bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
What the friends of the peasants’ are and how they pose the question of the peasantry
Authors: Nyong'o P.
                      Anyang’
Published: July 2007

In the previous article Mukaru Ng'ang'a sets as his task the investigation into what is happening to the Kenyan peasantry, and what has happened to it in the past. This task, he argues, is necessary in order to understand the social dynamicsof rural life. After all, it is only by first understanding the social structureof rural life that we can know what are the possible social dynamics and how they effect, or are affected by, the history of the Kenyan social formation as a whole.

That way of stating the problem is important for political practice. Unless the kind of society being dealt with is known, all types of political programmes for the liberation of the peasantry may be proposed which may be Utopian, adventurist or simply demagogic. But, in order to understand the structureof that peasant society, a theoryof that structure is required. For theory provides the proper tools of analysis for dissecting social phenomena so as to understand them. If anything, theory gives us the ability to shape questions in such a way that answers to them can lead us to see reality more clearly and hence not be deceived by the illusions of appearances. This unmasking of appearances with proper theoretical tools for social inquiry is the quintessence of Marxism. It therefore becomes an indispensable weapon for the liberation of the politically oppressed and economically exploited classes in a world in which bourgeois outlooks continue to mystify social processes.
The Kenya peasantry: a re‐assessment
Authors: Njonjo Apollo L.
Published: July 2007

Both Mukaru Ng'ang'a and Anyang’ Nyong'o leave out very important theoretical and historical issues in their discussion of the Kenyan peasantry. The peasantry cannot be seen outside the totality of the social formation in which it is found. The peasantry, further, occupies a critical position in the transition to capitalism, a process which involves an equally transitory class of the peasantry called the middle peasantry. In Kenya, the emergence of this class, and its confusion with a peasant bourgeoisie, has been problematic. As other sections of the peasantry have been impoverished, such categories as large scale/small scale production have not helped in clarifying issues. Instead, statistics have been used blindly to prove that better incomes are trickling down to the peasant producers in the countryside, hence a healthy capitalist development with income re‐distribution. This essay argues that no such thing is taking place: there is a differentiation of the peasantry due to capitalist development in agriculture with the majority of the peasantry being reduced to owners of patches of land every day.
A tale of two slums: electoral politics in Mathare and Dagoretti
Authors: Chege Michael
Published: July 2007

The papers on the peasantry concentrate on the modalities of capitalist penetgration in the countryside and its social consequencies there.Just as important is the historical manner in which capitalist agriculture raises the organic composition of capital thus facilitating the release of labour into industrial production. The fate of uprooted peasantries flocking into cities and their eventual transformation into a working class is one which merits some attention.

This paper deals with electoral politics in two of Nairobi's poorest and most populous constituencies — Mathare and Dagoretti. Each one of them has a population in the region of 100,000 people, meaning that 20–25% of the city population is to be found here. The core areas of these two constituencies are Mathare Valley and Eastern Dagoretti. Both areas have a long tradition of uncontrolled and unplanned housing which is a permament irritant to the planners in the Nairobi City Council and their external financiers. The populist view of these areas, and particularly of Mathare, is one of a festering sore of extreme poverty, dehumanisation, official neglect and exploitation of tenants by wealthy landlords living outside the area. The height of absurdity is attained when international capital is blamed for being directly responsible for slums. The situation, of course, is more complicated than that, and we shall try to show that this populist and often misinformed view mystifies the situation a good deal.
Whose state? State and capitalist development in Nigeria
Authors: Beckman Björn
Published: July 2007

General issues raised by the author's two previous contributions to this Review,in Nos.19 and 22. are here applied to an analysis of the character of the Nigerian state and the nature of its interrelationships with capital — foreign, local and capital‐in‐general. Oversimplifications that blame ‘under‐development’ on international capital working through a straight neo‐colonial state, and those that see a national bourgeoisie able to use state power against imperialism to promote national capitalist development are rejected as at best part‐truths. The state is seen as also and primarily an instrument for promoting the conditions for accumulation for capital in general. Further specification of the nature of the state depends on an analysis of the class struggle such activities inevitably involve, in their particular Nigerian context.
The Algerian bureaucracy
Authors: Roberts Hugh
Published: July 2007

Algeria has a form of ‘state capitalism’ and thus the role of the bureaucracy is crucial. The approach here to this question rejects as simplistic the two polar views: on the one hand, the belief that Algeria is undergoing some kind of transition to socialism and though there may be a ‘problem of bureaucracy’, this is treated outside the class structure; on the other, the notion that if there is state capitalism then the bureaucracy is a ruling class, which ignores the fact of social as opposed to private accumulation.

