Showing papers in "Development and Change in 1994"

Governance, the State and the Politics of Development

Abstract: Current western aid and development policy aims to promote ‘good governance’ in the third world. Few would deny that competent, open and fair administration is both a worthy aim and a self-evident requirement of development. However, the current orthodoxy clearly illustrates the technicist fallacy, which is implicit in the following quotation from Pope, that the effective administration or ‘management’ of development is essentially a technical or practical matter. This article argues that development is fundamentally a political matter and that it is illusory to conceive of good governance as independent of the forms of politics and type of state which alone can generate, sustain and protect it. For Forms of Government, let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered, is best. (Pope, 1734: Bk 3, lines 303-4).

Parks and People: Livelihood Issues in National Parks Management in Thailand and Madagascar

Abstract: In many countries, the transformation by the state of increasing areas of land and aquatic resources into strictly protected areas has included a total restriction on the use of park resources by the local people, causing poverty and social conflict, and in some cases further environmental deterioration. This essay examines the forms of management in national parks in developing countries in general, and in Thailand and Madagascar in particular.

Women's interests and empowerment: gender planning reconsidered.

Abstract: This article looks at the empowerment approach in relation to issues of women and development. After explaining why this is currently the most fruitful perspective in the field of gender planning, it then goes on to explore two central problems of the empowerment approach. The first problem is the conceptualization of women's gender interests. The distinction between women's practical and strategic gender interests was introduced by Molyneux and popularized by Moser. It is argued here that this distinction is theoretically unfounded and empirically untenable. Secondly, gender planners tend towards a preference for simplified tools and quantifiable targets. Here it is argued that women's realities should not be bent into this planning framework but that instead planners, working from an empowerment perspective, should demonstrate flexibility and theoretical grounding, and be aware of the political dimensions of their work.

Export‐led Technology Development in the Four Dragons: The Case of Electronics

Abstract: To date, little attention has been paid to the strategies of local firms in bringing about industrialization in Bast Asia. This article focuses on the methods by which domestic firms utilized foreign connections to overcome technology and market barriers in electronics. A simple market-technology model is developed as a first approximation of how domestic technology assimilation relates to export marketing in the four ‘Dragons' of East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). It proposes that export demand shaped the pace and pattern of technological progress in electronics in each of the four Dragons. Historical evidence shows that each country used a distinctive mix of direct and indirect export mechanisms to acquire technology and to enter international markets. Foreign buyers, transnational corporations (TNCs), original equipment manufacturer (OEM) arrangements, joint ventures and licensing deals were exploited by ‘latecomer’ firms to their market and technology advantage. Asian firms progressed from simple assembly tasks to more sophisticated product design and development capabilities, travelling ‘backwards' along the product life cycle of traditional innovation models. Today, leading Asian firms invest heavily in R&D and engage in partnerships with TNCs to acquire and develop advanced new electronics technologies. The technological progress of latecomers remains closely coupled to export demand through OEM and other institutional arrangements.

Ecological conflicts and the environmental movement in India.

Abstract: Nature-based conflicts have increased in frequency and intensity in India. They revolve around competing claims over forests, land, water and fisheries, and have generated a new movement struggling for the rights of victims of ecological degradation. The environmental movement has added a new dimension to Indian democracy and civil society. It also posesan ideological challenge to the dominant notions of the meaning, content and patterns of development.

NGOs and sustainable development in Zimbabwe: no magic bullets.

Abstract: A number of case studies of NGO projects have suggested that NGOs may have an important role to play in addressing environmental problems in developing countries. Drawing on research conducted in Zimbabwe this analysis seeks to broaden and contextualize the discussion of NGO involvement in sustainable development initiatives. It reviews the theoretical basis for the current emphasis on NGOs assesses the environmental problems in Zimbabwe within their historical and social contexts and summarizes the findings of recent research on the characteristics of the NGO sector in the country. The purpose is not to evaluate specific NGO environment projects but rather to assess the mechanisms through which the NGO sector as a whole might make a significant contribution to sustainable development and the problems in doing so. It is argued that one major obstacle faced by NGOs is the demand made upon them to find simple neat and comprehensive solutions to complex development problems. The tendency on the part of donors and NGO supporters to expect success stories is called here the magic bullet syndrome and it is argued that this emphasis on simplicity and on success is unrealistic and counterproductive. (authors)

