Fragile Infrastructure Research Articles

The effects of war on the quality of higher education in Yemen: Scholars’ perspectives

Yemen witnesses a heinous war and continual conflict that devastates its fragile infrastructure. The country’s development indicators devolve significantly, and, among other sectors, higher education and its quality have been imperiled. The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of war on the quality of higher education in Yemen from the standpoint of Yemeni scholars. This qualitative study is based on grounded theory design and used semi-structured in-depth interview methods to collect data from Yemeni scholars within and outside Yemen. The core questions focused on the impact of war, the actions taken by scholars, and the prospects of higher education quality. Seventeen diverse scholars were included in the study. The analysis of data outlined six war-related factors that affect the quality of higher education: attacks on scholars, financial constraints, corruption, human capacity shortage, poor research performance, and lack of physical capacity. Realities are reconstructed through descriptions of the trajectory of the war and its negative consequences on scholars and their endeavors. Quality as a sign of the good functioning of higher education institutions is not an exclusively sectorial issue. Actions and prospects need to fit within frameworks of national reconciliation, regional peace, and frameworks of international cooperation. Further research tackling other dimensions of education quality and including other stakeholders is needed. Rethinking and reforming Yemen’s higher education system in its different aspects and challenges, are paths to peacebuilding and the recovery of the country. A roadmap prioritizing this reform is urgently needed.

Multilingual Medical Language Models: A Path to Improving Lay Health Worker Effectiveness (Student Abstract)

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges faced by healthcare delivery in developing nations, placing additional strain on already fragile infrastructure and healthcare systems. This has prompted an increased reliance on lay healthcare workers (LHWs) to meet the surging demand for services. Due to limited formal training, many LHWs have resorted to using unreliable sources, such as internet searches, to access medical information. Large language models (LLMs) offer a promising opportunity to support LHWs by providing accurate, context-sensitive information for improving healthcare delivery, provided they are appropriately fine-tuned on domain-specific multilingual data. This paper delves into critical issues and presents potential solutions for developing LLM-powered virtual assistants tailored to LHWs serving Telugu and Hindi-speaking populations. Key focal points include the customization of language and content to suit local contexts, the integration of feedback mechanisms to continuously enhance assistance quality, and the delicate balance between automation and human oversight.

Southern Care: A Rapid Response to Supporting Southern CBOs at the onset of COVID-19.

Southern community-based and HIV/AIDS service organizations (CBOs) were particularly vulnerable to the onset of COVID-19 due to already fragile infrastructures and underfunded budgets. At the height of the pandemic, the Gilead COMPASS Coordinating Centers launched the Southern CARE Grant, awarding 41 grants to provide supplemental operational support funds.

Silicon Savannahs and motorcycle taxis: A Southern perspective on the frontiers of platform urbanism

The rise of digital platforms in urban Africa has been rightfully critiqued as an example of global techno-capital seeking new frontiers of profit among precarious lives and from fragile infrastructures. However, this techno-pessimistic reading of so-called “platform urbanism” leaves us with a bleak outlook on the future of the African city as a mere site of accumulation and exploitation. In this article, in contrast, we offer a more ambivalent analysis of a compelling trend in several African cities: the platformization of motorcycle taxis. Our focus is on Kigali and Nairobi two cities that have been celebrated as “Silicon Savannahs” for their commitment to digital innovation, and where motorcycle taxis have long contributed to the regular movement of people and goods. Deploying a Southern urban perspective on the digitization of these mobility systems, we make two contributions to platform urbanism debates. First, we show that this phenomenon dovetails two decades of supply-side, developmental investments in the connectivity infrastructure upon which platforms rely and are predicated. Second, we show that platform urbanism is not simply a case of global technologies landing in Africa. It is characterized by a proliferation of experiments in which domestic and international capital coalesce, platforms intersect in dynamic ways with informal economies, and local adaptations are necessary for survival. Overall, we argue that the platformization of motorcycles in these cities (and arguably others) constitutes a dynamic and evolving landscape that requires more careful conceptual and empirical attention.

