Abstract The advantages of the railway were recognized not only in Vienna. In the Habsburg Empire's provinces, too, people banked on this new type of transportation as a bringer of progress. Using the example of Galicia, this article shows how the initiative and the involvement of local actors promoted the building of a railway network in the north-eastern crownland. It focuses on the main motives for the implementation of the railway in Vienna versus those in Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv). The article is divided into three parts. While the first part deals with the expectations raised by the railway, the second part concentrates on the political circumstances which accompanied the construction of the Galician railway network. The third part focuses on the Galician capital as a traffic junction in a polycentric railway network.
AbstractThis article considers the devolution deal signed by Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the summer of 2015. It asks if the deal constitutes a more sustainable approach to governance, concluding that while there are some factors that help to enhance sustainability, other areas urgently require more attention. These claims are made through an analysis of a model of sustainability which emphasises the importance of networks and feedback loops envisaging civil society as an adaptive organism. This helps to show that although power is significantly dispersed in some aspects of the 'Cornwall Deal', this latter does little to alter the highly centralised nature of governance across England, or provide spaces where local actors can feed back into central policy.
Payments for environmental services (PES) programs represent an innovative and increasingly popular approach to natural resource policy in Latin America. This article examines Costa Rica's PES program using evaluative criteria established using the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework. First, three types of transaction costs (information, coordination, and strategic) involved with implementing the program are investigated, then the institutional performance of the PES program is assessed according to six benchmarks established using the IAD framework: economic efficiency, fiscal equivalence, redistributional equity, accountability, conformance to the values of local actors, and sustainability. Finally, recommendations for improving the program's overall performance and minimizing its transaction costs are offered.
In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 44, Heft 4, S. 573-596
This article discusses the reorganisation and fragmentation of political rule in the Nigerian Niger Delta from the end of the 1990s until today. It details empirical evidence on the resources provided by transnational interventions, especially those connected to the changing security strategies of oil companies as well as intensified corporate social deployments, and on the appropriation of these resources by local actors. The continued drive from neopatrimonial to predatory rule, it is argued, has taken a decided twist towards localisation during recent years. Instead of constructing the crises in the Niger Delta as an example of 'state failure', the focus of this article is directed at the establishment of extra-state political formations, their legitimising discourses and social practices.
If information technology (IT) is to have a mass impact on those living in rural areas of developing countries, it cannot occur on the basis of ownership (as it does in rich countries). Instead, it is to institutional innovations in and for developing countries, that one needs to look at. Two basic forms of innovation are identified: one which allows use of IT without ownership and the other which permits the benefits of IT to reach those who make no individual use of it. Either way, however, successful institutional innovations require a thicket of interactions between local actors, rather than interventions from foreign agencies (at least in the initial phase). Three case studies were used to illustrate these components of what I feel is an emerging paradigm of IT and rural development.
In view of the inconclusive statistical results associated with democracy's impact on economic performance, this article unpacks the dependent variable (economic development) by examining democratisation's impact on education policy. To determine whether democracy compels politicians to provide higher levels of educational opportunity, it traces the process of repression and democratisation in Brazil along with government spending on education. It finds that democratisation has observable effects on education spending on three different levels: 1) the percentage of government spending allocated to education; 2) the distribution of federal funding among different levels of education; and 3) the distribution of funds within primary education among state and local actors.
Theoretically this paper is based on soft strategy (communicative strategic planning) that balances different sides of policy-making, i.e. its instrumental, social, communicative and processual aspects. The main starting point in this article is that the solutions to many of the contemporary social and environmental problems on the one hand and success in economic competition on the other hand may not be found as directly as earlier believed in a search for correct answers, design of creative intended strategies or appealing visions. Instead of these means the solutions may be found in the quality of the communicative processes of decision-making, policy-making, co-operation, knowledge creation etc. Empirically this paper focuses on the analyses of the quality of policy processes in two Finnish sub-regions outside the capital region, i.e. the sub-regions of Oulu and Seinänaapurit. First, the Finnish multi-level regional policy-making is described by programming procedures, second, the communicative strategic planning based theoretical framework is set, third, criteria for the analysis of the quality of policy process are created, fourth, such important analytical dimensions as information flow between key-actors, surplus value brought by each actor, commitment, touching-points between strategies, learning, forums, trust and responsibility are briefly analysed in the context of case sub-regions.
