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Ethnographic Research as a Tool for More Inclusive Just Transition Policies
The report argues that traditional top-down consultations for South Africa's just energy transition (JET) often exclude marginalized groups and fail to address local realities. By applying ethnographic research and a co-production pilot in Mpumalanga, the study identifies critical gaps in information, trust, and service delivery following the closure of the Komati Power Station. It recommends institutionalizing co-production and ethnographic methods to ensure that women, youth, and informal workers are meaningfully included in policy design.
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Document type: Report
Integración entre la ciencia interdisciplinaria y el desarrollo para la adaptación a la escasez de agua en la región del Comahue Argentina
The project utilized Social Network Analysis and ethnographic exploration to examine the integration of interdisciplinary science and development in the Comahue region. Findings indicate that the project fragmented into model-based prospective studies and community development interventions. The research highlights the critical role of actors with double institutional roles in bridging science and policy, while noting significant communication gaps between social and environmental researchers and a conceptual misalignment regarding the definition of 'vulnerability'.
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Document type: Executive summary
Water for Whom? Desalination and the Cooptation of the Environmental Justice Frame in Southern California
Based on an ethnographic study of a desalination proposal in California, the author argues that the environmental justice frame is being co-opted to facilitate community division and support a luxury commodity, benefiting private sector interests and organized labor over grassroots community groups.
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Document type: Research paper
Whose Power is it Anyway?
The report argues that the REIPPPP's centralised, top-down approach reproduces structural disempowerment for rural municipalities. Using eMthanjeni Local Municipality as a case study, it finds that local governments are excluded from early planning and procurement, leading to deteriorating infrastructure and minimal revenue gains. While the programme promises 'green jobs' and community development, the report highlights a skills deficit, the prevalence of short-term construction labour over long-term operational employment, and the failure of community trusts to provide immediate relief due to long loan repayment periods. Furthermore, it notes that land lease benefits primarily accrue to white minority landowners, while the municipality struggles with significant debt to Eskom despite hosting renewable energy infrastructure.
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Document type: Report
Taking part in society the way I am
The research explores the concept of 'active citizenship' as a differentiating norm in Denmark and Norway, rather than just a descriptive term for civic engagement. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo and Copenhagen, the author finds that while many people align with official policy goals—such as volunteering in local, child-centred, and secular arenas—marginalized individuals often resist these narrow definitions. The study argues that active citizenship is frequently used to create boundaries between 'good citizens' (who are typically imagined as middle-class, able-bodied, and culturally similar) and 'failed' or 'tolerated' citizens. The author advocates for a 'differentiated universalism' that recognizes informal care, faith-based engagement, and transnational activities as valid forms of societal contribution, moving beyond the binary of active versus passive citizenship.
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Document type: Research paper
Students Taking to the Streets: Mobilizing for a Secular Lebanon
The document examines the rise of the AUB Secular Club (ASC) as a case study for the broader secular student movement in Lebanon. It argues that while partisan clubs rely on material resources and clientelist patronage from national political parties, the ASC has leveraged a potent anti-establishment frame and immaterial resources—such as human and cultural capital—to win student council seats. The study highlights the contrast between the 'vertical' networks of sectarian loyalty and the 'horizontal' mobilization of the secular movement, suggesting that university campuses serve as laboratories for nonsectarian political representation in a deeply divided society.
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Document type: Research paper
CHINESE MEDIA, KENYAN LIVES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY INTO CCTV AFRICA’S HEAD OFFICES
The paper examines the internal operations of CCTV Africa in Nairobi, finding that while employees generally appreciate the stability and salaries compared to local media, there are significant tensions regarding censorship of China-related news, lack of safety protocols for field reporters, and a rigid organizational hierarchy where supervisory roles are reserved for Chinese nationals.
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Document type: Research paper
Identifying behavioural drivers of cookstove use: a household study in Kibera, Nairobi
The study identifies that while Kibera households are acutely aware of the health risks associated with charcoal and kerosene, several behavioural and structural barriers prevent the adoption of cleaner alternatives. Key findings highlight a lack of awareness regarding high-efficiency stoves, price misperceptions due to daily fuel purchasing habits, and the significant role of aspirational thinking and personality traits like risk-taking in technology uptake. The researchers also demonstrate that 'cultural probes' (disposable cameras) are effective tools for eliciting sensitive socio-cultural data in slum environments.
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Document type: Research paper
Middle Classing in Roodepoort
The research examines the social and spatial transformation of Roodepoort through the proliferation of sectional title townhouse complexes. It argues that these developments are not merely neoliberal enclaves but are essential tools for 'middle-classing,' allowing young Black and white South Africans to secure privacy, respectability, and a predictable regulatory environment. The author posits that the Body Corporates governing these complexes provide a form of 'ordinary life' legality that the broader South African state has failed to deliver, creating a common social world where racial identities persist but no longer necessarily dictate antagonistic social positions.
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Document type: Research paper
Gender and Peacekeeping
This research paper, based on a qualitative study conducted in April and May 2003, examines the exploitative gender dynamics and sexual abuse of local women and girls by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) and Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). The author analyzes how financial disparities, power imbalances, and a 'peacekeeping economy' contribute to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), while evaluating the effectiveness of gender training and conduct committees in these missions.
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Document type: Research paper
From Salvation to Struggle
The authors analyze the annual commemoration of the battle of Erenköy (Kokkina) in Cyprus, arguing that it has evolved from a state-led 'national myth' of salvation by the Turkish military into a 'vernacular history' or 'epic' of local struggle. Through ethnographic observation and interviews, the paper demonstrates how participants—including former fighters, villagers, and their descendants—repurpose official narratives to create an 'affect of agency' that is future-oriented rather than purely focused on past victimization or triumph. This shift is evidenced by the rising attendance at the Erenköy pilgrimage and a declining interest in purely militaristic state celebrations, reflecting a broader change in Turkish Cypriot identity and political aspirations.
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Document type: Research paper
Truth and Indigenous Cosmopolitics in Shangrila
The document examines how local cadres in Diqing prefecture used three distinct 'genres' of truth—scientific, literary, and visionary—to justify renaming Zhongdian county to Shangrila. While official state applications relied on scientific and literary evidence to locate the fictional paradise of James Hilton's novel in the material world, local legitimacy was sought by associating the name with the spiritual realm of Shambhala. The author argues that these multiple truths coexist by operating in different ontological realities: the 'actual' material world and the 'virtual' spiritual world.
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Document type: Research paper