{"title":"Emplacing Funsi: Antinomies of a District Capital and Transformation in Rural Ghana","authors":"Matthew Sabbi","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2096481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2096481","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Following ongoing debates on rural transformation, developing countries give priority to district capitals for their market viability and geographical centrality to empowering peripheral populations. Critics point out inherent electoral largesse in redistricting projects all the while ignoring hidden incentives from these exercises. Drawing on empirical data and local debates on decision dilemmas over a district capital in rural Ghana, the article raises two key points of interest. Rural district capitals undergird neither economic performance nor political participation of districts. A focus on their mundane governance processes, however, reveals hidden political incentives for local party buildout and individual political advancement. The insights enrich our understanding of in-built preferences in redistricting decisions beyond the widely perceived politico-economic attributes.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"133 - 157"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43820504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Restoring the Food Systems Resilience Through the Dialogue of Knowledge: A Case Study from Mexico","authors":"Diosey Ramon Lugo-Morin","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2097124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2097124","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Global economic dynamics have marginalized many territories, and these have attributes that can generate development possibilities in the context of their territorial capacities. Asymmetries within and outside the territories can be overcome if there is an exchange of ideas between social actors, i.e. a dialogue of knowledge. Based on this logic, this study aims to value the dialogue of knowledge as a dynamic tool of institutional resilience to promote development in its different expressions. Institutional resilience can be understood as the adaptive capacity of a system of beliefs, values and traditions in a specific territory to generate changes driven by historically inherited cultural expressions, which in most cases creates environments that produce individual and collective well-being. It is concluded that the dialogue of knowledge is a tool capable of promoting new knowledge among its participants and promoting development in the territories, allowing for a recovery of resilient food systems.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"183 - 206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48998049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Migration-Development Nexus Revisited: Immigrant Organizations and the Swedish Policy Framework for Development and Humanitarian Assistance","authors":"Axel Fredholm, J. Sandberg, Olle Frödin","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2096479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2096479","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Within the migration-development nexus, cooperation with immigrant organizations is often considered useful by governments and aid agencies. Due to acquaintance with home-country conditions and capacity to transfer remittances, migrants are increasingly viewed as contributors to aid and development. The Swedish government has a similar approach and views migrants and their associations as an asset. At the same time, research on home-country activities among Swedish immigrant organizations (SIOs) is scarce and little is known about their contributions. Based on qualitative and quantitative data on publicly funded SIOs, we explore the alignment between their activities and the Swedish policy goals of humanitarian aid and development cooperation. While few activities align directly, other activities align indirectly since they mainly reflect sectoral targets of the policy goals. We also find few cases of formalized and systematic collaboration with Swedish aid financiers. In comparison with cooperation practices in other European contexts, this suggests deficits in terms of professionalization of SIOs, marginalization in development cooperation and lack of opportunity structures for SIOs. Few SIOs are also engaged in home-country development and humanitarian assistance. A possible explanation is the institutional role that immigrant organizations historically have been granted in the Swedish context. If these deficits are addressed, SIOs could potentially enhance the Swedish approach to aid and development assistance.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"467 - 492"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46768674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melisew Dejene Lemma, Tesfaye Semela Kukem, S. Vercillo, Logan Cochrane
{"title":"Norms, Equity and Social Protection: A Gender Analysis of the Productive Safety Net Programme in Ethiopia","authors":"Melisew Dejene Lemma, Tesfaye Semela Kukem, S. Vercillo, Logan Cochrane","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2096482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2096482","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Social protection programmes do not generally account for gendered power dynamics. Oftentimes, they target women only as beneficiaries, which can intensify gendered disparities. This case study uses a mixed methods research approach to conduct a gender analysis of the Productive Safety Net Programme in Ethiopia. We find the programme has progressive gender equity goals, but these are not well implemented. Since special provisions for women are neglected in the case study sites, they do not challenge unequal social norms nor recognize unequal roles and responsibilities. Alongside implementing the gendered provisions, we recommend further research into the ways that the programme can challenge discriminatory social norms.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"159 - 181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42675855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘The community comes to life’: How Social Grants Enable Participation in the Local Economy and Possible Effect on Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery in Soweto South Africa","authors":"C. Nnaeme","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2085167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2085167","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 South Africa has an extensive social grant program reaching over 45 percent of the population and which has mitigated high poverty in the post-apartheid epoch. Yet the impacts on urban poor community economic activities are yet to be duly appreciated. As the major capital injection into the local economy amidst a high rate of poverty and unemployment, the fund serves as the catalyst that enables both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries to participate in economic activities. A qualitative study was carried out in Soweto to explore linkages between social grants and participation in local economic activities. The findings show a strong nexus between social grants and participation in local economic activities. The key relevance of this study rests on its evidence-based suggestion of the positive impact of social grants on post-COVID-19 economic recovery, especially in poor urban communities such as Soweto.