Analyze

This text builds from earlier conceptions of the term “land dispossession” and “land grab”. As defined by the 2011 International Land Coalition, land grabbing specifically refers to large scale land acquisitions that are “ in violation of human rights, without prior consent of the preexisting land users, and with no consideration of social and environmental impacts”. Characterization of land grabs and their resulting harms most commonly considers the effect of physical displacement and harms within the articulated “grabbed” area (Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2017;Ogwand, 2018;  huaserman, 2018). Li and Pan seek to expand the frame of analysis for land grabs beyond the site of grabbed land to consider the full extent of harms associated with land grabs both geographically (via pollution spillover to areas outside of “grabbed land”) and temporally (via latent “expulsion by pollution). 

 “While the villagers are not passive victims and have adopted various resistance strategies, the space for them to struggle and achieve success is confined and shaped by the existing power asymmetry in which local villagers, capital and local government are embedded.”  (Li and Pan, 2021, p 418). 

“...this framing of land dispossession is problematic in two aspects. Firstly, it obscures an invisible form of land dispossession in which people still maintain control of their land but its use value is damaged by pollution. This kind of indirect land dispossession could lead to expulsion, not due to the direct loss of control over land but by it being rendered useless by pollution.” Li and Pan, 2021, p 409). 

 This text employs a case study approach to characterize how villagers in a village in China have been displaced “in-place” as a result of new industrial activities within the area  (all specific details have been hidden within the publication, wherein the names of villager groups and the site of study itself is referenced only by coded letters). The scale of analysis primarily centers at the village level, though analysis of the case study itself extends towards the country level specifically when analysis of state actors are involved. 

Authors Hua Li and Lu Pan are scholars from China. Li is  affiliated with the College of Humanities and Law at Taiyuan University of Technology, wherein her research focuses specifically on water politics, environmental justice, and rural development and agrarian change. Pan is affiliated with the College of Humanities and Development at China Agricultural University. Her research interests include marginalized communities, rural development, and agrarian change.

The Disaster Resiliance Leadership Academy works to strengthen global humanitarian leadership. The goal of this is to allow for increased resilience in communities and among individuals impacted by natural or manmade disasters. They do this by addressing the causes of vulnerability such as poverty and social inequality. They are able to do this through education, research, and application. 

This was created post-Katrina as a result of failures in disaster leadership. They saw that there as a lack of an organization that focused on leadership and resiliency in producing effective programs or outcomes, which makes DRLS so unique. 

This program is located at Tulane University in New Orleans, but has partnership with Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, and the US. 

Because this is an academy, it does have tuition and fees. They are outlined as: Tuition, per credit hour: $981. Academic Support Fee, per semester: $420. Additional Fees (mandatory):$590 -- (Student Activity: $120, Health Center: $320, Reily Center: $150). Medical Insurance, per academic year: $3,030. Assuming people don't waive the medical insurance, take 16 credit hours (as is the norm for RPI), the yearly cost is: $20,156. 

The Provost's Office provides students up to $500 for travel needed to present a poster or paper at a conference. There are other opportunities to be granted money with the purpose of travel for conferences or training opportunities. 

Other than this information, I could not find who else would fund this academy. I can assume that Tulane takes on part of the burden as well as governmental agencies in their partner countries. 

The "core competencies" as the academy calls them, or the 5 academic pillars that are necessary for DRLA are: human & social factors, economics of disaster, encironment and infrastructure, disaster oprations, and measurement and evaluation. 

In this program, either a Master of Science or a certificate can be obtained. A Master's degree would require 36 credits that can be done in 2 years or in 3 semesters. 18 of these credits must come from core courses that highlight each of the academic pillars as well as 2 research-based courses. The other 18 come from electives, 6 of which must be DRLS. In order to obtain a certificate, 12 credit hours of coursework over 2 semesters is needed. These 12 should be composed of 4 core academic pillar courses.

The aim of this program is "to equip students with a skill-set in emergency preparedness, nonprofit leadership, disaster management, grass-root development, monitoring and evaluation and disaster risk and recovery".  Through this aim and other goals, the requirements for the program create graduates with the professional responsibility, ethical behavior, and integrity expected of leaders in this field. 

It's targeted to individuals who want to become leaders in times of disaster. Because this program targets the role and development of leadership and resilience as a means of producing adequate and effective outcomes, this program targets students who have high integrity and leadership skills.