Powerful Actors Research Articles

Conflicting Imperatives? Ethnonationalism and Neoliberalism in Industrial Relations

Based on a case study of non-citizen Palestinian workers in the Israeli construction sector, this article explores the dynamic relationship between the exclusionary imperative of ethnonationalism and the inclusionary imperative of neoliberalism. The authors argue that these imperatives together constitute a heuristically useful framework that can help to explain the choices of social actors and the constraints on these choices, as well as the apparently contradictory developments that affect industrial relations institutions and the employment relationship more broadly. While neoliberalism generally weakens organized labor, the study shows how the dynamic between these two imperatives can open space for the inclusion of disenfranchised ethnonational groups within collective labor relations—a first step to political empowerment. The study thus re-asserts the importance of organized labor as a powerful actor able to engender progressive change, even for the “ethnonational other” under rigidly ethnonationalistic regimes.

Harmonising or politicising: Youth sector peacebuilding in contested societies

Peacebuilding in contested societies is a cross-sectoral enterprise in which young people are primary stakeholders. Multilateral state-sponsored programmes and philanthropic agencies have resourced a vibrant youth sector delivering peacebuilding initiatives in Northern Ireland and the border counties. Despite billions in investment and a rich tapestry of transformative practice, a visionary peacebuilding strategy co-created with young people has remained elusive. As a result, youth sector peacebuilding in Northern Ireland is inhibited by an obstacle facing civil society peacebuilding across the globe – an ill-articulated vision resulting in pockets of disparate practice. Based on empirical research involving 43 youth work practitioners, this article offers a novel and rigorous methodological framework and sociological analysis to support researchers, policymakers and practitioners in contested societies to advance conceptualisations of peacebuilding. Freeden's framework of morphological analysis is operationalised through Q methodology leading to the identification of four distinctive orientations to peacebuilding. Bourdieu's concepts of capital and field are drawn upon to analyse the four perspectives, framed within a new sociopolitical model of youth sector peacebuilding. Tensions between harmonising versus politicising propensities are discussed as a substantial divergence variously incentivised or neglected by powerful actors within the field with significant implications for the trajectory of practice.

Accounting and accountability in Muslim secondary schools in Tanzania: a Bourdieusian perspective

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between accounting and accountability practices in Muslim secondary schools in Tanzania using Bourdieusian perspective. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews were conducted with school owners, teachers, accountants, an imam and leaders of Muslim organizations. Corroborative evidence was gathered through review of documentary sources. The data were analyzed using a mapping approach.FindingsThe findings show that powerful actors in the schools studied proactively selected accounting practices that supported their particular doxa of survival, access or legitimacy. Also, Fiisabilillah is identified as an existential doxa, and this was found to be more influential than individual accountability doxa and responsible for adherence to work among weak agents despite an inappropriate environment. As a result, accounting practices become “rhetoric” and play a minimal role in discharging both “sacred” and “secular” accountability to both human beings and God.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that accounting practices must be understood in the context of the socioeconomic and political settings in which the organization operates.Originality/valueMost studies of accounting and accountability have focused on developed countries. This is one of the few studies to explore the phenomenon in the context of Muslim schools in a developing country.

Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media

Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media

Alternatives to sustainable seafood certifications: Transitions of small-scale fisheries governance in northeastern Japan

Landscape pressures in fisheries governance systems ranging from the impacts of climate change to the detrimental impacts of overfishing are beginning to pressure regime actors to act. One way regime actors have responded to fisheries issues is through the promotion of sustainable seafood certification. In this paper, we utilize the Pathway for Transitions (Geels and Schot, 2007) as a theoretical lens to examine how the sustainable seafood certification innovation represents a transformation pathway through regime actors' power. In addition, we bring light to alternative niche groups which base their governance strategies on local ecological knowledge and work to be inclusive of small-scale fishers. In many traditional fishing communities in Japan, local knowledge structures regarding social-ecological systems are crucial for sustainable governance. While some studies have been done on sustainable seafood certification, how they impact local knowledge structures has yet to be fully examined. We found, despite local knowledge structures theoretically acknowledged, powerful political-economic actors do not draw from them, but instead push for sustainable seafood certification as a way to cope with external shocks. Our research illuminates three groups which highlight important aspects of sustainable governance at the niche level, demonstrating the need to incorporate power dynamics as a factor in sustainability transitions. They include; 1) a NGO actively governing through local knowledge, 2) inclusive governance activities, and, 3) a platform for small-scale fishers’ agency. If regime-level innovations, such as sustainable seafood certification, continue to determine how sustainability should be practiced, local knowledge structures will be lost to standardization. We contend that by acknowledging and utilizing local knowledge from local actors, it could contribute to a more just form of governance through equitable participation of small-scale fishers and their local ecological knowledge validated.

