bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Women, work and ideology in Nigeria
Authors: Pittin Renée
Published: July 2007

Struggles to control Nigeria's dwindling resources, and to gain or maintain power within the context of economic crisis, are taking place at local, state, regional and federal levels, within and outside formal political structures. The ideologies with which these struggles have been associated, and the struggles themselves, have particular implications for the effects upon women, mediated and mitigated, however, by class differences. This article describes the significance of women's economic activities in Katsina and, taking the example of the persecution of ‘independent women’, explores the conflicting ideologies which circumscribe women.
Somalia: militarism, warlordism or democracy ?
Authors: Adam Hussein M.
Published: July 2007

Somali politics have traditionally been structured in terms of the clan system which organises agro‐pastoral society. These clan‐based alignments have provided the lines of conflict along which struggles for recognition — for status and prestige but also, and significantly, for social justice and equality — have been fought. Under conditions of dependent capitalism and uneven class formation, clan consciousness takes on a trade union aspect, in defence of real material interests and in opposition to tendencies towards clan inequality. The Siyaad Barre regime disrupted the balance of clan interests by setting aside traditional tendencies to compromise and accommodate conflicts in order to impose clan hegemony on the country. The result has been to politicise and militarise clan groupings in opposition to the Siyaad government and to plunge the country into civil war. It has divided the country, given rise to regional and clan warlords, and imperilled moves towards democracy.
Sierra‐Leone: contradictory class functionality of the ‘soft’ state
Authors: Kandeh Jimmy D
Published: July 2007

While the ‘soft’ state may be metaphorically descriptive of the malleability, hegemonic impotence and functional incapacitation of the post‐colonial state in Africa, the class functionality of state softness remains ambivalent and problematic. Although a soft, institutionally fragile state with multiple informal points of entry is generally conducive to processes of class formation at the top, it is doubtful whether such an impaired apparatus of political domination can be reproductive of long term ruling class interests. And because the class whose formation is made possible by institutional fragility lacks a hegemonic ideology and is largely parasitic and unproductive in its modes of consumption and accumulation, it is inherently incapable of leading a genuine capitalist, populist or socialist transformation of African society. This incongruent, stultifying duality in the class functionality of the soft state is at the centre of the problem posed by the contemporary political and economic retardation of African societies.
Structural adjustment and women in Zimbabwe
Authors: Kanji Nazneen , Jazdowska Niki
Published: July 2007

This article is based on a research project which examines the gender specific effects of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in one low‐income settlement in Harare. Although ESAP was only initiated in 1991 and the research is still in progress, it is already clear that urban households have been extremely negatively affected by the programme, with women faring even worse than men. Current policy trends which emphasise the effectiveness of women's coping strategies over‐estimate the extent to which women can compensate for low wages, rising prices and declining employment opportunities. It is argued that existing class and gender inequalities are being further exacerbated by ESAP, a strategy for development which only serves the interests of international and national capital.
Empowerment of women & democracy in Madagascar
Authors: Ramamonjisoa Suzy
Published: July 2007

The following Briefing has been translated by Bill Freund; his explanatory comments appear in square brackets in the text.
New directions in the political economy of development
Authors: Rapley John
Published: July 2007

This article underlines the changing balance of paradigms over the last decade and argues that the critique of neo‐classical theory is gaining new life. What is emerging, though, is a subtler and more sophisticated view of the state than the traditional state‐market dichotomy allowed for. It situates the recent African experience within a wider international context and reviews the different roles played by the state in encouraging or discouraging development.
The Uruguay Round and agriculture: how real are the gains?
Authors: Walker Lucy
Published: July 2007

The signing of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations in Marrakesh was heralded as a victory which will trigger global welfare gains of up to $274 billion. These hypothetical, gains have been widely advertised by bodies such as the GATT, the OECD and the World Bank who have used them to put pressure on recalcitrant countries to ‘sell’ the importance of an agreed outcome from the Uruguay Round. However, the accuracy and reliability of the econometric models that are used to arrive at such figures have received little critical attention outside the community of economists and econometric modellers. Yet, any critique mounted by mainstream modellers remains largely within the neo‐classical paradigm. While there are econometric practioners whose analysis adopts a structuralist approach the complexity and the mathematical nature of econometric models creates a perceived barrier to understanding for non‐economists which effectively deters detailed criticisms from ‘outsiders’, a deterrent which is a powerful factor in the maintenance of the ideological and legitimating roles of neo‐classical economic theory. This article plugs this gap by developing a critique of such models within a political economy framework from the point of view of a non‐economist.
Debt relief for Africa
Authors: Watkins Kevin
Published: July 2007

