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In 2009 the traditional village centre of Poutasi was destroyed by a tsunami and a majority of the inhabitants since then have abandoned the old settlement. Only a few of the former residents repaired or reconstructed their houses at the traditional site at and around the village square; most of them decided to adopt a settlement development which increasingly took into account a persistent trend: to meet the requirements of modern mobility and to live at or near the road. As a result of this shift the village has lost its traditional public space - the village square - but at the same time it has not found a similar place at the road. Although most central institutions of the village and the district today are located at the main road within a small distance from each other, there is no public square where people can meet, communicate and celebrate their festivities as they were used to doing at the traditional square. The loss of the traditional village centre is not only a loss of sociability, but also a loss of the social identity of the village: The traditional village square and its surrounding buildings once reflected the mythological origin and the social structure of the village as described by the Samoan mythology and documented in the faalupega, the archives of the Samoan society. The loss of the traditional village centre of Poutasi means the loss of an important part of the Samoan spatial archives including sociality.

Die Autorin erörtert konzeptionelle und methodologische Aspekte der geschlechtsspezifischen Strukturierung von Entwicklungspolitiken im Hinblick auf die Handlungsmacht sowie die Wissensproduktion und Konstitution von sozialen Räumen. Sie beleuchtet hierzu die Alltagspraxis der Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Zivilgesellschaft in verschiedenen Ländern Westafrikas im Sinne der Herstellung von Translokalität. Dabei geht es zum einen um die Interaktion und die Dynamiken an den Schnittstellen zwischen Behörden und staatlichen Dienstleistungen mit Gemeinderäten, Klienten und zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen, die partizipative Räume der Aushandlung von Konzepten darstellen. Zum anderen werden die Machtstrukturen und die Konstruktion von Systemen des Nichtwissens hinsichtlich der Produktion von entwicklungsrelevantem und lokalem Wissen sowie der staatlich gesteuerten Einführung neuer Formen der lokalen Demokratie in den Blick genommen. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Frage, ob eine Restrukturierung der Öffentlichkeit im Sinne von multiplen, sich überlappenden sozialen Räumen und der kritischen Aushandlung von Wissen aus den verschiedenen Arenen hinsichtlich eines Feedbacks zu lokaler Selbstverwaltung, staatlichen Behörden und Diensten stattfindet. (ICI)

"Perspectives on the role of NGOs in development and poverty reduction have been changing along with the shifting architecture of global aid and development since the last decade or so. In the post Washington consensus era, official sources have seen NGOs as service-deliverers that could stop-gap state failures especially in the field of education and health care. On the other hand there is a counter view that NGOs should be located in a critical space engaging governments on behalf of their constituencies. Furthermore in the post 9/11 scenario, aid has been securitized so that poverty reduction is now often linked to the war against terrorism. In this backdrop how do NGOs perceive their programs on poverty reduction? I intend to review some of the ways in which European NGOs respond to the various discourses on poverty at the global, national and local level with a specific focus on some of these strategic issues and discursive practices." (author's abstract)

"The paper looks at sites of production and negotiation of development knowledge which constitute translocal spaces and interfaces within organisations and their environment. Taking a gender approach, it assumes that there is a gendered structure of knowledge and that organisations are gendered with regard to conceptualisations and policies. Other dimensions of analysis are that of 'women in organisations' (as actors and members), as well as typical interfaces between different levels of organisations and their environment, i.e. clients and social reality of everyday life. The (global) knowledge society is discussed with regard to its gendered organisation and the issue of legitimate carriers and vertical coherence of social knowledge is addressed, looking at NGOs as knowledge producers which are supposed to contribute valid gender knowledge. The bureaucratic management of knowledge in organisations is studied as leading to technocratic, authoritarian modes, excluding gender knowledge and rendering accumulation of experience and learning impossible. The analysis is based on the study of the 'development world' especially in and regarding (West) Africa. In particular, development of local communities and decentralisation (especially referring to the case of Senegal) shows how female spaces are dwindling. No interfaces exist where women's livelihood-oriented and crosscutting knowledge and experience could be brought into the new formal political structures. There is a process of increasing informalisation of organisations of women, providing room to manoeuvre on the one hand, but also exclusion and marginalisation on the other. Men mainly organise themselves in formal groups, women usually in informal ones, thus diminishing their access to formal institutions and also the production of knowledge from their side - such as alternative modes of accumulation between men in the formal and women in the informal sectors. This hinders the upgrading and (resulting) lack of promotion of gendered forms of social cohesion and security. However, global networking and knowledge production are taking place not only in women's organisations and movements, but also in migration and other translocal spaces, with the internet possibly contributing to more horizontal exchange and enabling diversity." (author's abstract)

