From 1877 to 1896, Maine courts sentenced six women accused of infanticide to imprisonment for life. This harsh punishment was in stark contrast to the more lenient punishments given infanticides elsewhere. A close look at these cases through court documents, newspaper accounts, pardon petitions, and attorney general reports suggests that the trials marked a shift in the justice system in Maine as the state increasingly asserted its control over the communities’ response to crime. Historically, women’s expertise with regard to women’s bodies provided a place for them within the local legal system. Under the purview of the state’s attorneys general, the state increasingly assumed control over the detection, adjudication, and punishment of crime. While community members responded to crime with attention to the individual and the circumstances, the state called for the universal application of the written law regardless of the context and claimed that swift and inevitable retribution was necessary to protect all. This shift from the local to the state had a particular impact on women and their role within the community. Long accustomed to arbitrating issues surrounding pregnancy, women found their power to do so subverted and replaced by middle class professionals in distant urban locations.

Human–wildlife interactions (HWIs) occur in many rural African communities, with potential impacts on livelihood vulnerability. High livelihood vulnerability may force communities to employ strategies that increase the risk of negative HWIs, yet the extent to which HWIs drive or are driven by vulnerability is unclear. We hypothesized that more vulnerable households are more likely to be exposed to wildlife and experience negative interactions. To test this hypothesis, we calculated the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) of rural households in and around Quirimbas National Park (north-eastern Mozambique) and assessed whether there is a link between livelihood vulnerability and HWIs. We found a two-way association between LVI and HWIs, with more vulnerable households indeed taking greater risks and encountering wildlife when fetching water from rivers, whereas less vulnerable households tended not to employ strategies likely to increase wildlife encounters. We also observed that HWIs exert a strong effect on livelihood vulnerability, suggesting that HWIs should be included as an exposure factor in vulnerability assessments for rural households. We recommend that livelihood strategies and community vulnerability should be considered when designing HWI mitigation schemes and implementing conservation measures.

Active participation in social activities is important for the wellbeing of older adults. This study explored benefits of active social engagement by evaluating whether relationships that comprise active involvement (e.g. co-engagement in activities) bring more social benefits (i.e. social support, companionship, positive social influence) than other relationships that do not involve co-engagement. A total of 133 adults ages 60 years and older living in a rural Midwestern city in the United States of America were interviewed once and provided information on 1,740 social network members. Among 1,506 social relationships in which interactions occurred at least once a month, 52 per cent involved engagement in social activities together and 35 per cent involved eating together regularly. Results of the generalised linear mixed model showed that relationships involving co-engagement were significantly more likely to also convey social support (i.e. emotional, instrumental, informational), companionship and social influence (encouragement for healthy behaviours) than relationships that do not involve co-engagement. Having more network members who provide companionship was associated with higher sense of environmental mastery, positive relations with others and satisfaction with social network. Interventions may focus on maintaining and developing such social relationships and ensuring the presence of social settings in which co-engagement can occur. Future research may explore whether increasing co-engagement leads to an enhanced sense of companionship and psychological wellbeing.

Three economic opportunities are presented for rural areas in this invitedpaper session: self-employment, investments in broadband infrastructure, andagritourism. Self-employment has shown growth in rural regions at theexpense of wage and salary employment in the long-term. Productionagriculture interests by themselves are unlikely to provide sufficientfunding to expand infrastructure for broadband in rural areas. Agritourismapproaches appear to be very wide ranging with many educational demandsneeding to be met to maximize its diversification possibilities. Researchand extension faculty should be careful to focus on explaining the tradeoffsof these opportunities so that rural stakeholders do not fall victim to thelatest academic economic development fad.

Since the Internet's inception its impact has been felt across the UnitedStates, but the distribution and adoption of the Internet has notnecessarily been uniform geographically. As more consumers and businessesrely on the Internet to access information, the data transmissionrequirements have also increased. Consequently, access to broadband hasbecome increasingly more important since dial-up cannot realistically handlethe increased requirements. The use of broadband in agriculture can providebetter access to price, weather, and management information while alsoopening new markets. However, many rural communities lag behind urban areasin broadband access and adoption rates. This study evaluates, through theuse of a producer survey, the level of broadband Internet use, motivationsfor its use, degree of access to broadband, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) tofund broadband infrastructure investments. Results from the producer surveysuggested farmers utilize the Internet primarily for accessing weatherreports, e-mail, market reports, and agricultural news. Notably, thesurvey's WTP questions allowed for the use of an interval regression tocalculate producer WTP for varying demographics. The results suggested thatproducers who were younger, farmed larger farms, and those who currently usethe Internet but do not have broadband access were WTP more in propertytaxes to support broadband infrastructure investments than those of adiffering demographic. Because WTP levels varied drastically depending onthe underlying demographics, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a WTP levelfor a one-time payment in property taxes that would be acceptable from apolicy standpoint.

The importance of scavenging chicken production in the national economy of developing nations of Africa and its role in improving the nutritional status and income of many smallholder farmers has been recognised by several scholars and policy makers the world around. Scavenging chicken production is a profitable enterprise that contributes to poverty reduction especially among the resource challenged rural communities in most parts of the developing world. It is particularly suitable to smallholder farmers and landless peasants due to low capital investment, high cost efficiency, flexible production systems and low production risks. It has also a symbolic significance within the context of socio-cultural as well as religious functions and economically empowers the rural youth and women. Chicken meat and eggs provide a readily available, high-quality source of proteins, vitamins and micronutrients which are particularly essential for children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Moreover, meat and egg from scavenging chicken present one of the most environmentally efficient animal protein production systems.

The major challenges of the scavenging chicken production in Africa include high chicken mortality due to predation and regular outbreaks of diseases notably Newcastle disease; imbalanced nutrition due to poor quality and quantity of feed materials; lack of organised marketing system and low performance related genetic potentials. The growing demand for scavenging chicken products in urban areas, identification and promotion of ethno-veterinary medicines, developing locally made and appropriate housing structures, selection among the scavenging chickens, organising farmers to increase bargaining power and shortening the marketing chain are considered as the major opportunities for the improvement of scavenging chicken production in Africa. The significance of indigenous chickens for farmers in African countries combined with many consumers’ preference for their eggs and meat suggests that these genetic resources are promising options for food security in the rural communities.

Background: Increasing out-of-pocket health expenditure among older people worsens the inequitable access to essential health services in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). We investigated various socioeconomic and health factors associated with out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among rural older people in India.

Methods: We recruited 1,000 participants aged above 65 years from Kaniyambadi block, Vellore, India. We assessed their out-of-pocket health expenditure, health service utilization, socioeconomic profiles, disability, cognition, and health status by standard instruments. We employed appropriate multivariate statistics evaluating these determinants.

Results: Male gender, poor sanitation, diabetes, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory ailments, gastrointestinal diseases, dementia, depression, and disability were associated with higher out-of-pocket expenditures. Illiteracy, tuberculosis, diabetes, and dementia increased the risk for catastrophic health expenditures, while pension schemes protected against it. Income inequalities were associated with inequities on education, disease prevalence, and access to safe water, sanitation, and nutrition.

Conclusions: Interactions between determinants of out-of-pocket health expenditure, economic inequality, and inequities on essential health care delivery to older people are complex. We highlight the need for equitable health services and policies, focusing on both medical and social determinants.