Logic Of Governance Research Articles

Contrary Virtuosos? Paradoxes of a Liminal Figure

This essay explores the figure of the ‘virtuoso’, as theorized by Paolo Virno, Isabell Lorey and others, as the contemporary contrarian par excellence. In particular, the essay looks at the role of language for virtuosity, and what analytical purchase might be offered by the notion of contrarian speech. Through a close reading of Peter Greenaway's Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012), we will analyse the virtuoso's relationship with freedom, politics and power in connection with themes of creative enterprise and the public realm. The film permits us to explore virtuosity as contrarianism, that is to say: it helps us see how both mediate between freedom and servility, between ideas of self-grounding agency and a subjugating governmental logic and between different notions and practices of publicness in relation to symbolic forms of authority and power.

New urbanization; Urban resilience; Coupled coordination model; Huaihe River Basin

Contemporary China's pension system revolves around the allocation and acquisition of pension resources, relying on the enforcement of political power as a guarantee, and is closely integrated with the formulation of laws to form a normative system. This system is composed of a variety of specific systems, and the sub-systems are interconnected and complementary in function, forming a comprehensive pension security network. In the process of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, the pension field needs to achieve a benign governance model, which requires a complete pension system as a support. Under the framework of the existing political system and constitutional system, the basic governance logic remains unchanged. To further promote the development of the pension system, the key lies in optimizing the pension legal system and establishing an effective coordination mechanism between laws and systems. Specifically, it is necessary to start from the following aspects: first, reconstruct the pension legal system with a coordinated and development approach, enhance the fairness of the pension legal system on the basis of objectively analyzing the social situation, and ensure the sustainability of social pension security; second, optimize the pension legal system from the perspective of national strategic layout, including improving the form of family pension responsibility and accelerating the legalization of social pension security; finally, strengthen the development of pension laws by giving full play to the leading role of the National People's Congress in legislation and improving the review mechanism of administrative normative documents. Only in this way can we form a modern system to deal with the issue of elderly care under the increasingly severe aging situation.

Producing accountability with autonomy in Denmark and England: the analytical potential of assemblage theory with critical realism in comparative education

ABSTRACT School autonomy with accountability (SAWA) reforms have developed in diverse forms in Northern Europe. Following processes of decentralization to the municipal and school levels, quality assurance and inspection became key to the test-based accountability agendas of Denmark and England respectively. With an abductive approach, we explore the epistemological potential of a hybrid theoretical framework, which combines assemblage theory with critical realism, to analyze the production stories of these two policy instruments. Drawing on data from an international comparative research project, and more recent policy document analyses, we examine the arrangement of social entities – discourses, instruments, technologies, artefacts, and actors – that led to particular accountability outcomes within these specific educational assemblages. We argue that, despite distinctions in their social entities, the dominant state assemblages of accountability in Denmark and England have been captured by the global SAWA and capitalist assemblages at distinct times. Although school actors are incorporated into, and antagonistic towards, the state assemblages, change is limited due to the resilience of the underlying logic of epistemic governance and the desire to improve educational standards for a global knowledge economy. We conclude briefly with an assessment of the utility of the hybrid framework to the comparison of SAWA.

Envisioning ecopolitical futures: Reading climate fiction as political theory

Scholarship on how speculative knowledges can contribute to envisioning sustainable futures is thriving. There is less attention to the specific ways in which political theory as speculative knowledge is relevant to these scholarly discussions. This article fosters this link by suggesting reading climate fiction as political theory. The article follows a four-step analysis. First, it clarifies the importance of pluralising and decolonising the knowledges through which climate change is engaged politically. Second, it introduces the concept of ecopolitical imaginary to capture collective visions for sustainable futures, showing the relevance of the theorising endeavour. Third, it elucidates the idea that placing political theory and climate fiction in dialogue can help envisage alternative ecopolitical imaginaries for future world ordering. Finally, it reads Robinson’s Ministry for the Future as an experiment in political thinking: an ecopolitical imaginary that helps to think through the challenges involved in countering the colonial logic of global climate governance and the Eurocentric universalism underpinning it. The overarching argument is that reading climate fiction as political theory offers insight into envisioning just sustainable futures.

