Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 2006"

A social representation is not a quiet thing: exploring the critical potential of social representations theory.

Abstract: Following Moscovici (1972), this paper addresses the questions: What is the aim of research within a social representations perspective? Is it to support or to criticize the social order? Is it to consolidate or transform it? After a brief overview of social representations theory, I argue that while the theory appears to have the conceptual tools to begin this critical task, there are serious criticisms and points of underdevelopment that need addressing. In order for social representations theory to develop into a rigorously critical theory there are three controversial issues that require clarification. These are (a) the relationship between psychological processes and social practices, (b) the reification and legitimization of different knowledge systems, and (c) agency and resistance in the co-construction of self-identity. After discussing each issue in turn, with illustrations from research on racializing representations, I conclude the paper with a discussion of the role of representations in the ideological construction and contestation of reality.

Why Do Entrepreneurs Enter Politics? Evidence from China

Abstract: This article examines the determinants of the entrepreneur's political participation by employing a unique matched firm-institution data set from China. We find that the likelihood of an entrepreneur's participation can be explained by the underdevelopment of markets and market-supporting institutions. According to our estimates, the probability of entering politics decreases by 8–20% from the mean when the institutional indices improve by one standard deviation. Our findings support the view that the institutional environment shapes the private entrepreneur's motivation to participate in politics; they also provide an example of how private entrepreneurs respond to state/market failure in developing and transition countries. (JEL G1, H00, O10, P2, P3)

The Importance of Governance in Risk Reduction and Disaster Management

Abstract: This paper identifies institutional failure as the root cause for underdevelopment and susceptibility to disasters and explores their interdependent relationship. It is demonstrated that only if a country’s governance structure enables the implementation and enforcement of public policies conducive to a country’s economic and social development can sustainable livelihoods be achieved and susceptibility to disasters be reduced. Accountability, participation, predictability and transparency are identified as the key features of a governance structure that fosters development and supports risk reduction.

Overcoming underdevelopment in South Africa's second economy

Abstract: This paper is a synthesis of the July 2005 Development Report published by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Human Sciences Research Council and United Nations Development Programme (DBSA, HSRC and UNDP). The Report asks why, if the origins of economic dualism are rooted in the cheap, forced, migrant labour introduced by the mining industry and reinforced during apartheid, does dualism persist under democracy when all the relevant laws and many of the practices of the past have been abolished? The breakdown of apartheid did not immediately translate into improved material conditions for the majority of South Africans: 300 years of colonialism and 50 of internal colonialism had hard-wired a duality into the system. Two worlds, which may be conceptualised as the first and second economies, coexisted: a globally integrated world of production, exchange and consumption, and a constrained world of informality, poverty and marginalisation. This synthesis sheds light on the origin and nature of the ‘secon...

Islam and business

Abstract: The underdevelopment of many of the Muslim economies along the Silk Road is often ascribed to the negative effects of Islam. Yet historically, the Muslim cities along the Road were thriving centers of commerce, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there appears to be a revival of business as central Asia is opened up to the global economy. Islam has its own distinctive code of business ethics, and the trust this fosters can lower transaction costs and increase management efficiency. There is no inherent conflict between Islam and capitalism; indeed, it is possible to identify the emergence of a distinctive Islamic type where capital accumulation is based on noninterest forms of financing.

The State‐Led Transition to Liberal Capitalism: Neoliberal, Organizational, World‐Systems, and Social Structural Explanations of Poland’s Economic Success

Abstract: Neoliberals argue that rapid liberalization and privatization can transform postcommunist economies into Western‐style capitalist systems. Organizational sociologists argue that these policies produce a unique variety of capitalism, while world‐systems theorists argue that they lead to underdevelopment. This article advances a social structural alternative in a crucial case. Poland’s relative economic success resulted from prolonged state ownership and an interventionist state employing various industrial policy tools that facilitated efficiency‐enhancing market‐oriented restructuring before ushering in beneficial foreign direct investment. The resulting capitalist system closely resembles the typical pattern found in most late industrializers.

