Local Power Structures Research Articles

Transforming the (Teacher) Educator Through Ecojustice and Decolonization

Transformative Inquiry (Tanaka, 2015) can be a methodological ally in critical education that addresses systems of oppression. Transformative Inquiry (TI) actively decenters institutional knowledge by placing one’s intuitions and embodied experiences and classroom observations on an equal footing with the academic literature. The process draws heavily upon Indigenous methodologies and pedagogies, specifically, relational accountability. This paper reports how using TI challenged the author’s previously held Western cultural beliefs around scientism and individualism. It also reports on selected experiences from the author’s teaching career, salient public pedagogy moments and conversations with fellow critical ecojustice educators that helped decolonize her thinking and made her more aware of eco-cidal neoliberal structures often overlooked, like the Janus-face of science. Data are still being collected as the research process is (and always will be) ongoing. However, initial results point to an increased understanding of unjust local power structures and habits of mind and the need for courage in pointing them out. These results also suggest the necessity of speaking out in allyship with oppressed groups who may not have a voice and using the author’s white privilege to make and hold space for everyone to be heard. This study is about how one scientist-turned-educator used TI to learn from and with others about how to decolonize her mind and unlearn Western, eco-cidal, neoliberal norms that have created the conditions for current socio-ecological crises.

Public works in Hungary:

This paper reviews the past 10 years of the Hungarian public works system in an international context. It describes changes in the system of public works over time, its various forms, its regional allocation mechanisms and the decision-making and planning process. In that respect, it explores the motivations of the key players, including the central planner, the employment service and the municipalities, as well as their interactions. The analysis is based on interviews conducted in the competent ministries, at national public works providers, the county and district offices of the public employment system and municipalities on one hand, and quantitative data analyses on the entire public works database for the period of 2011-2014, on the other hand.Originally intended to be a labour market policy tool, public works programmes assumed more significant social and municipality management functions, partly because of the extraordinary expansion of their volume. None of their functions performs adequately in the regulatory environment developed; however, they play a key role in mitigating social tensions in disadvantaged rural areas. The planning and regional allocation mechanisms of public works are in many ways similar to the planning procedure of state socialism and provide scope for the of plan bargaining, based on information asymmetry. As a result, this mechanism creates impacts different from the stated objectives in somerespects. The most disadvantaged municipalities thus have proportionately fewer public works participants than would be expected based on the number of long-term unemployed. The system of public works has had a considerable impact on local power structures and transformed the functions of mayors. The responsibility for tackling labour market problems was transferred from the competent employment services to municipalities without expertise, which also had a negative impact on the Public Employment Service.

Local Council's Power Structure and Local Residents' Political Participation: Panel Data Regression Analysis for 16 Metropolitan Governments in South Korea

지방정치의 역할 증대와 효과적인 지방자치에 있어서 지역 주민의 정치참여는 매우 중요한 요인이다. 지역 주민의 정치참여는 지방선거가 대표적이다. 지방선거에 대한 지역 주민이 느끼는 효능감은 지역 주민을 대표하는 지방의회의 권력구조에 기인할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 지방의회 권력구조가 지역 주민의 정치참여에 미치는 영향관계를 패널회귀분석으로 규명하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 허핀달 정부지수(Herfindahl index of government) 산출방식을 사용하여 지방의회 권력구조 형태를 파악하고 그에 따른 지역 주민의 지방선거 참여 정도를 측정하였다. 분석결과, 독점적인 지방의회 권력구조는 지역 주민의 지방선거 참여율을 저해하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 특정 정당에 의해 독점적인 지방의회 권력구조가 형성되면, 의회내 정책적 의사결정 및 주민반응성에 대한 민감도가 저하되고, 그에 따라 주민들에게 지방의회 활동이 부정적으로 인식되어 투표참여에 부정적인 영향을 미칠 수 있음을 시사한다. 따라서 지역 주민의 선호를 다양하게 반영하고 지방정치를 활성화시키기 위해서는 지방의회 권력구조의 다원화가 필요함을 주장한다.