La interpretación del conflicto colombiano como una disputa por el control del Estado en lo local, ha sido trabajada por diversos autores desde una aproximación sociológica y de la ciencia política. Sin embargo, las mediciones que los economistas realizan sobre la guerra poco consideran las variables de dominio político que los actores armados ejercen sobre las comunidades. Una razón que incide en la ausencia de estudios empíricos de este carácter, es la falta de indicadores políticos desagregados por unidades geográficas. En este documento se diseña un modelo de medición del conflicto que relaciona las tasas de violencia y el orden político en el plano local mediante una función parabólica invertida. La forma de U invertida ha sido utilizada para capturar el riesgo de guerras civiles y la evolución de sistemas políticos entre autoritarismo y democracia (Hegre et al. 2001). El modelo propuesto presenta una forma funcional que se ajusta a las características de un conflicto civil en el orden intraregional. Su utilidad consiste en hacer posible la estimación de la forma del Estado y del grado de dominio de los actores del conflicto en un municipio a partir de información visible como cambios en las tendencias de la violencia y de las características del contexto. ; The interpretation of Colombian conflict as a dispute for State control at the local level has been studied by many authors, following both sociological and political science approaches. Nevertheless, economic empirical analyses of war pay little attention to the political control that armed actors exert upon communities. A factor that explains the absence of such empirical analyses is the lack of political indicators discriminated by geographical units. In this document a model to measure conflict is designed, which relates violence rates and political order on a local level by means of an inverted parabolic function. The inverted U shape has been used to model the risk of civil wars and the evolution of political systems between authoritarianism and democracy (Hegre et al. 2001). The proposed model presents a functional form that is adjusted to the characteristics of civil conflicts on an intraregional level. Its utility consists in allowing for the estimation of the form of the State and the degree of control exerted by armed actors in a municipality, by using visible information such as changes in violence rates and context characteristics.
The spread of global higher education policies has recently drawn much attention from scholars in social sciences. Much research conducted on this topic refers to the ritual enactment of world culture as the account for the diffusion of global higher education policies, that is research based on the world society theory perspective. However, the existing research fails to explain how such global policy models become domesticated as part of national higher education policies. It also leaves the important role of local actors with little attention. The intention of this thesis is to fulfill these limitations by approaching the topic from a different angle and that is from the domestication theory perspective. The thesis is organized as a case study, which examines how a global policy idea became part of national higher education policy two countries Finland and Vietnam through the review and analysis of government documents. The central research questions posed in this thesis are: How is student mobility advocated in Finnish and Vietnamese higher education policy debates? What are the different justifications used when actors promote student mobility as a domestic higher education policy objective? Are there differences in the justifications used? If so, what is the explanation for these differences? These questions are answered by applying the notion of discourse by Michel Foucault and the theory of rhetoric by Chaïm Perelman to identify different justifications used in governmental documents to advocate a global policy idea in the two local contexts. These justifications are referred as "legitimating narratives" to illustrate stories or imaginaries which are used by local actors to justify a proposed policy model. The findings of the thesis indicate various justifications or legitimating narratives which Finnish and Vietnamese policymakers have used to advocate student mobility as part of their national higher education policies. Further the findings indicate there are not only commonalities but also differences in the justifications identified. It is also seen from the study that whilst the global education policy idea of student mobility does not originate from either of the two countries in question, it disperses through the nations with justifications directly linked to national interests and gradually develops into a domestic matter. In addition, the findings reveal that local policymakers within both countries, Finland and Vietnam, make use of justifications which are widely shared and accepted within their local societies to advocate student mobility as part of their national higher education policy. This strengthens the domestication theory viewpoint that countries do not construct themselves as imitators. Rather, local policy actors in the domestication process build their justifications for the adoption of global policy models so that they are not be seen to merely imitate what other countries have done. In general, the study has contributed to current discussion about the adoption of global higher education policies and complemented the domestication theory in terms of national higher education policy making. However, future research is recommended with focus on global policies in other fields and different sources of data to discover more comprehensive findings, which will further complement the domestication theory.
