{"id":9490,"date":"2011-04-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-dev.library.illinois.edu\/funkaces\/11_05\/"},"modified":"2011-04-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T00:00:00","slug":"11_05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/funkaces\/11_05\/","title":{"rendered":"ACDC News – Issue 11-05"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Using community radio in managing natural disaster. <\/strong> Not every community faces threats from volcano eruptions, tsunamis, floods, droughts, landslides or earthquakes. However, natural disasters take many forms and some communities prepare for them through emergency community radio. <\/p>\n

One such initiative, Radio Punakawan, involves volunteers and others in Indonesia.\u00a0 Such efforts began as emergency-response community broadcasting.\u00a0 Later, they took on roles in community-based disaster preparedness, as well as in recovery and construction. <\/p>\n

You can learn about it from this recent conference report <\/a> . <\/p>\n

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“Agriculture is cool again.” <\/strong> That headline introduced an article describing a new University of Chicago course about agriculture.\u00a0 Faculty member Kathy Morrison explained how it came into being.\u00a0 She had noted that many of her students in environmental studies and anthropology were increasingly excited about topics related to contemporary agriculture.\u00a0 Some took part in urban gardens. However, she said, they had an underdeveloped sense of how agriculture actually works. <\/p>\n

An archaeologist who studies the history of agricultural change in India, Morrison introduced the course during 2010. Through it, she takes students into arenas as diverse as plant breeding, the role of farm animals, swidden and paddy rice farming, agrodiversity, intensive forms of agriculture and the cultural dimensions of agriculture. More <\/a> . <\/p>\n

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Chat room feedback from rural community workers. <\/strong> An article we added recently from the Journal of Community Informatics <\/em> reported on a pilot study <\/a> in Canada involving rural community workers who used an online chat web site.\u00a0 They were invited to take part in online facilitated discussions about topics linked to their specific interest groups (e.g., economic development, tourism, Chamber of Commerce).\u00a0 Surveys at the end of the project revealed that: <\/p>\n