Analysing it as a bureaucracy and in its context of the working of the Algerian state, reveals that the relationships between it and a bourgeois class with a seprate existence are mediated through and by other features that affect the ‘rationality’ of the Algerian bureaucracy. Religion plays an important role, but not one that dictates the pattern of politics as in some Islamic or Catholic countries, but as an ideological and legitimating link with the people. The pursuance of personal benefits and traditional obligations through the bureaucratic system limits its effectiveness in pursuing policy goals, however. Patronage in turn feeds into a pattern of factions that rend the bourgeoisie, thus limiting its emergence as a national class, and also the bureaucracy, thus further impairing its efficacy.

This situation may now undergo change as the state tries to respond to demands from below for a second stage of industrialisation going beyond the initial accumulation in heavy industry. But consumer goods production could be met by the expansion of either privatecapital or statecapital. The first would require a shift to economic liberalisation. The second strategy implies greater effectiveness of the bureaucracy and its greater political direction. A political struggle over these two lines is discernible but has not lead to a complete polarisation of the party.
French militarism in Africa
Authors: Luckham Robin
Published: July 2007

In the annals of foreign military intervention in independent Africa, it has been French forces that have been involved far more often than any other outside power. At least eighteen times in the last twenty‐five years French troops have invaded African soil. But equally significant, and indeed providing the platform for the more dramatic interventions, are the extensive networks of regular military co‐operation.

Several single explanations of France's militarism in Africa are explored: that it preserves French capital's interests; that it protects multinational, especially US, interests; that it promotes the interests of a military‐industrial complex; that it cements alliances with African states, but particularly with certain ruling classes and regimes. An effort is made to situate these perspectives in a more nuanced view of French imperialism and the French state. Finally, the new departures and the continuities of policy under the Socialist government are reviewed.
‘Learn from others, think for ourselves’: Central American revolutionary strategy in the 1980s
Authors: Bollinger William
Published: July 2007

The different revolutionary struggles under way in Central America are enriching strategic thinking throughout Latin America — and may hold lessons for other regions. Eschewing reformism, on the one hand, and pat formulae imported from struggles elsewhere, on the other, new strategies have been evolved, often combining different tactics in a creative synthesis; new kinds of class alliances have been forged that also involve women, and Indian and black minorities. These advances have been made possible by, and have in turn strengthened, a unity of different parties and tendencies of a previously fragmented Left. The unity is itself a product of a consensus around the new strategies, reached through self‐criticism and frank debate — but depends on each group giving up the claim to monopolise the vanguard.'Learn from others, think for ourselves’: central American revolutionary strategy in the 1980s
Marketing without and with marketing boards: the origins of state marketing boards in Nigeria
Authors: Williams Gavin
Published: July 2007

Since their inception, Nigerian marketing boards have been used to serve various interests and purposes, hardly any of which have benefited the producers. They originated in the Second World War and were perpetuated after the war by a Labour government so that they might play their part in ‘meeting British needs’, to cite the title of a forthcoming study by Mike Cowen and Bob Shenton. Nigerian politicians found them a ready‐made instrument for taxing farmers, enriching themselves and financing their political activities. Their pricing policies discouraged farmers from producing export crops, thus rendering the boards redundant though not, regrettably, ensuring their abolition. Nigeria is fortunate in that, until recently, marketing boards have not bought food for sale in domestic markets and have no monopoly, in form or in fact, over the purchase of crops, other than cotton, for sale within Nigeria.

Discussion of the Nigerian marketing boards has tended, rightly, to focus on their monopoly of the legal export of certain crops, on their pricing policies and on the use to which governments put the funds which they derived from the trading profits of the boards. Less remarked on, the boards also structured the internal marketing system for the commodites they export. Indeed, when the commodity marketing boards were established in 1947 the main justification given was the need to change the internal marketing system for export crops, ostensibly in the interests of protecting the producer from the ills of middlemen in an unregulated market. These arguments for state intervention in, and regulation of, produce marketing, in Nigeria as elsewhere in Africa, have found sympathy among socialists who have been all too willing to take statism as at least offering a foundation for socialism. This article examines the provenance of the marketing boards and of the arguments which justified their inception during the crisis of the colonial economy in the 1930s.
The national question and radical politics in Nigeria
Authors: Mustapha Abdul
                      Raufu
Published: July 2007

In his introduction to Billy Dudley's posthumous book (1982:8), A.D. Yahaya stated that:

The political future of the country as one indivisible nation is resolved with the end of the civil war ... It is therefore not conceivable for the present generation of Nigerians who were so much part of the struggle for the survival of the federation to resuscitate the unity of the country as a political issue. The major political issue today is, therefore, not the unity of the country.