With the increased territorialisation of public cultural policy, there is an evolution in the distribution of roles between thedifferent partners of local cultural life, the formulation of objectives, the definition of priorities and the orientation ofcontent. In particular, there is increasing evidence of tangible transfers between different areas of culture, between publicactors and so-called actors of civil society.With the change in municipal government in March 2008, Toulouse, the fourth biggest town in France, has begun toexperiment with participative democracy in the cultural field. Having made culture one of the pillars of its new mandate,the Municipal Council has, amongst other priorities, stated the object of re-establishing links between local publicauthorities and the cultural and artist world. The Cultural Assembly of Toulouse takes place every six months, alternatingplenary sessions, theme-based debates and local district meetings, engaging artists and cultural professionals from thetown but also experts and an number of locals.The purpose of this paper is to look back at this period which, for the town of Toulouse and its metropolitan area currentlyundergoing restructuring, brings a profound revamp of municipal cultural actions. The analysis concerns the logic andpositioning of the different protagonists of the debate – public actors, cultural professionals, artists, inhabitants, etc,. –and the actual content of their exchanges. The idea is to show the extent to which this collective experience contributed tonourishing a reflection into the conditions under which a new form of governance from a cultural and urban perspectiveis being put in place. ; Avec une territorialisation renforcée des politiques publiques de la culture, évolue la répartition des rôles entre les différents partenaires de la vie culturelle locale, dans la formulation des objectifs, dansl'énoncé des priorités et l'orientation des contenus. En particulier, des porosités sont de plus en plus tangibles entre différents mondes de la culture, entre acteurs publics et acteurs dits de la société civile. Toulouse, quatrième ville de France, a expérimenté à la faveur d'un changement de municipalité en mars 2008, la démocratie participative en matière culturelle. Ayant fait de la culture un des piliers de la nouvelle mandature, la municipalité s'est donnée, entre autres priorités, l'objectif de renouer les liens entre les pouvoirs publics locaux et la sphère culturelle et artistique. Les Assises de la culture de Toulouse se sont déroulées sur six mois, alternant des séances plénières, des débats thématiques et des réunions par quartier mobilisant artistes et professionnels de la culture de la ville, mais aussi experts et quelques habitants. L'objectif de cette communication est de revenir sur cette période qui, pour la ville de Toulouse comme pour son espace métropolitain en cours de restructuration, représente un renouvellement profond de l'action culturelle municipale. L'analyse porte sur les logiques et positionnements des différents protagonistes de cette scène de débats – acteurs publics, professionnels de la culture, artistes, habitants, etc. – et sur les termes mêmes de ces débats. Il s'agit de montrer dans quelle mesure cette expérience collective a contribué à nourrir une réflexion sur les modalités de mise en œuvre d'une nouvelle gouvernance sur le plan culturel et urbain.
International audience ; Anthropology of State/Rural Population Relations. Local Participationand Civil Society in Development Projects in Northern VietnamAbstract: Since the 1990s, the Vietnamese government has launched thousands developmentprojects across all sectors to reduce poverty and modernize the countryside. Theresults are everywhere very visible : new roads and infrastructures, renovated markets,etc. But the authorities also highlight the high level of participation of local populations(the "base") in all these projects. An effective means of showing to the internationalinstitutions which finance a large part of these projects that Vietnam brilliantly fulfillsthe criteria of the UN Millennium Goals (2000) of "governance, participation, ownership,empowerment and accountability. But on the level of communes and families, participationis experienced in a very different way. The great Program for Socio-economicDevelopment in Communes faced with Extreme Difficulties (1998-2015) which appliesto several thousand communes throughout the country, allows us to study the specificrelations between peasants and the State in Vietnam in the North of the country. Severalquestions will provide precise anthropological elements on the positioning of local ethnicpopulations in their interactions with projects: How can the participation of local populationsbe expressed in a clearly top-down system? How does the diversity of the formsof participation observed inform us about the extent of local political actions ? Who arethe real actors in local participation ? In the end, it is the forms of articulation between atop-down development model with a "totalizing" aim and the place of rural civil societyin Vietnam that will be questioned. ; Résumé : Depuis les années 1990, l'État vietnamien a lancé des milliers de projetsde développement tous secteurs confondus pour réduire la pauvreté et moderniserles campagnes du pays. Les résultats sont partout très visibles : nouvelles routes etinfrastructures, marchés rénovés, etc. Mais les autorités mettent également en avant275Moussons n° 36, 2020-2, 247-278Anthropologie des relations État-population rurale. Participation locale .le haut niveau de participation des populations locales (la « base ») à tous ces projets.Un moyen efficace pour montrer aux instances internationales qui financent engrande partie ces projets que le Vietnam remplit avec brio les critères des Objectifsdu Millénaire de l'ONU (2000) de « governance, participation, ownership, empowermentand accountability ». Mais à l'échelle des communes et des familles, la participationest vécue de manière très différente. Le grand Programme for Socio-economic Developmentin Communes faced with Extreme Difficulties (1998-2015) qui s'applique àplusieurs milliers de communes dans tout le pays nous permet d'étudier les relationsspécifiques entre les paysans et l'État au Vietnam dans le nord du pays. Plusieursquestions apporteront des éléments anthropologiques précis sur le positionnementdes populations ethniques locales dans leurs interactions avec les projets : comment laparticipation des populations locales peut-elle s'exprimer dans un système clairementtop down ? Comment la diversité des formes de participations observées nous informet-elle sur l'étendue des actions politiques locales ? Qui sont les véritables acteurs de laparticipation locale ? Finalement, ce sont les formes d'articulation entre un modèle dedéveloppement top down avec une visée « totalisante » et la place de la société civilerurale au Vietnam qui seront interrogées.