Living with fragile infrastructure: The gendered labour of preventing, responding to and being impacted by sanitation failures

While infrastructure is often understood to operate ‘in the background’, scholars have increasingly attended to the labour that enables urban material flows. Drawing on empirical material collected through fieldwork and document analysis in Lilongwe, this paper explores how different residents of the city experience and respond to the regular failures of infrastructure. We examine sanitation in one middle- and two low-income areas, considering the contamination of drinking water and the collapse of latrines. Attending to the gendered, embodied, affective, and intimate dimensions of maintenance and repair labours, we develop three interrelated arguments. First, we frame incidents of failure not as individual accidents but as part of persistently fragile infrastructures. Second, we contribute to extending the gaze of infrastructural labours beyond manual work and ‘expert’ knowledge to consider a range of unpaid practices and their role in preventing, responding to, and being impacted by failure. Finally, we show that both the labour and impacts of infrastructural failure disproportionally fall on (low-income) women. Emphasising the ongoing, gendered struggles of keeping sanitation infrastructures functional helps us to see the limits of scholarship that centres clearly identifiable jobs associated with infrastructure’s construction, maintenance and repair. We conclude with reflections on the implications of these arguments for our understanding of the knowledges and labours that keep infrastructures working, and the conditions in which these are performed.

Mobility Disruptions in Accra: Recurrent Flooding, Fragile Infrastructure and Climate Change

This paper analyzes the mobility disruptions experienced by urban residents in relation to heavy precipitation and flooding of roads. The empirical focus is Accra, Ghana, a rapidly growing African city with discernible challenges in its transport system and a longstanding history of recurrent flood hazards, which are likely to be exacerbated by climate change in the future. In a context where there is very little mobility data available from official sources, the paper utilizes data from a large mobility survey (n = 1053) conducted through in-person interviews in July–August 2021 in 10 selected neighborhoods in Accra’s sprawling periphery. The survey targeted economically active adults, who are travelling regularly in relation to their income-generating activities. The survey recorded respondents’ experiences with a wide range of mobility disruptions caused by heavy precipitation and water on the roads. The analysis of survey data is supplemented with insights from qualitative interviews with a range of local key informants (n = 75). The research illuminates the diversity of mobility disruptions experienced by Accra’s residents during and after heavy precipitation events and the adverse implications for livelihoods and access to markets and services. The results highlight that mobility disruptions related to heavy precipitation are an extremely commonplace experience for residents in Accra’s periphery, across a diverse collection of neighborhoods and across travel patterns and traveler characteristics. While existing research tends to privilege the most dramatic and disastrous flood events and the associated destruction of property, this research, however, draws attention to the somewhat under-researched topic of mobility disruptions to everyday activities and their implications for livelihoods and access to markets and services.

Drought-heatwave nexus in Brazil and related impacts on health and fires: A comprehensive review.

Climate change is drastically altering the frequency, duration, and severity of compound drought-heatwave (CDHW) episodes, which present a new challenge in environmental and socioeconomic sectors. These threats are of particular importance in low-income regions with growing populations, fragile infrastructure, and threatened ecosystems. This review synthesizes emerging progress in the understanding of CDHW patterns in Brazil while providing insights about the impacts on fire occurrence and public health. Evidence is mounting that heatwaves are becoming increasingly linked with droughts in northeastern and southeastern Brazil, the Amazonia, and the Pantanal. In those regions, recent studies have begun to build a better understanding of the physical mechanisms behind CDHW events, such as the soil moisture-atmosphere coupling, promoted by exceptional atmospheric blocking conditions. Results hint at a synergy between CDHW events and high fire activity in the country over the last decades, with the most recent example being the catastrophic 2020 fires in the Pantanal. Moreover, we show that HWs were responsible for increasing mortality and preterm births during record-breaking droughts in southeastern Brazil. This work paves the way for a more in-depth understanding on CDHW events and their impacts, which is crucial to enhance the adaptive capacity of different Brazilian sectors.