Sustaining the Forests: The Community‐based Approach in South and South‐East Asia

Abstract: The concept of sustainability emphasizes four basic principles when applied to rural communities: that basic needs must be met; that resources should be subject to local control; that local communities must have a decisive voice in planning; and that they should represent themselves through their own institutions. These principles have been notionally accepted by development planners and conservationists at all levels. Yet, throughout the tropical forest belt, they are being systematically overridden by international and national policies and development programmes, leading to increasing poverty, social conflict and rapid deforestation. Traditional knowledge and systems of land use have proved far more environmentally appropriate, resilient and complex than initially supposed by outsiders. Forest peoples have successfully opposed many socially and environmentally destructive development schemes proposed for their lands. However, these societies are not resisting all change: population increase and the internal dynamic for development have also created social and environmental problems. A review of community-based initiatives in South and South-East Asia shows that in some countries, positive initiatives have been taken by local and national governments to promote a community-based approach. Notable successes have been achieved but many other initiatives have failed. The examples show that, besides the four principles noted above, environmentally successful management also depends on innovative political organization at the community level.

Drought as a Revelatory Crisis: An Exploration of Shifting Entitlements and Hierarchies in the Kalahari, Botswana

Abstract: This article analyses drought in Botswana as a ‘revelatory crisis' in which structural contradictions as well as deteriorating socio-economic conditions are exposed. Paradoxically, however, drought also enables such conditions to be concealed because they can be attributed to the ‘crisis' and not to deeper problems and trends. In addition, crises such as droughts disrupt conventional routine sufficiently to allow actors (including government policy-makers as well as rural producers) to innovate with normative codes. This fact along with the opening up of structural fault lines often leads to accelerated rates of social change. Change is analysed here both in terms of the structural conditions in which it takes place (and alters) and with regard to the actions taken by individuals and institutions in order to reveal the links between structure and agency. The article draws upon an extended case study from Central Botswana and utilizes Sen's method of entitlement analysis to examine changing social processes.

Non-Governmental Organizations and Poverty Alleviation in Bolivia

Abstract: During the 1980s and early 1990s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) proliferated throughout Latin America and their role as planners and implementers of development projects grew dramatically. The economic crisis affecting Latin American governments is one factor that has contributed to the expansion of NGOs. Political and institutional changes associated with major modifications of state policies have also opened new spaces for NGOs as alternatives to state agencies in efforts to alleviate poverty and promote development. The authoritarianism that characterized the 1970s and the installation of formally democratic governments in the 1980s have both contributed to the expansion of NGOs, as have the imposition of structural adjustment programs followed by the consolidation of neoliberal economic policies, sponsored by the IMF, the multilateral development banks, and major bilateral donors.

Children, work and 'child labour' : changing responses to the employment of children

Abstract: textWorking children and young people occupy a relatively weak and easily exploitable position in work relations and in the labour market. As a social group, they share this problem with various other structurally- disadvantaged social groups in society (examples are women, e!liiiic minorities or migrants and the disabled). However, they are the only-one among such groups whose exploitation is generally addressed by attempts to remove them completely from the labour market, rather-17 than by efforts to improve the terms and conditions under which they work. What is the basis for treating the 'child labour~,:p~oblem in such a different way: i.e. by demanding special laws and regulations excluding this category of persons from access to employment, rather than by demanding the abolition of discrimination against them?

Community-based fisheries management, tradition and the challenges of development in Marovo, Solomon Islands.

Abstract: This study examines traditional fisheries-related resource management through a case in which local communities, from a basis of customary, ‘common property’ control over the sea and its resources, handle a multitude of development issues. Presenting first some important issues relating to people's role in fisheries management and to the ‘common property’ debate, the article then describes a traditional system for management of land and sea resources in a Pacific Islands society; that of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Emphasis is given to fisheries resources, with a view to explaining in practical terms how a system of customary marine tenure operates under the wider social, political, economic and ecological circumstances of change arising from development pressures. Against this background, assessments are made of the viability of this traditional fisheries management system under present conditions of state control and of both external and internal pressures for large-scale resource development enterprises.

