Knut G. Nustad

Activation of EphA receptors on CD4+CD45RO+ memory cells stimulates migration

We have demonstrated previously that binding of ephrin‐A1 to EphA receptors on human CD4+ and CD8+ T cells stimulates migration. Two EphA receptors have been reported in T cells: EphA1 at the protein level and EphA4 at the mRNA level. In this study, we wanted to investigate the expression profile of these receptors in T cell subpopulations and to test if expression differences would affect the potential of cells to migrate upon ephrin‐A1 binding. We have generated an anti‐EphA4 mAb for expression analysis. Our data show that functional EphA4 is expressed on the cell surface of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. In addition, EphA4 receptor expression is induced after overnight incubation in serum‐free medium, in particular, on CD4+CD45RO+ T cells. Migration of CD4+ T cells in response to ephrin‐A1 is observed for memory cells (CD45RO+) and much weaker for naïve cells (CD45RA+). A signaling complex associated with the EphA4 receptor has also been isolated and includes EphA1, the Src family kinases Fyn and Lck, Slp76, and Vav1. To conclude, T cells express EphA1 and EphA4 receptors. Expression differences of EphA4 are observed in subpopulations of CD4+ T cells. This is related to the cell migration potential after ephrin‐A1 binding.

Performing Natures and Land in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa

The article experiments with a performative approach to examine the changing relationships between humans, animals and flora around South Africas first World Heritage Site as enacted, multiple realities. These relations are explored by using two strategies: first, describing the transformation of earlier sets of relationships into present-day conservation natures – from hunting, through preservation of big game, to the establishment of game reserves and later their transformation into contemporary conservation natures. The second part of the article shifts ordering strategy and tells of competing enactments in and around the park today. By using both these approaches, the article seeks to address the way in which some actors seem to be able to impose their version of nature to the exclusion of other realities.

‘Property’ and ‘Rights’ in a South African Land Claim Case

Worlds of Human Rights presents ethnographic studies from Sub Saharan Africa that highlight how individuals and groups use human rights to achieve greater justice. It shows how struggles concerning land, property, gender equality and legal identity are shaped by contexts of history, power structures and legal pluralism.

The Ends of Development: Comments on an Obituary

Summary Knut G. Nustad, ‘The Ends of Development: Comments on an Obituary’, Forum for Development Studies, 1997:1, pp. 155–166. The idea of development has been challenged by an increasing number of critics in the last decade. This article examines and discusses this critique and argues that much of the confusion surrounding the concept stems from conflating two meanings of development—development as an intentional action and as an immanent process. It is argued that the continuation of development projects can be explained by looking at their instrumental and largely unintended consequences, which include the depoliticisation of poverty and the extension of bureaucratic structures. The history of development discourses in South Africa is used to illustrate this. The article ends by arguing that ‘new’ approaches that try to salvage development from the notion of trusteeship, recreate the problems they set out to solve by confusing the means and the goals of development.