Land and Power in Khorezm

Land and Power in Khorezm
Author: Tommaso Trevisani
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3643900988

This is the first detailed "grass roots" account of Uzbekistan's protracted decollectivisation process. It explores continuity and the change in relations between rural communities, agricultural producers, and the local state authorities in the cotton-growing region of Khorezm. Built up during the Soviet period, the cotton sector has maintained its importance for the state and for rural communities in the years following independence, although economic parameters and social conditions have worsened significantly. Uzbekistan's agricultural reform path does not follow that of most post-socialist scenarios and continuity with the past remains strong. Despite seeming immobility, the local view on rural society presented in this book unveils an unexpectedly dynamic situation, characterized by shifts in patronage relations, struggles over legitimacy, and transformations in family structure and community life. Poised between the state, their communities, and an emerging stratum of absentee farm "sponsors," the focus is on the new farmers ("fermer") and their struggles for a place in rural society. What emerges from decollectivisation is a complexly articulated new agrarian concern: its new inequalities are rooted in the political economy of cotton. (Series: Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia - Vol. 23)

Restructuring land allocation, water use and agricultural value chains

Restructuring land allocation, water use and agricultural value chains
Author: John P. A. Lamers
Publisher: V&R Unipress
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2015-01-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 384700297X

Central Asia underwent an agricultural transformation in the 20th century that was neither efficient nor sustainable. There is a need for innovations that will remedy these deficits by reversing environmental degradation and ensuring poverty alleviation. This book provides science-based findings and recommendations for restructuring land and water use and agricultural value chains to enable ecologically and economically sound practices that increase resource use efficiency, rehabilitate ecosystem functions, and enhance rural incomes. Innovations were designed in concert with stakeholders. The prospective benefits are shown for the Khorezm region, part of the lower Amudarya region, Uzbekistan, but the findings can be extrapolated to regions facing similar agro-ecological challenges.

Beyond the Knowledge Trap

Beyond the Knowledge Trap
Author: Thomas Menkhoff
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814343684

Based on the success of the World Scientific publication OC Governing and Managing KnowledgeOCO edited by Thomas Menkhoff, Hans-Dieter Evers and Chay Yue Wah in 2005, this unique volume presents 16 new theoretical-practical papers on the strategic aspects of developing knowledge-based economies with case studies from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Uzbekistan. A key question which the book seeks to answer is what Asian policy-makers and leaders in government, economy and society can do to further enhance learning and capability formation so as to foster sustainable development in an increasingly globalized world. It addresses the politico-cultural and socio-economic challenges of effectively managing both knowledge resources and coping with the great digital divide created by globalization, continuous technology innovations and rapid external change. A key objective of the publication is to enable latecomers in the knowledge race to understand some of the critical success factors of sustainable knowledge-based development and what it takes to build a resilient knowledge-based economy.

Variations on Uzbek Identity

Variations on Uzbek Identity
Author: Peter Finke
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2014-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1782382399

Throughout its history the concept of “Uzbekness,” or more generally of a Turkic-speaking sedentary population, has continuously attracted members of other groups to join, as being Uzbek promises opportunities to enlarge ones social network. Accession is comparatively easy, as Uzbekness is grounded in a cultural model of territoriality, rather than genealogy, as the basis for social attachments. It acknowledges regional variation and the possibility of membership by voluntary decision. Therefore, the boundaries of being Uzbek vary almost by definition, incorporating elements of local languages, cultural patterns and social organization. This book combines an historical analysis with thorough ethnographic field research, looking at differences in the conceptualization of group boundaries and the social practices they entail. It does so by analysing decision-making processes by Uzbeks on the individual as well as cognitive level and the political configurations that surround them.

