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Growing a Garden of Healthy Masculinities: Combating Homophobia in the Imagine Project Workshops
Get PDFThis qualitative research study examines how peer educators can combat homophobia within the Imagine Project workshops. The Imagine Project is a three country initiative which aims to engage young men to work against sexual violence and sexual harassment through peer education. Combating homophobia is not stated as an official goal of the Imagine Project, and consequently it has not received that much attention within the workshop curriculum and preparation. A literature review and six interviews were conducted to gather information about homophobia, it’s role within the Imagine Project workshops, and how it can be combated in that context. Relevant literature from gender studies on masculinity and homophobia was reviewed, as well as literature on conducting gender transformative work with adolescent boys and designing interventions which combat homophobia. This literature was applied to the findings which stemmed from interviews with five peer educators and the founder of Emancipator. This analysis led to the conclusion that homophobia shows up within the workshops in three ways: implicitly, explicitly, and through compulsory heterosexuality which workshop participants enforce. As peer educators have facilitated workshops and gained an understanding of the limitations and challenges which their original ambitions, they have redefined success and changed their priorities within the workshops. The current strategies which peer educators use to combat homophobia include: intentional use of language, maintaining open dialogue about homophobic attitudes, and sharing personal narratives or disclosing their own non-normative gender or sexual identity
Reaching Out: Navigating the Ethical, Legislative, and Physical Obstacles to Providing Assistance to Migrants in Morocco
Get PDFIn order to meet the needs of the rising migrant and refugee population that have made their way to Morocco, numerous associations and non-governmental organizations have filled the gaps left by incomplete legislation and state infrastructure. These organizations provide what is traditionally viewed as humanitarian aid, including emergency medical assistance and shelter, as well as long-term support and advocacy in navigating the legal, education, and healthcare systems of Morocco. My research seeks to understand the ways in which these organizations facilitate the connection between migrants and refugees and the services they themselves provide. I look at the ethical, legislative, and physical barriers Fondation Orient-Occident and Caritas Rabat face in serving the migrant and refugee communities and the ways in which they seek to overcome, or fail to overcome these barriers. I also explore the barriers migrants face in accessing the services provided by these organizations. My research consisted of a thorough review of the pertinent literature and UN reports and interview with employees at each organization
A Glimpse into Amazighophone Technology Usage An example of the results of short-term ethnography
Get PDFThis paper explores the situation of the Amazigh language and its revitalization in Morocco, specifically aiming to shed light on the intersections of language use, technology, and youth, in order to obtain insight into processes that Amazighophone youth both undergo and enact in their lives. Through literature review and an interview, this research provides a glimpse into the use and reality of Amazigh and variants in technological media and an example of the shortcomings of a short-termed fieldwork research project. In all, despite only having one interview with one young woman who attends university and speaks Amazigh, the results provide insight into the situation of the Amazigh language as youth express agency and creativity for bringing awareness and sharing knowledge of Amazigh culture, and as issues of alphabet usage and standardization come up as obstacles. The exploration opens up many possibilities for up-to-date, relevant topics to better assess the realities of many cultural phenomena in relation to human rights, such as the revitalization of the Amazigh language, and it also demonstrates the hope for the Amazigh language as youth use technology to communicate and promote the culture and language
Art in Tunisian LGBTQI++ NGOs
Get PDFThis study examines how non-governmental organizations use the arts to support their missions in a context of Tunisian LGBTQI++ activism. Homosexuality in Tunisia is punishable by three years in prison, and the LGBTQI++ community is under threat of both legal action and homophobic violence. Yet, since the 2011 Revolution, queer activists have founded several associations to advocate for their community, and the associations have formed a strong connection to the arts.
In this study, I spoke with art organizers from three Tunisian LGBTQI++ associations to document their plentiful art activity. Film and art festivals are prevalent among a wide variety of mediums. I identify the common logistical difficulties the NGOs encounter. The broad challenges are marketing, funding, and staffing, and each obstacle holds unique complications in the specific context of queer activism in Tunisia. Finally, I analyze why three busy organizations choose to put some of their energy toward the arts. I find that the NGOs see a unique power in the arts to attract interest; once they have an audience, they tailor each art project to raise awareness, create a safe space, or spark a dialogue with the public
“Because This Land is Free” A Historical Perspective on Poverty, Settlement, and Conservation in the Lubigi Swamp
Get PDFBetween 1970 and 2010, 40 percent of the world’s coastal and inland wetlands disappeared (Ramsar Convention, 2014). 13 percent of Uganda’s land area is wetland (Elroy, Muhweezi, and West, 2005). A 2015 World Bank Study found that 40 percent of Kampala population lives in informal settlements in or or around wetland, and 50 percent of Kampala’s wetland cover has disappeared in the past 20 years (World Bank, 2015). Kampala’s Lubigi Wetland, the city’s largest, serves as a critical water catchment area for the entirety of Uganda’s Central Cattle Corridor. Alongside this, it provides vital social, environmental and economic functions and has become a popular site for informal human settlement that is threatening to destroy what is left of Lubigi.
