$13
B.U.N. Igwe & A. Fadahunsi
CODESRIA, 1994, 204 p.,
ISBN : 1-870784-07-3 (cased)
Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibilities of Academics in Tanzania (Printed)
When the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility of Academics came up in the early 1990s, African higher-education systems were in a serious, multi-dimensional and long-standing crisis. Hand-in-hand with the imbalances and troubles that rocked and ruined African economies, the crisis in the academia was characterised by the collapse of infrastructures, inadequate teaching personnel and poor staff development and motivation. It was against this background that the questions of academic freedom and the responsibilities and autonomy of institutions of higher-learning were raised in the Dar es Salaam Declaration. In February 2005, the University of Dar es Salaam Staff Association (UDASA), in cooperation with CODESRIA, organised a workshop to bring together the staff associations of some public and private universities in Tanzania, in order to renew their commitment to the basic principles of the Dar es Salaam Declaration and its sister document – the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility. The workshop was also aimed at re-invigorating the social commitment of African intellectuals. The papers included in this volume reflect the depth and potentials of the debates that took place during the workshop. The volume is published in honour of Chachage Seithy L. Chachage, who was an active part of the workshop but unfortunately passed away in 2006.
Décentralisation sans représentation: Le charbon de bois entre les collectivités locales et l’Etat
La présente étude porte sur deux villages d’une collectivité locale du Sénégal. Elle consiste en une analyse de la problématique de la représentation politique locale, à travers la production de charbon de bois dans une forêt dont la gestion est dévolue aux élus locaux depuis la loi de la décentralisation, en 1996, par le biais des compétences transférées. Cette étude montre que si l’on retient comme critère l’obligation des élus de rendre compte aux administrés villageois et de répondre à leurs aspirations, en matière d’exploitation forestière, l’effet politique de la décentralisation est plutôt faible en termes de promotion de la démocratie locale. D’autre part, la répartition déséquilibrée des pouvoirs et ressources entre l’État et la collectivité locale explique, dans une certaine mesure, la faible efficacité des élus locaux en matière forestière, ainsi que les dysfonctionnements du couple déconcentration/- décentralisation. En matière d’exploitation forestière, l’action publique locale reste limitée par le poids des intérêts partisans, le manque de transparence et de répartition claire des rôles et responsabilités au sein du conseil rural. Le document se termine par un certain nombre de recommandations dont la mise en application devrait aider à améliorer la GRN au niveau des communautés rurales, notamment en rendant les conseillers ruraux plus responsables vis-à-vis de ceux qui les ont élus.
The Egypt study by the Education and Finance Working Group of CODESRIA provides a three-part well documented in-depth analysis of the financing of all levels of education of Egypt. Part I of the study highlights the economic, social, and political context of education, presents a historical perspective on the various educational policies formulated and implemented under the different regimes that ruled Egypt from the beginning of the 19th century till the liberalization and privatization era of the early 1970s, provides an in-depth account of education finance, budgetary procedures at the local educational directorates, underscores issues plaguing the financing of education, and suggests solutions for the improvement of educational finance in Egypt. Part II presents a monograph that analyzes teachers’ wages and suggests alternatives to alleviate their negative impact. Part III is a reporting on the operations related to the construction and the management of school buildings with a special emphasis on their costs.
The ‘counter-revolution’ in Development Economics in the 1980s fundamentally altered the way the state ‘thinks’, which is evident in the state’s retrenchment and reconstitution of the state’s relationship to its citizens. The combination of deflationary macroeconomic policies and a residual approach to social policy, broadly, and social provisioning, more specifically, fundamentally altered the post-colonial trajectory of public policy in Africa. Despite the neoliberal ascendance that nurtured the more residual direction of social policy, the contention for an alternative vision of social policy remained and advanced with vigour. Specific contributions range from the deployment of social policy in framing the nation-building project, endogenous mutual support institutions, land and agrarian reform as a social policy instrument, the gender dynamics of social policy, and the mechanism enabling the spread of cash transfer schemes on the continent.
Dimensoes da Pobreza e da vulnerabilidade em Cabo Verde: Uma Abordagem Sistémica e Interdisplinar (Printed)
“Dimensões da pobreza e da vulnerabilidade em Cabo Verde: Uma abordagem sistémica e interdisciplinar” resulta de um trabalho de investigação realizado por um grupo de pesquisadores cabo-verdiano no âmbito da iniciativa do CODESRIA para os países africanos lusófonos.
Constituiu o leitmotiv da investigação a compreensão do fenómeno da pobreza e da vulnerabilidade no contexto cabo-verdiano, buscando ultrapassar as abordagens até então hegemónicas e que colocam o acento tónico essencialmente no rendimento. Na verdade, a abordagem retida por este estudo não exclui e nem subestima a importância do rendimento na determinação da pobreza e da vulnerabilidade. Contudo, pretendeu-se avançar um pouco mais, trazendo novas determinantes do fenómeno, cortando com uma visão uni- causal na explicação da pobreza.
Uma das questões que se colocou, ao menos para reflexão, se prende com o facto de se, na verdade, o rendimento é efectivamente uma determinante da pobreza, quando é a situação da pobreza que pode condicionar o acesso a rendimentos e a demais bens e serviços, incluindo os bens simbólicos. Assim, a investigação procura situar a abordagem numa perspectiva sistémica e integrada, busca captar as múltiplas dimensões da pobreza e da vulnerabilidade, tanto em termos de suas determinantes quanto de sua manifestação e de tradução discursiva.
Cláudio Alves Furtado
Études africaines de géographie par le bas / African Studies in Geography from Below (Printed)
Il est largement admis, aujourd’hui, que les conceptions de l’espace et du temps sont « socialement construites » au sens où chaque société les élabore en fonction de ses modes de production, de son organisation interne et de ses valeurs. Ces conceptions deviennent toutefois si familières. Elles acquièrent une telle force d’évidence qu’elles prennent l’importance de faits objectifs. C’est pourquoi elles orientent ou canalisent les processus de reproduction sociale. C’est aussi pourquoi elles sont si fortement contestées lors des moments de grande transformation : quand changent les modes de production économique, les conceptions de l’espace et du temps doivent elles-mêmes changer pour permettre de nouvelles pratiques matérielles de reproduction sociale. La Géographie par le Bas désigne, en première approche, une critique de la pensée territoriale dominante. L’hypothèse centrale de ce livre est que les manières dont nous sommes éduqués à voir le territoire, à le concevoir et, partant, à l’organiser, déterminent nos capacités à résoudre les problèmes qui s’y posent.
Get access to your Orders, Wishlist and Recommendations.
Shopping cart is empty!