1,720,965 research outputs found
Images of US as Others in Kenya, 2005
No full textvii, 51 p.What is the US through the eyes of Kenyans? How does this image vary through
income level, geographic location, education level, and sex? Where do these ideas come from and how are they perpetuated? This study used free-list data to gather images and ideas of Kenyans about the United States. By analyzing these free-lists through the theories of Mead and Sartre about the Generalized Other, along with Tajfel and Turner's Social Identity Theory of group formation, I seek to find the answers to these questions, as well as how this relates to Kenya's history and the identity of its citizens.Department of Political Science. University of Nairobi. Nairobi, Kenya
Globalization and State in Africa: A paradox
Full text linkGlobalization as a meltdown offreer flows of trade; direct foreign investment and finance, the liberalization of trade and investment policies have had both positive and negative effects on national economies. Positively, globalization has created and opened hidden opportunities for some people, groups and countries. At the same time, globalization has negatively impacted on economies through increased impoverishment, inequality, and work security, a weakening of institutions and social support systems and the erosion of established identities and values. Globalization is transforming trade, finance, technology, employment, environment, social systems and patterns of governance. This paper analyses the implications of these trends for global development
Assessing the role of political parties in democratization in Kenya: the case of 2013 general elections
No full textNothing in the world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than
unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan „press on!‟ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” (Calvin
Coolidge, adapted from the sun will be rising 2001)
From Fragility to Violence:International Organizations put to the testA focus on the Somalia society
No full textNoSocial and economic dimensions of conflict in Somalia have heightened its fragility tremendously, at great cost to its peoples. Peace processes also seem increasingly fruitless. Indeed, the increase of piracy cases off the Somali coast may have only overshadowed the internal instabilities that have resulted from factional tensions. These instabilities have edged the country closer to the brink of lawlessness, an all-out war and possible collapse of government. Because of the struggle for power, humanitarian emergencies have emerged in the country. Mass exodus of residents from war-torn cities, frequent food shortages, the establishment of sprawling refugee camps and lack of basic services are just a few of the existing problems. Aid flow into the country has not been effective, sometimes intercepted by pirates or hampered inland by fighting factions. Hunger and general suffering threatens to exacerbate violence. Since 2008, some World Food Program (WFP) workers and prominent Somalis calling for an end to factional violence have been reported killed in Somalia. Regardless, the UN has continued with its humanitarian campaigns. Besides supplying food, the UN has struggled to improve and protect the health of women and children in particular. Humanitarian operations are met with difficult challenges of reintegration of refugees and the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Tribal tensions at the community level have meant that without reconciliation, violence cannot end. M any poor countries in the world where the governments can barely ensure that their societies withstand poverty and insecurity may be described as 'fragile states'. Several of these are either in conflict or pursuing reconstruction. 1 Under such circumstances, the country's government cannot effectively administer its territories and provide security and other basic services. Somalia has suffered from warring factions since the era of Mohamed Siad Barre, who ruled the country for more than 20 years before being ousted in 1991. In 1993, the United States took a more hands-on approach to the country's instability and sent troops into Mogadishu. Familiarity with the terrain worked to the advantage of the insurgent forces who pushed the US troops out of the capital city, killing and wounding several others. Since then, several militant Islamic groups have violently fought for control. These include Al-Shabab, which was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States. Al-Shabab has also been the main opponent of neighbouring Ethiopia. In 2006, a group of Somali Islamic leaders going by the name "The Union of Islamic Courts" took control over parts of Southern Somalia before being ousted by U.S.-supported invasion by Ethiopian forces. This led to the installation of internationally recognized transitional leaders to guide the country to a semblance of democracy. U.S. forces have reportedly offered financial, logistical and military support to Ethiopian forces and have also been said to secretly support secular warlords in their fight for power against militant Islamic groups
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Hope for the Future : Citizen Responsibilities in a Democratic Kenya
No full textv, 106 p.Overall, this research demonstrated that citizens recognize that Kenya is currently a weak democracy. Nonetheless, many people agree that a strong democratic government will be best for Kenya. While this is the goal for many citizens, there are a lot of challenges to overcome, particularly in areas of education, poverty, unemployment and freedom of expression. Despite these challenges, citizens are growing increasingly aware of the need to become more actively involved in the consolidation of democracy. While citizens are currently participating through protests, violent demonstrations, and through vociferous opposition, more citizens need to participate using other means, such as voter education projects, grassroots organizing, and petitioning local representatives. This is important because most citizens recognize that the methods currently being used are not very effective or feel the government has not been very responsive, indicating that it may be time to try new methods. More importantly, what is most lacking is the habituation of liberal and democratic principles, which scholars cited as being key to democracy. Despite the lack of that, from what citizens, civil society leaders, and Kenyan scholars said, there is a growing awareness for the need to reject corrupt practices, and citizens are speaking out against acts of poor governance or when rights are trampled on is growing, particularly in the younger generations. In many ways this suggests almost a paradigm shift from ethnic politics and the power of wealth and heritage to a political culture based on values, democratic reforms and liberal principles. While it can be argued that there is. no democracy in the world that has completely eliminated the former or embraced the latter, many democracies today have come farther than Kenya's current state. At the same time it has taken some democracies (like the US) over a hundred years to reach that point, and Kenya has only had independence for the last 50 years or so. In that sense, it is reasonable that it should take Kenya another 50 years to become a consolidated. democracy. Also I think Kenyans need to spend more energy on developing their own unique brand of democracy to accommodate the specific needs of Kenya and its citizens rather than trying to match democratic models of the Western world. Given the distinctive history of colonialism, the Cold War and repressive regimes in Kenya and many other African countries, democracy in Kenya cannot develop as it has in the Western world. The most important conclusion is that Kenya is already making progress and has an optimistic, hopeful outlook for the future. This optimistic future relies on the actions of citizens just as much as, or even to a greater extent than, it does on the actions of government leaders
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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