Constellation Of Institutions Research Articles

“Return us where we can hunt and gather”: hierarchies and social structures that sustain exclusion of San minority in Zimbabwe

PurposeThe paper seeks to analyse the constellation of social structures, administrative institutions and hierarchies that sustain the exclusion of the San minority group in Zimbabwe, with a particular focus on how the European expansion in the eighteenth century, the modern state and private property owners have colluded to perpetuate exclusion from accessing forest as their natural habitat. The purpose of this paper is to therefore highlight the various abuses, including those social, administrative legislative frameworks that discriminate against the San minority and it advocates for actions the right to consultation and the right to free, prior and informed consent to proposed developments.Design/methodology/approachThrough the modern ethnographic approach, data generation was guided by the principles of indigenous and decolonising research methodologies, which place emphasis on the importance of San people telling their own stories thereby shifting the power of a researcher to the indigenous participants. This is a qualitative study that gives prominence to the descriptions of experiences (phenomenology) and interpretations (hermeneutic) of their survival. The paper employed cultural ecology theoretical framework as a lens through which to see the San’s exclusion from forest resources and how this has tragically shifted their egalitarian lifestyle characterised by reciprocity, sharing and levelling to adaptation to the unfamiliar sedentary farming practices.FindingsThe technical implementation of forest boundary demarcation and forcing the San to join sedentary farming form part of the state’s territorialisation that excludes, restricts and disrupts the San minority from accessing forest products. The treatment of the minority group reveals not only the enormous authority of the state to transfer alienation to individuals and companies but also to legitimise the exclusion by establishing laws and policies that safeguard the interests of those favoured by the state. The San, who are already overly dominated by the social administrative structures of the Ndebele and Kalanga tribes, lack systematic and organised responses to their marginalisation.Originality/valueThe San community in Zimbabwe is under-researched and under-theorised particularly in relation to how historically formed postcolonial hierarchies of exclusion and marginalisation manifest themselves in contemporary resource governance. Less is known about how those that are powerful – government officials, private property owners and Kalanga/Ndebele tribes benefit more from the environmental resources than the powerless minority San, whose livelihoods depend on the primary natural resources. The unequal power relations have been demonstrated by the evictions of the minority from wildlife areas that were converted into game parks. The study reveals how indigenous San not only resist exclusion but also develop adaptable strategies through negotiations to improve their situation with social and administrative institutions.

“Just like friends”: Chinese young adults’ interpretation of parent–child relationships on American TV shows

The emergence of individualization in contemporary Chinese society has transformed parent–child dynamics. This article examines one frequently acknowledged, but rarely scrutinized, individualizing force in this process: the consumption of Western popular media. Based on 29 in-depth interviews with college students in Beijing in 2009–2010, I investigate how members of China's first only-child generation reflexively engaged American television shows to assess their own parent–child relationships during a pivotal time of social change in China. While watching US TV inspired a desire among respondents for the individualistic and democratic family dynamics featured on screen, many were critical of what they saw and came to appreciate Chinese family practices more. Beyond comparing their lived realities with specific narratives on US TV, respondents often extrapolated individual circumstances to broader social issues and cultural traditions. Thus, US TV presented new alternatives for family life that fostered a reflexive “social imagination” among young Chinese, allowing them a deeper understanding of personal experiences by situating them within a constellation of social institutions, economic systems, and cultural values. By analyzing viewers’ meaning-making of American television shows within a Chinese context, this article illuminates how parent–child relationships have been shaped by an interplay between local norms and global possibilities.

Tracking the sun: exposing India’s solar dispossessions

ABSTRACT Utility-scale solar development in India has dispossessed peasants of land and livelihoods. Smallholders alienated from land have not been equitably remunerated, rehabilitated, nor offered employment at new solar parks. Yet it remains unclear which modalities of dispossession are used across solar sites. Drawing on mixed methods fieldwork from the Gujarat Solar Park and the Kurnool Solar Park, this study advances research on the processes of land dispossession by examining the following research questions: 1) Which constellation of actors and institutions facilitate land dispossession for solar development in India; 2) Through which modalities do these actors and institutions conduct solar-induced land dispossessions? We find actors and institutions behind solar park development in India function as agents of dispossession. Wielding coercive inscription devices that include land acquisition laws, wasteland categorizations and iterative titling, they seize peasant land in service of private and financial firms to underwrite the rollout of large-scale solar interventions.