It would seem, however, that events in Nigeria since 1983, such as the No Nation! No Destiny!broadcast of the FRCN Kaduna; the acrimonious and chauvinistic campaigns associated with the 1983 elections; the incessant disputes over the question of Federal Character; and the debacle over Nigeria's affiliation to the Organisation of Islamic Countries, tend to suggest that the unity of the country cannot be taken for granted. The Civil War did not resolve the National Question in Nigeria. What is true is that the Nigerian state was able to overcome a specific challenge to its integrity. This does not, however, mean that no future challenges are probable, or that the state would always have the capacity to overcome such challenges. The emergence of Anya Anya II in the Sudan is a case in point. The unity of the country cannot, therefore, be necessarily guaranteed by the state as currently constituted.

This paper is an attempt at examining some of the theoretical and political issues relating to the resolution of the National Question in contemporary Nigeria. The first section attempts a definition of the problematic, while the second looks at the specific manifestations of the National Question within the Nigerian political economy. The third section examines the solutions put forward for resolving the National Question within mainstream Nigerian politics; while the fourth considers the relationship between radical politics and the National Question. The final section attempts a summary of the entire discourse.
Agriculture and food security in the GATT Uruguay round
Authors: Watkins Kevin
Published: July 2007

Launched in 1986, the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of international trade talks has been dominated by a confrontation between the US and the EC over farm policy reform. Both sides proclaim their commitment to devising a GATT regime which will bring an end to the anarchy in world agricultural markets, yet neither is willing to address the underlying cause of the present malaise: structural over‐production in their own farm sectors and the resulting accumulation of surpluses. The use of export subsidies to put these surpluses on to world markets caused developing countries severe trade and food security problems in the 1980s; and a Uruguay Round deal is unlikely to bring any relief. What it will do, however, is introduce new regulations which, enshrined in international trade law, will restrict the right of developing countries to manage their own food systems. Most importantly, the use of trade measures to control food imports and price support measures to promote staple food production could be severely constrained, or banned, by a ‘farm superpower’ GATT agreement.
Entitlements or empowerment? famine and starvation in Africa
Authors: Watts Michael
Published: July 2007

Famine and the crisis of African development have become inseparably linked in popular writing. Visual images of starvation are the icons of African failure, yet they have a dispelling quality accusing everyone and no one. This article reviews recent research on the genesis, dynamics and consequences of famine in Africa. While the entitlement approach to starvation associated with Amartya Sen has proven most helpful it must be situated on the larger political economic canvas by which entitlements and endowments are distributed and fought over – class relations. Food crises must be rooted in what Sen calls the ‘totality of rights’ not entitlements in a narrow legal sense. This provides an important link between famine, food security and democratization in Africa.
Linking the future to the past: ethnicity and pluralism
Authors: Doornbos Martin
Published: July 2007

The concept of ethnicity has a long and controversial history. As political ‘liberalisation’ transforms contemporary African states and their relationship with ‘civil society’, questions of ethnicity have new urgency and relevance, although some of the ‘questions’ being asked—such as ‘will there be a resurgence of tribalism'—themselves require analysis. Ethnicity, as a distinctive set of beliefs and practices, does not explain anything; it needs to be explained. It does not exist independently but derives its significance from the complex social reality from which it emerges. A consideration of ethnicity in its social and historical context obliges us to recognise both the relevance of cultural forms, and their trivialisation hitherto, in political theory and practice. Doornbos considers the various social structures and dynamics — both actual and potential — that are likely to encourage, or discourage, ethnic politics in contemporary Africa. A key question now is to what extent ethnicity may provide a basis for future, relatively autonomous socio‐political organisation and alternative development strategies. Ethnic identity and ethnic politics are malleable and multivalent. Doornbos contrasts ‘liberation ethnicity’ with fundamentalist or ‘chauvinist’ ethnicity but warns that such distinctions are problematic, given the fluidity of ethnicity. As with nationalism, what may emerge as populist, progressive forces may come to represent narrow, conservative tendencies. Ethnicity provides an attractive but arguably unsafe foundation for progressive politics.
Structural adjustment and agricultural pricing in Mozambique
Authors: Tickner Vincent
Published: July 2007

One of the main components in the structural adjustment programmes being introduced in Africa is that of agricultural price policy. This usually involves rises in producer prices, price deregulation or the tying of domestic producer prices more closely to international prices, or a mix of these approaches. Mozambique is currently being subjected to a virulent version of structural adjustment involving these types of price policy changes, while in the midst of a destabilisation war, and despite an already much weakened economy. This article looks at the development of agricultural pricing policy in Mozambique and the application of price policy changes under structural adjustment and draws out some of the points to be learned from the experience.
The liberation of civil society: neo‐liberal ideology and political theory
Authors: Beckman Björn
Published: July 2007