External debt remains a major obstacle to human development in sub‐Saharan Africa. Repayments on that debt swallow up $10bn annually, diverting on a massive scale the resources needed for investment in health, education, employment and economic recovery. These transfers from the world's poorest region are unacceptable and should be stopped. Yet in contrast to other developing regions and even eastern Europe, existing debt‐relief measures for sub‐Saharan Africa are totally inadequate.
The legacy of a Pariah state: South Africa's Arms trade in the 1990s
Authors: Willett Susan
Published: July 2007

South Africa's defence industry was built up in the context of the UN arms embargo and during the period from 1975 to 1989. It was developed and coordinated by the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), renowned for an unaccountable, insidious covert culture which involved arms smuggling, corruption and most recently selling $30million worth of arms to the government of Rwanda. A commission of inquiry ‐ the Cameron Commission has been set up by the government to look at an apparent lack of control within the defence sector. Yet, since the end of apartheid, Armscor has attempted to recast itself as a socially responsible institution in its commitment to greater openness and transparency. The debate which supports the expansion of South Africa's arms trade contend that the industry is an important economic asset and that the contract which Armscor has secured from the government will treble arms sales over five years, creating 20,000 new jobs. But at what price? As the industry is faced with a declining domestic market it is likely to revert to markets it is familiar with, where high profits are guaranteed.

As Susan Willett states, the controversy between the moral and economic arguments — utilising different norms and assumptions resulting in political impasse ‐ must become more rigorous and detailed in order to overcome a stalemate. This article seeks to avoid further polarisation by considering the arms trade in terms of orthodox economic analysis and the political debate ensuing in the context of a fragile and embryonic democracy.
‘Political conditionality’ and democratisation
Authors: Baylies Carolyn
Published: July 2007

The use of aid to impose political conditions on recipient countries, to further democratic and government reforms or to punish non‐compliance with earlier demands, is a relatively new feature of the international aid regime. This article evaluates the proliferating donor and academic literature emerging on the subject. At the heart of discussion of democracy/ governance policies are debates about transformation of the state, its relationship to economic development and the decreasing extent to which considerations of sovereignty limit donor interventions. The author argues that, while political conditionalities may assist the development of democratic movements in Africa, there is an irony in that structural adjustment risks undermining the state reforms seen to be essential to them while, equally, democratisation may challenge the processes of economic restructuring being imposed.
Ironies of post‐cold war structural adjustment in Sierra Leone
Authors: Reno William
Published: July 2007

Africa's creditors stress ‘capacity building’ measures to strengthen bureaucratic effectiveness to reverse economic and political decline (Dia, 1993). World Bank officials point to the East Asian example of success at using government policies and institutions to promote ‘market friendly’ growth policies insulated from the pressures of clients demanding payouts as a positive example for Africa (World Bank, 1993a). Analysts recognise, however, that decades of patron‐client politics and intractable rent‐seeking (the use of state resources for personal gain) behaviour among state officials limits short‐term prospects for increasing revenue collection. With little internal financing for market boosting policies, World Bank programmes prescribe extensive civil service layoffs. Subsequent reductions in unproductive expenditures will reduce corruption, balance national budgets and remove obstacles to private market growth. Economic growth will in turn produce a class of entrepreneurs to demand more policies and slimmed down bureaucracies to enhance economic efficiency. This ‘growth coalition’ will identify their interests with those of cost‐effective technocratic administrators (World Bank, 1994a:10–3).
Djibouti: between war and peace
Authors: Kadamy Mohamed
Published: July 2007

Tardivement accedée a l'independance, en 1977 la République de Djibouti, à l'instar des autres régions de la Corne d'Afrique, vit à son tour une guerre civile depuis octobre 1991. La lutte armée menée par le FRUD (Front pur la Restauration de l'Unité et pour la Démocratie) qui recrute principalement chez les Afars a revelé la fragilité de l'Etat djiboutien ainsi que sa dimension stratégique. La lutte pour la démocratistion et l'équilibre ethnique s'est heurtée a l'intransigeance du regime et à la mefiance de certains Etats: La France, l'Ethiopie et l'Erythree.

Cet article essaie de retracer l'évolution du regime et la genèse de l'opposition particuliérement de sa composante armée. Après avoir derivé vers un système de parti unique, le pouvoir de Hassan Gouled a suivi sa propre trajectoire par l'appropriation clanique de tous les secteurs de la vie économique et politique. La radicalisation du regime est‐elle inscrite dans san nature clanique? A l'instar du regime de Siad Barré, le pouvoir djiboutien ne risque‐t'il pas de remettre en cause les fondements de l'Etat? L'inquietude semble gagner certains secteurs du pouvoir, ainsi que certains Etats comme la France, l'Ethiopie, l'Erythrée. La volonté des forces de l'opposition sera t'elle suffisante pour empêcher l'implosion de ce micro Etat?

