| 1. |
- Themnér, Anders, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Climate Change and the Risk of Violent Conflicts in Southern Africa
- 2011
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study aims to identify regions in the Zambezi River Basin in Southern Africa that are prone to risk of violent conflicts (collective violence, popular unrest) induced by climatic changes/variability. The Zambezi River is 575 kilometres long and the basin covers eight countries: Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. Besides the ecological impact, the study argues that socio-economic and political problems are disproportionately multiplied by climate change/variability. Climate change/variability amplifies stresses on the socio-political fabric because it affects the governance of resources, and hence, is linked to the weakened mitigation and adaptation capacity of societies, that are already facing economic challenges (rising food prices, etc.). Society becomes highly vulnerable to climate induced conflicts when it suffers from poor central leadership, weak institutions and polarized social identities. Taking all these factors into consideration, this study identifies Bulawayo/Matableleland-North in Zimbabwe and the Zambezia Province in Mozambique as the most likely regions to experience climate induced conflicts in the near future. The reasons for arriving at this conclusion are: a) Climate change/variability will have a significant impact on these two regions; due to increasing water scarcity in Bulawayo/Matabeleland-North; and intensified flooding, sea-level rise, and costal erosion in the Zambezia Province. b) Due to climate change/variability, agricultural production in these two regions will become highly volatile, leading to severe food insecurity. c) Both regions are suffering from low quality political governance, having unscrupulous elites, weak institutions, and polarized social identities.
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| 2. |
- Kaliff, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Kremation och kosmologi : en komparativ arkeologisk introduktion
- 2013
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cremation and Cosmology – A Comparative Archaeological Introduction aims to synthesise in an easily accessible style the current state of cremation research and some of the recent interpretations providing new understandings of the past. Since cremation is a highly complicated technological and cosmological process and ritual, part 1 emphasises what has shaped and restricted most of the Western perceptions of cremation. The Christian hell and its torturing fires, Hindu cremations along holy rivers in Nepal and India, and the ancient Vedic traditions have all to various degrees constructed images of what a cremation is, including our understanding of cremation in the past. This comparative part is stressed not only because it is important knowledge in itself, but also because it is a good point of departure for approaching the past and exploring new interpretations of funerals in general and cremations in particular, which have no ethnographic parallels. With mainly examples from Scandinavian Bronze- and Iron Age, in part 2 a wide range of cremation contexts are analysed from different perspectives highlighting new approaches to the materiality of death. A central theme throughout the book is that cremation is not one, but many funeral practices. By stressing this unique character of cremation compared to other burial practices, cremation as a ritual opens up a wide range of opportunities within the sphere of death, which can be studied archaeologically. As such, this book is intended to be an introductory and coarse book for archaeological students studying death and cremation, but hopefully it may also have interest and relevance beyond the archaeological circles.
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| 3. |
- Lindberg, Emy
(författare)
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War in Mali : background study and annotated bibliography : July 2012 - March 2013
- 2013
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Not long ago, Mali was considered a beacon of stability and a model of democratic evolution in West Africa. The country then experienced a military coup in the capital in March 2012, followed by the usual post-coup volatility and uncertainty. In the immediate aftermath of the coup, armed insurgents swiftly took over half the country. It did not take long to dismantle a country that on the paper appeared to be functioning, stable and democratic. French troops intervened in the conflict in the north. Yet even if this intervention put a stop to the outright threat of the insurgents taking over the south and significantly shifted the balance of forces in the north, it did not end the conflict. The insurgents have dispersed into remote areas in the sub-region, changing their tactics to terrorist-like activities. Different forms of political negotiation and reconciliation are certainly needed in the region. With the current global clash between radical Islam and the Western “War on Terror”, northern Mali will probably continue to be contested terrain for a long time. In the meantime, a transition to democratic rule is planned for the country, with elections scheduled for July this year. In all likelihood, this will prove to be only an illusory end to an intense power tussle over state control in Bamako.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Evers Rosander, Eva
(författare)
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Nyckeln till paradiset : sengalesiska kvinnors livsvägar
- 2011
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Mouridismen är en sufiorden i Senegal som snabbt sprider sig med de senegalesiska emigranterna. Tron är stark bland anhängarna på att grundaren shaykh Amadou Bamba, hans mor, mame Diarra Bousso och de efterföljande närmaste släktingarna skall kunna hjälpa mouriderna till ett bättre liv på jorden och till ett evgt liv i paradiset. Man brukar säga, att grundaren är huset medan hans mor utgör dörren till paradiset. De gifta kvinnorna antas kunna nå dit endast genom sina mäns förmedling. Lydnad, underkastelse, hänsyn och takt visad gentemot maken utgör hustruns "nyckel " till paradiset. Boken beskriver några senegalesiska mouridkvinnor författaren mött i Senegal och på Teneriffa som immigranter. Författaren skildrar deras livsvägar med fokus på religion, ekonomi, handel och familjeliv. På vad sätt skiljer sig kvinnornas livsvillkor i hemlandet från vad de möter i diasporan? Hur uppnår de sina mål?
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| 6. |
- Gunkel, Henriette
(författare)
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The cultural politics of female sexuality in South Africa
- 2010
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sexual identity has emerged into the national discourse of post-apartheid South Africa, bringing the subject of rights and the question of gender relations and cultural authenticity into the focus of the nation state’s politics. This book is a fascinating reflection on the effects of these discourses on non-normative modes of sexuality and intimacy and on the country more generally. While in 1996, South Africa became the first country in the world that explicitly incorporated lesbian and gay rights within a Bill of Rights, much of the country has continued to see homosexuality as un-African. Henriette Gunkel examines how colonialism and apartheid have historically shaped constructions of gender and sexuality and how these concepts have not only been re-introduced and shaped by understandings of homosexuality as un-African but also by the post-apartheid constitution and continued discourse within the nation.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Ståhl, Michael
(författare)
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Researching Africa : From individual efforts to structured programmes. The role of the Nordic Africa Institute
- 2012
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Nordic Africa Institute started on a modest scale back in 1962 by awarding three travel grants to young Nordic scholars with an interest in Africa. Fifty years later, the institute has become an internationally renowned centre of research, documentation, publishing and networking.By coordinating coherent programmes spanning multiple researchers and several subtopics NAI has helped to strengthen capacity among young academics in Nordic countries by providing travel grants for field research and an academic platform for communicating and discussing research findings. NAI has thus been a key catalyst in social science research on Africa.In this publication, Michael Ståhl contextualises, reviews and reflects on five innovative research programmes undertaken at NAI from the late 1980s into the 1990s. Through these thematic, collaborative programmes, NAI complemented its already established support for individual academic projects. In order to place the five programmes in larger context, brief accounts of the earlier research support provided by NAI are given as is an overview of the subsequent research profile and administration of NAI up to 2012.
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