Development and the search for connection

Abstract

The stated purpose of development is often characterised by the motivation to ‘help’ – that is, to intervene in the lives of others in supportive ways. This paper argues that this perspective has obscured how development activities are also animated by its twin desire to ‘connect’. While this holds significance for development more broadly, it becomes particularly evident in a mode of assistance that has gained prominence more recently. These are privately funded, small-scale projects led by individual founders, here described as ‘citizen aid’. Based on ethnographic research among citizen aid initiatives in Cambodia, the paper argues that the relevance of ‘connecting’ has been insufficiently recognised so far. It explores different aspects of what participants mean by ‘making a connection’, including face-to-face contact, direct experience of aid activities, and their tangible efficacy. It also finds that establishing interpersonal relationships across national, ethnic and cultural differences, while potentially challenging, is a key motivation for those involved. Finally, the paper argues that acknowledging the desire to connect questions notions of the ‘distant stranger’ as the archetypical humanitarian object, highlighting the wish for familiarity and closeness as potentially just as important for motivating and directing assistance to others.     

Citizen aid: grassroots interventions in development and humanitarianism

Abstract

The introduction to this collection brings together, under the umbrella terms of citizen aid and grassroots humanitarianism, interdisciplinary research on small-scale, privately funded forms of aid and development. It notes the steady rise of these activities, including in the Global South as well as North, such as in the context of the recent European refugee crisis. It considers their position vis-à-vis more institutionalised forms of aid; methodological approaches and their challenges; and asks what political dimensions these initiatives may have. It outlines key themes arising from the contributions to the collection, including historical perspectives on ‘demotic humanitarianism’, questions of legitimacy and their apparent lack of professionalisation, motivations of their founders, the role of personal connections, as well as the importance of digital media for brokerage and fundraising. Being mindful of its critiques and implicit power imbalances, it suggests that citizen aid deserves more systematic academic attention.     

Citizens’ Initiatives: How Local Governments Fill their Facilitative Role

In the context of drastic cutbacks many Dutch municipalities consider citizens’ initiatives (CIs) as an attractive alternative for municipal policies aimed at improving the livability and safety in neighbourhoods, simultaneously building responsible citizenship. In this paper we combine different theoretical perspectives to analyse the institutional settings in which CIs are being realised, and how municipalities try to facilitate such initiatives. Municipalities can do this by either trying to structure the relevant networks or by various forms of process management. This analysis sheds light on how municipalities use a variety of instruments to mobilise citizens to participate in CIs. In using such instruments they can influence various factors (like motivations, personal resources, social capital and expected responsiveness; cf. Lowndes et al.’s CLEAR model) that increase the likelihood of civic engagement.     

Citizen aid,social media and brokerage after disaster

Abstract

In a crisis, aid providers deliver humanitarian relief across a hierarchy of organisations where influence and capacity map to their scale of operations. On the front lines of crises, ‘citizen aid’ is what small, local and informal groups offer to fellow citizens. These citizen aid groups are well-networked in place and tend to work through longstanding personal relationships. In the Philippines, citizen aid groups frequently support their activities by documenting their work with photos of beneficiaries to solicit donations from within the country and around the world across social media platforms. This paper builds on recent debates on brokerage through a case study of citizen aid in the relief effort after Typhoon Haiyan (2013–2017). Using this case-study approach, we demonstrate how social media has produced novel forms of brokerage shaped by circulating images online. This new kind of brokerage involves a layered network of brokers that both shapes citizen aid efforts and creates new channels for localising aid, enhancing the control of citizen groups in the Global South over aid.     

Beyond crisis management? The role of Citizen Initiatives for Global Solidarity in humanitarian aid: the case of Lesvos

Abstract

In recent years, what has been called citizen initiatives for global solidarity (CIGS) have grown considerably in numbers across Europe and beyond. Lately, CIGS have also received attention as they are responding to humanitarian crisis across the world. In Europe during 2015, citizens were heavily involved in catering for incoming refugees, putting up loosely organised voluntary-based initiatives. CIGS popped up in places such as Lesvos, which is the focus of our research. Humanitarian CIGS are quick in their response to needs on the ground, are quickly governed by rules and regulations as well as overall ideas about crisis management, and come to work either with or in opposition to other actors. We examine two examples of CIGS positioned at the margins of the humanitarian aid machinery in Lesvos. Through a lens of power and resistance, we discuss how they resisted paradigmatic ideas of crisis management and instead called for a different interpretation of how to think about and do crisis management.     

Inclusive partners? Internationalising South Korea’s chaebol through corporate social responsibility-linked development cooperation

Abstract

In recent years, non-traditional or ‘emerging’ donors such as South Korea have organised their development cooperation models in a manner that seeks to complement the capacities of the private sector by extending the overseas activities of domestic businesses. To better understand this process, this article examines the role of South Korea’s large, family-led conglomerates (chaebol) in its growing international development sector. In particular, we focus on how the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been used to link the role of its large, and frequently scandal-ridden, private companies to international development, and, by extension, how it has helped to internationalise state–business networks long associated with the Korean developmental state. We examine two strategies through which this has been carried out. The first is by extending the logic of creating shared value (CSV, a derivative of CSR) to aid and infrastructure projects in which chaebol and other state-linked businesses have participated. The second is by directly embedding CSR-based aid initiatives in the value chains of the specific chaebol themselves.     

Social Entrepreneurs and Social Inclusion: Building Local Capacity or Delivering National Priorities?

Abstract

Western governments have increasingly sought to tap the potential of the voluntary and community sectors in delivering neighborhood-based initiatives to combat social exclusion. The particular attributes claimed for the ‘third sector’ include closeness to the community and a capacity for flexibility and innovation. In-depth evaluation of the UK’s Neighbourhood Support Fund, a ‘flagship’ program designed to combat the social exclusion of disaffected young people living in deprived inner urban areas, demonstrates that to operate successfully in the current policy environment, community-based projects not only need these skills but must also acquire managerial capacity. In particular they have to be able meet the increasing demand from central government for detailed performance data. Successful community based projects therefore not only need to have the capacity for entrepreneurial activity but must now also have managerial skills not traditionally associated with the ‘not for profit’ organisations.     

Implementing Electronic Notification in Los Angeles: Citizen Participation Politics by Other Means

Abstract

This paper considers whether new information and communication technologies have significant effects on citizen participation by evaluating the development of a major innovation in electronic governance. We analyze the creation of an electronic system in Los Angeles to provide stakeholders a warning of upcoming political decisions and an opportunity to furnish feedback. We evaluate this innovation not only as a technological innovation that affects citizens’ capacity and motivation for participation but also as an alternative institutional means for involving citizens in policy making and public administration. To place this experiment within this larger institutional perspective, we draw upon the lessons of historical reforms aimed to expand citizen participation. We find that although technology does positively affect individuals’ capacity and motivations, technology, by itself, does not overcome the political, institutional, and behavioral impediments that have limited previous participatory reforms.     

结果导向型援助及其超越 ——兼论中国国际发展合作与全球发展话语权

援助是一国外交政策的重要工具。冷战期间,美苏对外援助的主要目的是争夺盟友,对援助成效的评估主要是以过程为导向,其标准是援助的投入是否成功使受援国留在本方阵营。冷战后,西方国家内部出现援助预算的合法性危机,对援助成效的讨论也逐渐从过程导向转向结果导向。进入21世纪,联合国千年发展目标和2030年可持续发展目标为发展援助的结果评估提供了重要参照。结果导向型援助提高了中国对外援助的可见性,但其存在的弊端和南北垂直援助特征需要中国制定超越援助的新时代国际发展合作战略。联合国2030年可持续发展议程吸收了结果导向型援助的积极因素,但这也为超越该理念奠定了基础。新时代中国国际发展合作与2030年议程的深入对接为中国突破西方战略围堵和实现中华民族伟大复兴提供了重要机遇。全球发展倡议与"一带一路"倡议、人类命运共同体理念和生态文明思想共同构成中国全球发展话语权的基础,并逐步超越了结果导向型援助,为落实2030年议程指明了方向。     