The state versus civil society debate is an arena where competing class projects confront each other, each seeking to ensure a social basis for its own control over the state. The state plays a central role in the construction of civil society. The neo‐liberal project seeks to de‐legitimise the state as a locus of nationalist aspirations and resistance, drawing on theories of ‘rent‐seeking’, ‘patrimonialism’ and ‘state autonomy’. The neo‐liberal project conceals its own massive use of state power, transnational and local, for the construction of a civil society in its own image while suppressing actually existing civil society which it defines as ‘vested interests’.
Debt, development and democracy: the IMF in post‐apartheid South Africa
Authors: Padayachee Vishnu
Published: July 2007

This article examines various aspects of South Africa's recent relations with the International Monetary Fund in the context of developments such as the December 1993 IMF Compensatory and Contingency Financing Facility (CCFF), the finalisation of the ANC's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in March 1994, and the election of South Africa's first democratic government in April 1994.
Scholars and democratic politics in Nigeria
Authors: Beckman Bjorn , Jega Attahiru
Published: July 2007

This article deals with the role of organised interests in Nigerian democratisation. The wider study seeks to develop a general argument about the connections between the pursuit of group self‐interest, the defence of organisational rights, and involvement in wider democratic struggles. The argument draws on the experiences of a range of Nigerian organisations during the 1980s and early 1990s, including the central labour body, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), one major industrial union (the textile workers'), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), one women's organisation — Women in Nigeria (WIN), and some civic and human rights groups. In this article, two organisations are used to illustrate the argument: the Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASW) and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) — the organisations of the ‘scholars’.
Confrontation, co‐operation or co‐optation: NGOs and the Ghanaian state during structural adjustment
Authors: Gary Ian
Published: July 2007

This article examines relations between non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and African states, with particular reference to Ghana, during a period of structural adjustment and neo‐liberal hegemony in Africa. The growing number of NGOs in Africa, and the concomitant shift in international aid away from African states toward NGOs, places these new institutional actors at the heart of debates concerning democratisation, civil society, economic liberalisation, the role of state, and the nature of nation‐state sovereignty in an era of a World Bank/IMF condominium in Africa. Building on the work of Fowler and others, the article examines NGO‐state relations in Ghana in detail. It argues that NGOs fit in perfectly with the neo‐liberal agenda for Africa. With the state under attack from above and below, a new struggle for resources and power is being waged between NGOs and many African states, with, as the case study of Ghana shows, the outcome, in this transitory period, far from certain.
NGOs, the state and civil society
Authors: Marcussen Henrik
                      Secher
Published: July 2007

This article examines the validity of some of the objectives of nongovernmental organisations (hereafter NGOs) that are based in the donor states and operate in the third world. The author has personal experience in the evaluation of several Scandinavian NGOs working in Africa and takes a somewhat sceptical position as to the capacity of such NGOs to ‘construct’ civil society in African states. Inevitably, such NGOs are part of a wider system of development assistance, and their field operations ‐ particularly if they are to participate in the development of long‐term sustainable development ‐ will both inevitably reflect the nature of this system and have to work closely with existing state structures. On the other hand, in this new phase, the NGOs are outsiders which are, in an artificial way, entering into a process which ought to be much more genuinely and organically evolving out of the local context itself. How this is to be achieved is beyond the scope of this article.
Happy ever after in the marketplace: non‐government organisations and uncivil society
Authors: Stewart Sheelagh
Published: July 2007

This following declaration, about NGOs and civil society, is typical of the hallowed tones used to discuss both. This article sets out to examine what I have called the ‘NGO phenomenon’ which has arisen in the last decade. It is not a critique of NGOsper se,but a critique of the way in which development policy has focused on NGOs, to the extent that expectations of NGO performance are unrealistically high and exclude other options for development.
Trade unions & the ANC in the ‘New’ South Africa
Authors: Gall Gregor
Published: July 2007

The article considers the relationship between the trade union movement and the African National Congress in the post‐apartheid period. Following their close historical relationship in the struggle to defeat apartheid, the trade union movement could reasonably have expected a large and influential role in the new government with reforms to increase members’ rights at work and terms and conditions of employment. The article explores the roots of the tensions between the two over these issues.
‘It's terminal either way’: an analysis of armed conflict in liberia, 1989–1996
Authors: Outram Quentin
Published: July 2007

The wars which have wracked Liberia since the end of 1989 have reduced a country which was once regarded as one of the more fortunate in Africa to a state of long‐term aid dependency. Perhaps 150,000 or more have been killed and at many points over the last seven years a third of the country's pre‐war population has been living as refugees in neighbouring states and another third has been internally displaced by the conflict. The continuing warfare has made it difficult to address the large‐scale humanitarian problems inevitable in such circumstances: rates of undernutrition have sometimes reached very high levels and on at least one occasion have reached heights which rival the worst recorded in any part of the world (Outram, 1997).