The concurrence of several troublesome events plunged Djibouti into a profound crisis in the first half of the 1990s.The most serious was a revolt against an emerging ethnic dictatorship. It was exacerbated by grave economic problems, and compounded with a ferocious struggle for the succession of President Hassan Gouled who is seriously ill. This article traces the course of events that brought Djibouti to the most dangerous point in its short history.
Aid, NGOs and grassroots development: Northern Burkina Faso
Authors: Atampugre Nicholas
Published: July 2007

The last two decades (and perhaps the next decade) could be described as the age of Non‐Governmental Organisations (NGOs). These organisations have become important players on the development scene. They are also major recipients of international aid. Between 1970 and 1990 aid channelled through NGOs rose from $2.7 billion to $7.2 billion. This trend has continued, with the OECD estimating in 1993 that northern NGO spending is between $9 billion and $10 billion annually. The significance of NGO involvement is particularly marked in Africa. For example, in 1991 forty‐four World Bank assisted projects implemented by associated local NGOs took up 55 per cent of all loans and credits granted Africa that year (Marcussen, 1996:406). The increasing importance of what remains a poorly defined and heterogeneous sector is reflected not only in the amount of resources being channelled through these organisations but also in the increasing controversy surrounding their role in Africa's development.

In this article, we review the experiences of two UK based NGOs ‐ Oxfam‐UK/Eire and ACORD ‐ who have been promoting (for nearly two decades now) grassroots development in a country which has not recently experienced conflict ‐ Burkina Faso. We draw lessons from their experiences and suggest that whilst some good work has been done, northern NGOs facilitating the emergence of grassroots organisations still face enormous challenges.
Developing differences: post‐structuralism & political economy in contemporary development studies
Authors: Mohan Giles
Published: July 2007

Difference can mean many things ‐ inequality, the non‐same or change. This article explores all these interpretations in the context of recent debates around development theory and praxis. In particular I focus on the ways in which post‐structuralist ideas have challenged those of various marxisms and how political activism may change as a result. I have taken ten books published in the last two years and drawn out themes which run through them. In many, the concept of development as discourse is opened up and various discourses are, to use the contemporary parlance, deconstructed to reveal the power relations underlying them. In doing this we see development as Eurocentric, patriarchal and disciplining. This also brings our analytical focus onto human agency and the construction and deployment of identities which has the potential to move us well away from materialist accounts of political action. The post‐colonial literature is examined briefly as it focuses on such complex issues of identity. After destabilising this knowledge‐action axis I look at how the various authors conceive of future change. For some the answer lies in civil society where these identities and resistances form the basis for ‘post‐developmental’ change. Others see a need to engage with the existing institutions, especially the state and the international lenders, and work both within and against them. I conclude with some problematics for future research and practice which centre on the need to re‐engage with political‐economy, re‐conceptualise class as an analytical and political category and place clear pressures upon the major institutions of neo‐imperialism.
‘For fear of being condemned as old fashioned’: liberal democracy vs. popular democracy in sub‐saharan Africa
Authors: Saul John S.
Published: July 2007

This article is a theoretical companion to an essay on the ‘transition to democracy’, which we published in our previous issue, ROAPE72. Here John Saul contrasts two approaches to the understanding of democracy and democratisation, both of which see democratic transition as part of a larger political and economic process, which for one limits the possible scope and sustainability of democratisation, and for the other both threatens but also enhances its scope and strength. The latter approach, older and currently less fashionable, sees democracy and democratisation (and our analysis of them) as rooted in processes of imperialism, class struggle and state‐society relations. This ‘political economy’ of democratisation’ approach, characteristic of the work of Issa Shivji and of John Saul, is contrasted with a larger and more pessimistic body of work, which Saul labels as the ‘political science of democratisation’. Thus Diamond, Huntington, Przeworski, Di Palma and others, while stressing the necessity of democratic institutions and values, at the same time argue that only a highly attenuated version of these is feasible under current (African) conditions, and that ‘if reform is to be adopted without provoking a crisis’ (Diamond), then it must be reform consistent with the demands of capital and the neo‐liberalism of the IFIs: ‘thin’ democracy.
The ‘NGO‐isation’ of Kenyan society: USAID & the restructuring of health care
Authors: Hearn Julie
Published: July 2007

One result of Africa's marginalisation in the world economy is the peculiarly important role that aid plays in the continent. Whilst Africa's share of international trade is an almost insignificant three per cent, it accounts for more than thirty per cent of the global aid business (Sunday Nation,5 May 1996). Aid policy, itself, is dominated by what has been described as the New Policy Agenda of neo‐liberalism and liberal democratic theory, which assigns NGOs a key role. This article examines how one influential donor in Kenya, USAID, has funded and promoted NGOs in the health sector, notably mission hospitals. The article questions claims for their comparative advantage, and illustrates the extent to which they have been integrated into a national health structure. It concludes by pointing out some of the long‐term consequences of such a donor‐sponsored ‘NGO‐isation’ of different spheres of African society.
Congo/Ex‐Zaire: through the looking glass
Authors: Collins Carole J.L.
Published: July 2007