Intelligence in international society: An English school perspective on the ‘five eyes’

AbstractDespite the recent prominence of intelligence in post‐Ukraine global policy, it is a Cinderella in international relations studies. Using English School (ES) theorisation, we locate intelligence within the constellation of primary and secondary institutions in international society. Through looking at the Five Eyes, we explore where intelligence sits within widespread claims of a crisis of the post‐1945 liberal international order (LIO) and what role intelligence plays in diplomacy, war and great power management in the context of shifting global power dynamics. Following major twenty‐first century Western intelligence controversies, we argue against raison d'état approaches and for raison de système thinking. In the face of claims of a new Cold War between Russia, China and the West, we see an urgency for policymakers in open societies to re‐think intelligence from an international society perspective that is realistic and normative, and that pays attention to Global South dynamics. Insulating intelligence from politicisation is more important than ever but does not mean that intelligence is a value‐neutral government function.

Evaluating normative capacity through Arctic environmental governance

International cooperation in the Arctic is largely operationalised through environmental governance in a constellation of institutions that promote scientific knowledge of the Arctic region. While the Arctic Council is placed at the centre of this network for environmental protection and resource management across the region, other institutions play critical roles in facilitating scientific knowledge production that promotes the security and development of the region and its resources across national boundaries. Evaluating the role of environmental protection in Arctic governance within models of science diplomacy, this paper argues that the assumption of environmental responsibility should act as a normative operator for Arctic environmental governance, shaping the relations between actors in this regional network and legitimising decision-making by Arctic states as they socially construct the mechanisms and regional exceptionalism of Arctic governance. However, environmental responsibility falls short of acting as a normative operator for environmental protection that also prevents the impact of climate change on the Arctic environment, excluding its function as an overarching normative operator for the international system, reducing state legitimacy for regional decision-making in extra-territorial spaces.

Growth trajectories and political economy in a Structuralist open economy model

This paper presents a set of growth and distribution models for open developing economies under different political economy regimes. These regimes give rise to different institutional frameworks which in turn shape macroeconomic outcomes. We focus on three cases: (1) a pure developmentalist state, (2) conflicting claims between workers and government, and (3) an open capital account under a Neoliberal coalition. The equilibrium growth rate is defined by the Balance-of-Payments (BOP) constraint. Cumulative causation à la Kaldor in periods in which the depreciation of the real exchange rate temporarily raises the equilibrium growth rate allows (under certain conditions) for a process of learning that transforms the income elasticity of exports and hence the BOP-constrained rate of growth in the long run. The model produces a variety of outcomes that explains some of the contradictory results reported in the empirical literature in terms of different constellations of power and institutions.

Informal Worker Access to Formal Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Kenya and Tanzania

Based on a combination of detailed survey data and in-depth interviews with informal workers in the construction, micro-trade, and transport sectors in urban areas of Kenya and Tanzania, this article explores the extent to which informal worker associations facilitate member access to formal social insurance schemes. The article provides unique insight into what characterises informal workers, and the circumstances under which associations may ensure social protection for their members. The analysis shows that members of informal worker associations are significantly more likely to participate in formal insurance schemes compared with non-members, albeit with some variation across location, sector, and worker types. These divergences relate partly to sector-specific and institutional constellations, as well as the ways in which informal worker associations function. Moreover, the article shows that informal worker associations often play a dual role by providing both direct short-term social cushioning and enabling enrolment in formal social insurance schemes. Their part in ensuring the achievement of universal social protection must therefore not be underestimated.