Infrastructuring alternative markets: Enabling local food exchange through patchworking

The aim of this paper is to advance our understanding of the complex material arrangements involved in the formation of AFNs by applying the concept of market infrastructure and turning our attention to the process of infrastructuring. Based on an ethnographic study of REKO rings, a network of local food markets, we show how disparate elements, e.g. digital interfaces, parking locations, and Swish (an electronic payment system), are interconnected and configured to form the REKO ring market infrastructure patchwork – an infrastructure made by linking together previously unrelated elements and re-purposing them. We then demonstrate how this patchwork infrastructure enables the formation of market actors, coordination of the market actors’ activities, and the qualification and valuation of foods, thereby making the exchange of alternative food possible. Our analysis of infrastructure patchworking illustrates a different type of infrastructure-making resulting in a temporary and fragile infrastructure which, despite its instability, enables exchange. Drawing on this analysis we argue that the potential of AFNs to take form and impact contemporary modes of food provisioning cannot be understood without exploring the process of infrastructuring.

Accessibility Disruptions in the Context of Flooding, Fragile Infrastructure and Climate Change

Accessibility Disruptions in the Context of Flooding, Fragile Infrastructure and Climate Change

Collaborative Resilience

Collaborative Resilience Erika Switzer (bio) COLLAB CORNER As caretakers within the ecosystem of music performance and education, collaborative pianists bear the deep responsibility of meeting the diverse needs of colleagues, students, and institutions. We are witness to the inner workings of our communities' fragile infrastructures, our powerful influence fostering connection and communication at the foundational level. If we are well resourced and skilled at maintaining healthy professional relationships within our collaborations, our ecosystem can sustainably flourish. However, if we deplete our resources to the point of exhaustion or injury, our vast ecosystem begins to reflect our own collapse of care. Many years ago, as an undergraduate pianist interested in collaboration, I participated in a staged pastiche-style vocal recital. It was a satirical operatic audition situation in which I explored the character of an old (male), downtrodden, curmudgeonly, vaguely lecherous, and begrudging accompanist. Rudely exposing his impatience and boredom, he drank whiskey between arias, muttered judgments under his breath, and eventually slouched off the stage without a backward glance. It strikes me now that even as a beginning collaborator, I was intuitively aware of the stereotypes and professional hazards of our field, if only to poke fun. In the context of my current efforts to experience and encourage collaborative resilience, this memory resurfaced as a comedic warning against the path of depletion. Basically: Do not do what that guy did. As our culture becomes skilled at acknowledging historic and systemic barriers within classical music hierarchies, the audition satire takes on more layers. It wasn't individual or personal failings that led to stereotypes of the exhausted accompanist, it was the system that undervalued this work to the point of inequitable compensation, unrealistic expectations of service, and exclusion from the higher echelons of the performance world. While there are many rewarding elements in a collaborative career, success at the highest level, especially for those who do not identify as white males, requires perseverance against a rigid system of rank and privilege with seemingly scarce opportunities for advancement. That sense of scarcity tends to promote behaviors that can further alienate us from our colleagues and from community support. In reorienting our systems toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, we inherently acknowledge that it takes more than perseverance to overcome such obstacles. Whereas the internal fortitude of perseverance costs energy, such that we may acquire emotional debt, systemic change universally invests in its [End Page 401] constituents through equitable treatment and compensation, making resilience an institutionally supported commodity. In the meantime, as we persevere, resilience must be cultivated by individuals and within communities. In my own work, the essential elements of collaborative resilience are restorative piano practice, socially conscious communication habits, and regular celebration of accomplishments. Taken together, these elements express a global respect for ourselves and for others. RESTORATIVE PRACTICE Learning to practice well has required me to unlearn some basic assumptions about what it means to be a good pianist. Primarily, I had to release the notion that talent equals success. This mistaken belief had long restricted me from a self-compassionate approach to pianistic development. If I could not immediately play something well, I subconsciously assumed I was not talented enough and, to avoid that painful thought, quickly distracted myself with other tasks rather than engage with curiosity and problem solving skills. Restorative piano practice has taught me to suspend judgment while seeking physical comfort and the enjoyment of efficient solutions at the keyboard. After noticing that it took me an average of three days (not three minutes!) to integrate the basic coordination of a new piece in such a way that it felt comfortable in my body, I consciously began adapting my practice schedule. Basic coordination, for me, encompasses an overall sense of comfort and release in the keys, a clear mental map of the technical landscape (melody, figuration, counterpoint), and a basic awareness of phrasing and text structures. When these elements are integrated without immediate time pressure and with the inclusion of sleep cycles for the ingraining of information in the brain, a healthy and robust foundation for complex choreography is laid. If the foundation of physical coordination is free from anxiety, trust can take root in our...