Dynamics of Everyday Life within Municipal Administrations in Francophone and Anglophone Africa

Decentralisation in sub-Saharan Africa promises to build responsive institutions, hold officials to account and promote popular participation. Still, existent studies ignore the everyday interface between decentralised structures and citizens, as well as how decentralised institutions function in relation to their local contexts and other “authorities” on the margins. These contexts shape service provision and the impact of local power structures on local communities. Against this backdrop, our conference in Dakar, Senegal, on “Dynamics of Everyday Life within Municipal Administrations in Francophone and Anglophone Africa,” which took place in May 2019, demonstrated three key points of interest: namely, how actors within local bureaucracies interface with those who are outside; how ordinary citizens appropriate the bureaucratic techniques of the state and how these actors negotiate and adapt to the daily practices of municipal administrations. In general, decentralisation is not simply implemented, rather, it creates new frameworks and spaces for both formal and informal public action.

Networks, Civil Associations and the Transformation of Local Governance Space: Homeowners’ Organizations in Urban China

Due to the housing reform, a large number of homeowners’ associations have been established in urban China, and they play an increasingly important role in the reconfiguration of neighborhood space and community power structure. This paper examines the function of this kind of civil associations in neighborhood politics and the dynamics of their operation. It finds that, although the establishment of homeowners’ associations was due to the formal institutional change which had been initiated by the state, their actual operation is influenced by local social networks. In other words, through these formal civil associations, informal networks wield influence in local power structure. On the one hand, the existence of informal networks facilitates civil resistance against the domination of local authorities and citizens’ struggle for community autonomy. On the other hand, the extensive deployment of informal networks may lead to the formation of faction politics and oligarchy of a few privileged citizens to the exclusion of other ordinary citizens. The result of these interactions and struggles further shape and reshape neighborhood space. Therefore, informal networks have contextual influence on neighborhood space and local governance.

Humanitarian aid and local power structures: lessons from Haiti's 'shadow disaster'.

This paper investigates the confluence of humanitarian aid, centralisation, and politics. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010 led to more than USD 16 billion in pledges. By contrast, Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall in Haiti on 4 October 2016, stayed in the shadows, attracting about one per cent of the amount. While the earthquake exhibited one face of centralisation, the Category 4 storm laid bare rural vulnerabilities shaped by postcolonial state neglect, and reinforced by the influx of non-governmental organisations in the 'Republic of Port-au-Prince'. The study draws on data from four case studies in two departments to illuminate the legacies of hyper-centralisation in Haiti. Compounding matters, Matthew struck in the middle of an extended election that the international community attempted to control again. The paper argues that disaster assistance and politics are uncomfortably close, while reflecting on the momentary decentralisation of aid after the hurricane and its effectiveness.

A novel multi-stage fuzzy stochastic programming for electricity system structure optimization and planning with energy-water nexus - A case study of Tianjin, China

In this study, a novel multi-stage fuzzy stochastic programming (MSFSP) model was developed for regional energy system structure optimization and planning with energy-water nexus under multiple uncertainties. By cooperating the multistage stochastic programming and fuzzy theory, the developed model can deal with energy system planning problems under a mixture of probabilistic and possibilistic uncertainties. Fuzzy random scenarios are designed to express the uncertain future energy demand levels and vague decision maker’s risk attitude. A MSFSP –based energy-water nexus system management model was applied to a practical energy system planning problem in an energy-intensive and water-stressed area, Tianjin, China. Results of optimal capacity expansion, power generation, and imported electricity strategies were obtained; meanwhile the water resource availability effects and decision makers’ risk attitude were analyzed. It was found that water resource availability would be a significant factor in promoting local power structure and electricity generation in the future. More serious water resource deficiency would lead to reduce local coal-fired power capacity investment, while stimulate renewable energy development and increase imported electricity requirement. All above can facilitate decision supports for regional energy system planning from a comprehensive energy-water nexus perspective with more sustainable and risk-aversion manners.

