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The main purpose of this research is to investigate factors influencing rural women entrepreneurship development and sustainable rural livelihoods in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.

A quantitative research was conducted in Manicaland province in Zimbabwe. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 400 women entrepreneurs in various sectors. The participants were in vegetable vending, operating clothing flea markets and cross border trading. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Structural equation modeling in SmartPLS version 3 was used to test the research hypotheses.

The study established that women entrepreneurship is driven by financial factors, positive environmental factors, positive psychological factors as well as positive sociological factors for a sustainable rural livelihood.

It is clear that if the discovered challenges are not addressed, sustainability of women entrepreneurship will remain a dream.

The study came up with strategies for improving women entrepreneurship activities. Future research can be done in other areas of provinces to avoid generalization challenges.

Many challenges hinder the sustainability of women entrepreneurship. Major impediments to women entrepreneurship comprises inadequate support from government schemes, patriarchal societal structure of the community, lack of relevant entrepreneurial knowledge to manage businesses, lack of collateral security to access funding, time limitation or role conflict to balance family pressures and business.

The study recommends proper entrepreneurship education and training, supportive government schemes and access to network affiliation/connection to sustain women entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the feasibility of strategic planning in times of turbulent economic conditions.

This paper discusses how various Zimbabwean organizations incorporated the aspect of strategic planning during the period 2007‐2009 in order to establish its relevance in different economic situations.

Strategic planning process is very difficult to carry out during turbulent economic conditions though there are some aspects of the process that are indispensible.

Organizations can survive without sticking to their strategic plans in times of turbulent economic environment.

The situation that prevailed in Zimbabwe in 2007‐2009 was unique and this paper endeavours to analyse the feasibility of strategic planning in a turbulent economic environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the debilitating socio-economic impact caused by the diamonds at Chiadzwa area in Zimbabwe on the illegal mining community that emerged and inhabited the hills of Chiadzwa between 2006 and the beginning of 2009. The research was carried out for academic proposes, as an advocacy strategy to expose the abuses and violent state operations perpetrated by the security forces. In addition, it intends to equip policy makers and implementers about the heavy handedness of Zimbabwe's security sector during its operations in the area in an effort to enable policy implementers to defend the rights of the affected people at Chiadzwa.

The methodology engaged was chiefly qualitative and the study was a product of primary sources (especially in-depth interviews) and secondary sources (text books, journal articles, newspapers and the internet). Purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to collect the data between 2007 and 2009. Collected data were analysed and compiled between 2009 and 2013. Some of the names used in this study for our respondents are pseudo and this was done to ensure anonymity and secure the providers of information against possible retribution. On the other hand real names were used in particular where violent state driven operations were discussed.

Initially the government of Zimbabwe was reluctant to intervene in the illegal extraction of diamonds in search of political leverage. Later it responded with violent manipulative strategies and operations with detrimental consequences on the illegal miners. The brutal strategies employed by individuals and the state led to injury, illness and death of people amid a harsh socio-economic environment.

A number of respondents preferred to use pseudonyms because they feared that information collected could be used against them.

The study is a good example of conflict between the state machinery and its citizens over a natural resource. It reveals excessive use of force by the state which appears to be the norm in other countries where diamonds are dubbed “blood diamonds”.

In the midst of the diamond-related violence a new and vibrant social identity emerged commonly referred to as magweja. The area experienced challenges especially with regards to the provision of health services and the traditional use of herbs was endangered by the destruction of vegetation.

It reveals a milieu, state regulation enforcement and security agents, magombiro (armed robbers or murderers) all who discharged violence on magweja the foremost victims of the violent systems and practices. In addition, it encourages policy markers and implementers to devise non-violent strategies when dealing with illegal exploitation of natural resources.

The purpose of this paper is to search for connections rather than particularisation, for two exceptional figures: Broekaert and Platel, and to explore the intersections between science and art, art and science.

In this paper the authors work with a bricolage of possible lines and layers in a complex web of stories associated with the life story, career and private life of Eric Broekaert and of Alain Platel.