Multilevel governance of energy transitions in Europe: Addressing wicked problems of coordination, justice, and power in energy policy

AbstractConcerns about energy transition and policies to achieve a clean energy Europe are omnipresent in all European discourses. A transformation dynamic has captured all European states, whereby the extent, scope, and direction of this transition vary between different (EU member‑) states and political levels (European, national, federal, local). Likewise, governance dynamics and policies vary between the different European governance and regulatory systems. This Special Issue aims to take stock and discuss approaches in governance and policy research to assess, analyse and evaluate this variance from a theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspective. Of particular interest are recourses to investigate concepts describing and analysing the formation of new policy fields. Within the framework of the Special Issue, the role of specific architectures in which the energy transformation in Europe is embedded (e.g., federalism and multi-level structures, institutional constellations of actors, multi-sector networks, etc.) are analysed to explain the energy transition policies and their transformative properties. Linking the empirical results back to basic research concepts and relating the results to the existing approaches in policy and governance research facilitates a better understanding of the energy transition as a classic and/or new transformation policy.

Aside from Deterministic Prophecies, What Is Missing in the Contemporary Debate on Automation and the Future of Work? The Case of Automated Vehicles

Debates around the future of work have (re-)emerged strongly as concerns about a new era of workplace automation grow from a plethora of narratives estimating the potential of machine substitution. This research aims to analyse how these perspectives dictate current discussions based on taken-for-granted assumptions about work. The analysis takes the lens of work psychology and delves into the case of automated vehicles (AVs), an oft-debated form of automation by its implications for the transport workforce. We explore how the debate is subdued to a deterministic “metrological universe”, overloading the present epoch with certainty about imaginaries of “driverless futures”. However, when we move our attention beyond the quantitative speculation of future employment and connect automation with the concrete socio-professional realities of transport workers, such imaginaries are deconstructed while key issues regarding the quality of work with AVs emerge. By arguing that such issues remain “forgotten” in dominant technological discussions, bipartite and tripartite actions towards decent work are gathered, considering the institutional constellation in road transport. As future research, we propose to challenge those governance models predicated on the language of AV acceptance, which ultimately places the responsibility of managing the uncertainties that AVs hold on the shoulders of transport workers.

Institutional constellations and policy instruments for offshore wind power around the North sea

This paper analyses how institutional constellations and their associated mode of risk allocation are reflected in the choice of policy instruments for the promotion of offshore wind power. Using the Varieties of Capitalism framework we expect that governments in Liberal Market Economies (LME) tend to use policy instruments that privatise investments and risk-taking, while those in Coordinated Market Economies (CME) use policy instruments that facilitate investments and shared risk-taking in the earlier, more riskful phase of technological development. We test our expectations through a longitudinal comparative analysis of the use of policy instruments and the deployment of offshore wind power in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands between 1990 and 2020.Our results confirm the market oriented nature of policy instruments employed by the LME case of the United Kingdom throughout, while we witness initially lower levels of market orientation among the CME cases of Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Though the market orientation of Germany's policy instruments declined half way to build up domestic momentum, we generally see an increased use of market oriented policy instruments over time by the CME. Putting the trajectories together we witness an overall convergence in the use of policy instruments which we attribute to the liberalisation of the energy sector in the EU as well as to policy-learning effects. The results have generic relevance and can also be used to inform future national strategies and policies for deploying new low-carbon technologies, such as electrolysis for green hydrogen, which face similar risks and challenges.

Integrating citizen deliberation into climate governance: Lessons on robust design from six climate assemblies

AbstractRecent years have seen a “wave” of national climate assemblies, which bring together randomly‐selected citizens to deliberate and make recommendations on aspects of the climate crisis. Assessments of the legitimacy of these interventions and their capacity to improve climate governance have focused on their internal design characteristics, but the fundamental question of how they are integrated into complex constellations of political and policy institutions is underexplored. This article constructs a framework for understanding their integrative design characteristics, drawing on recent work on “robust governance.” The framework is used to explore the connection of six national‐level climate assemblies with political institutions, public debate, and civil society. Our findings highlight significant variety in the integrative design of these climate assemblies. This variety challenges the view of assemblies as a standardized object with predictable effects on legitimacy and governance capacity, while also refining deliberative systems theory's highly abstracted conceptions of integration and impact.