Economic Restructuring, Coping Strategies and Social Change: Implications for Institutional Development in Africa

Abstract: Since the early 1980s, most African countries have experienced unsatisfactory rates of economic growth and profound changes in livelihood systems, which have affected the way their modern institutions function. However, when confronted with evidence of poor economic performance in countries undergoing adjustment, the international financial institutions often blame governments for their lack of political will in regulating the activities of bureaucrats and vested interests. They recommend policies aimed at restructuring public sector institutions through privatization, public expenditure cuts, retrenchment, new structures of incentives and decentralization. Despite efforts to implement these measures in a number of countries, the problems of low institutional capacity remain. Two key contradictions appear to explain why institutions have been largely ineffective in crisis economies in Africa: the growing contradiction between the interests of bureaucratic actors and the goals they are supposed to uphold; and the contradiction between the institutional set-up itself and what goes on in the wider society. To understand how these contradictions work, it is necessary to look more closely at the set of values and relationships that anchor institutions on social systems. The issues here are social compromise and cohesion; institutional socialization and loyalties; overarching sets of values; and political authority to enforce rules and regulations. The crises in these four areas of social relations, which are linked to the ways households and groups have coped with recession and restructuring, have altered Africa's state institutions so that it has become difficult to carry out meaningful development programmes and public sector reforms without addressing the social relations themselves.

Thinking Politically about Sustainable Development in the Tropical Forests of Latin America

Abstract: This article examines a number of factors which facilitate the adoption and success, of policies and projects to promote grassroots sustainable development - that is, the sustainable, multiple use of forests at the community level, including aspects of local self-reliance and control of economic resources. I will argue that the extractive reserve legislation in Brazil and community forestry projects in Mexico and Peru depended on the formation of pro-grassroots development coalitions. The exact make-up of those coalitions depended on three factors: (1) the initial disposition of key governmental and dominant class actors to such policies; (2) the intensity of local conflicts and the extent of community organization; and (3) the involvement of international actors. The cases suggest that in the absence of serious government or upper class opposition, the adoption and durability of such policies and projects can be promoted by the formation of a coalition of organized communities, domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), some allied government agencies, and support from international actors. However, when key government agencies and socio-economic tlites are fundamentally opposed to sustainable development initiatives at the grassroots level, much higher levels of community organization, conflict, and domestic and international support appear to be necessary. The debate over the fate of tropical forests has mostly concentrated on uncovering the causes of deforestation in order to advance policy prescriptions that might halt the destruction. The causes identified and the prescriptions put forward have differed, largely in accordance with the different implicit and explicit definitions of development - with or without the adjective ‘sustainable’ - and the role of international actors in the development process. Yet, although opinions over the correctness of diagnoses and solutions often diverge, the discussion in general has suffered from a common shortcoming: few studies have explored the factors that impel, or compel, Latin American governments to adopt those policy prescriptions. To contribute to that discussion, this article examines conditions that seem conducive to the adoption of policies, programmes, and projects that favour sustainable development at the grassroots in tropical forests. In this context, these are defined as measures that encourage the sustainable, multiple use

Social and Political Dimensions of Environmental Protection in Central America

Abstract: This study takes a critical look at mainstream efforts to protect and rehabilitate the environment in Central America. Despite some notable successes, many forest protection and tree planting schemes have not been effectively implemented and have even contributed to further environmental degradation, social inequality and impoverishment. It is argued that the trade-off between environmental protection and human welfare which characterizes many schemes to protect forests and promote tree planting undermines not only local livelihoods but also the possibility of achieving basic environmental objectives, given the nature of local responses and their effects on project implementation. There is a need for a more integrative and socially-aware approach to environmental planning which addresses two fundamental problems: the failure to locate environmental protection initiatives within a broader development framework and the failure to integrate concerns for environmental protection with the needs and rights of local people. Addressing these two problems of ‘macro-’ and ‘micro-coherency’ in environmental planning requires not only dealing with the many technical, administrative and financial constraints which typically characterize environmental programmes and projects, but also changes in the balance of social forces.

