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Inner Frontiers: Santal Responses to Acculturation
Full text linkThe Santals who constitute one of the largest communities in India belong to the Austro- Asiatic linguistic group. They have managed to keep their language and their traditional system of values as well. Nevertheless, their attempt to forge a new identity has been expressed by developing new attitudes towards medicine, politics and religion. In the four articles collected in this essay, deal with the relationship of the Santals to some other tribal communities and the surrounding Hindu society
Food Insecurity and Coping Strategies among the Low Income Urban Households in Malawi
Full text linkThis paper highlights the main findings of a survey carried out amongst low income groups in Lilongwe and Blantyre, Malawi's two major cities. The survey covered employment and incomes, expenditure patterns, food and nutritional status, as well as other social and economic aspects of the households. It is found that for many households expenditures exceed regular incomes, and therefore supplementary coping strategies are necessary. The incidence of food insecurity is high, and more than 40 per cent of children under five have some signs of a nutrition problem. Policy recommendations include macroeconomic measures as well as programmes for increased employment and encouragement of the small-scale informal sector
Cost-Benefit Analysis, Discounting, and the Environmental Critique: Overloading of the Discount Rate?
Full text linkThe use of (high) discount rates in cost-benefit analysis is being criticized in the environmental debate. In particular, some feel that high future environmental costs do not get a fair hearing in a project appraisal due to the use of high discount rates. This paper explores first the relationship between the discount rate and environmental degradation. The link is ambiguous, though the overall effect of a lower discount rate may be more environmental friendly policies. Secondly, we discuss factors which should determine the discount rate according to economic theory, and to what extent environmental considerations can be brought into this framework. Finally, the paper briefly reviews other ways of bringing environmental considerations in the analysis, e.g. taking risk, uncertainty and irreversibility into account and including sustainability constraints. The conclusion is that the present tendency of overloading the discount rate should be avoided
Islam, menneskerettigheter og utviklingsprosesser
Full text linkDenne studien undersøker islams forhold til menneskerettighetene og muligheten for en utvikling av islamsk tenkning til også å omfatte den moderne menneskerettighetstanken. Med utgangspunkt i framveksten av forskjellige teologiske posisjoner i det tidlige islams historie, presenteres den islamske forståelsen av lovgivning og politisk tenkning. Det er sentralt at Gud er eneste legitime lovgiver og at shari'a er uttrykk for Hans vilje om hvordan menneskene skal ordne sine liv og samfunn. Dette sammenlignes med den moderne rettighetsoppfatning hvor det autonome individ står sentralt. Konklusjonen er at i islam som religiøst-filosofisk system er det ikke plass til menneskerettigheter uten en omfattende omtolkning, men dette hindrer ikke at menneskerettighetene er i ferd med å vinne innpass i det islamske kulturområdet