Broekaert felt the need to look for methods which had been tested in accordance with the models of hard science. In addition, and in alternating combinations, he searched for deeper layers via etymology, history, philosophy and art. Orthopedagogics as a righteous search for a good/happy life. For Platel, the choreographer of Ballets C de la B, accepting the imperfect/unfinished/abnormal brought the world of orthopedagogics and his work with dancers closer together. The “suffering”, the “abnormal” and the fear and aversion to these, the beautiful/poetic in what is different, looking at the abnormal and wanting to be looked at … are all questions which arise and connect orthopedagogics as a science with Platel’s productions. Platel poses the question: in what world do we want to live?

The authors need Eric Broekaert, Alain Platel and their work as a source of inspiration and as a bridge to new, not yet enough discovered ways of looking at “difference”.

SOCIALLY, the two conferences can only be described as a huge success. The local arrangements for the entertainment of delegates were complete, and the receptions, banquets and excursions gave great pleasure to all who took part in them. To most of the English‐speaking delegates the trip to Brussels possessed the additional charm of novelty, and thus the week's proceedings assumed a holiday character. Save those who were suffering from mislaid baggage, and blistered feet caused by the trottoirs économiques de Bruxelles, a general note of gaiety prevailed, particularly among the British and Canadian representatives. Most of the American delegates were ladies, and they were all looking more or less tired, or were tormented by the thought of lost Saratoga trunks, which gave them a serious and detached appearance. The absence of attentive male librarians may also have contributed to the gloomy aspect which so many of them wore. Is it possible that the overwhelming feminine note in American librarianship is the key to the many discrepancies in library policy and work which have been observed by different writers? However that may be, it was distinctly noticeable that in comparison with their English, Dutch, Swedish and Belgian sisters, the American lady librarians were a tired and unhappy company. There were one or two noble exceptions, but the memory of these we prefer to hug in secret as a precious treasure.

1950, the centenary year of public libraries, now with us, must be a year of intense interest to all who read THE LIBRARY WORLD. Preparations have been made by the Library Association on very generous lines for its celebration. We have our Royal Charter, and now we have the privilege of the Consort of the Heir to the Throne as our President. What is more, H.M. the King has become our Patron. Who shall think meanly of librarians and their work hereafter? No longer, too, shall librarians think meanly of themselves. The writer of this month's Letters on Our Affairs, with some of which we may not entirely agree, is surely right in his assertion that the profession “is arriving.”

K C Harrison, City Librarian of Westminster since 1961, is to be next year's President of the Library Association. For three years, until 1939, he was Branch Librarian in Coulsdon and Purley and in sequence was then Borough Librarian of Hyde, Cheshire; Hove; and Eastbourne; and Chief Librarian of Hendon before taking up his present post.

The decision of the Council of the Library Association not to hold a Conference this year will surprise only those who are not satisfied with the present progress of the library movement in this country. If we ventured to judge by the absence of complaints at this decision our conclusion would necessarily be that by far the greater number of librarians are thus satisfied. It is only when a comprehensive glance at the whole movement is taken that doubts arise in our mind that we should like to see resolved. We are to rest in acquiescent contentment with the present silence and apparent inactivity. Other bodies, probably possessed of less wisdom—professional associations, trades unions, and similar organizations—are meeting with a certain eagerness and enthusiasm which, in the circumstances, must be rather bewildering to our placid Council.

Guidance on the many questions of life can be found in stories and tales. These are carriers of a collective wisdom gathered by our forebearers which resonates deep within our minds and souls. The chapter builds upon C. G. Jung’s work on archetypes to reflect upon the pitfalls and challenges facing organisations and individuals who wish to improve lives. Two tales are introduced and discussed with a view to highlighting how lessons can be drawn from tales with practical implications for organisational life and for the implementation of meaningful change in relation to well-being inside and outside of work. The tales notably bring attention to the learning and maturing process of a consciousness overly identified with certain aspects of the archetypal masculine and outline how generative solutions need not be sought out far from home; instead, the undervalued wisdom of a grounded, earthy archetypal feminine are ready to be engaged with if only we open our mind and heart to her.