The network effects of NGOs on social capital and innovation among smallholder farmers: a case study in Peru

The impact of non-government organizations (NGOs) on the local development of rural areas has rarely been explored empirically. Here, we employ methods from network science to evaluate the impact of an NGO’s activities on the social capital and innovation of three Peruvian farming communities between 2003 and 2018. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with farmers, including information about the farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics, types of interactions with the NGO, and innovations in processes, products, marketing, and organization. Our findings show that the NGO had a significant impact on the local social cohesion and innovation performance of the farmers. The NGO helped to connect farmers from different villages, provided access to external knowledge, and facilitated the establishment of a local productive organization. Yet, the NGO also changed the local power structure by becoming the most central agent in the local innovation system. The NGO’s centrality declined, though, at later stages of the development project as local agents took over the role of the NGO. Moreover, econometric results show that having a link with the NGO is associated with a significantly more central role of the farmers in the local network. However, only close cooperation with the NGO, such as membership in the local productive organization or active participation in technical training workshops, was associated with a significantly higher innovation performance. Finally, our study demonstrates that methods from network science can help to empirically evaluate and monitor the effects of NGOs on local development at different stages of their development interventions.

Local alliances and rivalries shape near-repeat terror activity of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and insurgents

We study the spatiotemporal correlation of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and local insurgents, in six geographical areas identified via k-means clustering applied to the Global Terrorism Database. All surveyed organizations exhibit near-repeat activity whereby a prior attack increases the likelihood of a subsequent one by the same group within 20 km and on average 4 (al-Qaeda) to 10 (ISIS) weeks. Near-response activity, whereby an attack by a given organization elicits further attacks from a different one, is found to depend on the adversarial, neutral, or collaborative relationship between the two. When in conflict, local insurgents respond quickly to attacks by global terror groups while global terror groups delay their responses to local insurgents, leading to an asymmetric dynamic. When neutral or allied, attacks by one group enhance the response likelihood of the other, regardless of hierarchy. These trends arise consistently in all clusters for which data are available. Government intervention and spillover effects are also discussed; we find no evidence of outbidding. Understanding the regional dynamics of terrorism may be greatly beneficial in policy making and intervention design.

Imperial dialectics and epistemic mapping: From decolonisation to anti-Eurocentric IR

What would it mean to construct a post-imperial discipline rather than a ‘post-Western’ one? ‘Post-imperial’ means addressing the ways in which colonial empires divided the world into separate realms of human capability and thought. The binary categories of Western and Eastern, or Western and non-Western, represent one such way of dividing the world according to an imperial imaginary. Rather than merely excluding, these divisions created justifications for local universalisms and power structures. Yet, many anti-Eurocentric scholars now make use of these categories in order to argue for fixed epistemic differences between Western and non-Western populations. Accordingly, I critique the imperial division of the world by drawing on the intellectual trajectories of two thinkers who struggled against empire in the 20th century: WEB Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. Du Bois and Fanon were both aware of how ethnic and cultural foundations for politics could reproduce imperial order, and, therefore, offer potential alternatives to Western/non-Western ontologies. This includes recognising that representations of difference are processual, determined by strategic necessity, and subject to incentives to represent difference within hierarchical institutions. This article builds on recent studies in International Relations and other disciplines to think through the legacies of empire in knowledge production, and to push towards more historical and relational approaches to world political and social inquiry.

A INSTRUÇÃO PÚBLICA DO SERRO/MG COMO MICROCOSMO DA EDUCAÇÃO BRASILEIRA (1821-1840)

The history of Brazilian Education in the period between 1821 and 1840 is analyzed from a microcosm that is the city of Serro/MG, an ancient gold village of the eighteenth century. Because of its own characteristics such as the permanence of the patronage as a local power structure, the discourse of the local elites on the modernization of Brazilian Education and a constant initiative to introduce and maintain public education, especially the first letters, we believe that the city of Minas Gerais is as a microcosm of education in national territory. The methodology is based on the mapping, collection and analysis of documents of public and private archives as well as reading the books of authors specialized in the subject. The result is that we present a microcosm of national education from the period 1821-1840 from the most important city of Comarca do Serro do Frio.

Institutional analysis of regionalism in Japan: a sociological case study from Owase, Japan

Since the end of 1990s, the Japanese government has made a clear neoliberal shift in its strategy for regional governance. Within the ongoing framework of regional revitalisation (chihôsôsei), various local attempts to foster revitalisation (kasseika) are underway. Two seemingly irreconcilable views prevail in connection with volunteer-based localism: local participation and the mobilisation of civic action. However, the ways in which these seemingly distinct phenomena can socially coexist are relatively unexplored. Against this background, this article aims to offer a critical re-examination of regional revitalisation projects in Japan and it focuses on the correlation between local participation patterns and local power structures. Taking one community as its empirical case study, the central question posed is: ‘In reality, who are the motivated participants in the community-revitalisation project?’ What becomes apparent is, on the one hand, the locality’s power structure strongly limits the level of participation in the project; on the other hand, the locality’s inhabitants experience the ongoing situation as fundamentally fair and reasonable. On this basis, this article argues that the state’s governing discourse of neoliberalism is able to advance at the local level while simultaneously and unwittingly perpetuating the structure of social segregation.

