Communal Regulation Research Articles

Relationship between land tenure and land use in unplanned settlements in Lusaka, Zambia

How do land tenure and land use relate to informal settlements? Many studies have examined the effects of land regularisation on communities. Land regularisation is considered a highly effective solution for improving the residential environment in informal settlements and has been implemented in numerous developing countries. However, few studies have explored how land regularisation impacts land use in informal settlements. In this study, we investigated how residents secure land tenure and use their land in unplanned settlements in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, focusing on people's practices in detail. We focussed on two unplanned settlements in Lusaka: Chaisa Ward, an improvement area where land regularisation has occurred, and Chazanga Ward, a customary area where land is not being regularised. As the investigation method, we conducted interviews with community management organisations and 31 dwelling owners and an observational survey about land use in selected target sites in Chaisa and Chazanga in 2009, 2011, and 2014. The study findings showed that in informal settlements, where land tenure is secured by authorities within the community, communal regulation supported by community-based social bonds is an important element of land use management. However, official recognition of land rights through land regularisation could undermine communal relationships and communal land use regulations, resulting in a disorganised and congested living environment. Therefore, we point out that official intervention in land tenure should be institutionalised in a manner that fully understands and takes advantage of the relationships between land tenure and land use, as well as between land and people, which are well-balanced within the local context. This study demonstrated that communal regulation plays a key role in managing land use in informal settlements but its positive impact could be easily undermined by land regularisation. Thus, an important learning from this study is that land in informal settlements should be regularised in a way that fully understands and takes advantage of communal regulation of land use to ensure a desirable living environment.

On Apples and Anarchy

In the summer of 1843, eleven reformers in Massachusetts embarked upon a doomed utopian experiment called “Fruitlands.” Their object was to create a perfect society, devoid of the negative influences of capitalism, trade, and government. They planned on doing so through rigorous adherence to strict communal regulations, among which was strict veganism. This article argues that the Fruitlands experiment—though a failure—is instructive because it provides a detailed example of one particular articulation of the tie between veganism and anarchism. Unlike more modern reformers, the Fruitlanders stressed hierarchy (rather than equality) between humans and animals. Rejecting the animal world was crucial for them as they attempted to become perfect beings, eligible for utopia. Fruitlands thus showcases the way that the vegan-anarchic tie has been profoundly different in each of its incarnations, and therefore an illustrative lens into the political and social world of the nineteenth century.

Rough Music, Community Protest and the Local Press in Nineteenth-Century England

ABSTRACTE. P. Thompson, in his work, Customs in Common, published in 1991, included a chapter that considered a phenomenon with which he had been interested in much of his earlier research: rough music. Thompson described this as a means by which through the use of raucous “music” and street theatre, mockery or hostility was directed against individuals “who offended against certain community norms.” Thompson's research drew in part upon local newspaper reports in his analysis of rough music. With the digitisation of some 23 million pages of local newspapers, accessible through the British Library's newspaper archive, a much more extensive analysis of the press representation of rough music is now possible. This article revisits Thompson's work and tests his claims about the content and context of rough music in the communal regulation of behaviour contravening local societies’ norms. The article explores inter alia, the changing nature of rough music over time in terms of its focus and incidence, and its regional character. Attention is paid to the way in which rough music itself was reported and how attitudes towards its implementation varied within the press.

Proximity to urban fringe recreational facilities increases native biodiversity in an arid rangeland

Urban developments affect neighbouring ecosystems in multiple ways, usually decreasing native biodiversity. Arabian arid rangeland was studied to identify the primary causes of biodiversity variation. Al Marmoum is a 990km2 area on the urban edge of Dubai, designated for ecological ‘enhancement’ and outdoor recreational use. The area lacks historical biodiversity data, but is thought to be primarily influenced by Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius Linnaeus, 1758) herbivory. Perennial floral and faunal diversity was assessed at 54 sites. Counts of reintroduced ungulates (Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx (Pallas, 1777), Arabian gazelle Gazella gazella cora (C.H. Smith, 1827) and sand gazelle G.subgutturosa marica (Thomas, 1897)) were made at 79 separate sites. Correlations of observed biodiversity with substrate type, anthropogenic structures, and ungulate distribution were assessed. Native biodiversity was substantially higher in north-north-west locations near recreational facilities, with the most likely cause being differential browsing pressure. Camel browsing faced greater communal regulation in the north-north-west, whereas oryx and gazelles congregated at feed points in the south-south-east that were farther from human activity. Arid rangeland in this socioecological landscape exhibits greater natural biodiversity at the urban fringe. Human activity reduces ungulate density, enabling a greater diversity of perennial flora, which then attracts non-ungulate fauna. Anthropogenic features can therefore offer conservation value in landscapes where ungulate populations are artificially elevated.

Love’s Folly: Love and Knowledge in 1 Corinthians

Tracing the language of love through 1 Corinthians, this article argues that Paul calls the Corinthians into an attentive communion with one another, in which mutual love will shape their practical wisdom. Paul’s goal is not the establishment of communal regulations, but rather the formation of moral agents through interpersonal bonds of love in Christ.

