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<p>Following Bryceson&rsquo / s article, &lsquo / De-agrarianisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Acknowledging the Inevitable&rsquo / , and other related writings in the volume Farewell to Farms, rural development has become a contested academic and policy domain. One side of the debate is characterized by &lsquo / agrarian optimism&rsquo / , mirrored in various state policies and advice from the World Bank / the other side is typified by the de-agrarianisation thesis, which is sceptical regarding the agrarian path to rural development, because it doesn&rsquo / t accord with dominant trends. The main reasons given for the trend of de-agrarianisation are: unfavourable climatic trends, economic adjustments, and population growth. While the de-agrarianisation thesis seems to be a sensible proposition, it has failed to attract many disciples, evidenced by the continuation of current policy directions towards the agrarian optimistic path. The purpose of this study was to assess the applicability of the de-agrarianisation thesis in the Gokwe-Kabiyuni area of Zimbabwe, during a time when the nation went through climatic, economic and political crises. The idea was to assess the influence of such an environment to smallholder farmers in terms of livelihood strategies by observing trends in climate, education, occupation, and crop yields over the period. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to establish whether the de-agrarianisation process can be noted in two villages over the period 1990-2008. A comparative analysis of the experiences of smallholder farmers in these two villages revealed the existence of a cultivation culture and differential agrarian resilience depending on natural resource endowment and levels of infrastructural development, notwithstanding the involvement of the villagers in non-farm activities to diversify their livelihood portfolios.</p>

This thesis discusses the reasons for the emergence of the American counterculture in the mid-1960s, and makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on the subject with an innovative methodology. Historians have neglected to study the counterculture?s grievances, the issues, and events that birthed it, employing a systematic year-by-year analysis. And few have used the sources most appropriate for drawing conclusions: the underground press, a medium hippies used to communicate with other like-minded individuals. This thesis does both. The most imperative factors that led to the emergence of the counterculture can be firmly placed in the first years of the 1960s. Students and dropouts feared the prospect of worldwide nuclear annihilation, and railed against the Cold War and the Cold War consensus that left little in the way of political alternatives. Old Guard liberals became targets, for they seemed to be complacent with America?s foreign policy, which prolonged and entrenched the Cold War world. American society and the Establishment frustrated and angered the young. It posed a danger to civil liberties and equality for minorities, while restricting freedom. Most grievously, American universities and those who ran them sought to assimilate youths into the military-industrial complex, threatening one?s individuality and humanity. Youths resisted becoming a part of the social machine, a cog in the system. These factors, combined with the assassination of Kennedy and the influence of musicians like Bob Dylan and the Beatles, put many on an alienation trajectory. Then, in 1965, Lyndon Johnson committed the first combat troops to Vietnam. America?s involvement in the war sent those who weathered the shocks of the early 1960s spiraling further off into alienation, but the war alone, affecting those coming of age in the mid to late 1960s, produced new hippies, hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The actions of the Establishment, including its war, campus paternalism and bureaucracy, police repression, lack of democracy, the capitalist system, and corrupt government leaders made the young more cynical, angry, disgusted, while the intolerant majority and the prospect of living a conventional lifestyle further alienated youths.

Rural-urban migration in China during the reform era since 1978 is considered the most massive migration in the history of humankind. This migration is creating complex problems that attract continuous and extensive academic investigations. This paper aims at reviewing some of the dynamics that have facilitated this migration and the resulting welfare problems associated with the rapid economic development and urbanization in China. The binary structure of China (not only limited to the economic aspect but also the political and social aspects), the ‘Three Rural Issues” and the Chinese Household Registration (hukou) System are the core factors leading to the rural urban disparities. The disparities have resulted in this massive migration and thus created the bi-polar welfare states between the rural and the urban sectors. The study provides an overview of the marginalization of the rural-urban migrants despite the Chinese leaders’ ongoing appeals to improve the welfare treatment of this group of people. The study focuses on the less studied location of Dongguan, considering that well over 80% of the population of Dongguan are rural migrants. In reviewing the selected welfare indications of the migrants, this study challenges the improvements that the migrants obtained. Comparisons are made between the migrants’ situation in Dongguan and in their hometowns. Comparisons are also made to the selected welfare indicators (wages, social insurances, housing and education) of the migrants and their urban counterparts. / published_or_final_version / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

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published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy