Logic Of Governance Research Articles

The multiple logics of market-based governance: How the sharing economy platform Airbnb governs user conduct

Building upon the rich tradition of research on governmentality, this paper introduces the notion of market-based governance (i.e. the coordinated efforts of companies to align the conduct of its constituents with the institutional norms, values and interests of the company), and presents an empirical investigation of market-based governance in the context of a sharing economy platform, Airbnb. Whereas existing governmentality research has focused on specific discourses or aspects of governance in the marketplace, our aim is to develop broader-spectrum conceptual tools for ‘ordering’ the increasingly multifaceted forms of marked-based governance. We show that Airbnb mobilizes three distinct logics of governance (i.e. the regulatory, competitive and communitarian) which subsume diverse modes of power (i.e. the sovereign, disciplinary and pastoral) that contribute to the cultivation of governable subjects (i.e. the compliant subject, entrepreneurial subject and community member). The theoretical framework developed in this work is applied to critically reflect on emergent forms of market-based governance, the dilemmas of multi-logic governance and the uneven geographies of market-based governance.

Understanding contradictory styles of policing

Policing scholars have shown that logics of police governance that appear mutually exclusive can coexist in the same space and time. Within police institutions, we can find more military-like mindsets alongside democratic rationalities. We here present a novel theoretical perspective for understanding such coexistence. Instead of attempting to identify police rationalities by reference to organizational/structural factors such as subcultures, training, or firearms and other equipment, we show that contradictory logics of policing can coexist within the same force by differentiating policing's targets by space, temporality, and identity. To do so, we use the idea of “chronotope” to identify and understand how police officers decide between conflicting rationalities of policing.

A study on the internal logic of local government emergency response capacity indicators based on the G-Dematel-Aism model

The local government's handling of emergencies has a bearing on the lives of local people, property safety and a series of rights. Therefore, how to build the emergency response capacity of local governments has become an important topic in the field of public management. In this paper, we study the important indexes of local government's emergency management and combine them with the algorithm of systematics to construct the matrix and topological map, and finally calculate the degree of importance and the logic relationship between the indexes The calculation results provide ideas for the focus and logic of local government's emergency response capacity building.

Techno-biopolitics under a tentative “state of exception”: the institutional logic of the digital governance of inbound travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

The COVID-19 pandemic propelled many countries into a “state of exception,” under which several regular governance norms were suspended and emergency regulations were enacted. China was no exception. After its initial domestic vacillation, China implemented rigorous measures to control its borders and employed digital technologies, such as health codes and intelligent gate magnets, to streamline inbound travel management. These measures were in place until the end of 2022. Drawing on 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews and public and social media posts, this study examines the multifaceted role of digital governance in the management of inbound travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Digital governance facilitated and streamlined the quarantining of inbound travelers. Meanwhile, the use of digital measures was entangled with the institutional logic of China’s local governance, which sometimes had to reconcile contradictory goals. Theoretically, the paper enriches our understanding of not only the idiosyncrasies of Chinese digital governance but also of techno-biopolitics under a COVID-19-induced tentative state of exception, which sheds light on a possible future in which digital technologies are deeply integrated into the institutional logic of governance in an increasingly turbulent world.

Total life insurance: Logics of anticipatory control and actuarial governance in insurance technology.

Calling attention to the growing intersection between the insurance and technology sectors-or 'insurtech'-this article is intended as a bat signal for the interdisciplinary fields that have spent recent decades studying the explosion of digitization, datafication, smartification, automation, and so on. Many of the dynamics that attract people to researching technology are exemplified, often in exaggerated ways, by emerging applications in insurance, an industry that has broad material effects. Based on in-depth mixed-methods research into insurance technology, I have identified a set of interlocking logics that underly this regime of actuarial governance in society: ubiquitous intermediation, continuous interaction, total integration, hyper-personalization, actuarial discrimination, and dynamic reaction. Together these logics describe how enduring ambitions and existing capabilities are motivating the future of how insurers engage with customers, data, time, and value. This article surveys each logic, laying out a techno-political framework for how to orient critical analysis of developments in insurtech and where to direct future research on this growing industry. Ultimately, my goal is to advance our understanding how insurance-a powerful institution that is fundamental to the operations of modern society-continues to change, and what dynamics and imperatives, whose desires and interests are steering that change. The stuff of insurance is far too important to be left to the insurance industry.