The paradigm logic of blockchain governance

Blockchain technology is mainly composed of public-key cryptography, hash algorithms and consensus mechanisms. Blockchain solves the two trust problems inherent in human interaction: the Byzantine Generals Problem and the Prisoner's Dilemma, which allows blockchain to replace the function of public power as a centre of trust to a certain extent, and also enables it to become a kind of decentralised large-scale collaborative infrastructure for human beings. Blockchain itself has a strong escape from public power, and the blockchain order is also non-rational. Its emergence has impacted the traditional constructivist-rationalism governance paradigm. Current research exploring blockchain governance issues at the level of governance paradigms is still limited. This study mainly adopts a normative analysis methodology, firstly outlining the decentralised technology model of blockchain and the economic ecosystem model built on top of this technology model. Secondly, this study explores the ontology of blockchain technology and its economic model on a philosophical level as well as the philosophical roots of the limitations of the traditional governance paradigm when confronted with blockchain governance. On this basis, this study further proposes ideas for shifting the blockchain governance paradigm. Specifically, it includes that a judicature-based governance paradigm should be established while the executive power should shift to focus on the issue of equality on the blockchain, and in the context of weakly centralised legislation, soft law governance should be allowed to play more of a role. Considering the popularity and development of blockchain technology, this study provides insights into the theoretical level of blockchain governance.

The Historical Changes and Evolutionary Logic of Transitional Community Governance in China

Effective transitional community governance is an objective requirement for achieving efficient grassroots governance. Analyzing the basic context, internal logic, and development drivers of transitional community governance changes is of positive significance for promoting the modernization of the national grassroots governance system and governance capabilities. Based on the perspective of historical institutionalism, China's transitional community governance has roughly gone through three stages: a government led unitary control system, a core diversified system, and a community governance system. The basic logic of its transformation is from "management" to "governance", from "extensive" to "refined", and from "government led" to "diversified co governance". Further looking ahead to the governance of transitional communities, the main directions lie in three aspects: firstly, continuously absorbing diverse entities and balancing the governance structure of transitional communities; The second is to empower communities with technology through digital empowerment; The third is to promote community cultural construction and eliminate the tension of community governance.

Conflict or coordination? The cross-departmental interaction in local environmental governance of China

Organizational coordination has been regarded as a vital factor to determine the environmental governance efficiency of local authority, while existing empirical studies mainly discuss the vertical decentralization but largely ignore the horizontal cross-departmental interaction within single government. Based on the data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach, two-way fixed-effect models and dynamic panel regression with system generalized method of moments estimation (SYS-GMM) to investigate the environmental strategic interaction between two representative departments (finance department and environmental protection department) within local governments. The results indicate, on the whole, their environmental governance strategies show a significantly co-directional coordination. However, the cross-departmental interaction obviously varied in different periods and regions (even showed as conflict sometimes), and was synchronized with the dynamic trade-off between economic and environmental targets of China. This research helps understand the inner logic of environmental governance of Chinese government, and can be valuable guidance for other countries to accomplish multi-departmental sustainable development goal.

Public attitudes and emotions toward novel carbon removal methods in alternative sociotechnical scenarios