Caring for water in Northern Peru: On fragile infrastructures and the diverse work involved in irrigation

The term control used to be central to the scholarship on modern water management. More recently, however, scholars have remarked that the world is too unstable and capricious for control to ever fully succeed. They propose that technologically facilitating water to flow depends instead on care. Building on this, we here propose that holding on to a single catch-all theoretical concept, even if it is ‘care’, does not suffice. Instead, analytical terms are better adapted – and re-adapted to local specificities. To exemplify this, we here present the case of the Huallabamba, a canal that makes horticulture possible in the arid valley of Motupe on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. In this case, while ‘control’ was hard to find, ‘care’ took different forms: the tinkering that compensates for the not-quite-modern character of the infrastructures; the adaptive managerial style necessary given the absence of information; the watchful, hands-on cuidar of the men who walk along the canal high up in the Andes, repairing what is broken, cautious lest they anger the spirits; the listening to and singing for water in the catchment area; and the activism that resists the invasion of mining companies. This open-ended list is not meant to travel as a theoretical grid, but rather to inspire others to propose locally salient analytical terms to explore the sites and situations in which they are involved.

WHAT DEAD-AND-DYING PLATFORMS DO FOR INTERNET STUDIES: SITUATING TECHNOLOGICAL FAILURE, DIGITAL AFTERLIFE, AND THE WEB THAT WAS

This panel explores internet histories through the lens of “platform death” as a way of understanding how digital communities grapple with technological failure, power dynamics, and the divergent notions of the digital afterlife. Collectively, the contributions address the cultural, geopolitical, economic, and socio-legal repercussions of what happens when various platforms fail, decline, or expire. We bring together five presentations that draw on different methods—including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, participant observation—to explore the frailty of platforms, their underlying infrastructures, and their trace data. Together, by examining and theoretically situating the histories of five different platforms (TroopTube, Fanfou, MySpace, YikYak, and Couchsurfing), we consider and complicate how the concept of “platform death” as a metaphor can help reveal the Web’s rhythmic temporality, digital media’s constant reinvention of forms, and the collision of hegemonic and fragile infrastructures in divergent cultural contexts. We ask: What are the theoretical implications of situating platforms as killable, ephemeral, precarious, or transient technologies? What—and who—kills platforms, and in what ways can they have uncertain digital afterlives and even resurrections? What can conceptualizations of dead and dying technologies tell us about the Internet’s growth and stagnation, its present and futures? What is (un)knowable about platforms that once were, and how can this knowledge inform our predictions of future technological failure? We aim to build community, collective imaginings, and future collaborations around a research agenda that centers mnemonic experimentation, comparative platform studies, and archival contestations.

Non-Sterile to Sterile Compounding: An Unconventional Response During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The drug supply chain has suffered many interruptions over the past decade. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already fragile infrastructure for supplying critical medications to hospitals and health-systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight to the history, thought-processes, and response to critical medication shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on hydromorphone infusions and the action steps taken to engage in non-sterile to sterile (NSTS) compounding. Over a period of 6 weeks, we compounded 1,613 NSTS hydromorphone infusion bags. All lots were cleared for sterility, particulate, potency, and endotoxin testing by an outside FDA registered laboratory. We did not have any safety reports filed specific to the NSTS compounded hydromorphone infusion bags. Over a period of 15 weeks, 715 infusions were consumed. The drug supply chain suffers frequent interruptions and critical shortages, particularly in times of a natural disaster or a global pandemic. Non-sterile to sterile compounding is often associated with risks of inaccuracies, impurities, and contamination. There are instances in which non-sterile to sterile compounding is appropriate and should be considered in times of drug shortages to support the care of hospitalized patients.

Exploration and mortification: Fragile infrastructures, imperial narratives, and the self-sufficiency of British naval "discovery" vessels, 1760-1815.

