River-Sand Mining: An Ethnography of Resource Conflict in China

River-Sand Mining: An Ethnography of Resource Conflict in China PDF Author: Qian Zhu
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004505911
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Anyone who cares about the environment cannot ignore the overmining of river-sand. This book explores how river sand in Zhuang villages in China has been overexploited with disastrous environmental (or social and environmental) consequences, despite official state ownership of the sand, national and local laws regulating mining, and peasant resistance.

River-Sand Mining: An Ethnography of Resource Conflict in China

River-Sand Mining: An Ethnography of Resource Conflict in China PDF Author: Qian Zhu
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004505911
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Anyone who cares about the environment cannot ignore the overmining of river-sand. This book explores how river sand in Zhuang villages in China has been overexploited with disastrous environmental (or social and environmental) consequences, despite official state ownership of the sand, national and local laws regulating mining, and peasant resistance.

Environmental Anthropology

Environmental Anthropology PDF Author: Michael Bollig
Publisher: UTB
ISBN: 3825260895
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


Understanding Sand Mining on the Maha Oya

Understanding Sand Mining on the Maha Oya PDF Author: Meredith Corea Talbert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
River sand mining from the Maha Oya is the main source of income and a force that drives economic activity for residents along the river. This study takes place in Sri Lanka, there are three villages included in this project: Jambugaswatte, Janituspuraya and Thoppuwa. In Sri Lanka, sand serves as the main building material. It is used to make bricks, tiles, asphalt and concrete, therefore demanding a high market value. However, the over-extraction of sand comes along with significant environmental problems. These communities depend on the river in many ways and the health of the river directly corresponds to the health of the ecosystem as a whole. Along the Maha Oya two important elements of survival are in conflict with one another: residents simultaneously need a healthy, thriving ecosystem to live in, as well as economic opportunities. With support from the Environmental Foundation Ltd. (EFL)--a Sri Lankan environmental justice NGO--this study focuses on the complex situation with sand mining on the Maha Oya. Data for this study comes from fifteen formal interviews with a Sinhala-English translator. These interviews are used to address the two research questions for this project: how do village residents along the Maha Oya perceive sand mining? And what are the emotional, practical and theoretical responses of village residents to the effects of sand mining on their local ecosystems? In order to envision a sustainable future, it is vital to begin with a clear understanding of community perceptions of these complex issues, which are at the heart of this project.

Sand Mining

Sand Mining PDF Author: D. Padmalal
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401791449
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This book addresses most of the environmental impacts of sand mining from small rivers The problems and solutions addressed in this book are applicable to all rivers that drain through densely populated tropical coasts undergoing rapid economic growth. Many rivers in the world are drastically being altered to levels often beyond their natural resilience capability. Among the different types of human interventions, mining of sand and gravel is the most disastrous one, as the activity threatens the very existence of river ecosystem. A better understanding of sand budget is necessary if the problems of river and coastal environments are to be solved.

Friction

Friction PDF Author: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691263523
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
What the struggle over the Indonesian rainforests can teach us about the social frictions that shape the world around us Rubbing two sticks together produces heat and light while one stick alone is just a stick. It is the friction that produces movement, action, and effect. Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing challenges the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a clash of cultures, developing friction as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world. Tsing focuses on the rainforests of Indonesia, where in the 1980s and 1990s capitalist interests increasingly reshaped the landscape not so much through corporate design as through awkward chains of legal and illegal entrepreneurs that wrested the land from previous claimants, creating resources for distant markets. In response, environmental movements arose to defend the rainforests and the communities of people who live in them. Not confined to a village, province, or nation, the social drama of the Indonesian rainforests includes local and national environmentalists, international science, North American investors, advocates for Brazilian rubber tappers, United Nations funding agencies, mountaineers, village elders, and urban students—all drawn into unpredictable, messy misunderstandings, but misunderstandings that sometimes work out. Providing an invaluable portfolio of methods for the study of global interconnections, Friction shows how cultural differences are in the grip of worldly encounter and reveals how much is overlooked in contemporary theories of the global.

