Showing papers in "Development and Change in 2006"
TL;DR: Lund et al. as mentioned in this paper discussed the role of public authority and local politics in Africa and proposed the Twilight Institutions, a set of institutions that can be used to reorder society.
Abstract: 1. Twilight Institutions - An Introduction: Christian Lund (International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 2. Twilight Institutions. Public Authority And Local Politics In Africa: Christian Lund (International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 3. The Politics Of Vigilance In South-Eastern Nigeria: David Pratten (Oxford University). 4. Reordering Society. Vigilantism And Sovereign Expressions In Port Elizabeth's Townships: Lars Buur (Danish Institute for International Studies and Research Associate, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, Johannesburg South Africa). 5. Negotiating Authority - Between Unhcr And 'The People': Simon Turner (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen). 6. "It Was Satan That Took The People": The Making Of Public Authority In Burkina Faso: Sten Hagberg (Uppsala University). 7. Dealing With The Local State. The Informal Privatization Of Street-Level Bureaucracies In Senegal: Giorgio Blundo (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Marseille). 8. Decentralization, Local Taxation And Citizenship In Senegal: Kristine Juul (Institute of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 9. Contested Sources Of Authority. Re-Claiming State Sovereignty By Formalizing Traditional Authority In Mozambique: Lars Buur (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen) and Helene Maria Kyed (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen and International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 10. Statemaking And The Politics Of The Frontier In Central Benin: Pierre-Yves Le Meur (Groupe de recherche et d'echanges technologiques, Paris and IRD, Montpellier). 11. Decentralization, the state and conflicts over local boundaries in North-Western Ghana: Carola Lentz (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz). 12. Strong Bar, Weak State? Lawyers, Liberalism And State Formation In Zambia: Jeremy Gould (University of Helsinki).
654 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that there is more to the enveloping global exercise of the MDGs than meets the eye Despite its alarming and terminal weaknesses with regard to theory, method and scope, and notwithstanding its multitude of errors of commission and omission, the MDG phenomenon carries the potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as the catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of the political economy of development at the global level.
Abstract: Are the Millennium Development Goals just a string of global wish lists? Are they simply a distraction or gimmick? This contribution argues that there is more to the enveloping global exercise of the MDGs than meets the eye Despite its alarming and terminal weaknesses with regard to theory, method and scope, and notwithstanding its multitude of errors of commission and omission, the MDG phenomenon carries the potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as the catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of the political economy of development at the global level The question is whether this realignment will be of a benign character that reflects the emancipatory aspirations so readily evoked in the Millennium Declaration
332 citations
216 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed cases of sub-optimum enforcement and the political campaigns that have been undertaken to deal with them and showed that the flexibility of political short-term policy instruments can offer incremental improvements to enhance the balance between the conflicting interests themselves and their relation with the legal system.
Abstract: While China has made great strides in establishing environmental laws and enforcing environmental regulation, problems of non-compliance and weak and slow enforcement remain. This contribution analyses cases of sub-optimum enforcement and the political campaigns that have been undertaken to deal with them. It will argue that enforcement problems are rooted in a lack of local legitimacy caused by conflicting interests of stakeholders. The case of Chinese environmental law enforcement holds lessons beyond its regional scope, about the role of law in balancing interests. Law itself does not exist in a vacuum: on the contrary, it is very much the result of conflicting interests and can be seriously challenged by the need to balance these interests. The use of political campaigns to enhance enforcement in China shows that the flexibility of political short-term policy instruments can offer incremental improvements to enhance the balance between the conflicting interests themselves and their relation with the legal system.
205 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the similarities and differences between Chinese and European modes or styles of ecological modernization with respect to the role of state institutions, market dynamics, civil society pressure and international integration.
Abstract: The process of institutionalizing environmental interests and considerations in Western (especially, but not only, European) industrialized societies has been reflected and theorized upon by social scientists, many of whom have adopted the ‘ecological modernization’ framework. One of the key questions on the research agenda of ecological modernization is its appropriateness for developing or industrializing countries in other parts of the world. This contribution analyses to what extent environmental reforms in contemporary China can be interpreted as ecological modernization. It focuses on the similarities and differences between Chinese and European modes or styles of ecological modernization with respect to the role of state institutions, market dynamics, civil society pressure and international integration.