This study will analyze the roles history, culture, government action, and vulnerability play in settlement in Lubigi. The goal of this study was to use personal historical ethnographies to understand why people are driven to live in Lubigi. Lubigi is publicly held, protected land, so settlement there is illegal. The population of the Lubigi settlement has exploded in the past 15 years, and government evictions occur frequently. Despite forced evictions, residence continue to return. In person interviews were employed as a way to understand the micro-level historical drivers of settlement on this land. The study aimed to identify a solution that would both protect Lubigi from further degradation, while also protecting the rights of vulnerable populations.
Guided interviews with community members in Lubigi and Kalerwe provided the bulk of the information for the study. Additional interviews with experts on wetland management and history created a larger picture of what settlement history has looked like in Lubigi. The goal of both types of interviews was an identification of driving forces that have lead residence to wetland settlement, and why residence continue to stay in wetland settlements.
The study found that the historical drivers of wetland settlement represent a small subset of larger challenges facing Uganda today. Overlapping land tenure law in Lubigi complicates where residence see legitimate authority. Because Lubigi is both publicly held land and traditionally held mailo land, residents feel they have the right to live there granted to them by the Kabaka of Buganda. Poverty, landlessness, and community fragmentation appeared to be factors that drove all participants to live in their wetland communities. Additionally, forced evictions and the construction of the Northern Bypass in 2009 appeared to severely diminish the role that Buganda spirituality played in protecting Lubigi. The study concluded that a bottom-up conservation approach, that values and respects people and their land, is the only way to preserve Lubigi in the current day
Let’s Talk Takataka: Impacts of Plastic in the Stone Town Harbor Area, Zanzibar
Get PDFPlastic pollution has become an anthropogenic crisis worldwide. In the Stone Town Harbor area in particular, consumerism, population growth, tourism and a deficient municipal waste management system contribute to alarming amounts of mismanaged plastic that enter the ocean. This is devastating for the diverse marine ecosystem that provides valuable resources to its flora and fauna and to it human inhabitants. In this study, micro-plastic at the sea surface as well as plastic on coastal beaches was quantified to determine the effects of plastic pollution in the area by use of a standard plankton net methodology. This study contributed to the first set of baseline information regarding plastic at this location. It was determined that there are approximately 172,061.01 micro-plastic floating particles at the sea surface in the Stone Town Harbor area. Micro-plastic was found in 94% of sea surface samples and plastic was found in 64.76% of coastal beach survey quadrats. Results suggest that the population size in this coastal environment is proportional to the micro- and macro-plastic abundance in the area. Furthermore, if the population of Stone Town limited single-use plastic, it would greatly mitigate plastic waste concentration, including by up to 43%. This study will contribute to plastic waste awareness as well as offer recommendations for more successful waste management strategies the help conserve the marine ecosystem
“Siempre se pierde con la modernización”: Patrimonio histórico y economía cultural en el Mercado San Telmo / “One Always Loses with Modernization”: Historical Heritage and the Cultural Economy and the Mercado San Telmo
No full textDesde 2007, cuando el gobierno de Buenos Aires implementó su plan de renovación, el barrio de San Telmo en el Sur de Buenos Aires ha experimentado un proceso de renovación diseñado para atraer a turistas e inversores extranjeros. Un espacio afectado por este fenómeno de gentrificación turística es el Mercado San Telmo, un mercado comunitario que ha vendido alimentos y antigüedades a los residentes del barrio por más de cien años. Hace tres años, el mercado ha visto un influjo de nuevos negocios, específicamente los que venden productos artesanales y comida étnica, mientras que los vendedores que habían trabajado allá por décadas empezaron a abandonar sus puestos.
Esta investigación incluye observaciones en el mercado y entrevistas con algunos dueños de negocios que trabajan adentro del mercado, incluso verduleros, restauradores, anticuarios y dueños de boutiques. Estas entrevistas muestran cómo estos vendedores perciben los cambios en el mercado, en sus clientes y en la rentabilidad de sus negocios en el contexto de la gentrificación turística.
Para entender las fuerzas que causan este cambio en el ambiente comercial del mercado y analizar los varios efectos de la renovación, esta investigación utiliza la teoría económica de especialización flexible y la contextualiza en cuanto a las tendencias de la nueva industria turística. Estos principios son usados como un lente para ver las entrevistas y categorizar a los vendedores según sus estrategias y niveles de éxito. Esta estrategia también permite a la autora conectar los dinámicos cambios del Mercado San Telmo con las fuerzas más grandes que influyen la economía de Argentina, como la inflación y la demanda extranjera para productos culturales.
Finalmente, esta investigación propone que los negocios más exitosos en el mercado después de la renovación son los que venden bienes únicos con vínculos obvios con la cultura percibida de Argentina, y los que crean ambientes atractivos e históricos para los clientes. Esta estrategia funciona porque satisface los deseos de experiencias auténticas y el poder adquisitivo de los turistas permite que ellos consuman más mientras están en el mercado.