Sustainable Land Management in Greater Central Asia

Sustainable Land Management in Greater Central Asia
Author: Victor R. Squires
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 493
Release: 2017-09-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317394046

Greater Central Asia encompasses a vast area that includes deserts, natural grasslands, steppes, shrublands and alpine regions. Many of these land types are degraded and productivity is falling at a time when human populations and livestock inventories are on the rise. Ecosystem stability and biodiversity are under threat and there is an urgent need to develop more sustainable land management regimes. This book uses an integrated regional approach to provide a comprehensive exploration of sustainable land development in Central Asia. An interdisciplinary team of experts analyses the economic, ecological, sociological, technological and political factors surrounding sustainable land and water management in the region, sharing potential problems and solutions. As international concern about desertification grows, the book concludes by asking how the region is likely to develop in the future. This book will be of value to scholars, students, policy makers and NGOs with an interest in sustainable development in Central Asia.

Evolutionary Governance Theory

Evolutionary Governance Theory
Author: Raoul Beunen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3319122746

This volume presents empirical studies and theoretical reflections on Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT), its most important concepts and their interrelations. As a novel theory of governance, EGT understands governance as radically evolutionary, which implies that all elements of governance are subject to evolution, that these elements co-evolve and that many of them are the product of governance itself. Through this book we learn how communities understand themselves and their environment and why they create the complex structures and processes we analyze as governance paths. Authors from different disciplines develop the EGT framework further and apply it to a wide rage networks of power, governance of agricultural resources etc. The contributors also reflect on the possibilities and limitations of steering, intervention, management and development in a world continuously in flux. It bridges the gap between more fundamental and philosophical accounts of the social sciences and applied studies, offering theoretical advancements as well as practical recommendations.

Rural development

Rural development
Author: Kristof Van Assche
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2023-09-04
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9086868126

This book offers a unique perspective on rural development, by discussing the most influential perspectives and rendering their risks and benefits visible. The authors do not present a silver bullet. Rather, they give students, researchers, community leaders, politicians, concerned citizens and development organizations the conceptual tools to understand how things are organized now, which development path has already been taken, and how things could possibly move in a different direction. Van Assche and Hornidge pay special attention to the different roles of knowledge in rural development, both expert knowledge in various guises and local knowledge. Crafting development strategies requires understanding how new knowledge can fit in and work out in governance. Drawing on experiences in five continents, the authors develop a theoretical framework which elucidates how modes of governance and rural development are inextricably tied. A community is much better placed to choose direction, when it understands these ties.

Agricultural Knowledge and Knowledge Systems in Post-Soviet Societies

Agricultural Knowledge and Knowledge Systems in Post-Soviet Societies
Author: Anna-Katharina Hornidge
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2016-02-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 303432006X

This volume addresses the crucial role of knowledge and innovation in coping with and adapting to socio-economic and political transformation processes in post-Soviet societies. Unique are the bottom up or micro-sociological and ethnographic perspectives offered by the book on the processes of post-Soviet transformations in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. Three thematic fields form the structuring frame: cultures of knowledge production and sharing in agriculture; local governance arrangements and knowledge production; and finally, the present situation of agricultural advisory services development.

Grassroots Innovation

Grassroots Innovation
Author: Anil K Gupta
Publisher: Random House India
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2016-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 8184007795

A moral dilemma gripped Professor Gupta when he was invited by the Bangladeshi government to help restructure their agricultural sector in 1985. He noticed how the marginalized farmers were being paid poorly for their otherwise unmatched knowledge. The gross injustice of this constant imbalance led Professor Gupta to found what would turn into a resounding social and ethical movement—the Honey Bee Network—bringing together and elevating thousands of grassroots innovators. For over two decades, Professor Gupta has travelled through rural lands unearthing innovations by the ranks—from the famed Mitti Cool refrigerator to the footbridge of Meghalaya. He insists that to fight the largest and most persistent problems of the world we must eschew expensive research labs and instead, look towards ordinary folk. Innovation—that oft-flung around word—is stripped to its core in this book. Poignant and personal, Grassroots Innovation is an important treatise from a social crusader of our time.