The Persistence of Underdevelopment: Institutions, Human Capital or Constituencies

Abstract: Why is underdevelopment so persistent? One explanation is that poor countries do not have institutions that can support growth. Because institutions (both good and bad) are persistent, underdevelopment is persistent. An alternative view is that underdevelopment comes from poor education. Neither explanation is fully satisfactory, the first because it does not explain why poor economic institutions persist even in fairly democratic but poor societies, and the second because it does not explain why poor education is so persistent. This paper tries to reconcile these two views by arguing that the underlying cause of underdevelopment is the initial distribution of factor endowments. Under certain circumstances, this leads to self-interested constituencies that, in equilibrium, perpetuate the status quo. In other words, poor education policy might well be the proximate cause of underdevelopment, but the deeper (and more long lasting cause) are the initial conditions (like the initial distribution of education) that determine political constituencies, their power, and their incentives. Though the initial conditions may well be a legacy of the colonial past, and may well create a perverse political equilibrium of stagnation, persistence does not require the presence of coercive political institutions. We present some suggestive empirical evidence. On the one hand, such an analysis offers hope that the destiny of societies is not preordained by the institutions they inherited through historical accident. On the other hand, it suggests we need to understand better how to alter factor endowments when societies may not have the internal will to do so.

The Political Economy of Oil in Equatorial Guinea

Abstract: This paper analyzes the political economy of oil in Equatorial Guinea, one of Africa's newest and most important oil producers. It begins with a brief history of the country and its recent experience with oil-led development. The paper then moves on to integrate the experience of Equatorial Guinea into the literature linking natural resource abundance to poor development performance, authoritarianism, and civil conflict, respectively. The paper concludes by arguing that oil has exacerbated already present pathologies in Equatorial Guinea's political economy, paving the way for future problems of underdevelopment, instability and authoritarian rule, problems that could all be alleviated to some degree by changes in U.S. foreign policy towards the region.

Systems of Innovation and Underdevelopment: An Institutional Perspective

Abstract: This article examines institutions and their role in supporting technical change as part of the development process, and asks how institutions shape the system of innovation (SI) The context of underdevelopment exhibits distinct system characteristics that differ markedly from those found under advanced economic conditions and as such deserves close empirical scrutiny SIs differ significantly under the two sets of conditions, leading to uneven structural changes The article, therefore, explores what functions must be served by systems in developing countries in order to generate technical dynamism To compare different contexts, it introduces the idea of a ‘system of learning innovation in development’ (SLID) that emphasises individual and organisational competence building The differences between ‘advanced’ systems of innovation (ASI) and two types of SLID are discussed Infrastructure, one of the key components of institutions involved in development, is used as an illustration The study found that

Corporate social responsibility and development: An anthropological perspective

Abstract: Some analysts suggest that corporate-driven social responsibility initiatives offer a new, and potentially bright, prospect of addressing global poverty and underdevelopment effectively. There is a growing academic literature that examines this proposition critically, often rehearsing debates about the successes and failures of the international development programmes of the second half of the 20th century. From an anthropological perspective, however, the most useful question to ask is not whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives will succeed in fulfilling the promises made by their proponents but rather what the implications and consequences –often unintended – might be of expecting business corporations to become significant engines of development. This article examines current debates about CSR, and the emerging CSR discourse and apparatus, as a prelude to asking ‘What does CSR do?’.

Manifesto for development communication: Nora Quebral and the Los Bantildeos School of Development Communication

Abstract: How did the discipline and practice of development communication begin? Who were the founders and how were the first experiments implemented? Rejecting the ideologically populist views that locates development communication origins within western development scholarship, the following postcolonist exposeacute appraises various communication uses in development that emerged from different parts of the world in the past 50 years. The discussion holds that the pioneering development communication experiments were located between postcolonial and underdevelopment theories, and as such, to understand its origins, a study must focus on the earliest non-commissioned and community-originated experiments, as this study purports to do.

The Persistence of Underdevelopment: Constituencies and Competitive Rent Preservation

Abstract: Why is underdevelopment so persistent? I argue that one reason is the initial inequality in endowments and opportunities, which leads to self-interested constituencies that perpetuate the status quo. Each constituency prefers reforms that preserve only its rents and expand its opportunities, so no comprehensive reform path may command broad support. Though the initial conditions may well be a legacy of the colonial past, persistence does not require the presence of coercive political institutions. This may be why underdevelopment has survived independence and democratization. On the one hand, such an analysis offers hope that the destiny of societies is not preordained by the political institutions they inherit through historical accident. On the other hand, it suggests we need to understand better how to alter factor endowments when societies may not have the internal will to do so.

The other welfare state: Non-government agencies and the mixed economy of welfare in Australia

Abstract: This article considers the place of the non-government sector in Australia in the mixed economy of welfare. This sector – particularly faith-based organisations – has taken a shifting position in relation to the state, market and family in the provision of care. In Australia and New Zealand, strong state regulation of the labour market, combined with relative underdevelopment of formal welfare provision, contributes to a distinctive mixed economy of welfare. The article sketches the consequences for the independence of the faith-based sector, its fragmented and disorganised development and the relative absence of aspects such as philanthropy and mutual aid. This article has been peer-reviewed.