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Since 2007, when the government of Buenos Aires implemented its urban renovation plan, the San Telmo neighborhood in the south of the city of Buenos Aires has experienced a process of renovation designed to attract tourists and foreign investors. One space affected by this phenomenon of tourism gentrification is the Mercado San Telmo (or San Telmo Market), a community market space that has sold grocery products and antiques to residents of the neighborhood for more than a hundred years. In the past three years, the market has seen an influx of new businesses, specifically those selling artisanal goods and ethnic food, while venders who had worked there for decades began to abandon their stalls.
This paper includes observations in the market and interviews with a number of business owners who work inside the market, including green grocers, restaurateurs, antiques dealers, and boutique owners. These interviews explore how these vendors perceive the changes in the market, their clients, and the profitability of their business in the context of tourism gentrification.
In order to understand the forces that cause this shift in the commercial environment of the market and analyze the renovation’s differing effects on various types of vendors, this paper utilizes the economic theory of flexible specialization and contextualizes it in the trends brought about by the new tourist industry. These principles are used as a lens through which to view the findings of the interviews so that vendors can be categorized by their business strategies and relative success. This theoretical approach also allows the author to connect the changed dynamics of the Mercado San Telmo to the larger forces shaping the economy of Argentina, namely inflation and foreign demand for cultural products.
Finally, this paper argues that the businesses that are most successful in the post-renovation market are those that sell unique goods clearly linked to the perceived culture of Argentina and create an attractive historic atmosphere for customers. This strategy is successful because it satisfies tourists’ desires for authentic experiences and the tourists’ purchasing power enables positions them to consume more while in the market
Pemban Farmer Agency in Adapting to Climate Change
Get PDFAs a result of climate change, agricultural societies will be challenged by a variety of altered conditions, including increased severe weather events, saltwater intrusion, pest and disease outbreaks, and higher temperatures. The island of Pemba, in the Zanzibar archipelago, is home to many small-scale agriculturalists. During this study, I interviewed Pemban farmers in the districts of Wete and Micheweni about their awareness of the impacts of climate change and the mitigation strategies that they have implemented. The results from Pemba were compared to relevant academic literature regarding climate change to explore whether disparities exist between models of climate change in the region and the lived experience of farmers
Livelihoods of the People of Mazumbai: A Collection of Stories and Portraits, Tanga Region, Tanzania
Get PDFDespite rapid urbanization in Tanzania, agriculture remains central to the nation, the economy, and the livelihoods of a large portion of the population. Smallholder farmers account for the vast majority of agricultural production, yet are an extremely vulnerable population due to poverty, single-sourced income, and climate-dependency for both subsistence and cash-crop agriculture (Rapsomanikis, 2015). This report explores these dynamic rural livelihoods through interviews and portrait photographs in a case study on Mazumbai, Tanga region, Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews explore the people’s modes of economic subsistence, domestic lives, education, challenges, and life stories. Excerpts from these interviews combined with portrait photographs create vibrant profiles of individuals that together reflect the broader story of all the livelihoods of the people of Mazumbai. Through these profiles, three major themes emerged as most pertinent: (1) the centrality of agriculture, (2) the impact of education, and (3) efforts to diversify income. This report brings these three themes to life through a storytelling format that is accessible, interesting, and informative to a wide audience, beyond just academia. There is universally a humanitarian importance and benefit to learning about and understanding other ways of life. Locally, these rural livelihoods are especially important to understand and document because while they are central to the nation, they are under threat and vulnerable. Studying Mazumbai as an agricultural community also highlights some of the most direct, negative impacts of climate change on a global scale, and how these affected populations will continue to respond and adapt in the future
A Catalog of Orchid Species and Their Distribution in Mazumbai Forest Reserve, Tanga Region, Tanzania
Get PDFAlthough orchids are common in Mazumbai Forest Reserve (MFR), there are limited resources on where they grow and how to identify them. The primary objective of this study is to create an updated catalog of orchids in MFR, using species abundance, richness and diversity of the orchids as indicators of where orchids prefer to grow in MFR. Orchid species vary greatly as altitude changes, making it important to survey orchids across different altitudes. Therefore, Mazumbai Forest was split into five different altitudinal bands spanning 1400 – 1900m and six 100 x 20m plots in each band were surveyed for both epiphytic and terrestrial orchids. All orchid species recorded was also photographed: both as a means of identification, and as a future reference for orchid species determination. In total, 337 individual orchids, and 15 different orchid species were cataloged. The catalog pictures all 15 species of orchids and gives a short description on the morphological characteristics, and habitat of each species (Appendix III). A one-way ANOVA showed that orchid abundance was significantly different across altitudes, F (4, 25) = 3.23, p = 0.03), but orchid richness was not F (4,25) = 1.82, p \u3e 0.05. Orchid abundance was greatest from 1400 – 1500m elevation (n = 141), and species richness was greatest from 1500 – 1600m elevation (n = 7). Diversity, calculated using Simpson’s Index of Diversity was highest between 1600 – 1700m (D = 0.615), and lowest between 1400 – 1500m (D = 0.372). Terrestrial orchids were only found from 1700 – 1900m elevation, while epiphytic orchids were found in all elevation bands. Epiphytic orchids had a variety of tree hosts (n = 23) and did not appear to strongly prefer one tree species