Assessing China's synergistic governance of emission reduction between pollutants and CO2

Synergistic governance of emission reduction between pollutants and CO2 (hereinafter referred to as synergistic governance) reflects China's proactive response to climate change and will become a central task in China's environmental governance over the next decade and beyond. Given this, this paper aims to systematically understand why synergistic governance is possible and what China has achieved in synergistic governance. In order to achieve these aims, this paper constructs a scientific indicator system based on synergistic governance theory and applies the composite system synergy model to assess the level of synergistic governance in China. The results show that China has made great progress in synergistic governance in the past decade, achieving a leaping development from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. The achievement mainly comes from the efforts of nearly 1/3 of Chinese provinces in advancing synergistic governance, and the improvement direction of synergistic governance in these provinces is consistent with the national level, jumping from mild non-synergy to moderate synergy. However, the level of synergistic governance in some provinces has decreased rather than increased. It is worth noting that the widening gap in the level of synergistic governance within China's regions may become a vital factor that hinders the sustainable promotion of synergistic governance. This paper clarifies the operational logic of synergistic governance and provides a comprehensive evaluation method, which is beneficial to provide some references for other countries that intend to work on synergistic governance.

The Practice Path and Internal Logic of Urban-Rural Community Integration Governance

The community is the basic unit of primary-level social governance, and the transformation of community governance practices in the urban-rural dual field to an integrated path is a key measure to promote the modernization of urban and rural primary-level social governance systems and governance capabilities. China's urban communities are characterized by rich basic resources but lack of endogenous power, and rural communities are generally in the initial stage of construction but have a solid cultural consensus. Based on the Functional Course Theory, this study analyzes the differences in the development of urban and rural community governance in China and reveals that the disconnection of institutional systems, lack of interaction between organizations, and disjointed governance models are the reasons for the large differences in the development paths of urban and rural community governance. Institutional interdependence, structural complementarity, and method of mutual learning are the footholds of the integrated development path of urban and rural community governance. In the context of urban-rural integration, it is necessary to coordinate urban and rural community governance and promote community governance innovation through urban-rural social interaction, gradually narrow the gap in community governance paths, and promote the integration of urban and rural social governance.

Dilemmas and Reflections of Officials Live Streaming in the Context of Rural Revitalization

Officials live streaming is a new exploration of rural revitalization based on the mode of rural e-commerce and grassroots governance. Officials as anchors have a certain political symbolic colour, which has a special added layer for them to drive the sales of agricultural products and handle political affairs online. Through analyzing the subjectivity and professionalism of officials anchors in live streaming practice, it is found that the coupling of officials live streaming and rural revitalization in practice often breeds the problem of subject trust in the identity of officials, the problem of media practice for the government to promote the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, and the problem of emerging discourse governance in cyberspace. For this reason, officials anchors need to consider weakening political symbols, visualizing personal IP, and promoting the normalization of live streaming, so as to promote the transformation of rural governance logic, rural governmental solutions, and rural products to increase income.

Study of trip card data analysis system under big data

Abstract Digital technologies such as the Internet, big data, cloud computing, mobile communication, and artificial intelligence have played an important role in the prevention and control of this new crown epidemic. Driven by big data technology, collaborative governance in the digital era has injected new dynamics for collaborative governance in the general sense, especially in this new crown epidemic prevention and control shows a different governance logic from the past, and the refinement and extraction of this governance logic is the key to enhance the ability of new crown epidemic prevention and control. Compared with the previous model in which a single governmental governance body played a role. In this paper, the necessity of building a big data analysis system is clarified by analyzing the limitations of the data analysis means of the existing trip code system. The overall epidemic prevention advantage of adopting the big data trip code policy has increased by 51.95% for regions with high crisis risk level and strong economic power, such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai, which need to face the risk spread from domestic and imported risks under the big data trip code control, the increase of new cases compared to the previous comparison has decreased by 68.5%, which can visually see the big data trip code epidemic prevention We can visually see the effectiveness of big data trip codes in preventing the epidemic and making excellent contributions to the global fight against the epidemic.

Decentralisation, Local Governance and Nation Building in Nigeria

The paper examines the logic of decentralization and local governance in Nigeria with a hint on its constitutionality and contributions to nation building. Emerging facts reveals that Nigeria operates a centralized and decentralized system of governance and state administration. This is confirmed by its federal nature, division of state administration into federal, state and local government, state power into exclusive (federal), concurrent (federal and state) and residual powers (local government), and the allocation and distribution of fiscal responsibilities and benefits along vertical and horizontal lines by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 and the 1999 constitution. Data generated from the Federal Responsibility Act 2007 shows that the federal government gets 52.68%, the 36 state governments get 26.72% and the 774 local government councils get 20.60% fund allocation from the pool of distributive resources domiciled in the Consolidated Federal Revenue Account of Nigeria. Analytical evidences are also drawn from other secondary sources of information to confirm the abuse of the tenets of political and administrative decentralization through the instrumentality of the State-Joint-Local Government Account and the Caretaker Committee System. The dialectics of undue political interference in the management of local government affairs by the state government and the use of the Caretaker Committee system as a governing structure at the local government level reveals the threat it poses to leadership development, liberal democratic growth, local governance and nation building. These conclusively undermine the tenets of true federalism, decentralization, local government autonomy and the statutory powers and authority of elected local government councils to initiate and manage local development visions and initiatives. The need to place a balance between avoidable political control and local government autonomy as pathways to promoting genuine decentralization, participatory local governance and grass root development is strongly advocated.

Combining Emotion with Reason: The Inner Logic, Practical Difficulties and Action Paths of Emotional Governance of Community Sports in China

As an integral part of the national governance system, community sport governance is beneficial to the construction of civilized and harmonious communities, and also plays an important role in promoting the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity. The study uses literature research and comprehensive analysis to sort out, summarize, and reflect on the internal logic and practical dilemmas of community sport emotional governance, and then completes the construction of a roadmap for action. The study considers that the inner logic of community sport emotional governance involves "conceptual reshaping--mechanism rebuilding--organizational reconstruction--emotion-driven" and faces real challenges such as emotional connection dilemma, emotional governance alienation dilemma, talent support dilemma, and institutional guarantee dilemma. The study proposes an action route for community sport emotional governance in terms of improving the emotional governance literacy and ability of grassroots sports workers, using social psychological mechanisms, establishing emotional connections between multiple subjects, broadening emotional connections, and building institutional norms for community sport emotional governance.

Accommodation for profit, not for refugees: Racial capitalism and the logics of Berlin’s refugee accommodation market

In response to the difficulties refugees face in finding housing, Berlin’s government has developed new housing-like shelters that offer longer-term accommodation. Drawing on literature concerning racial capitalism and urban migration governance, I explain how these shelters represent a multilayered business opportunity for revenue extraction, resulting in the ongoing displacement, spatial fixing, and continued racialization of refugees. Notably, I reveal the prominent roles of Berlin’s government, city-owned housing, and public real estate agencies. They use the construction of new refugee shelters in an entrepreneurial way in order to revitalize their own fiscal budgets, as well as to put urban land into production. This allows them to develop and then turn refugee shelters into substandard, racialized, and highly profitable forms of new urban housing for refugees and other racialized and low-income populations. Expounding the ways the building of accommodation as substandard urban housing leads to race-based pursuit of profit, I argue that refugee housing serves as an urban migration fix and is developed within the logic of racial capitalism. This article contributes to attempts to use racial capitalism as a framework to scrutinize urban and migration processes, helping us comprehend the distinctly racial logics of urban and migration governance, and housing precarity.

Searching for inclusive artificial intelligence for social good: Participatory governance and policy recommendations for making AI more inclusive and benign for society

AbstractWhile artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to transform individual lives, business operations, and public services, there has been a lack of discussion concerning its role in contributing to social good. Both academic research and practical evidence have often compellingly predicted and suggested AI's potential impact on the labor market, industry, and services, as well as the risks and benefits of disruptive technologies. With an emphasis on understanding the complex and uncertain nature of AI as well as the disparities in its benefits, in this article, the logic of participatory governance is examined, and it is posited that this governance is an appropriate governing mechanism for an inclusive AI that contributes to social good. This study also offers a set of policy recommendations by reviewing selected cases and the challenges that policy‐makers face at the national and global levels.

(D)evolving smartness: exploring the changing modalities of smart city making in Africa

ABSTRACT The paper identifies an under-researched mode of smart city-making in Africa characterized by municipal deployments of ICT-driven innovations. This departs from typical framings that view African smart city development as nationally driven, master planned new city developments. An in-depth analysis of the City of Cape Town’s Digital City Strategy provides insights into the mechanisms and processes grounding smart city concepts in African municipalities. Thus, situating Africa’s municipal ICT-driven strategies in the context of a global discourse of smart urbanism and local (and continental) processes of decentralized governance reform. In Cape Town, these global and local forces converge to drive ICT-inspired urbanism that reinforce market-oriented logics of urban governance, largely at the expense of transformative and contextually sensitive ICT deployments. By highlighting the multi-scalar production of smart cities inspired by global discourse yet subjected to local dynamics, the findings offer insights into the political realities of municipal ICT deployments in Africa.

Governmentality Versus Community: The Impact of the COVID Lockdowns.

The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted and controlled through the vertical transmission of biopolitics by the state. The paper considers how this was experienced by academics in 11 different countries through analysis of diaries written during the first lockdown. The paper asks if communities can offer an alternative to governmentality by looking at three levels: the national, the neighbourhood and the personal. Whilst at a national level the idea of community was instrumentalised to encourage compliance to extraordinary measures, at the local level community compassion through helping neighbours encouraged horizontal connections that could offer a "space" within the dominant logic of governmentality. At the level of personal communities, the digitalisation of social relationships helped to create supportive networks over widely dispersed areas but these were narrowly rather than widely focused, avoiding critical discussion.