Through the prism of sports: why should Africanists study sports?

Abstract: Sports and especially football animate the lives of millions of people in Africa. Yet, until recently the social sciences have paid very little attention to these activities on the continent. The first part of this paper provides a brief overview of social scientific writing in English (and to a lesser degree in French) about sports and argues that the field has been understudied on the continent. It continues by delineating some of the reasons why this is so, ranging from the weaknesses of sports studies, to perceptions of academics of what is a fitting subject for scientific inquiry, to seeing sport as irrelevant for the solving of the problems of underdevelopment. Hie second part provides an analysis of one particular case, that of the Cameroonian government's handling of three World Cups and the Cameroonian population's varying responses to it, with the intention of showing the relevance and fruitfulness of paying attention to sport in Africa.

Development After Globalization: Theory and Practice for the Embattled South in a New Imperial Age

Abstract: John Saul's long association with African countries have drawn Saul not only to write widely on African questions but also to reflect more generally upon the situation in the broad range of regions in the global South that experience, in shared if also diverse ways, the hard facts of poverty and exclusion in the present world of capitalist globalization. In this title Saul interrogates the reality of "underdevelopment" in such an unequal world, one driven principally by western power and capitalist profit-seeking and supported by inequalities of power and influence within the countries of the "Third World" themselves. This title contributes significantly to the fine-tuning of our perceptions of the fundamental and varied forms of inequality that characterize the new imperial age, and has some very important things to say on the linkages between class-based struggles, progressive identity politics and assertions of gender equality. It calls for a synthesis of democratic, socialist and anti-imperialist sensibilities.

The Persistence of Underdevelopment: Institutions, Human Capital or Constituencies

Abstract: Why is underdevelopment so persistent? One explanation is that poor countries do not have institutions that can support growth. Because institutions (both good and bad) are persistent, underdevelopment is persistent. An alternative view is that underdevelopment comes from poor education. Neither explanation is fully satisfactory, the first because it does not explain why poor economic institutions persist even in fairly democratic but poor societies, and the second because it does not explain why poor education is so persistent. This paper tries to reconcile these two views by arguing that the underlying cause of underdevelopment is the initial distribution of factor endowments. Under certain circumstances, this leads to self-interested constituencies that, in equilibrium, perpetuate the status quo. In other words, poor education policy might well be the proximate cause of underdevelopment, but the deeper (and more long lasting cause) are the initial conditions (like the initial distribution of education) that determine political constituencies, their power, and their incentives. Though the initial conditions may well be a legacy of the colonial past, and may well create a perverse political equilibrium of stagnation, persistence does not require the presence of coercive political institutions. We present some suggestive empirical evidence. On the one hand, such an analysis offers hope that the destiny of societies is not preordained by the institutions they inherited through historical accident. On the other hand, it suggests we need to understand better how to alter factor endowments when societies may not have the internal will to do so [NBER WP].

The Evidence – Policy Interface in Strategic Waste Planning for Urban Environments: The ‘Technical’ and the ‘Social’ Dimensions

Abstract: In the last decade there has been an upsurge in governmental interest in evidence-based policy, coupled with an emphasis on a utilitarian view of research. This emphasis on research for the benefit of policy has contributed to the highly selective nature of the construction of knowledge on urban environments, with those areas that have not been regarded as a policy problem failing to attract investment in research. Strategic waste planning has been a striking example of such policy areas. The first part of this paper provides an overview of the disjuncture between policy and evidence and argues that the lack of research has contributed to the underdevelopment of intellectual capital in this field. This overview sets the context for the second and third parts of the paper which draw on a case study of recent attempts to improve the evidence base for urban waste policy at the regional level. The author examines the interface between the technical and the social dimensions of knowledge production and knowled...

Manifesto for Development Communication: Nora Quebral and the Los Baños School of Development Communication EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS ARTICLE GIVES A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT “DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION” IN THE 1970S UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF PROFESSOR NORA QUEBRAL. AS PART OF THIS RETROSPECTIVE, WE ALSO REPRINT THE ORIGINAL 1971 ARTICLE “DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION IN THE AGRICULTURAL CONTEXT” BY NORA QUEBRAL, WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY HER.

Abstract: How did the discipline and practice of development communication begin? Who were the founders and how were the first experiments implemented? Rejecting the ideologically populist views that locates development communication origins within western development scholarship, the following postcolonist expose appraises various communication uses in development that emerged from different parts of the world in the past 50 years. The discussion holds that the pioneering development communication experiments were located between postcolonial and underdevelopment theories, and as such, to understand its origins, a study must focus on the earliest non-commissioned and community-originated experiments, as this study purports to do.