158 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the continuities between the various stages of childhood and the adult world, and see children as active agents in their own development, and question whether discourse on 'abolishing child labour' works in the children's interests.
Abstract: Recent literature concerning work in the lives of children raises several contentious issues. This contribution starts with issues arising from conceptualizations of childhood: we need to understand the continuities between the various stages of childhood and the adult world, and see children as active agents in their own development. The article discusses discourse and terminology surrounding children’s work; children’s rights and their relationship with fundamental human rights; the relationship between work and school; and briefly the relationship between children’s work and poverty. It questions whether discourse on ‘abolishing child labour’ works in the children’s interests.
145 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a multi-sited research design to follow the flows associated with a funeral held in a village in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, and a multiplier analysis was used to trace funeral spending in different locations and sectors.
Abstract: Migrants are increasingly leading transnational lives, impacting the institutions that shape local economies both in their place of residence and in their home communities. One example of this is the institution of funerals in developing countries. Funerals are becoming multi-sited events as migrants from developing countries play important roles in the organization, financing and practice of funeral ceremonies in their home countries. Funerals thus give rise to flows of money, goods and people across national borders, ultimately affecting different economies around the world. This article uses a multi-sited research design to follow the flows associated with a funeral held in a village in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Detailed data were collected simultaneously in four locations involved in the funeral, and a multiplier analysis was used to trace funeral spending in different locations and sectors. The analysis shows that funeral spending supports various economic sectors in Ghana and across the globe, reinforcing the nature of funerals as (partly) economic events, which should be included in economic analyses of remittances and migration. Funeral practices are modified in various ways to accommodate transnational elements. At the same time, funerals continue to act, even in a transnational context, as occasions for reaffirming ties and a sense of belonging; they form a way for home communities, both rural and urban, to keep migrants interested in them.
132 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the increasing emphasis on markets to deliver development in China under Deng Xiaoping and his successors has the capacity to threaten the long-term environmental sustainability of that development.
Abstract: To the extent that free markets show little concern for the existence of externalities, they are unlikely to produce optimum outcomes with regard to the protection and enhancement of the natural environment. Accordingly, the increasing emphasis on markets to deliver development in China under Deng Xiaoping and his successors has the capacity to threaten the long-term environmental sustainability of that development. While there are good reasons to remain sceptical about the ability of market mechanisms to promote sustainable rural development in many respects, market reforms in China and the opening of the country to the outside world have nevertheless provided opportunities for farmers to engage in ecologically sensitive agriculture in the form of ‘green’ food and organic farming. Given that these forms of agriculture reduce farmers’ use of chemicals compared to conventional farming — chemicals which are costly to produce and environmentally degrading to use — they contribute to ensuring a more environmentally sustainable future for Chinese farming, post-WTO entry, whilst providing opportunities for farmers to enrich themselves at the same time: a ‘win–win’ state of affairs. This will remain the case, however, only so long as the state is prepared to create and reinforce appropriate institutional arrangements.
124 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that if globalization is multipolar then cosmopolitanism too is multicentric and this involves overcoming West-centrism or monocultural cosmo-moro-ism.
Abstract: This contribution explores what, in outline, an agenda of emancipatory cosmopolitanism would consist of. The first step in this treatment is to scrutinize capitalist cosmopolitanism as the dominant variant of cosmopolitanism. Understanding its influence is crucial to the task of counterbalancing it. The second section concerns the strange double life of conventional cosmopolitanism, which, while claiming universality, reflects a regional, parochial order. This paper argues that if globalization is multipolar then cosmopolitanism too is multicentric and this involves overcoming West-centrism or monocultural cosmopolitanism. Third, whilst acknowledging the importance of the reflection on planetary ethics, the tendency toward normative abstraction is problematic; bringing history back into cosmopolitanism is necessary as a counterpoint to monocultural cosmopolitanism.