Eighteenth-century naval ships were impressive infrastructures, but subjected to extraordinary strain. To assist with their "voyage repairs," the Royal Navy gradually established numerous overseas bases, displaying the power, reach, and ruthless logistical efficiency of the British state. This article, however, is concerned with what happened where no such bases (yet) existed, in parts of the world falling in between areas of direct British administration, control, or influence. The specific restrictions imposed by technology and infrastructures have been studied by historians interested in naval strategy, but they can also help to reframe national narratives of power or observe the transnational interactions surrounding access to knowledge and resources. This paper discusses the material, cultural, and diplomatic constraints that could appear when vessels, and especially "discovery ships," sailed in strange waters or sought technical assistance in allied ports. I argue that the "mortification" of some commanders at their vessels' unfitness for service was an important - and often neglected - element on the palette of emotions undergone by voyagers, capturing their strong sense of ultimate material powerlessness. Such frustration even became embedded in imperial cartography, as shown by the case study of Matthew Flinders. This perspective highlights the limits of naval technology, complicating imperialistic "success stories" and better reintegrating the navy into the history of maritime travel and transportation, from which it is often singled out.

Challenges of Applying the Teaching Methodology of (CELTA) Productive Skills in a Poor Learning Environment and a Fragile Infrastructure Region of Darfur, Sudan

The present study aims at investigating challenges of applying the teaching methodology of (CELTA) productive skills in a poor learning environment and a fragile infrastructure region of Darfur, Sudan. (CELTA) is a teacher training course that consists of 200 guided learning hours including 6 hours of teaching practice and stands for “Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages”. Candidates who apply for the course aim at acquiring the knowledge and the familiarity of the effective teaching principles. However, applying the methodology of such an internationally recognized qualification that addresses the communicative language learning requires intensive usage of some modern teaching materials. Accordingly, its applicability seems extremely challenging in a poor learning environment with a fragile infrastructure similar to the situation of Darfur region. Furthermore, the difficulties of its implementation definitely prevent hundreds of students from learning facilitates and opportunities that are only attainable via courses in which the learners’ needs are highly considered. We can also be certain that through the application of such a course student develops learning speaking and writing skills respectively simply because the course methodology provides a great opportunity of practicing the language compared to the traditional teaching methodologies. In this study the researcher is reflecting on his experience in teaching EFL via utilizing (CLT) techniques in such a way CELTA course is taught. Furthermore, the researcher aims at illustrating the importance of reducing teacher’s (TTT) and increasing the (STT) in EFL classes in Darfur, Sudan. The study also attempts to highlight the role of the private sector and voluntary organizations in promoting the educational process in the region. We can therefore say that the difficulties mentioned above have begun to diminish with the presence of some voluntary organizations such as Malam Darfur Peace and Development.A qualitative method for data collection and analysis is adapted in which the researcher interviews some EFL instructors who are currently based in KSA and actually happened to CELTA qualification. The interview questions are conducted to examine their experiences on how the methodology of this course is applicable in different contexts. Finally, the study resulted into the following findings:1. Teaching and learning the (CELTA) productive skills in a poor learning environment is difficult.2. Still traditional teaching methods is dominating the EFL classes in Darfur, Sudan.3. Some voluntary organizations regularly contribute to the development of the learning environment in the region of Darfur.

Sugar Machines and the Fragile Infrastructure of Commodities in the Nineteenth Century

This essay uses sugar machinery to explore the fragile infrastructure that allowed global commodity traffic to emerge. In the nineteenth century, the cane sugar industry transformed the Caribbean, the Hawaiian Islands, and much of the rest of the tropical world. Observers then and now tied sugar’s revolutionary power to the invention and spread of advanced mechanical technologies. Yet the origins and lives of those machines themselves have remained obscure. The superficially effortless circulation of standardized material goods like sugar depended on carefully cultivated systems for managing people, paper, objects, and knowledge—and such things could not be standardized so easily.

Managing emerging transnational public health security threats: lessons learned from the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak

BackgroundPandemics pose significant security/stability risks to nations with fragile infrastructures. We evaluated characteristics of the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak to elucidate lessons learned for managing transnational public health security threats.MethodsWe used publically available data to compare demographic and outbreak-specific data for Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, including key indicator data by the World Health Organization. Pearson correlation statistics were calculated to compare country-level infrastructure characteristics with outbreak size and duration.ResultsHospital bed density was inversely correlated with longer EVD outbreak duration (r = − 0.99). Country-specific funding amount allocations were more likely associated with number of incident cases than the population at-risk or infrastructure needs. Key indicators demonstrating challenges for Guinea included: number of unsafe burials, percent of EVD-positive samples, and days between symptom onset and case hospitalization. Sierra Leone’s primary key indicator was the number of districts with ≥1 security incident. Liberia controlled their outbreak before much of the key-indicator data were collected.ConclusionMany of the country-level factors, particularly the WHO key indicators were associated with controlling the epidemic. The infrastructure of countries affected by communicable diseases should be assessed by international political and public health leaders.