Environment, Technology and Employment: Towards a New Definition of Sustainable Development

Abstract: This article analyses the interrelations between environment, employment and technology in the process of development. A new concept of sustainable development is introduced which makes a distinction between environmental problems associated with high income levels and technological progress and those related to underdevelopment and technological stagnation. The latter category accounts for a major proportion of environmental problems facing poor agrarian economies which are undergoing a process of forced environmental degradation. It is argued that in these types of economies there is a complementarity between economic development and employment generation and the preservation of the environment. It is further shown that in such economies, where the ultimate causes of environmental degradation may be far removed from the immediate environmental issues, conventional environmental policies may be counterproductive.

Gender, Environment and Population

Abstract: Field research in Malaysia Kenya and Mexico illustrates the role of gender factors in social adaptations to environmental change. Approximately 150 household surveys were conducted in the environmentally diverse field sites--the Limbang river base in Sarawak Malaysia; the Embu district on the slopes of Mount Kenya; and Xochimilco a peri-urban settlement in the south of Mexico City. In Malaysia devaluation of the traditional forest-based economy and a shift from a natural resources livelihood base to dependence on male employment away from the river communities have undermined the previous flexibility in gender roles. Male absenteeism has shifted the work burden in subsistence food production entirely to women but women lack the access to cash that can be used to maintain the productivity of subsistence agriculture.. This situation has in turn cut women off from the educational opportunities available to them in Malaysia by increasing their responsibility for child care and housework. In Kenya traditional and tenure and inheritance systems restricted womens power even before recent declines in the availability of firewood and clean water. Outmigration by male household heads observed in 20% of the Kenyan sample has caused women and children to be the most affected by the poverty stimulated by environmental changes. Moreover discriminatory land use rights block women from taking actions such as tree planting that would improve economic conditions in the area. In Mexico pervasive water pollution in the urban area studied has both undermined agricultural productivity and produced serious family health hazards. Womens ability to serve as environmental risk managers is compromised by their lack of education and economic need to spend large amounts of time away from home in market employment. Unless public policy measures that address the environmental crises in the study areas are implemented womens socioeconomic status will continue to decline and fertility decline will be in jeopardy.

The Quality of Aid: Measuring Trends in Donor Performance

Abstract: Donor performance can be quantified in four ways: (1) by the amount of aid given; (2) the terms and conditions under which it is given; (3) the extent to which it is tied; and (4) by its allocation to recipients. The way in which each of these criteria can be used to measure donor performance is discussed. The evolution of international guidelines by the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD for each performance criteria and actual donor performance in these areas are also addressed. Finally, these four aspects are brought together into a single performance indicator by means of ‘aid diamonds’.

Non‐economic Bases of Economic Behaviour: The Consumption, Investment and Exchange Patterns of Three Emigrant Communities in Kerala, India

Abstract: This article takes issue with the rational choice approach that views the economy as an autonomous realm where isolated individuals make maximizing choices in terms of their personal preferences. The argument made is that income generation, consumption and exchange form a holistic complex that must be studied in its unity and that the economy and individual economic behaviour are articulated with a social context. This is demonstrated by evidence (collected through fieldwork) on the differences in the use of remittances by three villages in Kerala, India, which have experienced large scale migration to the Middle Eastern countries. In the three cases, it was the way in which income earned from international migration was perceived, together with the variation in ethnic structures, that explained the similarities and differences in their consumption, exchange and investment patterns. In each case, it was the larger ethnic structure that conditioned (1) the types of activities into which the money was channelled; (2) the range of people who were the beneficiaries of migrant remittances; (3) the patterns of reciprocity or charity practised by the migrants; (4) the selection of the trade-off point between community status and economic accumulation; and; (5) the groups of individuals who gained or lost economic control.

