Meso-level Institutions Research Articles

Profile of developments in biomass-based bioenergy research: a 20-year perspective

In an era of energy crisis, biomass-based bioenergy research has attracted the attention of R&D managers and policy makers around the world. This study explores the structural and dynamic patterns of biomass-based bioenergy research. We measure the profile of biomass research on both macro scales (nations) and meso level (institutions) in an international context. We find that biomass publications are intensively distributed in developed regions and some emerging economies. The U.S. leads in this emerging field as evidenced by research quantity, impact, and international collaboration links. China is developing rapidly in this domain in terms of publication volume and collaborative links but suffers from low research visibility. The study also finds strong interactions are taking place both within macro-disciplines and between macro-disciplines. Research limitations are presented.

Exploring co-investments in sustainable land management in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, not only farmers but also the public and private sector partners are still hesitant to invest in sustainable land management (SLM). This study focuses on the Central Rift Valley and explores the potential for co-investments in SLM, where public and private sector partners support farmers with material, capital, knowledge, etc. A survey revealed current bottlenecks for co-investments and requirements needed to collaboratively invest in SLM. It covered 165 public sector partners (micro-, meso- and macro-level institutions) and 42 private sector partners (banks, exporters and local traders). Results for the public sector show a gap between macro- and micro-/meso-level actors concerning co-investments in SLM. Macro-level institutions do not acknowledge the bottlenecks identified by micro- and meso-level institutions (e.g. lack of accountability, top-down approaches and lack of good leadership). Similarly, opinions on requirements for co-investments in SLM differ considerably, showing that bridging the institutional micro–macro gap is crucial to co-investments. Most factors are related to the wider governance context and to different perceptions among micro- and macro-level actors as to the critical pre-conditions to co-investment in SLM. Improving governance at all institutional levels, capacity building and enhancing a common understanding on barriers to SLM is required. Results for the private sector reveal that economic bottlenecks limit possibilities to co-invest in SLM, and that enabling policies in the public sphere are required to trigger private investments. Hence, the potential for co-investments in SLM is available in Ethiopia at micro- and meso-level and within the private sector, but profound commitment and fundamental policy changes at the macro-level are required to exploit this potential.

Climate advice and extension practice

This article unpacks the problematic relationship between emerging climate change adaptation norms and changes underway in agricultural extension. It is increasingly recognised that in order to apply new knowledge about climate change in rural development practice a more institutional perspective is needed, but there is no clear consensus on what this implies. This article looks at agricultural extension as an example of a meso-level institution that is frequently assumed to be a major potential “implementing partner” in climate adaptation efforts, at the same time as it is also often portrayed as a worst-case example of the obstacles encountered in changing the focus of a path dependent bureaucracy. This article contrasts the perspectives of normative climate adaptation frameworks (exemplified by the 2011 World Resources Report) with what is known about prevailing extension trends and realities. It is suggested that long lists of recommended climate adaptation tasks and technologies may distract from an understanding of the institutional change processes underway within meso-level institutions, wherein the climate agenda would need to be merged with other agendas related to pluralistic, pragmatic, accountable, sustainable and market-oriented rural development.

Politics Close to Home: The Impact of Meso-level Institutions on Women in Politics

Scholars recognize a worldwide increase in decentralization as well as the prevalence of multilevel governance in Europe. This article examines the advantages and disadvantages that meso-level institutions present for women’s political representation in three European Union member-states that are decentralized, unitary states. Using the framework of the triangle of women’s empowerment, we ask whether women are represented in meso-level legislatures, women’s policy agencies, and women’s movements in Italy, Spain, and Poland. We find that gains in meso-level legislatures are slow, but meso-level women’s policy agencies and movements provide important access for women to politics. Like scholars studying women and federalism, we conclude that decentralized institutions in unitary states offer both opportunities for and impediments to feminist policy and activism.

Household Gender and Resource Relations: Women in the Marketing Arena of Income Generating Crops in Uganda

This paper argues that although women were the major producers of income generating crops in Uganda's dominant peasant households, they were marginalised from major decisions and control of the resources. Household and meso-level marketing structures and institutions were within patriarchal power relations, and women had to reposition themselves vis â vis household resources through direct and indirect struggle. There were, however, also cases of mutual cooperation. The paper points out that there have been gradual changes, especially during the era of reforms. However, these have not yet achieved power and institutional transformation for the meaningful positioning of women with regard to household resources.

Sustainability and Scale: US Milk-Market Orders as Relocalization Policy

There has been a recent wave of political and theoretical interest in localism and relocalization as a political strategy in resistance to the hegemonic power of globalization. Some geographers and other observers of spatial politics have been skeptical of these efforts, questioning the effectiveness and the effects of relocalization movements. In response, DuPuis and Goodman have argued for a ‘reflexive localism’ that takes a more pragmatic approach, understanding the ways in which this form of politics can or cannot provide a powerful alternative to globalization. Building on current realist studies, this analysis seeks to build a more reflexive framework with which to understand the politics of localism. To do this the study draws upon the perspectives of political ecology and the politics of scale and uses a comparative historical methodology to look at one of the most effective forms of localized governance in US agriculture: the milk-market-order system. The analysis shows that market orders created economic enclaves that enabled particular agroecological practices, or ‘farming styles’. Market orders functioned as mesolevel institutions that both territorially fixed local agroecologies and mediated with institutions at other spatial scales, a process in which ‘local’, ‘state’, and ‘national’ were coproduced.

Intra-Party Support for the Good Friday Agreement in the Ulster Unionist Party

Party organisations are often ‘black boxes' overlooked by scholars in favour of party leaders, manifestos and elections. Yet intra-party dynamics are often crucial. This article uses the example of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) to illustrate this. Events in the 1998–2003 period highlight the importance of splits within the party's governing Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) over the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) which underpins the Northern Ireland peace process. This article pioneers the use of postcode-profiling technology and uses multi-level analysis of a UUC party list to show that delegates' party section provides the best predictor of their stance towards the Good Friday Agreement. Consequently, the article argues that delegate voting behaviour within the UUC is best explained by reference to highly embedded, meso-level institutions which perpetuate networks and condition individual preferences.

Worker Co-operatives and Socio-economic Development: The Role of Meso-level Institutions

(2000). Worker Co-operatives and Socio-economic Development: The Role of Meso-level Institutions. Economic Analysis: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 67-83.

The changing public role in services to food and agriculture: The legal regulation of food markets in India

A framework allowing the commercial transfer of property rights is an essential prerequisite to market exchange widely considered the prerogative of the state. Here, the social history of the legal regulation of agricultural markets in central, south and northeast India is examined. Regulatory law is shown to be riven with unanticipated outcomes, working as intended only under rare conditions of competition and absence of preharvest commercial debt. Meso level institutions of collective action and micro level behaviour by firms also regulate exchange, unsystematically according to their multiple objectives. Foreign funded projects and another layer of customary procedure. In the light of this analysis, the current policy debates over agricultural market reform are discussed and an analytical framework and suggestions for reform are offered.