The Three-Dimensional Analytical and Governance Logic of China’s Digital Divide Bridging Policy

In the digital era, digital technology enables political, economic and social fields. However, while the digital divide is pervasive due to the influence of population, geography, the economy and other factors, blindly pushing digital change often leads to the further expansion of the risks of social inequality. This paper constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework of digital gap-bridging policies from the perspective of policy objectives, policy tools and policy effectiveness. Based on this framework, this paper used the content analysis method to conduct a quantitative analysis of 81 digital gap-bridging policies published in China and selected the PMC index model for policy evaluation. The result shows that the policy goal of bridging the digital divide in China mainly focuses on bridging the material access gap and the technology gap, while inadequate attention was paid to the attitude gap and the use gap; in terms of policy tools, there exists an unbalanced situation regarding supply tools, environment and demand tools, with the first one being emphasized more than the others; there is still policy “fatigue” regarding weak feedback and less incentive, though the internal consistency level of the policy is good and the policy structure is reasonable. Therefore, we should optimize policy objectives and policy tools to bridge the digital divide. We should not only consider whether there is “or not” on the equipment and whether there is “or not” on the technology, but also consider whether we want to “or not” on the attitude and feel “or not” on the use; we should not only “give” unilaterally through supply-oriented policies but also “cooperate” with each other through demand-oriented and environment-oriented tools to release the maximum potential of digital empowerment.

Mixed-ownership reform and strategic choice of Chinese state-owned enterprises.

The strategic choice of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is crucial to the sustainable development of China's economy. This paper explores the impact of mixed-ownership reform on the strategic choice of SOEs from the shareholder power and the board power. We find that the greater the diversity of mixed shareholders, the depth of mixed equity, the control of mixed equity, and the excess control of mixed equity, the higher the degree of mixed-ownership reform, and the more likely it is to promote SOEs to choose the prospector strategy. The mechanism test states that the impact of mixed-ownership reform on enterprise strategy is achieved through the balance effect between non-state-owned shareholders and state-owned controlling shareholders with the same power, and the synergy effect between different powers of non-state shareholders. Further research indicates that the mixed-ownership reform has a stronger driving effect on the prospector strategy in SOEs under strict external supervision, competitive industries, and local areas. This study clarifies the governance logic of non-state-owned shareholders on the strategic positioning of SOEs by dual control rights, and it provides empirical evidence for the formulation of enterprises' market-oriented strategic objectives.

Geographies of COVID‐19

Geographies of COVID‐19

The Neoliberal Face of the 'Local Turn' in Governance of Refugees in Turkey: Participatory Action Research in Karacabey, Bursa.

Based on the findings of participatory action research conducted in 2020 and 2021 in Karacabey, Bursa (Turkey), the article aims to offer a critical assessment of the current vocabulary that has become prevalent in Migration Studies such as 'local turn' and 'resilience'. In doing so, the article demonstrates the neoliberal logic of governance of migration and integration of migrants and refugees-a logic that is manifested by the Turkish central state in the form of delegating responsibilities to local actors without an attempt to financially strengthen them. Karacabey encounters various problems similar to many other rural and mountainous places in Europe such as depopulation, aging, emigration, deforestation, deinvestment, reduction of agricultural lands and production, and environmental problems. As the last decade has brought about massive migration of Syrians, the article mostly elaborates on their social, economic, and territorial impacts on Karacabey and Bursa-a region that has been historically exposed to various forms of migration, both international and domestic.

Re-fashioning feminist subjects: authors’ conversation

In this conversation with Samantha Pinto, Simidele Dosekun and Srila Roy trace the ways that gender and sexuality are both highly local and deeply transnational in the current landscape of neoliberalism. Dosekun's Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture looks to beauty industry and practices in Lagos to explore the tension between self-construction and media representation in a world of savvy consumption and complex audiences for women's embodied lives. Roy's Changing the Subject: Feminist and Queer Politics in Neoliberal India looks to two activist organisations representing very different forms of feminist praxis and appeal to the state in contemporary India that both reproduce but also confound neoliberal logics of governmentality. Dosekun and Roy, using ethnographic methods, leave feminist theory undone by their counterintuitive and even ambivalent critical moves that refuse to rest on well-worn binaries and critiques within neoliberalism. This piece is a conversation meant to draw out powerful connections between the challenging, field-changing work of these two scholars, as well as the specificity each brings to their intellectual practice of feminist theory.