The coastal evacuation of Zhangpu County in early Qing: Borders, shifting zones, and social change as seen in forts and fortified villages

Qianhai, the early Qing order that forced people in southeast coast to evacuate the coast to a distance of ten to eighteen miles inland in order to eliminate anti-Qing activities, is an excellent topic through which to examine the formation of the border in Han local society. The development of regional studies during the past 20 years encourages us to both refine our local case studies and map the wider picture. The story of social transformation in Zhangpu County during the Ming-Qing transition provides a perfect case to discuss how the coastal evacuation policy was implemented in local society. It can also promote our understanding of multiple histories. First, the lineage story of the coastal evacuation can be described in greater detail. Even in a single county, there was no standard evacuation distance. Local officials relied on mountainous terrain and existing forts and fortified villages to form a line of defense that determined the scope of the evacuation. Second, the social landscape in the communities of the county demonstrates the rise and decline of local power structures. Many of the most influential and deep-rooted lineages were badly weakened by the time they returned home after the evacuation order was rescinded. On the basis of the ebb and flow of local elites, the Qing state began to regulate households more closely, and state power thus penetrated to the local level. The household registers of Zhangpu were established based on the specific historical context of the county, but the process shared with the rest of the southeastern coastal region a pattern whereby pacification and local Defense shaped state penetration. Even in a supposedly “traditional” Han region, the empire needed to handle the problems of the border and social complexity, just as it did in “non-Han” areas. This illustrates the process of late imperial state formation in practice.

El estudio de las estructuras de poder local en el siglo XIX: Aspectos metodológicos

El autor habla, en primer lugar, de las razones que contribuyen a explicar el renovado interés historiográfico por el análisis de las estructuras de poder local, y, en segundo lugar, y sobre todo, de algunos aspectos metodológicos a tener en cuenta en todo estudio de dichas estructuras en el siglo XIX.

Social Work and Social Policy Practice: Imperatives for Political Engagement

This article discusses why and how social workers need to engage in social policy practice and how such engagement necessitates political action. The local conditions relating to health, education, housing, employment, gender equality and socioeconomic infrastructure in majority of communities in the Asia Pacific region are largely neglected by professional social workers. To make a difference in those communities and to do justice to their own professional values and principles, social workers need to engage in policy practice in several ways. They may also need to re-examine the profession’s non-political and non-religious neutral stand. It argues that to facilitate their necessary political engagement, social workers need to understand and work with local politics and power structures. Such a stand calls for new thinking and altering some aspects of the nature of social work education and practice in the region.

Rural dispute resolution in Bangladesh: how do village courts safeguard justice?

ABSTRACTThe rural poor and other marginalized people in Bangladesh are caught in a quandary. Neither the formal judicial system nor informal dispute resolution through local tribunals, called Shalish, is able to meet their needs. The formal system is hardly accessible and affordable to them and suffers from millions of pending cases. Informal dispute resolution through Shalish is notorious for unfair decisions based on local power structures and backward norms, as well as draconian enforcement practices. To remedy this situation, a 2006 law has reformed and redesigned Shalish under the guise of village courts. These village courts were introduced as an accessible, fair and affordable alternative to both the formal judicial system and traditional Shalish, but experience since 2006 has shown that they have their own flaws and require further reform. Drawing on popular perceptions in two Bangladeshi villages, this study finds that more attention should be paid to access for poor and otherwise vulnerable people, procedural fairness shielding litigants from local power structures, and matters of effectiveness. Only then can village courts truly fulfil their promise of providing redress for those most in need of social justice and human security.