Abstract Despite high expectations about the role of carbon removal in meeting global climate targets, many of the proposed techniques remain nascent. This is especially so for techniques with potential for large-scale, permanent removal of CO2, such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) and ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE). In such a context, understanding public attitudes is crucial but challenging, since we do not have enough information about the sociotechnical configurations which might accompany such proposals over future timescales. Carbon removal at scale will not take place in a vacuum—it will co-evolve within political, social, economic, and legal structures which in turn will have a strong influence on public attitudes. This study used a nationally-representative survey (n = 1978) in the UK to test the impact of alternative sociotechnical systems on public attitudes to DACCS and OAE. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five scenario conditions, representing different forms of governance logic (top–down vs bottom–up) and market logic (planned vs liberal economy), plus one with minimal sociotechnical information. We find that the scenario condition significantly impacted perceptions of OAE, with participants preferring its implementation within a bottom–up, planned economy scenario, and rejecting scenarios which most closely resembled the status quo. There were no significant differences between scenarios for DACCS, suggesting that the technology may be more flexible across alternative sociotechnical arrangements. OAE arouses more negative emotions, particularly worry about impacts on ocean ecosystems, whereas DACCS arouses more hope. We found that climate worry is associated with stronger emotions—both positive and negative—toward both techniques, thus carbon dioxide removal (CDR) could be polarising for the most climate-worried, likely due to tensions between climate urgency and concerns about deterring emissions reductions. The most important criteria for future CDR deployment were deemed to be biodiversity, durability, and cost, with a strong discourse around the current cost-of-living crisis.

God’s wealth, legal frames, and the question of material and immaterial heritage: the case of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala, India

ABSTRACT Analyzing the battle over Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple’s enormous treasure, the paper documents the litigious journey of the concept of sacred possession and heritage. It shows how the evolving and complex logic of secular governance in India provides the legal categories that animate this contestation over the deity’s wealth. While the enormous treasure trove housed in the six chambers of the temple’s basement ‘belongs’ to the idol (murthi) Lord Sree Padmanabhaswamy, the royal family of Travancore has held the right for over the last two hundred and seventy years to control the wealth as the Lord’s servants (dasa). Though the dispute over what is arguably the world’s largest temple gold and valuables collection began in 2007, it gained widespread media attention in 2009 when a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed. Since then, the royal family, temple management, and other stakeholders have been embroiled in the struggle for possession and control of the temple’s wealth. The paper explores how legal frames of Anglo-Hindu law in their postcolonial avatars, material patrimony (gold and land), and notions of immaterial heritage (shebaitship) animated and framed this contestation. To this end, the paper maps the legal trajectory of the dispute and the public debates over the ownership and control of the astounding wealth of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Further, it decodes the legal reasoning behind the courts’ arguments and delves into ontological questions surrounding religious freedom and secularity. The discussion illustrates how notions of immaterial heritage anchored in ideas of kingship as well as kinship emerged as clinching evidence in the management and access to this sacred wealth. Finally, the analyses offer insights into the governance of sacred materiality through religio-legal categories in a postcolonial nation-state.

Stabilization and Service: The Evolutionary Logic of Grassroots Governance in Guilin (1930-1944)

The Republican period was a time of intense social changes and complex conflicts in modern China. The New Gui system ruled Guangxi for 24 years after the rise of the National Revolution in the 1920s, and its grassroots construction experience provided a reference basis for the national government's local governance policy. Taking the removal of Guilin as a county and the establishment of a city in 1940 as the dividing line, the period of grassroots governance exploration in Guilin can be divided into the county government period and the municipal period. The historical background, mission objectives, value orientation, policy requirements, institutional arrangements and governance performance of Guilin's grassroots governance in different periods are different. Taking history as a guide, reviewing the experience of Guilin's grassroots governance during the new Guilin rule period is still of great significance for the current sustained promotion of Guilin's urban development and construction.

The core meaning of the three major global initiatives and the logic of global governance

In the new era, Chinese President Xi Jinping has continuously put forward the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, which complement each other and aim to build a peaceful, prosperous and diverse world. Development is the foundation of security and civilization, and security is the premise of development and civilization. We need to build a community with a shared future for mankind based on the global development initiative, the global security initiative, and the global civilization initiative as the clarion call. The "Three Global Initiatives" have supplemented and improved western global governance theories from many aspects, demonstrated the unique understanding and practice of Chinese-style modernization, injected new impetus into the building of a more just and equitable international order, and provided new ideas and solutions for global governance.

Frictions and Logics of ‘Good State’ Support to International Criminal Justice: The Case of Norway

Abstract Despite the significance of state support to international criminal justice institutions, we lack systematic knowledge about what animates states’ foreign policy on international criminal justice, as well as how international criminal justice impacts domestic societies. This article analyses a subset of findings regarding Norway from the EU cost Action (ca18228) survey on States’ encounters with international criminal justice. While Norway’s positioning in the ‘global atrocity justice constellation’ is driven by strategic foreign policy aims to protect and strengthen the liberal international order, the paper reveals how the ‘State’ in international criminal justice is far from a homogenous, unitary entity, but rather is composed of conflicting and incongruent logics of governance impacting its support to international criminal justice.

Violent orders and coup-proofing: A new typology of wars in Africa

ABSTRACT Conflicts on the African continent present a paradox: the number of conflicts and casualties are increasing while at the same time becoming more peripheral and less threatening to governments. This article argues that the rise of a new kind of conflict helps explain this trend: violent political orders in which warfare is used by governments as a means of doling out patronage and managing dissent rather than defeating opponents on the battlefield. This logic of governance emerges as regimes weaken their own military as a form of coup-proofing; and due to the rampant fragmentation and marginalisation of insurgent groups, which lack the ability to topple governments. After detailed broad conflict trends on the continent, the article uses conflicts in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as examples of this logic, with Mali offered as a partial, theory-building exception. Grappling with this reality will require peacemakers to shift focus from the short-term imperatives of reaching peace deals to the broader challenge of reforming the logic of governance at the heart of the state.

More than pinpricks and quick-fixes: Urban acupuncture and aesthetic governmentality in Bandung

This paper presents a critical analysis of the urban acupuncture movement in Bandung through the lens of aesthetic governmentality (Ghertner, 2015). Drawing on qualitative data collected online and on-site, I propose two ways in which aesthetic governmentality extends to Bandung. First, I explore how the interactions between urban acupuncture and the political context of Indonesian Islamist urbanism (Kusno, 2022) have shaped and been shaped by the Bandung aesthetic governmentality regime. Secondly, I highlight how Instagram has become a political tool for Bandung leadership's aesthetic campaigning. My overarching argument is to show how urban acupuncture – originally created as a form of grassroots urbanism in Bandung – has been co-opted by the city government to create aesthetic images that serve as masking mechanism to impose state control beneath the façade of a seemingly organic, bottom-up community movement. The Bandung case, the paper concludes, points to a unique form of aesthetic governmental logic, where photogenic images of acupunctural beautifications have been used as political tools to deflect attention away from the fact that deep underlying infrastructure problems – such as traffic jams and poor park maintenance – and resident needs for functional public spaces remain unaddressed.

Socio-ecological risk analysis framework coupled with ecosystem services

The strong coupling between society and ecosystem makes socio-ecological risks become the main object of risk management. As the link between ecological and social processes, ecosystem services (ESs) are the core variable in deconstructing the social-ecological risks and the crucial point in resolving the risks. We explored the concept and the internal formation mechanisms of socio-ecological risk combining ESs, and further put the cascade logic and evolution process of "real risk-risk perception-risk behavior". Based on driver-pressure-state-impact-response framework (DPSIR), we proposed a framework for analyzing socio-ecological risk, and expanded the content and methodology system of research and management practices related to socio-ecological risks. We proposed that socio-ecological risk research coupled with ESs should focus on: 1) exploring the transmission mechanism between ecosystem processes, ecosystem services, and human well-being; 2) exploring the response mechanism of social subject behavior and its impacts on ecosystem services and human well-being; 3) construction of a multi-scale assessment model for social ecological risks coupled with ESs. The socio-ecological risk analysis framework for coupled ecosystem services was based on the mutual feedback between human and nature to explore the logic of risk formation, evolution, and governance, which could provide ideas for clarifying the deep meaning of ecological problems and selecting pathways to resolve socio-ecological risks.

