The main aim of this paper is to measure the underground economy of India and to review previous attempts to do the same. In this paper I provide estimates of the size of the hidden economy of India for the period 1971 - 2004. Analysis on previous attempts is done with a focus on the dynamic multiple indicators multiple causes (DYMIMC) and the currency demand methods. I estimate the size of the Indian economy using indicator and causal variables chosen by Schneider, Chaudhuri and Chatterjee in their paper, “The Size and Development of the Indian Shadow Economy and a Comparison with other 18 Asian Countries: An Empirical Investigation”.

The subject of the thesis is the parallel digital economy created around the monetary innovation called Bitcoin and the interaction between this technology and its users. Bitcoin is a new kind of digital money and a payment system. Transactions are cryptographically verified by users and subsequently recorded in a publicly distributed account book called blockchain. Bitcoin, as an open-source project, has created a worldwide community of Internet-connected users who are further transforming this cryptocurrency by their specific use. Ethnographic research took place during the meetings of the community surrounding the Prague place called Parallel Polis in the period of years 2017-2018 and was subsequently extended to the "online" world. Bitcoin forms the intersection between technology and the economy, and therefore emphasis is placed on exploring the dynamics that this complex phenomenon creates. The work examines the social practices that actors are constantly shaping on the basis of their various motivations through their participation in Bitcoin and the complex ideas connected with it. It examines the visions, attitudes and practices of the "bitcoiners", who support the functioning of this system and allows its very own existence. These ideas are characterized by certain paradoxes and dilemmas...

The aim of this study is to explore the links which exist between community development and urban food gardens. South Africa has experienced a twenty five percent growth in the urban population from 2005-2010. It is further predicted that this will increase by a further thirty six percent to thirteen million inhabitants by 2015. The practice of urban agriculture is one of the strategies that can assist in addressing development challenges in an urban setting in South Africa and around the world. Urban agriculture has the potential to provide a survival strategy for the poor and thus contribute to poverty alleviation, employment, food security, social integration and skills transfer. This research explores the economic, social and ecological benefits of the activity, questioning the ways in which the Siyakhana food garden (and larger initiative) contributes to the Siyakhana community. For the purpose of the research the Siyakhana community refers to the Siyakhana group (eight women in the inner city of Johannesburg who run Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDCs)) and the gardeners who work in the food garden. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews, in-depth questionnaires, participant observation and informal conversation, as well as primary and secondary sources. The data was collected for a twelve month period from June 2010 to June 2011. In total the food garden was visited thirty times during the field work and the ECDCs twelve to fifteen times each. Because of the initiatives potential in community development, the focus of the research gives in-depth insights into the Siyakhana group, their history with the initiative, details about their ECDCs and their expectations and their perceived benefits of being involved with the Siyakhana initiative. The key findings of the study are that there are two primary ways in which the Siyakhana group benefit from being involved in the Siyakhana initiative. The benefits relate to the supplementary food which the Siyakhana group receive on a weekly basis and the practical learning environment of the Siyakhana food garden. This research shows that through their connection with the Siyakhana initiative the Siyakhana group act as a conduit for inner city community development. The healthy and nutritious food from the food garden and the knowledge obtained from being involved with the initiative is shared with a range of stakeholders within the inner city. The Siyakhana food garden is a unique example of a community project which embraces the concepts of ecological health promotion in a multiplicity of ways – through the distribution of food, training, conscientisation and mobilisation. Finally the study shows that when exploring the links between urban food gardens and community development it is not a pre-requisite for the community to physically engage in the production activities of the garden for empowerment and skills transfer to take place.

The world-system today promotes inequalities between and within states through the maintenance and strengthening of uneven and hierarchical global relations established by colonialism. The reinforcement of colonial structures has unfolded into neocolonial relations in the post-colonial world, explaining the underdevelopment and marginalization of former colonies in the world-system today, and why many African countries largely experience internal instability on several fronts, revealing how individuals from these states tend to experience some sort of human insecurity. This scenario is permissive to the development of the new wars – representing a different perspective on the patterns of violence and war of contemporaneity – and the new global war economy and its parallel economy. It is from this context that the commodification of migrants happens, challenging and often defying migrants’ access to human rights andhuman security. The present study is therefore primarily a theoretical research and an empirical investigation on the commodification of migrants in contemporary Libya, sustained by four main theoretical frameworks and the analysis of selected secondary materials from international organizations and NGOs. This study aims at addressing the different forms of commodification of migrants in Libya today and who are the actors that control these markets and benefit from the commodification of human life. This analysis evidences the contradiction between the bleak reality of migrants in contemporary Libya and the applicability of the normative concepts of human securityand migrants’ rights.