In: Gavens , L , Holmes , J , Buykx , P , De Vocht , F , Egan , M , Grace , D , Lock , K , Mooney , J D & Brennan , A 2019 , ' Processes of local alcohol policy-making in England : Does the theory of policy transfer provide useful insights into public health decision-making? ' , Health and Place , vol. 57 , pp. 358-364 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.05.016
Background and aims: Recent years have seen a rise in new and innovative policies to reduce alcohol consumption and related harm in England, which can be implemented by local, as opposed to national, policy-makers. The aim of this paper is to explore the processes that underpin the adoption of these alcohol policies within local authorities. In particular, it aims to assess whether the concept of policy transfer (i.e. a process through which knowledge about policies in one place is used in the development of policies in another time or place) provides a useful model for understanding local alcohol policy-making. Methods: Qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews and focus groups from five case study sites across England were used to explore stakeholder experiences of alcohol policy transfer between local authorities. The purposive sample of policy actors included representatives from the police, trading standards, public health, licensing, and commissioning. Thematic analysis was used inductively to identify key features in the data. Results: Themes from the policy transfer literature identified in the data were: policy copying, emulating, hybridization, and inspiration. Participants described a multitude of ways in which learning was shared between places, ranging from formal academic evaluation to opportunistic conversations in informal settings. Participants also described facilitators and constraints to policy transfer, such as the historical policy context and the local cultural, economic, and bureaucratic context, which influenced whether or not a policy that was perceived to work in one place might be transferred successfully to another context. Conclusions: Theories of policy transfer provide a promising framework for characterising processes of local alcohol policy-making in England, extending beyond debates regarding evidence-informed policy to account for a much wider range of considerations. Applying a policy transfer lens enables us to move beyond simple (but still important) questions ...
The present research studies the social practices to be observed on local scenes, i.e. groups of variousactors as musicians, "support systems" and audiences. This thesis contributes to the understanding of theway creators are committed to practices driven by a desire to express their singularity. What is at stakehere is to identify how these practices have been shaped by pluralist social representations in northernFrance. A dual theoretical framework combines both comprehensive and pragmatic sociologies. Theperiod under study spans 5 years from 2009 to 2013 and the empirical study lies on two methodologicalapproaches. On the one hand, a qualitative analysis based upon both semi-structured and unstructuredinterviews with 52 respondents that were involved one way or another on local scenes, be they artists orassociate private or political intermediaries. On the other hand, a quantitative survey used to verify theempirical data relative to the practices and profiles of the musicians, the sample being made of musiciansfrom the city of Lille. The results show the ambivalence in the representation of all the actors thatcontribute to the formation of local scenes. The cooperative dimension of such practices in keeping withmaterial conditions favored by the digital era have been underlined. Finally, the artisan dimension of theprojects represents one of the major stakes this research highlights. ; La présente recherche étudie les pratiques sociales se donnant à voir sur les scènes locales, comprisescomme ensembles d'acteurs variés que sont les musiciens, les intermédiaires et les auditeurs. Cette thèseentend contribuer à la compréhension des modalités d'engagement des musiciens, pluriactifs ouintermittents, dans des pratiques mues par la volonté d'exprimer leur singularité, mais en tension avec lerégime d'une communauté locale qui accorde sa reconnaissance. Il s'agit d'identifier sur le territoire Nordde France ces pratiques façonnées par des représentations sociales plurielles et des tensions entre mondevécu et réalités contraintes. Un double cadre théorique combinant les sociologies compréhensive etpragmatique est mobilisé. La période étudiée est de cinq ans (2009-2013) et l'étude empirique repose surdeux démarches méthodologiques. Une analyse qualitative réalisée à partir d'entretiens semi-directifs etnon-directifs menés auprès de cinquante-deux acteurs concernés de diverses façons par les scènes locales(musiciens, intermédiaires associatifs ou privés et politiques). Et une enquête quantitative dont l'objectifest de vérifier les constatations empiriques quant aux pratiques et profils des musiciens, l'échantillon étantconstitué de musiciens de la métropole lilloise. Les résultats révèlent l'ambivalence des représentations del'ensemble des acteurs concourant à la formation des scènes locales. La dimension coopérative despratiques et leur inscription dans des conditions matérielles favorisées par l'ère numérique ont été misesen évidence. Enfin la valorisation de la dimension artisanale des projets constitue un des enjeux majeurspointés par cette recherche.