Das Waffenstillstandsabkommen von 2002 in Sri Lanka beendete vorerst den jahrzehntelangen Konflikt zwischen der singhalesisch dominierten Regierung und der tamilischen Separatistenbewegung Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Das Abkommen führte zur Öffnung der Halbinsel Jaffna, die über zwölf Jahre fast völlig von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten war. Die Autorin analysiert in ihrem Beitrag den Wiederaufbauprozess in Sri Lanka aus einer akteurszentrierten Perspektive, indem sie sowohl die Interaktionen und Aushandlungsprozesse als auch die Einbettung des lokalen Wiederaufbaus in Globalisierungsprozesse in den Blick nimmt. Von Bedeutung ist dabei erstens die translokale Aushandlung des Wiederaufbaus im Post-Konflikt zwischen unterschiedlichen lokalen und globalen Akteuren. Verdichtete Interaktionen im translokalen Raum führen ferner zu weitreichenden Prozessen des sozialen Wandels. Zweitens werden innerhalb der verdichteten translokalen Interaktionsräume neue Vorstellungen von Entwicklung als Zukunftsvision für die lokale Gesellschaft sichtbar. Der Beitrag beruht auf einer elfmonatigen ethnographischen Forschung der Autorin, die sie im Winter 2002/03 und im Frühjahr 2004 in Sri Lanka durchführte. (ICI)

"Mbizana, in Pondoland, along South Africa's Wild Coast, is at the centre of a struggle
between local residents, a multi-national mining company and the South African
Government. In 2007 the local residents formed the AmaDiba Crisis Committee (ACC) in
opposition to a government-supported proposal by Mineral Commodities Ltd, an
Australian company, to mine their communal land. According to the ACC, the mining
company and the government had violated established democratic processes and
undermined the local villagers' control over their communal land. In 2008, a mining
licence was granted by Government, however, in 2011, after protests and petitions by the
ACC to Government, the Minister of Mineral Resources revoked the licence. The mining
company's response was to submit a new application for prospecting rights. In public
demonstrations against the mining of their land, the protesters have made reference to the
well-known Mpondo Revolt3 of 1959-1960; and, in interviews they have also mentioned
resistance to the Mbizana sugar project in 1985-86 and the Gum Tree Rebellion in 1999.
These references locate their struggle to retain the right to decide how best to develop
their land in a history of resistance that started in the era of Apartheid, and has continued
under the new democratic dispensation. At the heart of the activism is a collective
consciousness that is best conceptualised as collective agency. This paper focuses on
current resistance to imposed development, and its connections to past resistance,
especially the Mpondo Revolt of 50 years ago. I argue that, contrary to popular
perception, rural people of Pondoland have a long history of resisting imposed
development and actively participating in their own development." (author's abstract)

"In 2004 the then president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki referred to a number of civil society organisations (more commonly known as non-profit organisations or NPOs) as "enemies of the ruling party" because they were publicly extremely critical of the ANC government's neoliberal policies and development strategies (Mngxitama 2004). NPOs which work in collaboration with state agencies and act as conduits for delivering services were regarded as friends of the ruling party. This discourse has prevailed within the ANC until today. However, a third category of NPOs engages with the African National Congress (ANC) government. They sometimes characterise what Mbeki called enemies and at other times they behave as friends of the ANC government. One could call them "frienemies". In this paper the discussion of NPOs is situated in the context of civil society's relations with the state in a democratic South Africa. I briefly discuss the recent history of NPOs relations with the state. I then consider why NPOs that engage with the state find it easier to be either friends or enemies with the ANC government and why the government has so few "frienemies" - despite its recognition that their dual role is valuable for development. I end the paper by briefly examining the Treatment Action Campaign and the Surplus People Project as examples of NPOs that have managed, successfully, to play the dual roles as "frienemies" of the ANC government. These examples illustrate ways in which some NPOs can manage to perform both roles, as well as the difficulties they experience in trying to balance these two roles. This paper is not suggesting that all NPOs ought to perform both roles, for that would deny the benefits that diversity among organs of civil society can bring, but it does draw attention to the advantages for development of some South African NPOs performing both these roles." (author's abstract)