Informal Settlement Resilience Upgrading-Approaches and Applications from a Cross-Country Perspective in Three Selected Metropolitan Regions of Southeast Asia

Managing climate change is synonymous to managing cities and their growth. To shoulder the challenge of climate change adaptation, informal settlement upgrading in the global south has amounted to the importance of being attuned with the growth of its city and region at large. Changing the paradigm of on-site upgrading to being community-driven and city-led with domestic funding unlocks potentials for community resilience building, especially in countries that strive for inclusive growth. This research looks into informal settlement development dynamics and its resilience stance in conjunction of the metropolitan growth in three Southeast Asian countries. Greater Manila Area, Bangkok Metropolitan Region and Hanoi Capital Region serve as the backdrop for this investigation. The research mainly addresses informal settlement upgrading roles, mechanism and approaches for resilience building in these three metropolises, meanwhile also unveiling their city-regional development needs. The methodological approach of this study is highly participatory, demonstrating a hybrid of multi-spectrum stakeholder workshops, online surveys (due to COVID), expert interviews, project interim reports and correspondence with the local expert team in the three countries, etc. The paper attempts at providing a cross-country appraisal of the central strategies of informal settlement upgrading, related institutional constellations and upgrading applications along with the three metropolises’ urban development. This attempt accentuates the pressing needs of mitigating multi-facet vulnerability of informal communities, who are the most adversely affected by climate change and rampant urbanization. Further, this research will also reveal the mindset change of how decision-makers and the public contemplate upgrading objectives, e.g., recasting secure tenure instruments.

Resilience of the EU ETS to contextual disturbance: the case of EU enlargement and its impact on ETS policymaking dynamics

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS) has been established for more than 15 years, but limited attention has been given to how the changing political environment may affect the policy. We address this gap by investigating how the EU enlargement after 2004 affected the ETS and how the effects have been buffered. We develop a framework of institutional resilience to investigate how the established norms and institutional constellation of the EU legislative triumvirate have been instrumental for buffering the effects of the enlargement on ETS policymaking. We find that the existing power structure and functional complementarity of the EU legislative settings have fostered a consensus-building atmosphere in the ETS decision-making to accommodate preference heterogeneity and to absorb the compositional impact after the enlargement. The findings highlight the importance of contextual factors and institutional settings in ETS analysis and suggest a new perspective for assessing dynamic ETS performance.

Institutional Constellations and Policy Instruments for Offshore Wind Power Around the North Sea

Institutional Constellations and Policy Instruments for Offshore Wind Power Around the North Sea

Weak Ties and Strange Attractors:Anomalocivitasand the Archaeology of Urban Origins

This paper offers three figures of thought for research on the origin of urban places and societies. As an alternative to linear, evolutionary models of urbanization, I propose to see the formation of urbanism as an evolving field guided by ‘strange attractors’, which tend to converge towards particular constellations of practices and institutions. In this view, the study of ‘odd’ urban sites and societies, anomalocivitates, which have reached unusual constellations, can be revealing. A key attractor for urban societies is so-called ‘weak ties’, connections that reach beyond close social clusters. I suggest ways to study urban sites from the point of view of evolving social networks. To illustrate these concepts, the paper discusses coastal and riverine trading ports, emporia in northern Europe in the eighth-tenth centuries ad.