116 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the complexity and diversity of women's informal financial practices using data from surveys conducted in Senegal and found that these practices are at the centre of a constant dialectic between short-term and long-term horizons between the requirements of daily survival and the demands of community solidarity and between personal aspirations and collective constraints.
Abstract: This article examines the complexity and diversity of womens informal financial practices using data from surveys conducted in Senegal. It suggests that these practices are at the centre of a constant dialectic between short-term and long-term horizons between the requirements of daily survival and the demands of community solidarity and between personal aspirations and collective constraints. These practices also clearly illustrate a desire among the women in Senegal to impose a form of financial self-discipline and to create situations that will oblige them to earn income. The socio-economic diversity among these entrepreneurs is also underscored. Informal financial arrangements are both a product and producer of gender inequalities and inequalities among women as reflected in the research. This has direct policy implications especially for microfinance products. If they are to be effective microfinance services must develop beyond a standard one-size fits all model and become more innovative and adaptable to the diverse demands of women. They must be combined with complementary measures that challenge the systemic causes of inequality. Microfinance programmes should draw on informal financial arrangements while challenging their tendency to perpetuate inequality. (authors)
113 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the principal figures of administrative brokerage within the justice system, the customs and the local Senegalese fiscal services are analyzed based on comparative research on the mechanisms and representations of petty corruption in West Africa.
Abstract: Based on comparative research on the mechanisms and representations of petty corruption in West Africa, this article analyses the principal figures of administrative brokerage within the justice system, the customs and the local Senegalese fiscal services. Contractual, voluntary or informal staff mitigate the difficulties of access to bureaucratic institutions, while at the same time being used as a conduit for corrupt transactions. In the context of an opaque, under-equipped administration, barely-controlled and with disproportionate discretionary powers, these auxiliary staff contribute both to the daily functioning of the Senegalese post-adjustment state, and to its circumvention. Through an ethnography of the relationships between the public services and their users, this article describes the important operational logics of the local government, which lay the foundation for the practices of intermediation and brokerage. It also evokes the emergence of new forms of informal privatization and the progressive institutionalization of the ‘informal’ as a management mode of the state in everyday life.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors unpacked the various elements of this narrative and explored whether there is any evidence to substantiate it in West and Central Africa and found that shifting cultivation is the agricultural technique employed by the majority of farmers in the tropical regions of Africa.
Abstract: Shifting cultivation is the agricultural technique employed by the majority of farmers in the tropical regions of Africa. The dominant narrative recited by policy experts, non-governmental organizations and many scientists is that this practice is a principal cause of deforestation in tropical Africa. This article unpacks the various elements of this narrative and explores whether there is any evidence to substantiate it in West and Central Africa. The results challenge the conventional wisdom that shifting cultivation is leading to accelerating deforestation in tropical Africa.
TL;DR: The authors examines critically the application of the developmental state concept to China and argues that a conjuncture of specific political, socio-economic and institutional processes, both internal and external, undermines the case for China as a developmental state.
Abstract: This article examines critically the application of the developmental state concept to China. A conjuncture of specific political, socio-economic and institutional processes, both internal and external, undermines the case for China as a developmental state. Against a back-drop of intensifying global economic competition, intense rivalry between local economic actors for markets, resources and foreign investment not only produces contradictory developmental outcomes but also undermines the political and administrative capacity for fundamental social and economic transformation. The Chinese state is best understood as polymorphous, assuming multiple, complex forms and behaviours across time and space, and defying reduction to a unitary actor.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the use of the term "technocratic" to describe development practice and the concomitant use of 'technocrat' to describe professional experts who engage in development work, and argue that such understandings miss the crucial point of engagement in development practice between these agents and other actors which opens "learning spaces" that have the potential for a range of outcomes.