Political theories of the business corporation.

Business corporations are important, often powerful actors within the economy. They are able to exercise power over other actors, such as employees, consumers and nation-states. This contribution discusses how corporate power is constituted (ontological question), for what purpose it should be exercised, (normative question) and how it should be controlled (governance question). It focuses on the competing anwers to these questions that have been proposed by three political theories of the corporation. Concession theories emphasize the state's role in chartering corporations, and hence require corporations to act in the public interest. Contractualist theories present corporations as tools for contract partners (most often shareholders), with corporate purpose focused on the benefits to these partners. Real entity theories focus on the corporation as an autonomous, separate entity with a purpose to be determined by the group seeking incorporation.

Understanding the governance of sustainability pathways: hydraulic megaprojects, social–ecological traps, and power in networks of action situations

To enable sustainability pathways, we need to understand how social–ecological systems (SES) respond to different governance configurations, considering their historical, institutional, political, and power conditions. We advance a robust methodological approach for the integrated analysis of those conditions in SES traps. Our advancement consists of a novel combination of the networks of action situations approach with an agency-based polycentric power typology and the concept of discursive power. We test the approach by building on previous research on the Doñana estuary–delta SES (Guadalquivir estuary), which is characterized by a rigidity trap in the context of ecosystem and water governance. Specifically, we focus on a recent hydraulic megaproject involving deep dredging in the Guadalquivir estuary, finally canceled due to its broad negative socioeconomic and environmental repercussions. According to our analysis, certain governance, institutional, and informational mechanisms currently prevent further SES degradation in Doñana. However, key governance actors are caught in a lasting coordination failure prone to mutual defection strategies owing to power dynamics and discursive-institutional inertia. Although seemingly stable due to counteractive mechanisms among actors, this situation is at continuous risk of being unbalanced by powerful actors promoting large SES interventions such as deep dredging. Such interventions bear the systemic risk of strong suppression of SES functions, and a regime shift to a lock-in trap. This overall undesirable situation might be escaped through transformative policy designs that take into account meso-level mechanisms, such as discursive power and its role in non-decision-making, pragmatic inaction, and inefficient investment and infrastructure.

Allies for subsistence: poverty alleviation in community forestry limited by powerful actors

Over one billion people in the world depend on forests to meeting livelihood needs and more than half of them engage in community-based forest management. Community forestry has the potential of making important contributions in achieving the sustainable development goals; however, their positive effects on local livelihoods have been questioned. Actors, with their interests and power balance, can be important factors explaining the success of community forestry by shaping the decision-making process. Hence, the aim of our study was to analyze the economic performance of community forestry across the world, through its contribution to poverty reduction and explain how the economic outcome relates to the interests of the powerful actors. Community forestry from seven countries was analyzed including cases in Asia (Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam), Africa (Namibia and Cameroon), and Europe (Germany and Albania). Data were collected with a sequence design method aiming to identify the participating actors and their power. A multivariate principal components analysis was conducted to capture the power dynamics within each community forestry. Results showed that community forestry programs do not always lead to poverty alleviation. The economic outcomes can be linked to the interests of the most powerful actors which in most cases do not desire a high economic outcome but rather promote contributions up to subsistence level.

Multimodal mechanisms of political discourse dynamics and the case of Germany’s nuclear energy phase-out

AbstractThe 2011 policy pivot of the German government, from extending nuclear power plants terms to securing their shutdown for 2022, cannot be explained without looking at how the German political discourse network shifted in the months following Fukushima. This paper seeks to model and identify mechanisms that help explain how the two-mode network of political actors’ support for claims developed. We identify possible mechanisms to explain discourse dynamics from literature on political discourse and discourse networks, and extend homophily mechanisms to two-mode networks as “tertius” effects. We then introduce and employ a multimodal extension of dynamic network actor models to answer two questions key to how the discourse has evolved: which actors support claims more frequently and which claims they support. Our results indicate that mechanisms vary according to the discursive phase, but that powerful actors participate in the discourse more often, and actors tend to support claims that have already found support by cross-party coalitions. These are the two most prominent mechanisms that help to explain the dramatic nuclear policy change in Germany after Fukushima.