The last issue of ROAPE(No. 74) looked at the new DRC government's emerging economic policies. Here we give more detail on its reconstruction plans, erratic foreign investment policies and increasingly repressive efforts to counter growing domestic and external opposition ‐ all of these intensifying debate among Congolese civil society and potential foreign aid donors.
Strategies for change: women & politics in Eritrea & South Africa
Authors: Connell Dan
Published: July 2007

This article examines the position of women in the process of democratisation in Eritrea and South Africa. It examines the difficulties in translating declared government and policy document support for gender issues into implemented strategy. It does so by tracing the position of women in the different movements, the problems which women have confronted in political and economic reconstruction and the political struggles which women have engaged in to ensure that gender issues remain at the core of democratic politics.
Misunderstanding African politics: corruption & the governance agenda
Authors: Szeftel Morris
Published: July 2007

Political corruption ‐ the misuse of public office or public responsibility for private (personal or sectional) gain ‐ has been an important theme of the neo‐liberal policies of adjustment, conditionality and democratization in Africa. Having identified the state as ‘the problem’, and liberalization and democratization as ‘the solution’ to that problem, it was inevitable that efforts to eradicate and control the widespread corruption characterising post‐colonial politics would be given a high priority by ‘the donors’. From the outset, proponents of structural reform linked political corruption to authoritarianism as an explanation of developmental failure, thereby identifying the arguments for democratization and ‘good governance’ with those for liberalization. This paper explores the way in which corruption has been understood in this ‘governance’ agenda and the efforts that have been made to control it by improving institutional performance and policing ‐ greater transparency and accountability, more effective oversight and punishment ‐ and by building a political culture intolerant of corruption. In general, however, legal and administrative reform has produced disappointing results and corruption has flourished and even increased. Failure has compounded cynicism and weakened faith in democratic change. Such failures suggest: firstly, that the anti‐corruption strategies pursued by international donors and imposed on African debtors are inadequate because of weaknesses in their conception of the state; secondly, that the reforms introduced through liberalization (a weakening of the state, deregulation and privatization) create new conditions in which corruption can flourish; and, thirdly, that fundamental features of African politics will need to change before such anti‐corruption measures can hope to succeed.
Progressive academic economists & the Challenge of development in South Africa's decade of liberation
Authors: Padayachee Vishnu
Published: July 2007

This article examines the relationship between progressive academic economists and anti‐apartheid social movements in the period that has come to be known as South Africa's decade of liberation, roughly the mid‐1980s to the mid‐1990s. It does so through a critical examination of the interaction of progressive economists with social movements in South Africa since 1985, an interaction which occurred in the main via policy research networks and think‐tanks. The article also explores the major trends in the relationship between progressive economists and social movements over the decade of liberation and attempts to provide some tentative answers to the controversial question of why many of South Africa's progressive economists underwent a sea change in their economic thinking by the mid‐1990s. The argument is that South African academics and intellectuals (like those elsewhere) are far from independent; they are the creatures and creations of their time. Their positions depend upon their shifting circumstances and the demands placed on them. Ultimately, the explanation for the change in economics thinking rests on the politics of the transition itself, although other factors may contribute to explaining why the shift was so extreme and so pervasive.
Reform or re‐colonisation? the overhaul of African television
Authors: Paterson Chris A.
Published: July 2007

The African television broadcasting sector is undergoing a rapid and long awaited process of liberalisation. This article examines key aspects of that process with geographic focus on sub‐Saharan Africa. Specifically addressed are what has recently changed, and more crucially, not changed, in the politically charged arena of television newscasting. Throughout the continent broadcasters, whether privately or publicly financed, are finding a wide variety of creative solutions to technological and economic challenges as they rush to cultivate an audience among the urban middle class. But the rapid shift from public to frequently foreign private ownership of television may be symptomatic of a broader re‐colonisation of Africa by US and European multinationals that has been euphemistically heralded as Africa's Renaissance.
Media & democracy in Southern Africa
Authors: Berger Guy
Published: July 2007

A Southern view of media and democracy can benefit from the insights produced by theories of media and development. These highlight critical political questions on the reach of media, its content, state control, alternative media, journalists and public participation, and ultimately the impact of the media. The same theories can also give insight into the understanding of the media and the ‘public sphere’ in the South, and their place in southern democracy. In the end, the question of democracy and media in the South also needs to be understood in relation to democracy and media in global terms.
Burkina Faso in the winds of liberalisation
Authors: Harsch Ernest
Published: July 2007

A decade after the end of Burkina Faso's ‘democratic and popular revolution’, the Sahelian country has graduated to the top ranks of the World Bank's select class of model reformers. The regime of President Blaise Compaoré is frequently praised not only for its pursuit of economic liberalisation, but also its seeming commitment to the donor institutions’ current assortment of favoured notions: multiparty democracy, good governance and human development. But beyond such facile external perceptions, the daily reality in one of the continent's most underdeveloped countries is far more complex, with an impoverished populace ill‐disposed to the traumatic imposition of market dominance and a political elite unsure of how far it can open up without weakening effective control.
Examining myths of a democratic media
Authors: McFadden Patricia
Published: July 2007