Abstract: This article traces the use of the term ‘technocratic’ to describe development practice, and the concomitant use of ‘technocrat’ to describe professional experts who engage in development work. It locates the use of these terms as pejorative labels within understandings of professional experts as part of an apparatus of governmentality that depoliticizes development intervention. It argues, however, that such understandings miss the crucial point of engagement in development practice between these agents and other actors which opens ‘learning spaces’ that have the potential for a range of outcomes.
TL;DR: In Mozambique, the current legal framework institutionalizes a rural-urban differentiation of local governance, allowing for elected representation in thirty-three urban settings and the recognition of "community authorities" in rural areas.
Abstract: In Mozambique, the current legal framework institutionalizes a rural–urban differentiation of local governance, allowing for elected representation in thirty-three urban settings and the recognition of ‘community authorities’ in rural areas. This article deals with the latter by exploring the implementation of Decree 15/2000, which is the first legislation in post-colonial Mozambique to formalize ‘traditional authority’. Views of traditional authority as either a ‘genuine’ African form of authority legitimized by traditional beliefs and practices, or as a form of power ‘corrupted’ by colonial rule, are inadequate for understanding the current situation. In formerly war-torn Sussundenga District, kin-based authorities drew on elements from ‘traditional’ and ‘state-administrative’ domains of authority in order to be recognized. Varied definitions of tradition came to justify leadership, but the content on which legitimization was based defies any generalized Weberian dichotomy between traditional and modern/state types of office. Different sources of legitimacy sometimes foregrounded administrative needs and at other times maintained what became defined as traditional.
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between parks and people is best understood as struggles in which "park neighbours" use covert and overt "weapons of the weak" to challenge the hegemony of conservation.
Abstract: National parks remain at the centre of conservation efforts in Africa, although the long established strategy of conservation through law enforcement is now supplemented by participatory strategies such as community conservation. These new strategies have not changed the preservationist thrust of conservation policy and action. The relationships between parks and people are best understood as struggles in which ‘park neighbours’ use covert and overt ‘weapons of the weak’ to challenge the hegemony of conservation. This study of a national park in Uganda describes and analyses these forms of resistance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the resettlement program in relation to the environmental capacity in the reservoir area; and assessed the existence of a risk consciousness and a reconstruction strategy, seen in terms of the "impoverishment risks and reconstruction" (IRR) model.
Abstract: This contribution looks at the Three Gorges dam project, and specifically at the resettlement programme, focusing on two major aspects It examines the resettlement programme in relation to the environmental capacity in the reservoir area; and it assesses the existence of a risk consciousness and a reconstruction strategy, seen in terms of the ‘impoverishment risks and reconstruction’ (IRR) model The author argues that issues related to the environment and natural resources are highly significant and have led to changes in the resettlement programme, including a change in policy towards moving rural people out of the reservoir area, as well as the issuing of new resettlement regulations The IRR model is a useful tool to identify risks and can serve as a guide to the reconstruction of livelihoods for the resettled people The limitations of using the model in the Three Gorges project concern specific Chinese environmental, social, economic and political conditions that influence efficient resettlement implementation The Chinese authorities’ emphasis in resettlement has been on rebuilding relocatees’ livelihoods: it focuses less — if at all — on the social aspects and the social trauma of broken networks The IRR model could therefore be useful in the context of focusing more on the social costs of resettlement
TL;DR: In this article, the Amadlozi, a vigilante group operating in the townships of Port Elizabeth, argues that there is often an intimate relationship between vigilante formations and state structures and explores this apparent paradox through public discourses on crime and the emergence of twilight institutions such as vigilante groups.
Abstract: Crime and vigilantism in South Africa are generally seen as a reaction to the breakdown of formal law. Both are constituted outside the state and emerge when the new social contract has been broken — that is, when the state can no longer provide security. This article argues that there is often an intimate relationship between vigilante formations and state structures. It explores this apparent paradox through public discourses on crime and the emergence of twilight institutions such as vigilante groups. It suggests that vigilantism has to be analysed as an attempt to promulgate a new legal-political order, despite being constructed outside this order. This argument is explored in the context of the Amadlozi, a vigilante group operating in the townships of Port Elizabeth. The article situates this discussion within an examination of discourses on crime, as well as the production of township residents and their protection from crime. Finally, it proffers some ideas on sovereignty and its relationship to twilight institutions.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper found that most Chinese consumers lack the most basic understanding of biotechnology and its potential risks, and when given neutrally-worded information about potential GM food allergenicity, the willingness to buy dropped sharply.