This article seeks to advance our understanding of the causes of this suffering. It does so not primarily by examining the experiences of the victims, important though this is, but by investigating the political economy of the Liberian wars including the circumstances and the actions of the warring factions. In this I follow Keen's call to understand the actions of oppressor groups involved in humanitarian emergencies, as well as those of their victims (1994:232).
The government must not dictate’: rural‐urban migrants’ perceptions of Zimbabwe's land resettlement programme
Authors: Potts Deborah , Mutambirwa Chris
Published: July 2007

Since its inception in 1980 Zimbabwe's land resettlement programme has been marked by very varied performance and keen debate. There have been high hopes, deep disappointment, false starts (and stops), policy swings and controversy. In the 1990s analyses of the programme by both supporters and critics of land reform have generally been negative. Yet there is evidence that resettled people themselves have made real welfare and income gains. Strong support for the programme was also expressed by a large sample of rural‐urban migrants in Harare in 1994. Their views, reported in this article, showed an appreciation of most aspects of the academic and policy debates, but clearly also tended towards the perception that redistribution of land in Zimbabwe is a moral issue. Government insistence on commercially‐oriented production on resettlement schemes was perceived as unwarranted interference.
Desertification: the uneasy interface between science, people & environmental issues in Africa
Authors: Thomas David
Published: July 2007

Desertification is a major environmental issue that is the focus of a recent UN convention (the CCD) that aims to improve the resolution of the problem.

Desertification is however not a straight forward issue and has many controversial dimensions, in part due to confusion over its definition, extent, characteristics and causes. Many difficulties have arisen at the interface between science, politics and decision makers. From a scientific perspective, these problems have been a result of the speed of scientific research, the way in which scientifc ideas evolve, the manner in which data have been selectively used and, in parts of the developing world, becasue of perceived links between science and colonisation. It is argued that despite these problems that create an uneasy interface between science and politics, desertification can not be tackled from political and social directions alone.

Science has a real role to play in combating desertification, particularly in the light of CCD goals. This role includes retaining the clarity of the issue, identifying environmental responses to human disturbances, monitoring the extent of desretifcation, and identifying appropriate scales of remedial action.
Constructing alternatives to structural adjustment in Africa
Authors: Carmody Pádraig
Published: July 2007

Structural adjustment in Africa is based on neo‐classical economic principles derived from the experience of industrialisation in Britain and the United States. Neo‐classical economics claims that unregulated markets maximise output across contexts. However, this naturalisation of markets neglects that they are actively constituted by actors with different capabilities and levels of power. Structural adjustment has failed because comprehensive liberalisation has led to the autonomous development of the trade and financial sectors, to the detriment of production. Appropriate development strategies must recognise the necessity of regulating trade and finance in order to channel resources towards production, as in the developmental states of East Asia. However, in order to be successful, such strategies must be embedded in Africa's political economy. Development will require a remaking of both African states and the international financial institutions which dictate their economic policies.
Three steps forward, two steps back: ideology & urban ecology in South Africa
Authors: McDonald David A.
Published: July 2007

Environmental discourse in South Africa has undergone dramatic change in the 1990s. Since the unbanning of the ANC and other anti‐apartheid organizations there has been an important re‐conceptualization of environmental issues and a rapid politicization of environmental debates. Organizations like the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) have made the links between poverty and ecology an environmental priority in the country and important gains have been made on a wide range of environmental fronts. Environmental debates in South Africa have shifted from an historically racist and exclusionary discourse to one in which the definition of ‘the environment’ has expanded to include the working and living environments of black South Africans. This has had a profound impact on the way that environmental policy is prioritized and developed in the country and has contributed to a strong, and growing, environmental justice movement in the country.