The following is taken from a presentation by Patricia McFadden, a feminist activist who is working in Harare, Zimbabwe. She presented it during a seminar on ‘Women and the Media in Africa’, hosted by Nisaa and Lola‐Press in November 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa. McFadden was born in Swaziland 46 years ago and works mainly in the Southern African region, teaching, training and doing feminist advocacy. The presentation has been shortened and edited for publication (reprinted courtesy of SAPEM, Harare).
Parliamentary opposition & democratic consolidation in South Africa
Authors: Habib Adam , Taylor Rupert
Published: July 2007

We print below a contribution which argues the need for an effective electoral opposition in South Africa that is class and policy‐based rather than racially conceived. It can be linked both to recent articles on shifts in the ANC's policies and economic strategy (Saul, Gall, and Adams, all in Review 72 of 1997, McDonald in 75, and Padayachee, and Hall, in 76 — both 1998), and to earlier Debates pieces on the relationship between nationalism and democracy in South Africa, notably that by Robert Fine in Review 45/6 (1989).
African rural labour, income diversification & livelihood approaches: a long‐term development perspective
Authors: Bryceson Deborah
                      Fahy
Published: July 2007

The implementation of SAP and economic liberalisation throughout sub‐Saharan Africa during the last fifteen years has coincided with the rapid expansion of rural income diversification. Many analysts see income diversification as a vital coping strategy for the rural poor, while recognising that its growing incidence amongst all sections of the African rural population can serve as a mechanism for increasing wealth differentiation. The current income diversification and livelihoods literature primarily restricts itself to situational analysis underpinned by assumptions of economic optimization on the part of decision‐making households, while ignoring the broader process of depeasantization. Early agrarian change took the form of urban migration, funnelling labour from rural areas and creating an array of stimuli that acted indirectly upon village life. Rural income diversification adds a new, more immediate dimension. Villagers are now actively part of in situoccupational change that has far‐reaching implications for the social coherence of rural households and the political balance of local communities and nation‐states. Such profound transformation calls into question the ‘sustainability’ of rural livelihood strategies now being advocated by donor agencies as well as the relevance of delineating formal, informal and peasant sectors of the national economy.
Book notes
Authors: Love Roy , Bush Ray , Szeftel Morris
Published: July 2007

Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda(1999), by Alison Des Forges, Human Rights Watch, New York and London; International Federation of Human Rights (IFHR), Paris. ISBN 1–56432–171–1.

Civil Society and the Aid Industry(1998), Alison Van Rooy (ed.), London: Earthscan. ISBN 1 85383 553 6.

Whose Development?: An Ethnography of Aid(1998) by Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Harrison, New York/London: Zed Books. ISBN 1 85649 606 6.

The Pillage of Sustainability in Eritrea, 1600s‐1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows of Hegemony(1998) by Niaz Murtaza Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press (Distributed by Eurospan, London) ISBN 0–313–30633–8.

Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument(1999) by P. Chabal and J‐P Daloz, London: International Africa Institute/African Issues/James Currey. ISBN 0–253–21287–1.

The Criminalisation of the State in Africa(1999) by J‐F Bayart, S. Ellis and B. Hibou, London: The International Africa Institute/ African Issues, James Currey/ Indiana University Press. ISBN 0–253–21286–3.

Global Restructuring and Land Rights in Ghana: Forest Food Chains, Timber and Rural Livelihoods(1999) by Kojo Sebastian Amanor, Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Research Report No. 108. ISBN 91–7106–437–0.

The. Sudan: Contested National Identities(1998) by Ann Mosely Lesch, Bloomington/Oxford: Indiana University Press/James Currey. ISBN 0–253–33432–2.

Post‐Conflict Eritrea: Prospects for Reconstruction and Development (1999)by Martin Doornbos and Tesfai Alemseged (eds), New Jersey: Red Sea Press. ISBN 1–56902–109–0.
Clean‐ups, conditionality & adjustment: why institutions matter in Mozambique
Authors: Harrison Graham
Published: July 2007

This article critically evaluates the nature of administrative reform in the context of conditionality and structural adjustment. Structural adjustment programmes constitute the broader environment and prioritisations within which donors and creditors support institutional reform. This raises the questions concerning the ownership and purpose of reform, especially if one bears in mind the substantial inequality of power between individual severely‐indebted states and multilateral creditors which enjoy the alignment of many bilateral donors behind their prognoses. One can identify some of the contradictions that this relationship produces through an examination of Mozambique's experience with donors in respect to corruption and anti‐corruption strategies. Here, corruption constitutes part of the politics of adjustment, and the reforms which are to tackle it have to work on an institutional terrain which has already been subjected to the disintegrative effects of a decade of adjustment and minimally‐controlled donor influence. All of this renders the idea — often at the base of much donor thinking concerning reform — of a stable and enlightened leadership motivated to implement rational/technical reform throughout government at best a simplification and at worst a misrepresentation.
Ransoming the state: elite origins of Subaltern terror in Sierra Leone
Authors: Kandeh Jimmy D.
Published: July 2007