Abstract: Although China is one of the world's largest producers and consumers of genetically modified (GM) crops and derived food products, little is known about the level of Chinese consumer awareness, understanding and acceptance of GM food. Initially, China pursued relatively aggressive policies for biotechnology development, but in recent years, the central government has become more sensitive to the potential environmental risks of transgenic food crops. To protect domestic biotech industries, the state plays a critical role in the politics of biotechnology, and does not allow GM food to become a prominent public issue. This contribution reports on a survey of 1,000 urban respondents. It demonstrates that most consumers lack the most basic understanding of biotechnology and its potential risks. The majority of the respondents (60 per cent) were either unwilling to consume GM food or were neutral about the idea, but when given neutrally-worded information about potential GM food allergenicity, the willingness to buy dropped sharply. This might point to future scenarios of consumer resistance against GM food as has happened in European Union member states. This effect demonstrates the malleability of the Chinese consumer in a context of limited understanding and inadequate access to information.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that feminist cross-disciplinary research shows how important shared values are to motivate and sustain these kinds of learning, and that an explicit focus on social justice as the core of development research can be the basis of such a renewal.
Abstract: Development studies is a field characterized by an unusual degree of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, and therefore is constantly subject both to pressures for the reproduction of disciplines as autonomous and selfsufficient, and to an increasing steer from public funders of research for interdisciplinary work which is valued for its problem-solving character and more apparent relevance, in an era greatly exercised by accountability. At a moment when the need to renew disciplinary interchange has intensified it is therefore instructive to consider the social relations which facilitate interdisciplinarity. This article does this through an argument that feminist cross-disciplinary research shows how important shared values are to motivate and sustain these kinds of learning, and that an explicit focus on social justice as the core of development research can be the basis of such a renewal. If feminist interactions and solidarity provide the motivation, feminist epistemologies provide arguments for why socially engaged research is not ‘biased’, but stronger than research with narrower ideas of objectivity; why reflexivities and subjectivities are crucial to the conduct of research; and how these, and the convergence of concepts of individuals and persons favoured within different disciplines, might build the common ground required for greater disciplinary interchange.
TL;DR: The in-depth interviews reveal that pensions can have important effects on intra-household relations, but these effects were not generalizable nor easily captured by quantitative survey tools.
Abstract: Drawing on quantitative survey data and in-depth interviews, this article seeks to map out the potential direct and indirect effects of simple cash transfers on households in impoverished rural and urban settings. Brazil is shown to have an extensive system of old age pensions, which affords almost universal coverage to households containing older people. These benefits have a significant impact on levels of poverty and vulnerability in recipient households. They also facilitate access to essential healthcare items, such as drugs, which are seldom freely available through the state health system. The in-depth interviews reveal that pensions can have important effects on intra-household relations, but these effects were not generalizable nor easily captured by quantitative survey tools. There was clear evidence that pensions reduced the propensity of older people to remain economically active, but this must be understood in a context of limited employment opportunities for all age groups and a high prevalence of disability. Overall, the article demonstrates the complex effects of a relatively simple cash transfer, which policy makers need to take into account.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the politics of revenue collection in a framework of decentralization, democratization and multiparty politics as experienced in the small village of Barkedji in the pastoral region of Senegal.
