Regional Reflections
Entrepreneurship and the Issues of Survival and Sustainability in a Diverse Environment: The Case of Sub-Sahara Africa
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Erasmus Kofi Appiah
Entrepreneurship is a major element driving private sector of economies. This phenomenon, when managed properly, generates the needed employment and growth within the society. However, the increase of various ethnic, cultural, religious, and racial groups in societies poses a challenge to the survival and sustainability of entrepreneurship. This trend has been compounded by the upsurge of globalization translating into entrenched differentiated markets and diversity. The diverse nature of sub-Sahara Africa presents a significant challenge to entrepreneurs in this regard. This paper demonstrates that effective management and in-depth understanding of diversity within the sub- Sahara Africa by entrepreneurs will assist them to adequately manage their enterprises and serve the differentiated market, ensuring their survival and sustainability. In this regards, three concepts of diversity and inclusion are explored to validate the argument. The paper employs an exhaustive literature review to contribute to the debate. The paper, therefore, posits that entrepreneurship under-girded by effective management of diversity and inclusion within the societal context under discussion is a lever that spurs survival, sustainability, and the capability of entrepreneurs to serve differentiated markets
Various Initiatives of Civil Society Network in Policy Advocacy on Tenurial Conflict Resolution of Small Islands: A Case Study in Pari Island, Kepulauan Seribu, DKI Jakarta Province, Indonesia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pande Made Kutanagara, Ari Wibowo
This research intends to look at various initiatives in resolving coastal and island-based agrarian conflicts between the Pari Island Communities and the BPA Company. This paper shows that the inhabitants of Pari Island who have migrated since the early 1900s to the island have proven that they have increased their livelihoods through fisheries, coastal cultivation, and sustainable ecotourism. The mindset of the development agenda that tends to favor large scale investment has ignored the diversity of local development practices, resulting in the discrimination and exclusion of coastal communities. Pari Island is part of Kepulauan Seribu which has a long history of structural conflicts (ownership, control, distribution, and access) based on sea, coastal, and island-based tenure that have occurred since the 1990s and that have not been resolved until now. Various initiatives have been carried out at the levels of policy, regulation, mediation, and the offer of agrarian reform of marine, coastal, and small island issues. The efforts involve many parties, such as community, civil society organizations, private sector, and central-local government. However, the efforts to resolve tenurial conflicts have not been comprehensively resolved yet. In a critical agrarian perspective, there are four mandatory requirements in sustainable tenurial management, namely guarantee of access, protection of rights, protection of production systems, and protection of ecosystems. The urgency of the study is to show the variety of policy advocacy initiatives by social movements and their limits in natural resource political policy in Indonesia.
Analysis of Cultural Diversity Concept in Different Countries Using Fractal Analysis
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rezza Moieni
While discussions about the importance of cultural diversity are abundant, there is a significant knowledge gap in how to measure it. This comprises research into the development of a set of quantified dimensions of diversity that can be bench-marked, compared over time, evaluated against adjustable variables, and used to provide recommendations. Our research began with a literature review to identify existing models for measuring diversity. This data was used to identify the best model for quantifying three key parameters of the cultural diversity: ethnicity, language, and beliefs. In this paper, we review current measuring methods of cultural diversity and then we will introduce a new index for measuring cultural diversity of groups based on three distinct measures of ethnics, languages, and worldviews (beliefs) of community members. This index has been developed in a digital tool called Diversity Atlas.
Colonialism and Nationalism, the Foundation of Virulent Anti-Haitain Sentiment in the Dominican Republic: Politics of Exclusion in the Dominican Republic and the Expulsion of Domincans of Haitian Descent
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vignette Fleury
Historic, economic, and political factors have established situational contexts that have and continue to incite virulent anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic. These foundational elements continue to manifest in the form of the humanitarian crisis that is the ongoing expulsion of Dominicans of Haitian descent. Statistics indicated that as of December 2015 as many as 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent have an uncertain citizenship status. Many of these individuals were born in or have lived in the Dominican Republic for generations. Furthermore, a vast number of them only speak Spanish and have never lived in Haiti. They are undeniably culturally bound to the Dominican Republic. However, many Dominicans of Haitian descent have already been deported back to Haiti - those that remain are undergoing a complicated, expensive naturalization process. Their tenuous status makes it impossible to conduct lives with any semblance of normalcy. Adults cannot work legally, and children cannot attend school. Dominicans of Haitian descent have been rendered stateless, non-persons. This study examines the root causes of these social upheavals toward suggested social justice actions to halt them.