Recognising Recognition in Climate Justice

This article argues that in order to achieve climate justice, recognition needs to be given more attention in climate research, discourse, and policies. Through the analysis of three examples, we identify formal and discursive recognition as central types of recognition in climate issues, and we show how powerful actors exercise their power in ways that cause climate injustice through formal and discursive misrecognition of poor and vulnerable groups. The three examples discussed are: climate mitigation through forest conservation (REDD), the Great Green Wall project in the Sahel, and the narrative about climate change as a contributing factor to the Syrian war.

Regional design for post-mining transformation: insights from implementation in Lusatia

ABSTRACT This article reports on an attempt to implement regional design in a decarbonization transition in Lusatia, one of Germany’s lignite regions. As visioning tools, regional designs have great potential for application in coal-regions facing sustainability transitions. Through the implementation of the Lusatia 2050 Planning Lab, we find that the politically induced nature of the present transition, combined with regional factors, such its cross-border character and scepticism regarding sustainability, significantly modified the design and outcome of the method as applied. We note that the resistance to transformative goals by powerful actors administering transitions may prove an important impediment to their success.

Eurasian Regionalism from the Perspective of Scale

Abstract This article argues that the analytical concept of scale can provide researchers with a more holistic, entangled, and decolonised research perspective on Eurasian regionalism. By drawing on the socio-spatial analytical perspective of scale, I show how we can overcome theoretical biases and conceptual divides in and between the entangled fields of ir and Eurasian studies.1 A scalar perspective helps to dissolve these biases and divides by de-essentialising Eurasia as a region and conceptualising it as a contested, constructed and contentious political geography, formed by powerful actors who use the notion of ‘region’ to further their political interests. One virtue of a scalar perspective is that it reveals the multidimensional character of Eurasian regionalism and its connectedness with the global, depending on the imaginaries activated, the vested power interests pursued, and the regional, inter-regional and international networks created in a specific issue area.

Local communities and transparency in Indonesian mining legislation

As Indonesia’s mining industry plays an important role in the national economy and global mineral supply chain, local communities and the environment are increasingly affected by the mining industry. This article examines Indonesia’s 2009 Mining Law to understand why it failed to effectively address the needs of communities impacted by extractive industries. Using three key elements of transformative transparency – access to information, meaningful participation and government accountability – the analysis shows that although the law sought to incorporate perspectives of local communities in different stages of the mineral value chain, it failed to ensure that local communities had adequate access to mining-related information, space for participation in decision-making and mechanisms for holding powerful actors accountable. These shortcomings are not addressed in the recent amendment of the law. Instead, the 2020 amendment reverses the promises of decentralisation and democratisation of the country’s mining sector.

Why the Drug War Endures: Local and Transnational Linkages in the North and Central America Drug Trades

Honduras has been Central America’s focal point for drug trafficking towards the United States for years as the region’s main transit country. Recent court cases held in the United States have revealed the symbiotic relationship between state actors, business elites and drug trafficking organisations in contemporary Honduras, uncovering the blurred boundaries between the licit and illicit, the upper and underworld in the country. In this article, a drug-trafficking family – ‘Los Cachiros’ <em>transportista</em> (transport) group – is analysed as a case study with the aim of exploring state actors’ involvement in cocaine trafficking. Drawing on publicly available official judicial documents, this article explores the interpenetrations between formal and informal institutions in the country, arguing that state actors’ involvement in the drug trade in Honduras goes far beyond protection, and has evolved into a powerful network of public, private and criminal actors that has been able to capture the state’s basic sovereign functions with the aim of protecting and promoting their own private interests. In doing so, this article takes forward the state-crime nexus literature. Building on Hall’s (2018) networked approach in the study of illicit economies, this article proposes a conceptual framework to re-theorise the state-crime nexus as a transnationally networked set of relations, which considers the role of external states as actors of power within a country’s state-crime nexus. Looking at the unique relationship between Honduras and the United States, I argue that the concept is useful to understand the role of the United States as a transnational actor of power within the Honduran state-crime nexus.

