This article investigates the evolution of the local development partnerships in Italy. In particular, we focus on a specific aspect of these cooperative experiences, ie., their consolidation as governance instruments of territorial development policy. The main aim is to reconstruct the internal processes that characterize the partnership experiences before & after their creation & to single out the main factors that affect them. On the basis of the empirical evidence provided by the study of the Territorial Pacts of the Province of Turin, the article presents an analysis of the political dynamics that have accompanied the evolution of these partnerships, focusing at the same time on the conditions that seem to facilitate or impede the persistence of the cooperation among public & private actors in local development policy. Adapted from the source document.
Based on an ethnographic survey, the essay analyses a case of "return" from the Atlantic slave trade diaspora to the Ghanaian town of Prince's Town. This dynamic involved three different actors: the African American returnees, the Ghanaian Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations and the local authority divided by a strong chieftaincy dispute. All actors located themselves within different frames of references and had different expectations about this return, but all welcomed it and employed the rhetoric of common ancestral origins in order to validate it. This enlightens a dynamic process of construction of belongings, and illustrates the particular role of the local authorities confirming how chiaftaincy is a fundamental and active political actor in contemporary Ghana. Adapted from the source document.
In the organization of the recent presidential elections in Somaliland, the implementation of specific political techniques (namely the registration of voters by means of digital fingerprint and facial recordings) took on very distinctive meanings, guaranteeing the international community involved in the process and local political actors of the "free and fair" character of the electoral competition and assuring a complete transition from a political system based on the "government of the community" to one based on western style democratic institutions (a multi-party presidential system). The reality however proved to be not that simple: the registration of voters actually caused conflicts or ignited those already existing, contributing to extend the long and hazardous period of preparation to the polls. In the process, the relationships between "technique" and "politics" appeared far more complex than expected: political techniques determine a space of interaction which eventually produces the assimilation of local political practices to the dominant forms of political organization, specific cultures of voting and a specific electoral body. Technique here operates as a form of self-legitimization which promises neutrality in order to have conformity. The article situates itself in contemporary debates on political development in post-conflict societies but it also reminds how artificial is the opposition between clan or tribal politics and western style democratic politics, generally seen as one of the most specific features of politics in Africa, in particular in Somali history. In reality, a continuous negotiation between corporate and collective forms of participation and activism on the one side and individual expression of vote on the other represents a typical feature shared by the two systems. Adapted from the source document.
A common assumption in political studies is that the fundamental artificiality of current African boundaries -- that were inherited from the colonial period -- is a main reason of their intrinsic weakness. This assumption needs to be reviewed and reassessed critically. A fair number of African borders have histories much more complex than the simple results of European colonial enterprise. On the contrary, the delimitations of colonial borders were very often deeply influenced by dynamics which developed on the spot and relied to aspects of inter-African relations that went back in time. All this makes these borders well recognizable and recognized by the people they are meant to separate. The current boundary between Ghana and the Ivory Coast was established during the two final decades of the 19th century as a frontier between British and French territories. However, when considered in a long term historical perspective, the process which led to the definition of colonial territorial jurisdictions was but a follow up of two centuries of competition for hegemony by different local power centers. However the definition of the colonial border marked a turning point. It was a lengthy process which lasted several years and was negotiated on the ground in a context of underlying or open conflict between African actors. This type of African agency interacted with vested interests and strategies of the European powers, contributing to a large extent to consolidate a new balance, whose most visible seal was the colonial border which was finally agreed upon. In the process fundamental identities were re-interpreted and re-defined, setting the background for the 20th century social and political landscape of the region. International boundaries are a crucial marker of post-colonial African citizenship, which was created by independence as a territorial citizenship. Current trends in minimizing the role of international boundaries vis-a-vis other forms of internal and regional boundaries can have dangerous implications in putting at stake formal and substantial rights. Adapted from the source document.