Gendering the Field

Gendering the Field PDF Author: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt
Publisher: ANU E Press
ISBN: 1921862173
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The chapters in this book offer concrete examples from all over the world to show how community livelihoods in mineral-rich tracts can be more sustainable by fully integrating gender concerns into all aspects of the relationship between mining practices and mine affected communities. By looking at the mining industry and the mine-affected communities through a gender lens, the authors indicate a variety of practical strategies to mitigate the impacts of mining on women's livelihoods without undermining women's voice and status within the mine-affected communities. The term 'field' in the title of this volume is not restricted to the open-cut pits of large scale mining operations which are male-dominated workplaces, or with mining as a masculine, capital-intensive industry, but also connotes the wider range of mineral extractive practices which are carried out informally by women and men of artisanal communities at much smaller geographical scales throughout the mineral-rich tracts of poorer countries.

Mining Capitalism

Mining Capitalism PDF Author: Stuart Kirsch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520957598
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Corporations are among the most powerful institutions of our time, but they are also responsible for a wide range of harmful social and environmental impacts. Consequently, political movements and nongovernmental organizations increasingly contest the risks that corporations pose to people and nature. Mining Capitalism examines the strategies through which corporations manage their relationships with these critics and adversaries. By focusing on the conflict over the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea, Stuart Kirsch tells the story of a slow-moving environmental disaster and the international network of indigenous peoples, advocacy groups, and lawyers that sought to protect local rivers and rain forests. Along the way, he analyzes how corporations promote their interests by manipulating science and invoking the discourses of sustainability and social responsibility. Based on two decades of anthropological research, this book is comparative in scope, showing readers how similar dynamics operate in other industries around the world.

Chasing the Chinese Dream

Chasing the Chinese Dream PDF Author: William N. Brown
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811606544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This open access book explores the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts that have made anti-poverty the core of Chinese society since Liberation in 1949, and why poverty alleviation measures evolved from the simplistic aid of the 1950s to Xi Jinping’s precision poverty alleviation and its goal of eliminating absolute poverty by 2020. The book also addresses the implications of China’s experience for other developing nations tackling not only poverty but such issues as pandemics, rampant urbanization and desertification exacerbated by global warming. The first of three parts draws upon interviews of rural and urban Chinese from diverse backgrounds and local and national leaders. These interviews, conducted in even the remotest areas of the country, offer candid insights into the challenges that have forced China to continually evolve its programs to resolve even the most intractable cases of poverty. The second part explores the historic, cultural and philosophical roots of old China’s meritocratic government and how its ancient Chinese ethics have led to modern Chinese socialism’s stance that “poverty amidst plenty is immoral”. Dr. Huang Chengwei, one of China’s foremost anti-poverty experts, explains the challenges faced at each stage as China’s anti-poverty measures evolved over 70 years to emphasize “enablement” over “aid” and to foster bottom-up initiative and entrepreneurialism, culminating in Xi Jinping’s precision poverty alleviation. The book also addresses why national economic development alone cannot reduce poverty; poverty alleviation programs must be people-centered, with measurable and accountable practices that reach even to household level, which China has done with its “First Secretary” program. The third part explores the potential for adopting China’s practices in other nations, including the potential for replicating China’s successes in developing countries through such measures as the Belt and Road Initiative. This book also addresses prevalent misperceptions about China’s growing global presence and why other developing nations must address historic, systemic causes of poverty and inequity before they can undertake sustainable poverty alleviation measures of their own.

Divining with Achi and Tārā

Divining with Achi and Tārā PDF Author: Jan-Ulrich Sobisch
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004402624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Divining with Achi and Tārā by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch with contributions by Solvej Nielsen offers an introduction to and two detailed case studies of Tibetan dice and prayer bead divination. Translations, interviews, and glossaries and appendices enrich an already valuable book.

African Conflicts and Informal Power

African Conflicts and Informal Power PDF Author: Mats Utas
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138857
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.