Abstract: This article deals with the politics of revenue collection in a framework of decentralization, democratization and multiparty politics as experienced in the small village of Barkedji in the pastoral region of Senegal. In Senegal, revenue collection has recently been transferred from state administrators to locally elected councillors. Contrary to the assumption of the ‘good governance’ doctrine, this transfer of responsibility has not resulted in a strengthening of democratic structures where taxpayers demand (and gain) public services and more political representation in exchange for increasing taxes. In Barkedji, as elsewhere in Senegal, tax-compliance hit rock-bottom after tax collection became the responsibility of local councillors. Meanwhile other types of local institutions, with less clear state relations, are able to mobilize large amounts of revenue outside the normal tax channels for the provision of goods and service. These non-state institutions seem to have taken over as providers of political representation as well as suppliers of public goods and of access or rights to crucial local resources. The article explores the motivation among first-comers and newcomer populations to adopt or reject tax requirements to different types of organizations, and discusses the implications of this parallel tax collection for the exercise of public authority and the crafting of state and citizenry.
TL;DR: In the former Lawra District of Ghana's Upper West Region, the creation of new districts provoked protracted discussions among the local political elite as well as the peasants and labour migrants, about the connections between land ownership and political authority, the relations between the local ethnic groups (Dagara and Sisala), and the relevance of ethnic versus territorial criteria in defining local citizenship as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Decentralization projects, such as that initiated by the Rawlings government in Ghana at the end of the 1980s, create a political space in which the relations between local political communities and the state are re-negotiated. In many cases, the devolution of power intensifies special-interest politics and political mobilization aiming at securing a ‘larger share of the national cake’, that is, more state funds, infrastructure and posts for the locality. To legitimate their claims vis-a-vis the state, civic associations (‘hometown’ unions), traditional rulers and other non-state institutions often invoke some form of ‘natural’ solidarity, and decentralization projects thus become arenas of debate over the boundaries of community and the relationship between ‘local’ and national citizenship. This article analyses one such debate, in the former Lawra District of Ghana's Upper West Region, where the creation of new districts provoked protracted discussions, among the local political elite as well as the peasants and labour migrants, about the connections between land ownership and political authority, the relations between the local ethnic groups (Dagara and Sisala), and the relevance of ethnic versus territorial criteria in defining local citizenship.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the political frontier metaphor provides a useful heuristic device to capture the logic of state making, as the changing outcome of organizing practices taking place inside and outside state and non-state organizations and arenas.
Abstract: Kopytoff's model of the African frontier has opened room for renewed approaches to settlement history, politics, ethnicity and cultural reproduction in pre-colonial Africa. This interpretative framework applies well to central Benin (Ouesse). Over the long term, mobility has been a structural feature of the regional social history, from pre-colonial times onwards. Movements of people, resources, norms and values have been crucial in the production and reproduction of the social and political order. The colonial intrusion and its post-colonial avatars gave way to renewed relations between mobility and locality, in particular in the form of a complex articulation between control over labour force, access to land and natural resources, and out- and in-migrations. This article argues that the political frontier metaphor provides a useful heuristic device to capture the logic of state making, as the changing outcome of organizing practices taking place inside and outside state and non-state organizations and arenas. Governmentality in post-colonial central Benin thus results from the complex interplay of mobility, control over resources and state-led forms of ‘villagization’.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a reinterpretation of the origins of the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreements, one that is of particular significance to scholars of international development, showing that the innovative "embedded liberal" vision of Bretton-Woods was first put forward in the context of US-Latin American financial relations in the 1938-42 period, and that this experience influenced the subsequent Bretton Wood negotiations.
Abstract: This article offers a reinterpretation of the origins of the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreements, one that is of particular significance to scholars of international development. Conventional wisdom holds that the Agreements were primarily a product of US–British negotiations between 1942 and 1944, in which little attention was paid to international development issues and the concerns of poorer countries. This article demonstrates that the innovative ‘embedded liberal’ vision of Bretton Woods was in fact first put forward in the context of US–Latin American financial relations in the 1938–42 period, and that this experience influenced the subsequent Bretton Woods negotiations. The analysis highlights that the architects of Bretton Woods did not ignore development issues but rather attempted to pioneer a new model for both North–North and North–South economic relations. If this has been subsequently overlooked by historians, it may be because this latter feature of Bretton Woods was quickly buried by US policy makers in the immediate post-war years. This historical reinterpretation helps both to explain some important puzzles about the origins of the Bretton Woods Agreements and to shed new light on the place of international development issues in the evolution of the post-war international economic order.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse whether the existing property rights in these reserves can support the explicit development aim of a competitive, yet sustainable, exploitation of the area's natural resources.
