisanal mining – the low tech mineral extraction and processing of mainly precious metals and stones – for extended periods in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing upon experiences from Akwatia, Ghana's epicentre of diamond production since the mid-1920s, the analysis challenges the commonly-held view that the region's people are drawn to artisanal mining solely because of a desire ‘to get rich quick’. A combination of events, including the recent closure of Ghana Consolidated Diamonds Ltd's industrial-scale operation and decreased foreign investment in the country's diamond industry over concerns of it potentially harbouring ‘conflict’ stones from neighbouring Côte D'Ivoire, has had a debilitating economic impact on Akwatia. In an attempt to alleviate their hardships, many of the town's so-called ‘lifetime’ diamond miners have managed to secure employment in neighbouring artisanal gold mining camps. But their decision has been condemned by many of the country's policymakers and traditional leaders, who see it solely as a move to secure ‘fast money’. It is argued here, however, that these people pursue work in surrounding artisanal gold mining communities mainly because of poverty, and that their decision has more to do with a desire to immerse in activities with which they are familiar, that offer stable employment and consistent salaries, and provide immediate debt relief. Misdiagnosis of cases such as Akwatia underscores how unfamiliar policymakers and donors are with the dynamics of ASM in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Re-engineering the multiple choice question exam for social work

The aim of this study is to devise a multiple choice question (MCQ) exam that provides students with opportunities to engage in a deep approach to learning. Multiple choice assessment is largely unused in social work degree courses in the UK because of associations with techniques such as guessing and rote learning, which do not correspond with deep approaches to learning. Strategies used to enhance opportunities for a deep approach to learning within the MCQ exam used in this study included certainty-based marking (CBM), enhancing the use of formative feedback and giving students responsibility for devising the MCQs. Results show that students use similar levels of deep learning when they completed a MCQ exam compared to those students who completed an essay exam. The deep learning approach for the MCQ exam was, however, less when compared to a different module that used an essay assignment. There is an increasing pressure on Higher Education to provide more robust assessment practices, and findings in this study suggest it may be time for social work tutors to reconsider the role of the MCQ format within the existing range of assessment tools.     

Traditional birth attendant training and local birthing practices in India

Training birth attendants (TBAs) provide essential maternal and infant health care services during delivery and ongoing community care in developing countries. Despite inadequate evidence of relevance and effectiveness of TBA training programmes, there has been a policy shift since the 1990s in that many donor agencies funding TBA training programmes redirected funds to providing skilled attendants during delivery. This study aimed to assess the ways in which a TBA training programme in India has been successful in disseminating evidence-based knowledge on birthing practices. TBAs practicing within 16 villages targeted by training programme initiatives were administered with structured questionnaires. The post training birthing practices of trained (24) and untrained (14) TBAs was compared and birthing practices adopted by women assisted by trained (16) and untrained (9) TBAs was analysed. Positive post training practices were hand washing, use of a clean blade for cutting the cord, immediate breastfeeding and weighing of babies. Nevertheless, the training could be further improved with up to date and evidence-based information and more comprehensive instructions. The findings suggest an integration of local and evidence-based knowledge is needed to improve the training. Raising community awareness of public health measures related to maternal and child health is also recommended.     

Dancing with discrimination: managing stigma and identity

Fans are a group that are stigmatized and discredited, at least to some degree, by their “deviant” and common form of symbolic consumption. At stake in the process of stigmatization is the very identity of the individual fan, and their symbolic and emotional well‐being. This paper reports on an empirical study of one particular group of fans—Star Trek fans (or “Trekkies”)—and explores the complex identity issues articulated by them as they “manage” their problematic public identity. Drawing upon interviews conducted with 18 Trekkies, the article describes how this stigmatic identity is organized within a disciplinary matrix that operates at a micro level through two key processes: humour and self‐surveillance. In particular, we highlight their struggle with the dilemmas of exposing their private “fandom” in a public context, and the highly ambivalent manner in which they seek to escape stigmatization.     

Levels of urbanization in the world’s countries: testing consistency of estimates based on national definitions

Estimates of urbanization levels for all countries, as published in the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, are not comparable across countries because they are based on national definitions of urbanization, which vary greatly across countries. We construct alternative estimates of urbanization that are comparable across countries, to use these estimates to point out definitional problems or outlying countries with interesting urban characteristics. The alternative estimates are constructed using variables that are associated with urbanization, as well as a categorical variable that summarizes the urban definition used in the country. We find that among the 181 countries included in the analysis, 21 % have a restrictive definition, and 31 % a generous definition of urbanization. In 2000, the difference between the alternative estimate and the UN estimate was more than 10 % for 67 countries. An examination of six countries with surprisingly low or high reported levels of urbanization, as compared the alternative estimates, highlights issues with the plausibility of the official estimate. We conclude that comparison of urbanization estimates across countries should be treated with care, given the wide range of definitions used. To produce more informative estimates of urbanization, several countries would need to clarify or rethink their definition of urban.     

Delayed Marriage and Very Low Fertility in Pacific Asia

The general decline in fertility levels in Pacific Asia has in its vanguard countries where fertility rates are among the lowest in the world. A related trend is toward delayed marriage and nonmarriage. When prevalence of cohabitation in European countries is allowed for, levels of “effective singlehood” in many countries of Pacific Asia have run ahead of those in northern and western Europe. This raises questions about the extent to which delayed marriage has been implicated in fertility declines, and whether the same factors are leading both to delayed marriage and to lowered fertility within marriage. The article argues that involuntary nonmarriage is likely to be more common in Pacific Asia than in Western countries, and that resultant involuntary childlessness plays a substantial role in the low fertility rates currently observed.     

National Identity,Globalization and the Discursive Construction of Organizational Identity*

This paper pursues two goals. First, it explores the connections between national identity and organizational globalization within the context of three British organizations' attempts to synchronize their corporate and organizational identities through diversity management initiatives. Second, it teases out the implications of these connections for current theorizing on organizational identity, looking in particular to extend Hatch and Schultz's (Human Relations, 55 (2002) , pp. 989–1018) processual model of image– culture dynamics. Based on a Foucauldian theoretical frame, and a data set comprising 36 in‐depth interviews, we show the complex and highly particular relationships between articulations of Britishness, and corporate, organizational and personal identities. Such complexity is suggestive of the contradictory connections between national and organizational identities, and of the disjointed, discursive and affective characteristics of organizational identity. Our contribution to the study of organizational identity lies in both an illumination of the local discursive dynamics of identity construction at the individual and collective levels, and an assertion of the ontological role of discourse(s) in structuring understandings and expressions of organizational identity.     

Large-scale Bayesian spatial modelling of air pollution for policy support

The potential effects of air pollution are a major concern both in terms of the environment and in relation to human health. In order to support environmental policy, there is a need for accurate measurements of the concentrations of pollutants at high geographical resolution over large regions. However, within such regions, there are likely to be areas where the monitoring information will be sparse and so methods are required to accurately predict concentrations. Set within a Bayesian framework, models are developed which exploit the relationships between pollution and geographical covariate information, such as land use, climate and transport variables together with spatial structure. Candidate models are compared based on their ability to predict a set of validation sites. The chosen model is used to perform large-scale prediction of nitrogen dioxide at a 1×1 km resolution for the entire EU. The models allow probabilistic statements to be made with regard to the levels of air pollution that might be experienced in each area. When combined with population data, such information can be invaluable in informing policy by indicating areas for which improvements may be given priority.