Suchergebnisse

Described by Senegalese scholar Felwine Sarr as a city that has 'lost its lungs', Dakar is significantly affected by the climate crisis. In particular, coastal erosion driven by rising sea levels and rapid urbanisation, which is exacerbating problems with waste. Drawing on Mbembe's concept of the universal right to breathe, focus is placed upon waste in Dakar as a means to analyse relations of power and the spatialised inequalities of environments and (im)mobility that are embedded within racial capitalism. Dakar's coastal fishing communities and the landfill site, Mbeubeuss, areas where internal rural migrants move to seek employment, are taken as case studies of waste(d) spaces and complex mobilities. Once seasonal, these historical rural to urban mobility patterns are shifting through the combined impacts of the climate crisis and socio-economic structural factors destroying agricultural livelihoods. Concomitantly, Dakar's fishing ecosystem is itself impacted by the climate crisis, ocean grabbing, rapid urbanisation, as well as waste, leading some people to feel they have 'no choice' but to risk their lives crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Through focus on waste, a counternarrative is then given to contest depoliticised narratives of climate migrants as threat to the Global North, visibilising instead the unequal power structures at the heart of the climate crisis. A counter narrative that includes resistance and draws attention to the multiple ways in which people seek to endure and to contest spatialised inequalities through im/mobility.

Drawing on research conducted during the project, this policy brief examines the current status of mobility and access to rights of residence for European Union citizens and non-European Union citizens. The establishment of European Union citizenship in 1992 entailed the establishment of both the European Union citizen and the 'Third Country National' (the non- European Union citizen). As citizens of European Union member states became European Union insiders, so citizens of non-European Union states were turned into European Union outsiders. However, inclusion and exclusion are, in practice, seldom binaries but marked by shades of difference. Those holding the nationality of a member state may, in principle, all be citizens of the European Union. But they are differentially included in terms of their access to rights under European Union law, including rights to move and reside freely across the member states.1 Similarly, non-European Union citizens are residence in a member state, on which basis they can enjoy many of the rights of citizens of that state (though not rights as European Union citizens). This policy brief focuses on the relationship between citizenship and work. Specifically, it highlights the ways in which mobility and access to rights of residence for European Union citizens and non-European Union citizens is controlled in relation to work and self-sufficiency. This has implications for inequalities between particular groups in terms of their relative inclusion within the labour market, and thus their access to citizenship and residence rights. But it also has much wider implications regarding the extent to which European Union citizenship serves to reinforce divisions and inequalities among Europe's populations or to promote greater solidarity. First, we consider the ways in which work is framed as a right and/or an obligation for European Union and non-European Union citizens in terms of their mobility and access to rights of residence in European Union member states. We highlight the ways in ...

The Research Roundup reports on the pilot phase of BRAC's "Challenging the Frontiers fo Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor Programme" (CFPR/TUP), which was initiated in three of the poorest districts of northern Bangladesh (Nilphamari, Rangpur, and Kurigram) in January 2002. The authors find a close link between the initial conditions of the programme participants and the degree of change they have experienced in their lives since its inception, with the most vulnerable reporting the least change. Some modifications to the CFPR/TUP are recommended. (DSE/GIGA)

Government-led legislation is a key strategy to reduce plastic pollution; however, societal perception can heavily influence government intervention for environmental issues. To understand the public acceptability of government action to reduce plastic pollution, we examine the perception of existing and upcoming legislative action on single-use plastics (SUPs) by means of a structured survey with additional semi-structured interviews. Our focus is on the four Atlantic provinces of Canada, which was the first region in Canada to implement provincial-wide legislation for plastic reduction at the consumer level in 2019. Results show strong public support (77%, n = 838) for bans of SUP bags at the consumer level, and for further plastic pollution reduction legislation. However, the level of support differed between regions and by demographics. Semi-structured interviews show that decision makers should increase efforts in raising consumer awareness and standardizing regulations across jurisdictions for smoother transitions prior to legislative action.