Columbia Fellow Leads Effort To Help Those on Temporary Protected Status

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Community NewsFull AccessColumbia Fellow Leads Effort To Help Those on Temporary Protected StatusMark MoranMark MoranSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:29 May 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.6a24AbstractSevere and her colleagues hope to link individuals who may have to return to Haiti with health and mental health care services.Psychiatrist Jennifer Severe, M.D., a public psychiatry fellow at Columbia University, is leading an effort by a small group of physicians to rally support for Haitians and other foreign nationals in the United States residing under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Jennifer Severe, M.D., hosted a booth in the Exhibit Hall during APA’s 2018 Annual Meeting to talk to attendees about the plight of individuals who may lose Temporary Protected Status.Mark Moran Part of that effort involved reaching out to attendees at APA’s 2018 Annual Meeting by sponsoring a booth in the Exhibit Hall. The TPS program is a visa program created by Congress for immigrants who are unable to safely return to their home countries because of ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions.TPS was granted to Haitians in January 2010 after a devastating earthquake destabilized the country’s fragile infrastructures, resulting in over 300,000 deaths. The Trump administration terminated the program in November 2017 on the basis that the extraordinary conditions under which the status was granted no longer existed in Haiti. The Department of Homeland Security extended Haitians’ stay to July 2019 “to allow for an orderly transition.” (TPS has been terminated for individuals from several other countries. Most recently, TPS was terminated for individuals from Honduras.) Severe and her colleagues hope to start a pilot program to reach out to Haitian communities in the states with the highest density of Haitians. The goal of the program, called the Pilot Initiative to Empower Haitians on Temporary Protected Status and Support Their Mental Health, is to create a cushioned transition for Haitians returning to their home country (or to permanent residence in the United States when possible). This will be achieved by providing a platform for coordinating psychiatric and psychological support services to TPS holders and information to help TPS holders and their U.S.-based health providers familiarize themselves with the Haitian mental health system and make an educated decision about care options when they return. Such information will include the location of clinics and providers, psychotropic medications available in Haiti, costs of care, and support groups in Haiti that can help returning TPS holders. More information can be accessed here.“Our goal is to raise awareness around the anguish of individuals and families affected by the termination of TPS and this includes trainees, colleagues, and patients,” Severe told Psychiatric News. Severe was appointed by APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., to be a corresponding member of the Council on International Relations. The Council is reviewing a proposal for a position statement addressing the mental health needs of individuals on Temporary Protected Status, as well as of individuals residing in the United States on other visas who may be facing challenges related to immigration. Severe’s group is supported by the Haitian American Psychiatric Association, the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad, and Professional Risk Management Services Inc. ■ ISSUES NewArchived

Towards understanding vulnerability: Investigating disruptions in cropping schedules in irrigated rice fields in West Java

