We examined the diffusion of agricultural innovations that improve smallholder well-being in sub-Saharan Africa. Innovations are slowly being accepted in the region, but villagers of Dogonkiria in Niger are an exception in adopting a technology known as farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR). We employed an exploratory qualitative methodology based on Everette Rogers’ diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to investigate the microlevel dynamics behind the success of FMNR. Our findings demonstrate that the top-down technology transfer model required robust local-level participation, with local knowledge being a substantial element in the diffusion process. In effect, the area is experiencing improved crop yield and availability of wood for construction and energy. The results enhance understanding the relationship between external agents (state and non-state actors) and local beneficiaries in the context of new technology dissemination.

Following large environmental conflicts and disasters, economic endeavors -particular large-scale investments in mining or hydropower- are nowadays subjected to rigorous environmental law and regulations. The application of rules and regulations takes place in environmental administration and courts and includes environmental impact assessments (EIAs, and does not correspond to the identical English acronym), licensing processes and litigation in court. Within these contexts, decision making is supposed to be based on rational reasoning and purportedly impartial scientific knowledge and information. Thus, citizens’ rights in resource conflicts and the effective enforcement of these rights in administrative, judicial, and political contestation become highly dependent on knowledge and information and the ways it is produced, interpreted, and valued in the interaction between people affected and investors, lays and experts, bureaucrats, legal practitioners and citizens. Political contestation becomes seemingly a technical dispute. This paper bases on a qualitative study of the conflicts surrounding the establishment of the large-scale iron-ore mining project Minas-Rio, in Conceição do Mato Dentro, Minas Gerais, Brazil, conducted in 2014-2015. It describes the problematic nature of the production of information and knowledge in a given political-economic context and the contestations surrounding the validity of apparently scientific results as they emerged alongside the environmental licensing process. Environmental studies and their technical evaluations are based on questionable assumptions and often lack accurate baseline data. The deficiency of public resources for independent investigation makes the environmental agencies dependent on services and information provided by mining companies. Apart from this form of collaboration, the prioritization of allegedly scientific “expert” knowledge, career trajectories of agencies’ personnel, and pressure by pro-mining politicians leads to the uncritical adoption of data, information and knowledge provided by the company and/or the consultancy firms employed by them. At the same time, information given by the people affected and environmentalists becomes sidelined. Thereby, the basic environmental and citizen rights, as the rights to information concerning the environment and to participation in licensing processes, guaranteed in the Brazilian constitution and environmental legislation, become ineffective.

In northern Ghana, many young people, but also parents, teachers, and local authorities, believe that formal education and professional careers provide the only effective means for the rural youth to get ahead. This paper shows how aspirations have been historically changing and analyses the extent to which new career pathways lead to upward social mobility. Results from qualitative and quantitative research show how weak public education and a lack of funding as well as employment opportunities frustrate local aspirations and undermine upward social mobility. However, more stable cultural models of personal success based on an interesting mix of local social values and developmental discourses afford the marginalized youth avenues to social recognition and status.