The first half of this article examines this shift in environmental discourse by looking briefly at the history of environmental debates in the country and at changes in environmental legislation and policy‐making procedures. The second half is a critical analysis of these environmental reforms ‐specifically as they relate to urban poverty. The delivery of basic services like sewerage and sanitation is arguably the single most important environmental concern in the country ‐ by virtue of the fact that it directly affects the largest number of people ‐ but it is unclear whether current urban upgrading initiatives are going to address this problem in an environmentally just and sustainable manner. It is argued that the interests of large scale capital and the propertied classes in South Africa continue to fundamentally shape ‐ and limit ‐ the environmental policy choices available to the ANC government. Environmental conditions in South African cities will gradually improve over the next five to ten years, but in a way that is intended to benefit urban capital and surreptitiously off‐loads the costs of urban upgrading onto the urban poor themselves.
Africa today and tomorrow
Authors: Nyerere Julius
Published: July 2007

The following public lecture was given by Julius Nyerere, former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, to the London School of Economics, Centre for the Study of Global Governance0, on 8 June 1997.
The EU & structural adjustment: the case of Lomé IV & Zimbabwe
Authors: Brown William
Published: July 2007

This article will assess European Union (EU) (Endnote 1) structural adjustment support and the relationship of it to the policies of the IMF and World Bank in the case of Zimbabwe. It will argue that contrary to the claims of the EU Commission, aid from the Convention has become dominated by adjustment concerns and that these are closely tied to the priorities of the Bretton Woods institutions.
Mobile message services and communications policy
Authors: GOGGIN GERARD , SPURGEON
1 CHRISTINA
Published: July 2007

Something of a design after‐thought, mobile phone SMS (Short‐Message Services) have been enthusiastically adopted by consumers worldwide, who have created a new text culture. SMS is now being deployed to provide a range of services and transactions, as well as playing a critical role in offering an interactive path for television broadcasting. In this paper we offer a case study of a lucrative, new industry developing internationally at the intersection of telecommunications, broadcasting, and information services—namely, premium rate SMS/MMS. To explore the issues at stake we focus on an Australian case study of policy responses to the development of premium rate mobile messaging services in the 2002–2005 period. In the first part, we give a brief history of premium rate telecommunications. Secondly, we characterise premium rate mobile message services and examine their emergence. Thirdly, we discuss the responses of Australian policy‐makers and industry to these services. Fourthly, we place the Australian experience in international context, and indicate common issues. Finally, we draw some conclusions from the peregrinations of mobile message services for regulators grappling with communications policy frameworks.
Numerical Simulations of Effects of Multiple Neurotransmission on Intestinal Propulsion of a Non‐Deformable Bolus
Authors: Miftahof R. , Akhmadeev N.
Published: July 2007

Electrophysiological mechanisms of co‐transmission by serotonin (5‐HT) and acetylcholine (ACh), co‐expression of receptor types 5‐HT type 3 and 4, nicotinic cholinerginc (nACh) and muscarinic cholinergic (μACh), and effects of selective and non‐selective 5‐HT3 and 5‐HT4 receptor agonists/antagonists, on intestinal propulsion of a solid non‐deformable bolus were studied numerically. Results indicated that the propagation of the wave of excitation in the presence of 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists was supported by co‐release of ACh. Co‐stimulation of 5‐HT3, nACh and μACh receptors significantly impairs propulsive activity of the gut. In an ACh‐free environment, Lotronex increased the transit time of the bolus along a segment of the gut. In the presence of ACh, Lotronex produced intensive tonic‐type contractions in the longitudinal and circular smooth muscle layers and eliminated propulsive activity. Zelnorm preserved the reciprocal electromechanical relationships between the longitudinal and circular smooth muscle layers. The drug changed the normal mixing pattern of activity to an expulsive type. Treatment of the gut with selective 5HT4 receptor antagonists increased the transit time by disrupting the migrating myoelectrical complex. Cisapride increased the excitability of the myenteric nervous plexus and increased the frequency of slow waves. In the presence of Cisapride smooth muscle syncytia responded with the generation of tonic contractions, resulting in a “squeezing” type of bolus movement. Comparison of the theoretical results to in vivo and in vitro experimental data indicated satisfactory qualitative and quantitative agreement.
Improving the General Health of Persons with Psychosis
Authors: Drew Leslie , Delacy Fiona
Published: July 2007

Objective: A project designed to improve the quality of health care received by persons with psychosis is described.

Methods: A nurse was appointed to provide liaison between the mental health service and general practitioners, and to facilitate general health care of patients. ACT Health offered service agreements to general practices, with quarterly per capita payments.

Results: About half of the local general practices participated. The number of patients without a general practitioner was reduced and quality of health care improved compared with the previous year. Recurrent funding has been provided.

Conclusions: Improving the general health of persons with psychosis is an important issue for psychiatry. Having a similar project in all mental health services could be valuable.
A Role for Morbidity and Mortality Conferences in Psychiatry
Authors: Holland Joanna
Published: July 2007

Objective: The aim of this paper is to raise the possibility of morbidity and mortality conferences as a means of improving the quality of care in psychiatric services.

Method: The literature regarding quality assurance, medical error, adverse outcomes in care delivery, psychiatric abuse, and morbidity and mortality conferences is examined.