Peruwiański eksperyment. Pomoc rozwojowa poprzez współpracę wielu podmiotów z organizacją pozarządową jako liderem

Artykuł ten jest studium przypadku roli, jaką odgrywa organizacja pozarządowa w polityce rozwojowej i pomocy rozwojowej na przykładzie działalności Fundacji Coprodeli w Peru. W rozwiniętych państwach demokratycznych organy władzy państwowej realizację części swoich zadań przekazują organizacjom społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Jednak organizacje te mogą także stać się liderem polityki rozwoju, zastępując lub wspierając państwo. Ustalenie to jest szczególnie istotne w perspektywie krajów rozwijających się. Jednak model działalności tych organizacji musi być włączający, a nie zastępujący. Wypracowany przez Coprodeli model angażuje zarówno beneficjentów, lokalne i państwowe struktury władzy i biznesu, jak i inne organizacje pomocowe. Współuczestnictwo wielu podmiotów i specyfika pracy fundacji, która stawia całe osiedla w miejscach zaniedbanych i dotkniętych klęskami żywiołowymi, sprawiają, że model wypracowany przez Coprodeli jest ważny dla rozwoju teorii polityki pomocy rozwojowej.

Learning From 'Actually Existing' REDD+: A Synthesis of Ethnographic Findings

The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on Climate reinforces actions to conserve and enhance forests as carbon reservoirs. A decade after sub-national demonstration projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) commenced, we examine why many REDD+ schemes appear to have fuelled social conflict while having limited success in addressing the drivers of forest loss and degradation. Our analysis is two-tiered: first we synthesise findings from a set of ethnographic case studies of REDD+ in Mainland Southeast Asia, conducted by the authors; second, we explore whether the insights from our regional synthesis apply globally, through a comparative review of published qualitative research on REDD+ field experiences. Our results reveal three major implementation dynamics that can undermine REDD+ in practice, which we conceptualise from science and technology studies and critical political ecology as follows: 1) problems with the enrolment of governments, civil society, and local forest users in REDD+ governance; 2) the prevalence of overly simplified codification systems for REDD+ implementation that mismatch targeted societies and landscapes; and 3) the consequent dissonance between REDD+ objectives and outcomes. Together, these problematic dynamics reveal how and why REDD+ so often misses its targets of reducing deforestation and delivering community benefits. In effect, it appears that REDD+ in the course of implementation maps onto local power structures and political economies, rendering it blunt as tool for change. The potential of REDD+ as a 'solution' in the global climate regime must therefore be scrutinized, along with other similar mechanisms espoused by the green economy.

Community Resiliency in Declining Small Towns: Impact of Population Loss on Quality of Life over 20 Years

AbstractThis analysis seeks to understand why some small towns have improved quality of life (QoL) over the past 20 years despite sizable population losses. Using a longitudinal data set of small towns in Iowa collected every 10 years since 1994, I measure the resiliency or vulnerability of declining towns based on change in subjective QoL, and then model the socioeconomic correlates along a resilient‐decline index. Community resiliency is enhanced by the process of creating bridging social capital, not the quantity available for use. By contrast, the quantity of both internal and external linking social capital promotes resiliency by linking residents to local and outside power structures, but the growth of these linkages has no impact. Bonding social capital indirectly helps resiliency by increasing internal linkages that foster local participation, but hinders it by decreasing external ones that limit access to outside resources. Jobs in goods‐producing industries like manufacturing directly promote resiliency by providing more secure employment, plus indirectly promote it by increasing bridging ties and external linkages. Growing poverty and income disparities make declining places more vulnerable by reducing QoL and external linkages. I discuss local strategies promoting resiliency and QoL.

Role of Community-based Organisations in Promoting Democratic Local Governance at the Grassroots in Bangladesh

Democratic local governance (DLG) is often regarded as a necessary precondition for transforming lives and livelihoods of people living in the rural areas of developing countries. This article tries to answer how community-based organisations (CBOs) shape the way services are delivered by local government agencies in Bangladesh. Furthermore, the article explores how the community’s, especially women’s, demands and interests are being negotiated at local political institutions. In doing so, the research focuses on Union Parishad (UP) as the core institution of the local power structure and Kachukata Gram Unnayan Parishad (GUP) as the case of a women-led CBO. It has been observed that Kachukata GUP has evolved as a full-fledged CBO over the years and currently mobilises marginalised groups to establish their rights and access to various government and non-government organisations. In addition to ensuring gender-responsive governance, GUP is also creating space for participation and developing interactive relationship between the people and power at the grassroots in Bangladesh.