Unsafe conditions may increase the vulnerability of farmers natural hazards and reduce the capacity of farmers to prevent or recover from disaster impacts. This study aimed to investigate disruptions in cropping schedules to understand unsafe conditions that contribute to vulnerability in irrigated fields served by Ir. Djuanda (Jatiluhur) reservoir in West Java. Firstly, the deviation of ongoing cropping schedules from the official cropping calendar was evaluated using the time-series Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) derived from MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imageries. Secondly, reasons for disruptions in cropping schedules were explored using an in-depth interview with farmers, extension officers, and water managers and analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Thirdly, the progression from potential causes to consequences of the disruption was identified using a Bow-Tie analysis. Unsafe conditions were identified using the result of the Bow-Tie analysis. Finally, several ways to reduce vulnerability were suggested. This study has successfully showed that cropping schedules deviate from the official cropping calendar in the study area. Reasons for disruptions in cropping schedules include economic motives, weather variabilities, geographic locations, coping strategies, farmers’ interactions, and agricultural infrastructures. The Bow-Tie analysis has visualized the progression from potential causes, disruptions in cropping schedules, to potential disaster impacts. Unsafe conditions have been identified, categorized into the dangerous locations, unsustainable farming activities, unsuitable coping strategies, fragile infrastructures, and inaccurate perceptions, have been pinpointed. Addressing unsafe conditions is likely to able to reduce vulnerability in irrigated rice fields.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note Natalie Havlin On March 8, 2018, marches in coordination with International Women's Day and the International Women's Strike took place across the world. In Spain, over 5.3 million women participated in a twenty-four-hour strike chanting, Sin nosotras, se para el mundo ("Without us, the world stops") (Vonberg and Perez Maestro 2018). In the Philippines, the radical women's movement GABRIELA led hundreds through Manilla to demand an end to exploitative labor practices (Cahiles 2018). At the march organized by la Coalición 8 de Marzo in San Juan, Puerto Rico, songwriter Chabela Rodríguez performed the song "Para construir otra vida" ("To build another life"), echoing march organizers' entreaty ¡Paramos para construir otra vida! ("Let us strike to build another life!"). In her performance, Rodríguez intoned, Somos manos amorosasmanos que amasan la vida.Las que tejen en las callesy en la casa dan comida.Sembradoras de esperanzay dispuestas a la lucha. (We are loving hands / hands that amass life. / Those who weave in the streets / and in the house they give food. / Sowers of hope / and willing to fight.)1 Rodríguez's compelling lyrics link a vision of gender and sexual justice with seeking liberation from the particular context of U.S. colonial rule [End Page 9] in Puerto Rico. Since 1898, the United States has maintained control over the Puerto Rican economy and further attempted to consolidate U.S. colonial rule through social policies and laws regarding sexuality, family life, racial segregation, language, and education (Findlay 2000). Most recently in 2016, the U.S. Congress enacted the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), a bill establishing a U.S. federal-appointed fiscal review board that includes devastating austerity measures such as privatizing government services and infrastructure (Bonilla 2018). Following Hurricane Maria in September 2017, the island's already fragile infrastructure has further eroded as a result of the PROMESA fiscal review board's decisions to cut wages and health-care benefits as well as privatize recovery efforts (Bonilla 2018). As of May 29, public-health analysts estimate that over 4,645 people died in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria due to the austerity and storm-impacted failures of infrastructure (Kishore et al. 2018). In response to this context, as Bárbara I. Abadía-Rexach notes in her contribution to Protest, Chabela Rodríguez voices a collective refrain among Puerto Rican feminist organizers that activates hope, self-determination, and mutual aid amid conditions of gender oppression and heterosexism enacted through and constitutive of colonial and state violence. In light of the struggle in Puerto Rico and other recent mobilizations as this issue goes to press—from the Great March of Return in Palestine and demonstrations for independence in Kashmir to ongoing digital campaigns such as #MeToo and #NiUnaMas—Protest provides a timely exploration of the tactics for liberation, survival, and decolonization developed by movements, artists, and individuals addressing social and material conditions of state and colonial violence in Canada, Chile, India, Kashmir, Kenya, Palestine, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the United States. As Elena L. Cohen, Melissa M. Forbis, and Deepti Misri clarify in their introduction, Protest moves beyond a focus on highly visible acts of protest, such as marches and demonstrations, to build a "new historical narrative" of the multiple registers and "repertoire of tactics" that individuals and groups engage to call for and build another world. From articles exploring Maphuche elders' narratives of struggle and LGBTQ Latinx migrants' practices for survival to feminist digital storytelling in Kenya and occupied Kashmir, a common refrain voiced by Protest contributors is that the varied modalities of feminist protest and struggles for freedom, not only address the particular contexts of the gendered and sexual dynamics of [End Page 10] occupation and oppression, but also creatively sustain ways of life targeted for repression and erasure. Like Chabela Rodríguez's invitation to San Juan march participants to join her in song and struggle, we might read Protest as inviting readers to participate in what contributor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi terms a "call and response praxis." In the issue, guest editors invited Abdulhadi, Angela Y. Davis, and Charlene...