How Britain Underdeveloped Bechuanaland Protectorate: A Brief Critique of the Political Economy of Colonial Botswana

Abstract: Britain declared Bechuanaland a ‘protectorate' in 1885 in a move largely driven by military strategic considerations rather than by the availability of economic resources. This can give the impression that in Botswana the process of economic underdevelopment that is often associated with colonialism never took place in this British ‘protectorate'. This article reveals that even in the so-called ‘protectorate', the British colonial state policies subverted indigenous economic interests and stifled opportunities for indigenous private capital accumulation, while actively promoting the economic interests of a small white settler capitalist class. Africa Development Vol. 31(1) 2006: 66-88

Global Income Inequality A review

Abstract: Global inequality is a relatively recent topic. It was not until the early 1980s that the first calculations of inequality across world citizens were done.1 This is because in order to calculate global inequality, one needs to have data on (within-) national income distributions for most of the countries in the world, or at least for most of the populous and rich countries. But it is only from the earlyto mid-1980s that such data became available for China,2 the Soviet Union and its constituent republics and large parts of Africa. Before we move to an analysis of global inequality, however, it is useful to set the stage by delineating what topics we shall be concerned with and what not. This is necessary precisely because of the relative underdevelopment of the topic, reflected in the fact that the same or similar terms are often used in the literature to mean different things. We need to distinguish between inequality among countries’ mean incomes (inter-country inequality or Concept 1 inequality as dubbed by Milanovic, 2005), inequality among countries’ mean incomes weighted by countries’ populations (Concept 2 inequality), and inequality between world individuals (global or Concept 3 inequality). Concept 1 inequality deals with convergence and divergence of countries’ incomes, and although at first this line of work was couched in inequality terms (see Baumol, 1986), most of the later work used cross-

The wealth of some and the poverty of Sub Saharan Africa

Abstract: Purpose – The economic growth performance of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) over the past few decades has confounded economists. The paper examines the nature and causes of the region's marginalisation.Design/methodology/approach – Analyses areas of marginalisation including: technologically, economically, socially, politically, and even intellectually. The aim here is to document all these facets in a comparative manner and to examine prospects for their reversal.Findings – The poverty of SSA has many dimensions and causes, both internal and external. Certainly part of its underdevelopment is attributable to bad luck, initial conditions, and an unfavourable international economic environment. However, the region has to accept much of the responsibility for its plight because its present state is also largely an outcome of poor policy choice and bad governance. Thus, whilst we cannot account for every facet of the question of “why some nations are rich and others poor” we are nonetheless left with some very rea...

Removing Unfreedoms: Citizens as Agents of Change in Urban Development

Abstract: FOREWORD, by Ms Anna K Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-Habitat PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PART ONE - DEVELOPMENT AND URBANIZATION: INTRODUCTION, Nesreen Berwari and Michael Mutter 1: CITIES, CONFLICT AND VISIONS 2: NEW PATTERNS OF URBANIZATION 3: AMARTYA SEN - EXPANDING THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT PART TWO - OBSTRUCTIONS TO URBAN DEVELOPMENT: 4: FIVE FREEDOMS 5: THE NEED FOR NEW EVALUATIONS 6: POLICY APPROACHES TO UNDERDEVELOPMENT PART THREE - FORMULATING POLICY FRAMEWORKS 7: THE CHALLENGE 8: UNIVERSAL AND VARYING VALUES 9: THE ROLE OF CULTURE 10: RETHINKING PROJECT DESIGN 11: AMARTYA SEN AND THE ASIAN ALLIANCE 12: NATIONAL URBAN RECOVERY PROGRAMME: AFGHANISTAN 13: LOOKING AHEAD NOTES ON THE AUTHORS PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS REFERENCES INDEX

Estratégia nacional e desenvolvimento

Abstract: National Strategy and Development. After a review of the concept of economic growth as a historical process beginning with the capitalist revolution and the formation of the modern national states, the author claims that growth is almost invariably the outcome of a national development strategy. Effective economic development occurs historically when the different social classes are able to cooperate and formulate an effective strategy to promote growth and face international competition. It follows a discussion of the main characteristics and of the basic tensions that such strategies face in the central countries which first developed, and in the underdeveloped countries, which, besides their domestic problems, confront major challenges in their relations with the rich countries. Key-words: strategy, development, underdevelopment, nation, state. JEL Classification: O10; O11

Research Traditions, Public Policy, and the Underdevelopment of Theory in Plains Archaeology: Tracing the Legacy of the Missouri Basin Project