Abstract: Many of the world's most valuable biodiverse areas are successfully managed by indigenous communities, often under peculiar property rights structures. In many cases, these communities are economically disadvantaged, even by local standards. But can particular local property rights regimes which are ecologically successful also allow communities to compete productively in market economies? The extractive reserves of the Brazilian Amazon offer an opportunity for investigating the connections between property rights, conservation and development in the context of tropical forests. This article aims to analyse whether the existing property rights in these reserves — an idiosyncratic mixture of public, collective and private property rights — can support the explicit development aim of a competitive, yet sustainable, exploitation of the area's natural resources. The analysis identifies three promising development paths open to extractive reserves, but points to a fundamental contradiction between the static structure of the property rights system and the dynamic nature of two of these paths. The current design of internal property rights fails to take into account the broader economic context in which reserves must generate a viable revenue stream. If extractive reserves are expected to develop without reliance on external aid, then changes to the property rights structure both inside and outside the extractive reserves have to be explicitly considered.
TL;DR: The authors explores the multiverse of transformations that confront contemporary discourses of cosmopolitanism and discusses the issue of cosmo responsibility, noting three major challenges: global justice, cross-species dignity, and dialogue among civilizations, cultures, religions and traditions.
Abstract: A revival of cosmopolitanism seems to be underway in both discourse and practice. However, much of this revival draws from only one trajectory of cosmopolitanism, and fails to build upon different traditions of cosmopolitan thinking and experimentation. Cosmopolitanization is an ongoing process of critique, creativity and border-crossing which involves transformations in self, culture, society, economy and polity. It requires multi-dimensional processes of self-development, inclusion of the other, and planetary realizations. Against this background, this contribution explores the multiverse of transformations that confront contemporary discourses of cosmopolitanism. It also discusses the issue of cosmopolitan responsibility, noting three major challenges: global justice; cross-species dignity; and dialogue among civilizations, cultures, religions and traditions.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at the impact of HIV/AIDS on different aspects of people's access to food, drawing particular attention to the variances in vulnerability among households burdened by illness and orphans that are headed by men, women and the elderly.
Abstract: Using household data from Northern Zambia, this article looks at HIV/AIDS impacts on different aspects of people's access to food. The findings draw particular attention to the variances in vulnerability among households burdened by illness and orphans that are headed by men, women and the elderly. It is argued that vulnerability levels to HIV/AIDS impact differ substantially among households and implicitly expose the underlying causal conditions that enable or disable people in their responsiveness. Households affected by HIV/AIDS cannot be treated as a homogeneous group and understanding the differences in vulnerability can play an important policy role in designing targeted support.
TL;DR: The authors examines how migrants have claimed lands and changed production and exchange relations among the indigenous Tagbanua to build on and benefit from otherwise coercive park management on Palawan Island, the Philippines.
Abstract: The history of political and economic inequality in forest villages can shape how and why resource use conflicts arise during the evolution of national parks management. In the Philippine uplands, indigenous peoples and migrant settlers co-exist, compete over land and forest resources, and shape how managers preserve forests through national parks. This article examines how migrants have claimed lands and changed production and exchange relations among the indigenous Tagbanua to build on and benefit from otherwise coercive park management on Palawan Island, the Philippines. Migrant control over productive resources has influenced who, within each group, could sustain agriculture in the face of the state's dominant conservation narrative - valorizing migrant paddy rice and criminalizing Tagbanua swiddens. Upon settling, migrant farmers used new political and economic strengths to tap into provincial political networks in order to be hired at a national park. As a result, they were able to steer management to support paddy rice at the expense of swidden cultivation. While state conservation policy shapes how national parks impact upon local resource access and use, older political economic inequalities in forest villages build on such policies to influence how management affects the livelihoods of poor households.