Elite practices that valorised pillage, massified society, banalised violence and ‘sobelised’ the army are central to understanding the tragedy of subaltern terror in Sierra Leone. The appropriation of lumpen violence and thuggery by the political class undermined security and paved the way for the political ascendancy of armed marginals. By heavily recruiting thugs, criminals and rural drifters into national security apparatuses, incumbent political elites sowed the seeds of their own political demise as well as that of the state. Socially uprooted and politically alienated, lumpenised youth are inherently prone to criminal adventurism and when enlisted in the army are more likely to become ‘sobels’ or renegade soldiers. This article situates the transformation of praetorian violence from a tool of political domination to a means of criminal expropriation in the engendering context of elite parasitism and repression.
The importance of co‐ordination in national technology policy: Evidence from the Galileo project1
Authors: ZERVOS VASILIS , SIEGEL DONALD S.
Published: July 2007

We assess the benefits from transatlantic collaboration in technology policy for publicly‐funded R&D space projects such as Galileo, a proposed European radio‐navigation space project. An industrial organisation methodology is employed to model negative security spillovers of ‘unilateral’ space projects such as Galileo, or space‐based anti‐ballistic missile defence, on the public sector of the other region (the US vs. the European Union). The findings imply that transatlantic co‐ordination in technology policy is required to allow the respective space industries (in the US and the European Union) to exploit the benefits of cross‐border strategic research partnerships (SRPs). This coordination not only reduces the costs of the respective programmes, but also addresses security concerns.
The Dawn of Aboriginal Psychiatry
Authors: Duke Michael
Published: July 2007

Objective: The aim of this paper was to survey the writings by Western-trained and other psychiatrists and mental health professionals about Aboriginal peoples of Australia.

Method: A literature survey of works by psychiatrists and Aboriginal people from 1788 to the mid-1990s was undertaken.

Results: There is a dearth of literature until the 1960s when there is an upsurge which continues to grow.

Conclusions: There has been an exponential growth of interest in Aboriginal and psychiatric perspectives since the 1960s. Some suggestions are made to explain this.
Trainee Psychiatrists’ views about their Supervisors and Supervision
Authors: Chur-Hansen Anna , McLean Steve
Published: July 2007

Objective: Supervision is fundamental to the trainee experience in psychiatry, but few researchers have considered this in a systematic way. In this paper, we explore trainees’ perceptions of the supervisor–trainee relationship and the supervision process. This is the first of two papers, with the second focussing on supervisors’ perceptions of supervision and trainees.

Method: Fifteen trainees were interviewed and the resultant data subjected to qualitative analysis.

Results: Trainees described the characteristics of a ‘good’ supervisor, as well as what they considered to be evident in a ‘poor’ supervisor.

Conclusions: The results of this study would be useful in designing training programs for both experienced and novice supervisors. Future research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of such training programs, as currently very little investigation into postgraduate clinical supervision has been undertaken.
Overweight and obesity among Norwegian schoolchildren: Changes from 1993 to 2000
Authors: Andersen Lene Frost , Lillegaard Inger Therese L. , Øverby Nina , Lytle Leslie , Klepp Knut-Inge , Johansson Lars
Published: July 2007

Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence rate of overweight and obesity in a nationwide survey of fourth- and eighth-grade Norwegian schoolchildren, the changes in overweight rates among eighth graders from 1993 to 2000, and to investigate factors associated with overweight. Methods: Cross-sectional dietary surveys were conducted on nationally representative samples of eighth graders in 1993, and among fourth and eighth graders in 2000. Self-reported weight and height was available from 1,650 eighth graders in 1993, and from 664 fourth and 825 eighth graders in 2000. Data on dietary pattern, social class, and physical activity were also available. Results: In 2000 the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the fourth graders was 18.5% and 3.6%, respectively, and among the eighth graders 11.5% and 1.8%, respectively. A marked increase in overweight and obesity among Norwegian eighth graders from 1993 to 2000 was observed; the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased by 4 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively. Social class, time spent watching TV or in front of a computer, and breakfast frequency were associated with the odds of being overweight. An inverse relation between intake of sweets and overweight was observed. Validation studies demonstrated a high correlation between self-reported and measured height and weight in both age groups. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren, especially among fourth graders in Norway. Moreover, the proportion of overweight and obese children has increased greatly among eighth graders during the last decade.
``Struggling with life'': Narratives from women with signs of postpartum depression
Authors: Edhborg Maigun , Friberg Malin , Lundh Wendela , Widström Ann-Marie
Published: July 2007