The hidden mechanism under the policies: governance logic and network of the collaborative governance of air pollution control in the CCEC, China

The hidden mechanism under the policies: governance logic and network of the collaborative governance of air pollution control in the CCEC, China

Trusting by Numbers: An Analysis of a Chinese Social Credit System Governance Infrastructure

To govern, states collect and evaluate information about citizens. This paper examines a social credit system (SCS) in China, a state initiative aimed at governing trust through the quantification of social behavior. Our analysis opens the ‘black box’ of an SCS metric, investigating how trust is translated into numbers and the implications of this translation. We reveal that the SCS is deeply relational and embedded in specific interests, biases, and logics of governance. The system has the potential to reinforce structural injustices and inequalities as it particularly disadvantages rural residents. Meanwhile, it subjects government employees to stricter surveillance, indicating its multifaceted objectives. Our finding uncovers the nuanced ways the system interacts with social stratification in Chinese society and the administrative structure inside the state. We problematize the individualistic, decontextualized, and behavioral assumptions undergirding the metric, and advocate for a critical reassessment of the sociopolitical dimensions of such quantitative governance infrastructures.

Settler urbanism, emotional geographies, and Indigenous planning in Ecuadorian Amazonia

Affects and emotions serve as tools of governance in settler urbanism, facilitating colonial dispossession and control of Indigenous land. Drawing on modernist logics, housing projects in indigenous territory seek to instill fixity and urban orders on mobile Indigenous populations through the management of fear and uncertainty. Here we examine the production of emotions associated with the development of the Pañacocha Millennium Community, a public housing project in the Petroamazonas oilfields of what was once Indigenous Kichwa territory in Ecuadorian Amazonia. We draw on research in Indigenous planning, the geographies of emotion, and critical urban studies to demonstrate the emotional impacts of the imposition of colonial governmental logics of housing production in Indigenous lands. At the same time, we examine the limitations of settler urbanist governance through emotion by documenting the embodied Indigenous relations with land, housing, and mobility captured in the concept territorio cuerpo-tierra, which has led to various forms of resistance and avoidance to the housing project. The case of the Pañacocha Millennium Community illuminates the role of emotion in urban planning and settler urbanism, in particular, and contributes to emerging work in Indigenous and decolonial planning.

Frontline celebrities featured: investigating the most engaged Douyin videos during Xi’an lockdown

ABSTRACT This study examines the interplays between media organisations, platform affordances and governance logic on Douyin, one of the most popular short video platforms in China, and how these forces work together to construct the narratives of frontline care workers during the Xi’an lockdown. A digital ethnography was conducted on Douyin through the first two months in 2022. After sorting the videos based on their popularity, the first 100 ‘most liked’ videos were documented and coded thematically. The results show that official media accounts were the main providers of the ‘most liked’ videos during the lockdown. Frontline workers were seen in over half of the videos (n = 58). Nearly a quarter of the 100 ‘most liked’ videos (n = 22) featured frontline workers as the focus. The prevailing sentiments manifested by the videos when focusing on frontline workers include uplifting, endearing, touching, grateful and empathetic. Only four videos took on a critical tone. This study contributes a Chinese perspective to the current knowledge of Internet celebrity culture by expanding the discussions on the nexus between political and commercial forces during a pandemic lockdown and the implications on China’s celebrity culture.

When logics collide: uncovering the multiple gas exportation and importation transitions in Mozambique

ABSTRACT This study examines the contrasting dynamics of gas exportation and importation in Mozambique, challenging prevailing research that predominantly concentrates on energy export. While Mozambique's gas policy prioritizes exports, neglecting domestic processing and infrastructure development, increasing demand for LPG signals a shift. This transition reveals divergent governance logics, with exportation centralizing revenue, reinforcing state power, and raising concerns about citizen benefits. In contrast, importation governance, driven by fuel subsidies, emphasizes attempts to manage social unrest and balance economic incentives. This analysis exposes contradictions in Mozambique's energy development and challenges prevailing notions of energy governance in African states.