Results: Classification of error in medicine refers to the terms overuse, underuse and misuse. Adverse events in psychiatric care suggest an additional category of abuse. A framework for morbidity and mortality conferences exists within the medical literature that may be applied to psychiatry. Data utilized for morbidity and mortality conferences must consider the need for timeliness and completeness. Different forms of data currently exist, not all available electronically.

Conclusion: Morbidity and mortality conferences can benefit care delivery and contribute to safe systems through the examination of adverse events in care. The increased availability of electronic data collection and reporting systems may provide useful data as a basis for discussion at such conferences. Further engagement of the psychiatric services community in the organization and content of morbidity and mortality conferences is desirable. Support at institutional and College level will be required for their effective introduction.
Hepatitis C in Psychiatry Inpatients: Testing Rates, Prevalence and Risk Behaviours
Authors: Lacey Cameron , Ellen Steve , Devlin Harriet , Wright Edwina , Mijch Anne
Published: July 2007

Objective: Estimates for the prevalence of hepatitis C among people with a serious mental illness are high compared with the general population. High-risk behaviours commonly associated with mental illness may contribute to the estimated increased prevalence. This study aims to assess the contribution of risk behaviours to blood-borne virus infection in psychiatric populations in Australia, and to determine whether a pre- and post-test education and counselling program increases the number of patients willing to be tested for hepatitis C.

Method: The proportion of psychiatric inpatients being screened for hepatitis C at the Alfred Hospital over a 6-month period was obtained by retrospective review of the number of admissions and hepatitis C serology tests. The change in screening rate was prospectively recorded following the introduction of an education and voluntary screening program. In the study period, 346 people were approached and 84 (24%) agreed to participate. Pre- and post-test counselling, including a thorough risk assessment, were offered to all participants. Venous blood was tested for hepatitis C. A modified version of the Risk Behaviour Questionnaire was used to measure sexual and drug-related risk behaviour.

Results: The proportion of inpatients being tested for hepatitis C increased from 9% in the 6 months prior to the study, to 18% during the study (p <0.01). The rate of hepatitis C in those consenting to testing was 19.4%. Participants reported high rates of risk-taking behaviours, including intravenous drug use and unprotected sex.

Conclusions: An education and counselling program can increase rates of screening among psychiatric inpatients. There are high rates of risk-taking behaviour among this group of psychiatric inpatients, which may contribute to the higher prevalence of hepatitis C compared to the general population.
Addressing Aboriginal Mental Health Issues on the Tiwi Islands
Authors: Norris Glenn , Parker Robert , Beaver Carol , Konkelenberg Jude van
Published: July 2007

Objective: This paper provides an overview of the services developed in response to the unique mental health needs of a remote Aboriginal community. We describe an evolving service on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory and the challenges that need to be addressed if the community is to continue to take a leading role in dealing with mental health issues.

Conclusions: The Tiwi Mental Health Service demonstrates that community members are able to identify needs and respond accordingly if they are provided with the relevant information and supported in their decision-making process. The establishment of social governance mechanisms and the long-term commitment by a change agent to facilitate the empowerment process are important keys to success. The main challenge in establishing services in rural Aboriginal communities is to identify and support community strengths, including leaders and cultural practices.
Reasoning about a Rule
Authors: Wason P. C.
Published: July 2007

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the difficulty of making the contra-positive inference from conditional sentences of the form, “if P then Q.” This inference, that not-P follows from not-Q, requires the transformation of the information presented in the conditional sentence. It is suggested that the difficulty is due to a mental set for expecting a relation of truth, correspondence, or match to hold between sentences and states of affairs. The elicitation of the inference was not facilitated by attempting to induce two kinds of therapy designed to break this set. It is argued that the subjects did not give evidence of having acquired the characteristics of Piaget's “formal operational thought.”
Memory and Time of Day
Authors: Baddeley A. D. , Hatter J. E. , Scott Denise , Snashall Aileen
Published: July 2007

Subjects performed a memory task on two occasions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The task comprised two components, one involved immediate recall of sequences of nine digits, the other involved the repeated item technique devised by Hebb (1961), in which one nine-digit sequence is surreptitiously repeated, each repetition being separated by two non-repeated sequences. Performance on the immediate memory task was better in the morning than the afternoon. The repeated item was recalled more accurately than non-repeated items, but this effect was not influenced by time of day. An explanation in terms of the relationship between arousal and memory reported by Kleinsmith and Kaplan (1963) is suggested.
Searching for Politicians: An Information-Processing Approach to Face Recognition
Authors: Bruce Vicki
Published: July 2007