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and describe how Swedish women with signs of postpartum depression two months postpartum experience the first months with their child. Method: A grounded theory approach was chosen. Twenty-two women who showed signs of depression, i.e. scored 10 or more on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), were interviewed at an average of 80 days after the delivery. Results: The new mothers were struggling with life related to the self, the child, and the partner. They expressed feelings of loss of who they are, felt overwhelmed by the responsibility for the child, and were struggling with feelings of abandonment, worries, and breastfeeding problems. They often felt like ``bad mothers'' but they never blamed the child. Most mothers were reluctant to speak about their feelings and they assigned their depressed mood to personal weakness rather than illness. In relationship to the partner the mothers were struggling to keep their equality in the new situation and to get him involved in childcare. Conclusions: The findings suggest that depressed feelings postpartum may be explained in terms of losses and changes. However, postpartum depressive symptoms remain hidden and it is important to understand the complexity of postpartum depressive mood, described here as struggling with life related to three different dimensions: the self, the child, and the partner.
“Adaptation and Repulsion in the Figural After-effect” and the Psychophysical Theory
Authors: Taylor M. M.
Published: July 2007

Data recently presented by Wilson (1965) seem to demonstrate the separate effects of adaptation and of after-effect repulsion during and following continued observation of a curved line. Inasmuch as the experiment was performed without apparent reference to the psychophysical theory of figural after-effects (Taylor, 1962), it is interesting to note that the results on adaptation agree qualitatively with one of the major presuppositions of the theory, and the results on repulsion agree quantitatively with its predictions.
Disruption of a Position-Reversal Learning Set in the Rat
Authors: Dalrymple S. D. , Stretch R.
Published: July 2007

Nineteen rats were required to learn a series of 15 position-reversal problems in a T-maze (Phase A) and were then assigned at random to two groups. The acquired position-reversal set (PRLS) was then subjected to disruption over 80 trials in which different reward treatments operated for each group (Phase B). For a further 150 trials following the disruptive phase, the initial conditions were reinstated (Phase C). Results showed that rats receiving non-reinforcement during Phase B returned to the asymptotic performance recorded in Phase A within 2-3 reversal problems while those receiving 20 per cent, random reinforcement during Phase B failed to re-acquire the PRLS within 15 reversal problems. The results indicate that random 20 per cent, reinforcement, applied after establishment of a PRLS in rats, displaces by persistent random-responding, the “Win-stay-Lose-shift” hypothesis appropriate for PRLS attainment.
Times for Transitions between Hand and Foot Responses in a Self-paced Task
Authors: Rabbitt Patrick M. A.
Published: July 2007

In a self-paced task subjects responded to each of four equally probable signals with a different one of their four limbs. Response times were examined as a function of the 16 possible transitions between limbs. Repeated responses were shown to be faster than any other transitions, while responses following responses with an ipsilateral limb were relatively slow. The implications of these results for models for the “repetition effect” are discussed.
Reaction Times for Simple Shape Discriminations Requiring One or Both Visual Cortices
Authors: Brindley G. S. , Carpenter R. H. S. , Rushton D. N.
Published: July 2007

Reaction times for a simple two-choice shape discrimination requiring either one or both visual cortices were measured.

In a total reaction time of around 400 millisec. the difference found was 3.0 ± 2.6 millisec. If subjects were weighted according to number of observations, and — 1.34 ± 1.68 millisec. if they were weighted according to reciprocals of variances of differences of means; that is, it was not significant.
Familiarity and Free Recall
Authors: Dale H. C. A.
Published: July 2007

Using stimulus material drawn from a single category, it is shown that formal recognition tests yield superior performance to recall when the category cannot be completely enumerated by the subjects, but not otherwise. Furthermore, within these categories recognition is superior only if unfamiliar items are selected as stimuli. These findings fit the theory that when recalling subjects attempt to scan the relevant category and “recognize” those items employed as stimuli.
Extinction of a Runway Response following Runway or Goal Box Partial Reinforcement
Authors: Wilton R.
Published: July 2007

Rats were trained on a consistent reinforcement schedule in a straight runway. They were then switched to one of two partial reinforcement procedures. One group continued to run the full length of the runway, another was placed directly in the goal box. When extinguished in the full length of the runway both groups were more resistant to extinction than groups trained only on consistent reinforcement. An attempt was made to delineate the conditions for a demonstration of the partial reinforcement extinction effect. The results were discussed in relation to frustration theory.
Exploratory Behaviour in Elevated and Enclosed Mazes
Authors: Halliday M. S.
Published: July 2007

Rats given daily exploratory trials in a simple enclosed maze showed a decline in activity from day to day, while animals exploring an elevated maze showed no decline between days. In a further experiment exploration of either an elevated or an enclosed maze was found to cease after about 15 min. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Some Effects of Discriminable Goal-Box Conditions on the Learning of a Successive Discrimination
Authors: Sheldon M. H.
Published: July 2007