Are digital platforms potential drivers of the populist vote? A comparative analysis of France, Germany and Italy

ABSTRACT Populist parties are often argued to be very skilled in using digital media to attract supporters and strengthen linkages with their followers. However, only rarely has research shown this linkage empirically. This study explores whether arguments about the relation between digital platforms and populist voting can be substantiated using comparative survey data in France, Germany and Italy. Digital media include a variety of online platforms that can affect populist vote in different ways. This article addresses the relation between the political use of digital platforms and the populist vote. First, it looks at how the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and Mobile Instant Messaging Services (MIMS) is related to voting for populist parties. Second, it assesses whether the role of digital platforms is different for supporting digital ‘immigrant’ and digital ‘native’ populist parties. Third, it explores country differences in the relation between SNS and MIMS’ use and the populist vote. Using original online surveys, the article shows that political activities on SNS and MIMS platforms (sending messages or posting, discussing or convincing others to vote for a candidate) increase the probability of voting for populist parties. However, it also finds that the political use of digital media is associated with the populist vote under certain (and limited) circumstances, that is only for a subset of populist parties. Finally, it identifies important differences in how SNS and MIMS are linked to the populist vote in countries presenting diverse institutional features, web regulations and constellations of media systems.

Is bioeconomy policy a policy field? A conceptual framework and findings on the European Union and Germany

ABSTRACT Bioeconomy policy is often labelled a policy field or at least an emerging policy field. But is it really one? And how can one tell and what does it mean? Drawing on the scarce research on what exactly are policy fields and what are the factors driving their emergence, we aim to answer these questions based on the definition of a policy field as a specific and long-term constellation of related problems, actors, institutions and instruments. Empirically drawing on the European Union and Germany, in a first step we find that bioeconomy policy can be characterised as an emerging policy field at most, as it is limitedly institutionalised and lacks a genuinely bioeconomy-related actor constellation and problem structure. Moreover, there are hardly any bioeconomy-specific instruments in place. In a second step, we find that the fragmented institutional and regulatory landscape particularly hinders the establishment of bioeconomy policy as a policy field, as do the ambiguity and inconsistency of its overarching goals as well as its fragile supportive actor constellations. As a result, bioeconomy policy to date rather serves as a conceptual umbrella for a number of already existing policies, so far with little tangible effect.

Responding to Socioeconomic Diversity in the European Union (and to Steven Klein’s Essay) with Democracy-Enhancing Conflicts Law

Responding to Socioeconomic Diversity in the European Union (and to Steven Klein’s Essay) with Democracy-Enhancing Conflicts Law

Towards a Risk Catalogue for Data Management Plans


 Although data management and its careful planning are no new topics, there is only little literature on risk mitigation in data management plans (DMPs). We consider it a problem that DMPs do not include a structured approach for the identification or mitigation of risks, because it would instil confidence and trust in the data and its stewards, and foster the successful conduction of data-generating projects, which often are funded research projects. In this paper, we present a lightweight approach for identifying general risks in DMPs. We introduce an initial version of a generic risk catalogue for funded research and similar projects. By analysing a selection of 13 DMPs for projects from multiple disciplines published by the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal, we demonstrate that our approach is applicable to DMPs and transferable to multiple institutional constellations. As a result, the effort for integrating risk management in data management planning can be reduced.

Rethinking Suburban Governance in the CEE Region: A Comparison of Two Municipalities in Poland and Lithuania

In this article, we seek to analyse and compare the modalities of suburban governance in Polish and Lithuanian municipalities looking at the territorial development trends typical for the Central Eastern Europe region. The theoretical elaborations on suburban governance are evolving towards the analysis of constellations of diverse actors, institutions and processes that define the politics and design of suburban spaces. We assume that there are similarities and differences in suburban governance in the analysed localities compared to Western countries in terms of networks, actors and territorialisation of local politics. Despite both suburban municipalities showing similarities in suburban development patterns (growing middle-class population, economic capital accumulation, suburban sprawl and interconnectedness with the metropolitan zone), the analysis reveals the main differences in terms of composition and importance of horizontal and vertical networks, the role of local stakeholders and collective action. The article concludes that both localities represent a specific approach to suburban governance marked by low stakeholders’ participation, dependence on the top down vertical state and regional networks and the creation of urban-suburban policies within metropolitan areas.