Presents an upcoming research that focuses on building a theory on how states relate to emigrating people, how states are organized outside their territories, and how the emigrating people relate to their country of origin. The project will focus on countries in the Middle East with an emphasis on Turkey, Syria and Algeria. L. Pitkaniemi
The aim of this essay is to provide an overview of current research on international democratization. I start by discussing the choice of empirical indicators. Given a set of indicators -- Freedom House & Polity, which stand out as the most useful ones -- I make a graphic representation of democratic tendencies in different regions in the world. In this survey one region, North Africa & the Middle East, comes out as exceptional; here no general improvements have been made since the early 1970s. I then make an account of explanatory conditions which have proved in large-n empirical studies to play a role for democratic progress (such as modernization, access to oil, popular demonstrations & the type of authoritarian regime). I end up in a puzzle, which regards the Muslim countries. We can establish, on the one hand, that these countries clearly under-perform democratically. But on the other hand, comparative research has not managed so far to point out why that is the case. We can see a pattern, but we cannot point out an empirically solid explanatory mechanism. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
This report deals with various aspects, on countermeasures taken to diminish the impact of the Chernobyl accident, in critical fallout areas of Jämtland county, in order to reduce the contamination of the farmers produce and food stuff items with Cs-137 in the years 1986 – 1992. At the time of the Chernobyl radioactive fallout in Sweden the growing season had not yet started in Jämtland county (middle east Sweden), where two moun-tainous agriculture areas were critically contaminated with Cs-137. There was thus time for consideration if these areas, sensible for transfer of Cs-137 to crops, could be used for further agricultural produce, or had to be excluded. According-ly, the Swedish government delegated to Swedish radiation safety authority (SSI) to set up acceptable limits for contents Cs-137 in food stuff items, and to inform regional authorities (Agricultural boards) to facilitate the accomplishment of investigations and field research, which effectively could decrease the transfer of Cs-137 to agricultural crop and animal products. In Jämtland county, agriculture animal and soil advisers were to take part in the direct information of the farmers. Agr Dr I. Bjäresten, animal adviser, is initiator and head author of the report. She was much engaged on all levels of developing and testing the countermeasures to be employed by the farmers, and especially so in the years 1986 and 1987. Agr B. Jönsson, soil adviser is author of the supple-ment, where he re-ports about soil conditions and experiences from the field con-tamination areas investigated in years 1986-1990. Docent K. Rosén, research scientist in radioecology and soil sciences, SLU, is a staff member of research teams on the Jämtland county. He was engaged to get the report published. The report comprises a description of steps taken between the national authori-ties and the Jämtland county administration board in the unexpected situation after the Chernobyl serious fallout. The administration board made many delega-tions to the regional farming advisers, of which the latter in turn cooperated with the farmers concerned, of the "mysterious" radioactive fallout on their fields, and with university departments working with radioecology in Sweden. Their task was to estimate effective decrease of the different countermeasures recommend-ed and to a great extent implemented by the farmers on field and animal levels. The report can be considered as a narrative or account of experiences obtained by Bjäresten during her work with suitable countermeasures to decrease conta-mination of plant and animal products from the contaminated area considered.
Societal spheres in the light of history A division of society into statecraft, economy, and civil society is found in Plato's Republic. Its theoretical base is the differentiated and sometimes contradictory norms for these spheres. The mainstream of European structuration is traced from the 'two swords' - state and church - that structured western European society in the Middle Ages to the six societal spheres (or cardinal institutions) of society - the economy, government, science, religion, ethics, and art - that are visible today. Each maintain a large measure of independence (Weber's Eigengesetzlichkeit). Each is dependent on a special type of freedom: civic liberties, free trade, academic freedom, religious toleration, the right to follow one's conscience, artistic license. The paper pauses in this differentiation process at special junctures: the English revolution, the emergence of the Latin American and North American societies, the evolution of modem society as an underpinning of democracy, the emergence of the European Union, and the post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe. ; Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv
In Uganda, the energy sector like the rest of the economy has suffered severe setback during the 1970s and l980s, the years of political problems in that country. It has been seen that middle class households and even the upper class are reverting from the more efficient and cleaner fuels i.e. electricity and gas, to woodfuel in form of charcoal due partly to the unrealiability of the clean fuels and partly to their high prices and that of the appliances required in their utilisation. This report is a result of a Minor Field Study to evaluate the energy situation in Uganda with the aim of establishing the possibilities of introducing biogas systems in the countryside. It came out during the study that the country faces fuel shortage in the urban areas and some parts of the rural areas and the situation is deteriorating with time. Factors contributing to this situation include inefficient use of fuelwood and charcoal, the rapid population increase without corresponding technological development, rapid growth of the urban areas and the intensive exploitation without replanting of forest products for other purposes. The report gives a general description of biogas production, its characteristics, and its use for cooking, lighting, heating, driving of engines, generating of electricity and curing of tobacco. There is an outline of safety precautions during the production and use of the gas. Conditions for the introduction of biogas systems in the rural areas of Uganda are also outlined and these include, energy needs, availability of technical know-how, availability of building material and availability of organic materials for biogas production. It is pointed out in the report that all these conditions are fairly satisfactorily fulfilled as it concerns the Ugandan situation. The Chinese Pilot Project consisting of seven plants in the eastern part of Uganda is examined. Some plants have managerial problems but the biggest problem is that the project has no technical backup in terms of repairs and servicing, whenever problems arise. There is hardly any data being collected from the plants and no visible follow-up. The local extension staff do not have knowledge about the functioning of the units and therefore they are not useful to the unit owners in terms of advice and repairs. Some differences in basic conditions as relates to biogas technology transfer are briefly examined It turns out that the pilot plants are very expensive. There is an observation on the likely effects of introducing biogas systems in rural Uganda. It is likely that if care is not taken, the project can increase the labour burden on some members of the society. The health conditions in the society should improve and the environment conservated. There then comes an economic analysis which points out that research is needed to produce a cheaper design.