Previous work on face recognition has concentrated on the processing of unfamiliar faces. This paper examines the recognition of already familiar faces, specifically politicians. Three experiments are described in which the subject's task was to search through a series of faces for particular target politicians. In Experiment I the function relating search time to target set size was found to be negatively accelerated. A similar function was observed when names were used as search items. In Experiment II all subjects searched for four targets, and the relationship between distractors and target items was varied. Distractors rated visually similar to the targets took longer to reject than those rated dissimilar. Distractors who were other politicians took longer to reject than actors, and this effect of semantic category was independent of visual similarity. In Experiment III, where subjects searched for a single target, semantic category appeared only to have an effect when the distractors were also visually similar to the target. Models of the rejection process are discussed, and the similarities between the effects observed here, with faces, and those reported elsewhere for words are pointed out.
A Market Segmentation Approach to Nutrition Education among Low-Income Individuals
Authors: John Robert , Kerby Dave S. , Landers Patti S.
Published: July 2007

Free nutrition education is available to most lowincome individuals including Food Stamp program participants, but few avail themselves of the opportunity. The primary objective of this study was audience segmentation based on perceived barriers to participation in free nutrition education (product, price, and place) among 3,659 low-income individuals in Oklahoma. Six market segments were identified through a cluster analysis of 12 perceived barriers. The market segments were: Few Barriers, Low Interest, Childcare, Know the Topic, Transportation, and Multiple Barriers. We conclude with an examination of the demographic composition of the market segments. Based on a judgment of their reachability and responsiveness, little effort should be expended to attempt to attract the Low Interest and Multiple Barriers segments, because the former is not interested in the product and the latter perceive too many impediments for engaging in the behavior. We recommend specific program changes to attract participation in nutrition education among the approximately twothirds of the population that comprise the Few Barriers, Childcare, Know the Topic, and Transportation segments.
Mean Transit Time and Mean Residence Time for Linear Diffusion–Convection–Reaction Transport System
Authors: Waniewski Jacek
Published: July 2007

Characteristic times for transport processes in biological systems may be evaluated as mean transit times (MTTs) (for transit states) or mean residence times (MRT) (for steady states). It is shown in a general framework of a (linear) reaction–diffusion–convection equation that these two times are related. Analytical formulas are also derived to calculate moments of exit time distribution using solutions for a stationary state of the system.
A Single Cell‐Based Model of the Ductal Tumour Microarchitecture
Authors: Rejniak Katarzyna A. , Dillon Robert H.
Published: July 2007

The preinvasive intraductal tumours, such as the breast or prostate carcinomas, develop in many different architectural forms. There are, however, no experimental models explaining why cancer cells grow in these various configurations. We use a mathematical model to compare different proliferative conditions that can lead to such distinct microarchitectures. In order to simulate different scenarios of tumour growth, we employed a single cell‐based technique that allows us to model development of the whole tumour tissue by focusing on biomechanical processes of individual cells and on communication between cells and their microenvironment. Formation of four specific intraductal tumour patterns, micropapillary, cribriform, tufting and solid, are presented in this paper together with a discussion on gradual dedifferentiation of ductal epithelial cells that gives rise to these distinct carcinomas. We introduce two versions of our cell‐based model to show that the obtained results do not depend on a particularly chosen cell structure.
The Impact of Industrial Decision-making upon the Soviet Urban Hierarchy
Authors: Huzinec George A.
Published: July 2007

Despite official policies aimed at restraining large-city growth, the urban population of the USSR is becoming increasingly concentrated in such cities. The various growth control measures instituted by the government are reviewed and the relative ineffectiveness of such policies investigated in terms of the continued preference for industrial investment in the larger urban centres. A final section attempts to isolate the Soviet-specific factors that explain such investment preferences; five categories of factors are presented in this explanatory framework.
An Approach to Land-use Control: the California Land Conservation Act
Authors: Goodenough Richard
Published: July 2007

Recognition of the nature of problems caused by urban growth in California has led to new legislation to cope with some of the operational difficulties faced by farmers in the urban fringe. Within this environment the California Land Conservation Act (Williamson Act) is intended to have its greatest impact. The aim of the legislation is accomplished by a voluntary contract between the farmer and local government which restricts the land to agricultural use. In return land is taxed on its agricultural value rather than its urban potential. This article represents a contribution to the appraisal of a significant initiative in public policy making which currently involves land-use control over some 5.5 million hectares of agricultural and open space land.
Urban Home-ownership in Sweden
Authors: Kemeny J.
Published: July 2007

About one quarter of urban households in urban Sweden are owner-occupiers but there is little relationship between owner occupance and social class. This is attributed to the ability of the private rental sector to attract high-income households. Tenure choice reflects housing costs at different stages of the life cycle: these costs are examined in detail. Other elements in tenure choice are locational attributes and the legal position of owners and tenants.