In an attempt to confirm and extend a previous result, rats were trained on two tasks where a signal delivered at the start of each trial indicated which of two paths through a maze would be rewarded. In Experiment I both paths led to the same goal-box, and it was found that performance was better when the state of the goal-box was different on trials with each of the two signals. In Experiment II the two paths led to spatially separated goal-boxes. It was found that when the states of the two goal-boxes were discriminably different but the state of each of them remained the same from trial to trial, performance was better than when their states varied irregularly. It is suggested that these results have interesting implications for theories of behaviour.
Training of Fast Tapping with Reduction of Kinaesthetic, Tactile, Visual and Auditory Sensations
Authors: Laszlo Judith I.
Published: July 2007

Five subjects were trained to tap on a light Morse-key during nerve compression block. The training sessions lasted for 40 sec., with a 5 sec. rest after the first 20 sec. work period. The group learning curve reached 89.5 per cent. level of normal performance by the eighth training session. In the ninth, the testing session, subjects tapped with visual and auditory sense reduction superimposed on the kinaesthetic and tactile impairment of the training condition. Performance in the testing session reached 40.9 per cent. of normal.

The sixth subject was trained in the same task as the other five subjects, but the training condition included elimination of cues from all four sensory channels. He reached 79.09 per cent. of his normal tapping performance in the seventh session.

These results show that the motor skill of tapping can be relearned in the absence of kinaesthetic cues. Furthermore when the subject has no conscious knowledge of any peripheral sensory cues connected with the ongoing motor activity, learning can nevertheless take place. These findings lead to the hypothesis, that skilled motor activity can be monitored by central processes alone.

During the training sessions subjects showed a tendency of tapping in groups of gradually increasing length. It is hypothesized that increased number of taps forming a group gives an indication to the possible mode of action of these central processes.
Latency of Different Verbal Responses to the Same Stimulus
Authors: Fraisse Paul
Published: July 2007

A response of reading (letter O) or of naming (circle) can be given to the same sign O. The verbal reaction time is higher when naming than when reading (difference 100 millisec.). This fact verifies that naming is a longer process than reading, the difficulty of perceiving the stimulus being equal.

The response “zero” which may be given to the same sign is nearer to the reading-response time than the naming-response. These facts can be explained if we say that uncertainty for coding concrete signs is greater than for alphabetical or numerical signs.
Discriminability and Central Intermittency in Same-Different Judgements
Authors: Corballis Michael C. , Lieberman William , Bindra Dalbir
Published: July 2007

Four sets of paired visual stimuli (OO, XX, XO, or OX) were judged by 48 subjects to be either “same” or “different.” Decision latencies of the same and different judgement were studied as a function of the inter-stimulus interval (ISI). In Experiments I and II, in which stimulus durations were 70 millisec., decision latencies showed marked increases when the ISI was reduced to 100 millisec., but in Experiments III and IV, in which the stimulus durations were only 40 millisec., comparable increases did not occur until the ISI was reduced to 50 millisec. These increases were more marked for “same” than for “different” judgements, although overall decision latencies were generally shorter for “same” judgements. The effects of varying ISIs and stimulus durations are interpreted in terms of masking; they fail to support an hypothesis of central intermittency.
Selection in Visual Immediate Memory
Authors: Von Wright J. M.
Published: July 2007

The sampling (partial report) technique of Sperling (1960) was used to study the efficiency of selection of letters from visual immediate memory (sensory storage). Selection by location, chromatic colour, achromatic colour, and size was fairly efficient whereas selection by orientation was difficult. Some parallels between selection in visual immediate memory and selective listening are briefly discussed.
Response Latencies in Short-Term Memory
Authors: Murdock Bennet B.
Published: July 2007

This paper deals with the problem of the interpretation of response latencies in short-term memory. A paired-associate study using a probe technique was conducted with the main experimental variation the length of the recall interval (1, 2, or 4 sec.). While shortening the interval had a statistically significant effect on recall probability the interaction between recall interval and probe position was negligible. While traditionally response latency is considered a measure of associative strength, such an interpretation seems inappropriate here. As an alternative, latencies may reflect more criterion values than sensitivity as these measures are interpreted in signal-detection theory.
Comment and Further Discussion “Spontaneous Alternation and Pattern of Reinforcement”
Authors: Lester David , Still A. W.
Published: July 2007

The aim of this experiment was to replicate the phenomenon reported by Still that the spontaneous alternation of non-rewarded rats declines faster over repeated testing than that of rewarded rats. The present experiment failed to find such an effect. It is suggested that on the basis of these experiments, it would be unwise to attribute any effect on spontaneous alternation behaviour with repeated testing to the rewarding or non-rewarding of rats.