PLANIFICACIÓN URBANA Y CALIDAD DE VIDA: APROXIMACIÓN AL ESTADO DE LA PLANIFICACIÓN LOCAL EN CHILE

Las modificaciones normativas en la planificación urbana a escala local deberían tener alguna relación con la calidad de vida urbana en las áreas metropolitanas de Chile. Sin embargo, en la literatura no existe mayor evidencia que lo demuestre. Se toman como referencia 48 comunas correspondientes al Gran Santiago, Gran Valparaíso y Gran Concepción, en un contexto temporal de democracia plena entre 1990 y 2013. A partir de la revisión y clasificación de las modificaciones en los planes reguladores comunales, se analiza por medio de estadígrafos que permiten comparar la naturaleza de las modificaciones con los perfiles de calidad de vida de las comunas en la actualidad, lo que arroja importante evidencia acerca de la manera como inciden en esta materia los Gobiernos locales mediante el principal instrumento de planificación urbana en Chile.

The Seductive Waltz with the Self in Self-Regulated Learning: Toward Communal Regulation of Learning

This article proposes a complementary framework for scholarship on metacognition as well as on self-regulated learning. It is argued that educators’ and researchers’ seductive waltz with the “self” in self-regulated learning (e.g., self-monitoring, self-control) need not be abandoned when conceptualizing and empirically investigating teaching and learning. Rather, self-regulation should be complemented by a more holistic, integrated, and collaborative framework— that of communal-regulated learning—to develop effective learners in today's fast-changing educational scene. This article presents the epistemological premises postulated as upholding the communal nature of learning regulation, while raising conceptual as well as practical questions for its adoption.

Responding to mobility constraints: Recent shifts in resource use practices and herding strategies in the Borana pastoral system, southern Ethiopia

This paper investigates how Borana pastoralists of southern Ethiopia have adapted resource use and livestock mobility practices amid multiple constraints including rising population, loss of rangeland to other pastoral communities and changing access rights, among others. This study uses an innovative multi-scalar methodology to understand how herders' grazing management decisions are made within a context of communal regulations governing access to resources. Grazing itinaries specifying the grazing units used during the past year were established for 91 cattle herds and daily mobility was recorded through 12 months of GPS data monitoring of three herds in three zones within the Borana rangelands. The results revealed communal reorganisation of the grazing areas into units with designated periods of access. Despite the reorganization, herd mobility is severely limited, but to different degrees. In the zones facing most constraints, herd mobility is restricted to the grazing areas within proximity of the respective herder's settlement. However in all the areas, movement outside the herd owners' zone of residence is only practiced as escape mobility, ‘baqa’ (to flee); instead of the formerly common ‘godanna’ (to move). These constraints impede fundamental herd mobility needed to meet livestock nutrient requirements, which then affects resilience of the pastoral system.

Precarious work, protest masculinity and communal regulation: South Asian young men in Luton, UK

This article presents an argument about the reactions of young South Asian men to their economic and social exclusion. In a labour market increasingly characterized by insecurity, where bottom end service employment often demands a feminized ‘service with a smile’ performance, young working class men from minority communities are often disadvantaged in their search for work. It has been argued that in these circumstances a version of protest masculinity and involvement in urban unrest are typical responses. This argument is explored in a racialized minority area of Luton, where right wing organizations attempt to provoke street-based reactions by young men. Instead, ‘radical privatism’, constructed through communal regulation, is a reaction to exceptional provocation, although young men’s involvement in low level street unrest is also common in more ‘normal’ times.

Formal and informal Patronage among Jews in the Islamic East: evidence from the Cairo Geniza

This paper investigates the political culture of the Islamic East under Fatimid and Buwayhid rule (tenth-twelfth centuries) via relationships between patrons, clients, proteges, and partners. The main body of evidence I utilize are letters and petitions from the Cairo Geniza that employ the same specialized vocabulary of patron-client relationships one finds in Arabic histories of the period: idioms referring to the exchange of benefit, reciprocal service, protection, oversight, patronage, and loyalty. The Geniza letters, written without regard for posterity, suggest that these idioms were used well beyond the courts and were understood and deployed by men and women, the literate and illiterate, the important and the inconsequential. Yet the use of certain terms in Judaeo-Arabic also differs from their use in Arabic: some reflect devaluation over time, while others hardened into formulaic phrases. These differences suggest that some forms of patronage did not thrive beyond the hothouse of the court; viewed from another perspective, they also suggest that even outside courtly literature, one can retrieve fossils of older forms of patronage in the terms used to describe relationships between leaders and their followers as well as among people more nearly equal in station. A society’s use of social metaphors reveals something of what its members value, what they choose to retain and perpetuate from the past, how they function in moments of crisis, and how successfully their rulers have managed to convince them of the legitimacy of the social and political order. Conversely, the vocabulary of patronage was a social technique that allowed Jews to conduct business, engage in politics and communal regulation, and to amass and retain followers in a variety of spheres, including that of the rabbinic academies who proffered the construction of Judaism that became hegemonic over the course of the Middle Ages.

Communal Regulations as a Source for Jewish Women's Lives in the Ottoman Empire*

Communal Regulations as a Source for Jewish Women's Lives in the Ottoman Empire*

Competition and Communal Regulations in the Kombu Kelp (Laminaria angustata) Harvest

Kombu is a kind of seaweed growing in northern Japan. In Hidaka District, Hokkaido Island, it comprises an important source of income. In the harvest of wild kombu, competition among the harvesters tends to be intense because of its high price and the fact that it is a limited resource. About a century ago, severe competition caused resource depletion and decline of kombu quality. Today, however, the resource is used sustainably by the villagers, who observe complex communal regulations for the use of common property. This study examines the ecological role of these regulations in the management of kombu as common property, and demonstrates that these regulations facilitate equal access to the resource, maintaining the unity of the local community, as well as efficient resource use.