Ecological Knowledge and the Regional Economy: Environmental Management in the Asesewa District of Ghana

Abstract: This study examines perceptions of the environment in farming communities in the forest ecotone of Ghana. It places local knowledge within a socio-economic and historical context and argues that knowledge is continually evolving, attempting to solve existing problems and discovering new ones. It maintains that favourable conditions exist in farming communities for environmental actions and development approaches based on sustainable development, since these areas have suffered from the negative effects of degradation. However, major constraints exist within the wider political economy and policy framework, which is still locked into environmentally-hostile export-oriented production, and political models which marginalize rural people.

Is There a Conflict Between Growth and Welfarism? The Significance of the Sri Lanka Debate

Abstract: This article seeks to derive some general lessons regarding the relationship between growth and welfarism by undertaking a reassessment of Sri Lanka's long experience with interventions in social spheres. While Sri Lanka has been hailed by many for pursuing the welfarist strategy with apparently spectacular results, several critics have recently suggested that she would have been better off by diverting resources away from welfare interventions towards investment for growth. They have argued that the interventions were not terribly effective anyway, and further that welfarism involved a conflict with growth which eventually undermined the very sustainability of welfarist strategy. This article contests these criticisms, and argues in its turn that the Sri Lankan experience offers a lesson not in the conflict but in the complementarity between growth and welfarism.

Economics of Marriage Change in a South Indian Village

Abstract: The Indian marriage system has undergone major changes in the last few decades. Studies have found an expansion and intensification of dowry and increase in age at marriage. Using information from a village in Tamil Nadu south India this article shows that recent marriage changes in the study village (increased number of love-marriages and stagnation or slight decline in marriage age) are caused by the economic independence and personal autonomy among the younger generation which are products of major changes in the socio-economic organization of the society. (EXCERPT)

The Structure of ‘Revealed‘ Preference: Race, Community and Female Labour Supply in the London Clothing Industry

Abstract: This article takes as its starting point the overwhelming concentration of Bangladeshi women in the homeworking sector of the clothing industry in London. This pattern forms a contrast to the large numbers of male Bangladeshi workers also concentrated in the garment industry but who are to be found mainly in the factories and sweatshops. The article uses the accounts given by the Bangladeshi homeworkers themselves for their concentration in this form of work to explore different theoretical explanations of female labour supply behaviour, focusing in particular on questions of choice and constraint, culture and economy. The study suggests that the ‘preferences' revealed by the labour market behaviour of Bangladeshi women cannot be attributed solely to them, but must be seen in terms of bargaining and negotiation with other, more powerful members of the family. Furthermore, the intra-household decision-making process is itself embedded within a broader institutional environment which determines the access enjoyed by different groups to socially-valued resources. For Bangladeshis, a key factor in this broader environment is the operation of racially-based forms of exclusion from the mainstream opportunities. Consequently, community solidarity and networks represent important symbolic and material resources for members. However, these resources are distributed in highly gender-specific ways, with very clear implications for women's place within the community. The article argues therefore that any attempt to explain Bangladeshi women's concentration in homework has to move beyond a focus on either individual circumstances or cultural norms to an exploration of the interaction of racism, community identity and gender relations in shaping women's labour market options.

Agrarian Change and Gender Relations in South-east Iran

Abstract: This article looks at some of the recent cross-disciplinary debates on the nature of the household, and in particular the need to juxtapose intrahousehold gender relations against the wider socio-economic context within which households are embedded. It places particular emphasis on the development of market forces, seen as a neglected theme in research on gender relations in rural Iran. Drawing on village-level fieldwork, the ‘conjugal contracts' in two neighbouring districts of the Iranian province of Kerman are located within the wider network of socio-economic relations in which both men and women are involved, taking into account the varied development of commercial agriculture, as well as the impact of state policies and the changing balance of social forces. Although these developments account for some of the observed differences in conjugal relations between the two districts, shared notions of ‘household unity’ and ‘wifely duty’ are also highlighted as critical factors shaping the conduct of husband and wife in ways that are comparable across the two districts. The pressures that are brought upon men and women with the development of market forces in one of the districts, while making women relatively more vulnerable in certain respects, have enhanced their assertive-ness within marriage — often in defiance of deeply-embedded ideologies that subsume their interests to those of their households.