Abstract: For more than 40 years archaeologists have been engaged in a self-conscious appraisal of the factors influencing the development of archaeological theory. The importance of external social and political forces has been widely acknowledged; however, less attention has been paid to the ways in which routine disciplinary practices authorize and reproduce particular theoretical standpoints. To illustrate how the growth of archaeological theory is intertwined with the practice of archaeological research, the goals and structure of one of the nation's first large-scale public archaeology projects, the River Basin Surveys' Missouri Basin Project (MBP), are considered and their effects on contemporary theory in Plains archaeology are evaluated. Today, theory in Plains archaeology remains implicit and for many projects culture history remains the central focus. The persistence of this research tradition can be traced in part to the success of the MBP in establishing new standards of practice for the region. Throughout the 1950s, MBP archaeologists pursued a distinctive research agenda that institutionalized inductive, culture-historical investigations. However, by the late 1960s many American archaeologists had adopted a new model of preservation, one that necessitated a new set of research practices. Because the MBP was not replaced by a new exemplar of practice, the culture historical research it championed continues to influence theory in Plains archaeology today.

Competitive Rent Preservation, Reform Paralysis, and the Persistence of Underdevelopment

Abstract: Initial inequality in endowments and opportunities, together with low average levels of endowments, can create constituencies in a society that combine to paralyze reforms, even though the status quo hurts them collectively. Each constituency prefers reforms that expand its opportunities, but in an unequal society, this will typically hurt another constituency's rents. Competitive rent preservation ensures no comprehensive reform path may command broad support. Though the initial conditions may well be a legacy of the colonial past, persistence does not require the presence of coercive political institutions, perhaps one reason why underdevelopment has survived independence and democratization. Instead, the roots of underdevelopment may lie in the natural tendency towards rent preservation in a divided society.

Chimeric governance and the extension of resource regulation

Abstract: The contemporary securitisation of underdevelopment is based on the myth of mutual vulnerability—the idea that underdevelopment and state failure pose diverse threats both to the developed world and the poor in the developing world. The mutual vulnerability thesis provides the rationale for an attempt to expand the range of both military and regulatory interventions inside the developing world. The promise of these interventions is of a synthesis between security for the developed world and solidarism with the poor. The reality is a form of chimeric governance which purports to protect the rich from a range of imagined threats and which masks an unwillingness to really address the problems of the poor. One illusion has been shattered on 11 September: that we can have the good life of the West irrespective of the state of the rest of the world…. Once chaos and strife have got a grip on a region or a country trouble will soon be exported. Out of such regions and countries come humanitarian tragedies, centre...

Corruption In Nepal: An Anthropological Inquiry

Abstract: For at least a decade and more obtrusively in recent years, the problem of corruption has been at the center of the political agenda in Nepal. It is recognized as one of the chief causes of Nepal’s underdevelopment. It is very widespread, has different manifestations, and is practiced at all levels of society. The Nepali bureaucracy, politician, and the business sector are most seriously affected by, and inextricably involved in corruption. This is really a great challenge to the campaign of modern Nepal. The businesspersons, the politicians, government officials, so called academicians and even consumers are responsible for this. The intention of this paper is to classify the various forms of corruption in order to operationalize the concept for analytical and practical proposes. First, I will outline the different forms of corruption prevailing in Nepal. Secondly, I will propose some issues to fight against corruption, a broader agenda of democratization. DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v1i0.283 Dhaulagiri Vol.1 (2005) pp.110-128

Recasting Postcolonial Citizenship through Civic Education: Critical Perspectives on Zambia

Abstract: Ali A. AbdiDepartment of Educational Policy StudiesUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton, CanadaEdward ShizhaLecturer, University of Zimbabwe, HarareResearch Associate, University of AlbertaIgnatio BwalyaLecturer, Faculty of EducationUniversity of Zambia, LusakaINTRODUCTIONSince the early 1990s and, perhaps, as one effect of the emergence of the uni-polar world, there have been a lot of “democratizing” activities in the Sub-Saharan context, with Zambia, a central African country of about 10 million, at the forefront of these processes. While democracy, in one form or another, has come to Zambia, socio-eco-nomic underdevelopment continually pervades the land, and even at the political level, the opening-up process has been at best limited, if not still totally in favor of the elites. In this article we critique these issues via the prospect of enlarging citizenship (civic) education pos-sibilities for a more viable and inclusive social development. Citizenship is more than a set of political rights or responsibilities granted or mediated by the state. Citizenship, as well as the political education that aims to enhance it, is grounded in the practices, experi-ences, and meanings articulated and acted upon by individuals and social groups and is actively negotiated by individuals, including those that may be selectively marginalized in one context or another. The agency of individuals and groups should be considered when 47