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"493 - 510"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44973416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modernist Land Development-Induced Villagisation: Deconstructing Socio-Economic Rights of Pastoralists in South Omo, Ethiopia","authors":"Yidneckachew Ayele Zikargie, Logan Cochrane","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2085168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2085168","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Based on an ethnographic case study of Bodi and Mursi pastoralist responses to sugar industries in South Omo, Ethiopia, this study aimed to comprehend the approach of a modernist land development-induced villagisation programme and its effect on the socio-economic rights of pastoralists. The article probes how and why land development activities and the related villagisation programme in the pastoral lowlands created structural challenges and marginalised people’s socio-economic rights. The findings establish grounded insights into the modernist nature of land development-induced villagisation and the village-centred approach of the government in the reconstruction of socio-economic rights of the pastoralists. Integral to the state’s approach are ‘state-centred’ narratives, guiding principles, actor participation, and outcomes of the villagisation programme. This modernist and state-dominated programme is shown conflicting goals; flawed assumptions; poor design; disregard for the complex social and environmental factors of the South Omo lowlands; and disruptive social mobilisation and implementation methods. It obstructs effective consideration of the agency, livelihood, traditions and knowledge of the pastoralists, thus leading to outcomes that deconstruct the socio-economic rights of the pastoralists.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"511 - 534"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45163629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Not Raised ‘To Make Big Decisions’: Young People’s Agency and Livelihoods in Rural Pakistan","authors":"P. Petesch, L. Badstue, D. Rahut, Akhter Ali","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2071333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2071333","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We examine young people’s testimonies about their capacity to make important decisions and their livelihood experiences from agricultural communities that span Pakistan’s countryside. Our analysis is guided by theories of agency that focus on how a young person’s capacity to identify and act on goals is mediated by their local opportunity structure – shaping their household relations, livelihood choices, and prevailing social norms. We apply comparative and contextual qualitative analysis methods to our dataset of 12 village cases, which include 24 sex-specific youth focus groups. We also present a secondary survey analysis. We find high rural employment levels among young men in recent years, and a decline in rural young women’s employment from already low levels. The young study participants mainly observe limited capacity to make important decisions. They repeatedly attribute this to expectations of strict deference to elders and other norms about their gender, young age, junior household position, marital status, and socio-economic standing. They also report negotiating and resisting confining norms; however, young women’s agency appears especially constrained by norms that discourage their physical mobility and visible economic roles. We examine two villages where some youth express healthier levels of agency and more desirable economic opportunities than others, and the significance of kinship relations and fluid norms in this environment. We call for models of young people’s agency that register more effectively the importance of household relations, the gatekeeper role of elders, and the contextual and fluid properties of norms, as these dynamics both constrain and enable young people’s agency.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"261 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43646908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fernando de la Cruz, Sergio Tezanos, Rogelio Madrueño
{"title":"State Capacity and the Triple COVID-19 Crises: An International Comparison","authors":"Fernando de la Cruz, Sergio Tezanos, Rogelio Madrueño","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2071334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2071334","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 The COVID-19 multidimensional crisis poses a formidable challenge for human society as it is simultaneously and globally damaging the public health, the economic activity and the social wellbeing. The complexity and severity of this crisis has revealed the weaknesses and heterogeneities of States’ capacities to respond to the global pandemic. In this article, we raise the important question about which type of State capacity has been more effective for dealing with the negative effects of the pandemic. Our research proposes a hierarchical cluster analysis of countries that distinguishes three dimensions of the crisis (the health, the economic and the social crises) and measures both the States’ efforts (the ‘inputs’) for containing these crises, and the corresponding effects (the ‘outputs’) that result from the previous inputs. We classify 99 countries worldwide into four groups in 2020. Our results reveal that there is no simple ‘linear’ representation of the COVID-19 multi-crises in terms of State capacity (each cluster of countries has its own and specific State characteristics and crisis effects). We thus reject the hypothesis that strong State capacity was a sine qua non condition for tackling the negative effects of the COVID-19 multi-crises during the first phase of the pandemic. In the end, the global emergency has emphasized the need to rethink the research on State capacity as the previous theoretical constructions have been unable to explain the significative international differences in terms of the public performances in minimizing the negative effects of the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"129 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47402023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V. Arkorful, B. Lugu, Vincent Ansah Arkorful, Susana Mamley Charway
{"title":"Probing the Predictors of Fraud Using the Fraud Diamond Theory: An Empirical Evidence from Local Governments in Ghana","authors":"V. Arkorful, B. Lugu, Vincent Ansah Arkorful, Susana Mamley Charway","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2080759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2080759","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 Fraud remains a challenge for corporate and local governments in Ghana. Therefore, this study probes behavior predictors using the fraud diamond theory. The study used questionnaires to draw data. Results of data (n = 624) analysis based on the structural equation modeling confirmed the positive relationship between pressure, opportunity, rationalization and capability, and behavior intention. Opposed to erstwhile for-profit studies, rationalization was dominant, emphasizing nuanced behavior outcomes across domains. Situating the theory within the local government context, the investigation backs up the theory's suitability for behavior prediction whilst inter alia forefronting anti-fraud success as contingent on decoupling public administration from partisan politics.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"291 - 318"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41623414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Limitless Opportunities for Wealth? Witchcraft as a Strategy for (In)Equality and Economic (Dis) Empowerment","authors":"M. Mabefam","doi":"10.1080/08039410.2022.2080761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2080761","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The persistence of witchcraft beliefs and practices in Africa contradicts earlier scholarly work that suggested it would disappear. In addition, theorising witchcraft as a local discourse that only exists between people in an intimate relationship in anthropology has also long been challenged. This strand of scholarship has sought to understand witchcraft within the local-global nexus pointing to a new direction in witchcraft studies. Unlike other themes in anthropology that began the discipline, witchcraft continues to be a ‘hot currency’ topic and has been termed by some scholars as the ‘long conversation’. This article presents a current ethnographic account of how witchcraft is utilised by individuals as a strategy for wealth gain and protection and serves as narrative for the challenges individuals are experiencing when having to navigate between often incompatible expectations placed on the individual vis-a-vis the community. This is further exemplified through the ethnographic account on how witchcraft strategies are employed against individuals who are pursuing success in neoliberal socio-economic model.","PeriodicalId":45207,"journal":{"name":"FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"233 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44873056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}