Enablers of Cocaine Trafficking: Evidence of the State-Crime Nexus from Contemporary Honduras

Honduras has been Central America’s focal point for drug trafficking towards the United States for years as the region’s main transit country. Recent court cases held in the United States have revealed the symbiotic relationship between state actors, business elites and drug trafficking organisations in contemporary Honduras, uncovering the blurred boundaries between the licit and illicit, the upper and underworld in the country. In this article, a drug-trafficking family – ‘Los Cachiros’ <em>transportista</em> (transport) group – is analysed as a case study with the aim of exploring state actors’ involvement in cocaine trafficking. Drawing on publicly available official judicial documents, this article explores the interpenetrations between formal and informal institutions in the country, arguing that state actors’ involvement in the drug trade in Honduras goes far beyond protection, and has evolved into a powerful network of public, private and criminal actors that has been able to capture the state’s basic sovereign functions with the aim of protecting and promoting their own private interests. In doing so, this article takes forward the state-crime nexus literature. Building on Hall’s (2018) networked approach in the study of illicit economies, this article proposes a conceptual framework to re-theorise the state-crime nexus as a transnationally networked set of relations, which considers the role of external states as actors of power within a country’s state-crime nexus. Looking at the unique relationship between Honduras and the United States, I argue that the concept is useful to understand the role of the United States as a transnational actor of power within the Honduran state-crime nexus.

A Study of Spatial Aesthetics in the Film The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises was released in 2007, directed by Jiang Wen, Zhou Yun, Chen Chong and other powerful actors. The film is not only wonderful content, but also twists and turns of the plot. The story runs from the 1950s to the 1970s and tells the story of the love dispute between Li Bukong and his crazy mother and his wife, as well as the fate of various characters such as Nanyang overseas Chinese teacher Liang and Nurse Lin. Director Jiang Wen broke the fixed narrative mode of the film and split the story together again, so that the space and time of the film have a wonderful visual perception impact. This paper will the film The Sun Also Rises the space aesthetics as the research object, the space aesthetics presented in the film, based on the film depends on the spatial image construction and shooting skills, in order to analyze and study the space aesthetics and the film of the value and significance.

Brokers, prestige and information exchange in the European Union’s functional food sector – A policy network analysis

• Food policies foster policy network developments and interactions. • Policy network analysis identifies powerful actors in the health food sector. • Information from political groups considered more important than from interest groups. • Food industry interests are overrepresented compared to consumer interests. This paper focuses on policy networks and implications surrounding the complex legal requirements on functional foods in the European Union (EU). Using social network analysis, we empirically identify relevant network actors, both private and public, and quantitatively analyse network structures in terms of reputation, information exchange, and communication. Although private network actors outnumber public network actors, their importance is incontrovertible higher. The study identifies the European Commissions’ Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), FoodDrinkEurope, and the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) as the three most powerful network actors; among Council members, Great Britain vested an outstanding position before Brexit. Overall, the findings paint a precise picture of the functional food policy domain network in the EU by linking formal legislative decision-making and informal interest intermediation in policy formulation. Thus, our research shows the importance of information for network actors’ strategic positive positioning.

The Design of Carpets That Design Us

The Design of Carpets That Design Us

Absenteeism in primary health centres in Nigeria: leveraging power, politics and kinship

BackgroundPrimary health centres (PHCs) in Nigeria suffer critical shortages of health workers, aggravated by chronic absenteeism that has been attributed to insufficient resources to govern the system and adequately meet...

“Our City is Ruined. Reason: Road Widening”

Govind Gopakumar, Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020) Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022) Tarini Bedi, Mumbai Taximen: Autobiographies and Automobilities in India (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2022) Rano Turaeva and Rustamjon Urinboyev (eds.), Labour, Mobility and Informal Practices in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe: Power, Institutions and Mobile Actors in Transnational Space (London: Routledge, 2021) Róisín Healy (ed.), Mobility in the Russian, Central and East European Past (London: Routledge, 2019) Luke Heslop and Galen Murton (eds.), Highways and Hierarchies: Ethnographies of Mobility from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021) Joshua Grace, African Motors: Technology, Gender, and the History of Development (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2021) Jun Zhang, Driving toward Modernity: Cars and the Lives of the Middle Class in Contemporary China (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019) Shawn William Miller, The Street Is Ours: Community, the Car, and the Nature of Public Space in Rio de Janeiro (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)