Vigilante justice in post-communist Europe

Five cases in which the names of former secret informers who supplied information to the communist secret political police were unofficially disclosed are discussed in terms of the motivations of their authors, their timing relative to 1989 and their countries’ lustration and file access legislation, and the information they make available to the general public. After contrasting them with civil society efforts to promote transitional justice and unofficial truth projects, it becomes evident that these unofficial disclosures were animated by revenge as much as the quest for unveiling the truth about communist repression.     

The ‘green militarisation’ of development aid: the European Commission and the Virunga National Park,DR Congo

To ‘save’ the Virunga National Park, located in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Commission (EC) allocates development aid to the paramilitary training of the park guards, their salaries, and mixed patrols of the guards together with the Congolese army. Moreover, the ‘development’ projects the EC supports around the park have militarising effects as they are based on a soft counter-insurgency approach to conservation and to address dynamics of violent conflict. This amounts to the ‘green militarisation’ of development aid. This article describes how a personalised network of policymakers within the EC renders militarised conservation-related violence and controversy around the Virunga park invisible, by framing contestations and violence in and around the park as solely caused by economic factors and motivations. Moreover, by ‘hiding’ the fact that the EC aid is used to fund armed conservation practices, policymakers circumvent political debate about the use of development funds for (para)military expenditures. While the existing literature focuses on the importance of securitised discourses to explain the militarisation of conservation, this article indicates that in addition, it is important to focus on these more mundane practices of securitisation within international organisations that ultimately fund the militarisation of conservation.     

From Innovation to Convention: Legitimate Citizen Participation in Local Governance

In governance structure legitimacy is required not only of the governing system, local authorities or public organisations but also of other participants, including citizens. The legitimacy cannot be judged either by traditions of representative democracy or by innovative theories of deliberative or participatory democracy. The article analyses scientific publications on citizen participation in local governance. It asks how empirical studies on local sustainable development planning (SDP) and New Public Management (NPM) practices construct legitimate citizen participation. In general, studies on citizen participation have not conceptualised the relations between citizens and power holders as questions of legitimacy. However, the studies approaching citizen participation in the local processes of SDP and NPM include various empirical, theoretical and normative arguments for citizen participation. These arguments recognise, accept and support particular activities, arguments and outcomes of citizen participation, and include and exclude agents and issues. They construct and reflect the definition of legitimacy in the local governance. As constructed by scientific texts, justifications for citizen participation reproduce a discursive structure in which citizen participation becomes marginalised and citizens’ views excluded. The results illustrate that discursive structures of legitimate citizen participation support conventional governing practices and hinder innovative practices in local governance.     

Human security thinking in practice: ‘personal security’, ‘citizen security' and comprehensive mappings

This paper describes the introduction of an emphasis on ‘personal security’ in human security thinking and practice, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compartmentalize the pursuit of security. It reviews the past 20 years of attention to ‘personal security’: both in compartments that consider organized physical violence or threats to personal safety and property (‘citizen security’), and as parts of more wide-ranging examination of threats to fulfilment of basic needs and rights, for example, in comprehensive mapping exercises undertaken in various UNDP Regional and National Human Development Reports or in studies of women's security. The paper reflects on the complex process of opening-up conventional security thinking and practice in ways that add value and depth without shrinking into preconceived compartments.     

International aid

Democracy and human rights assistance has established itself as a notable component of European Union (EU) development aid budgets. The EU's approach to promoting democratic reform in developing states exhibits distinctive features focused on the enhancement of grass roots democratic capacities. Efforts have been made to invest developmental approaches with genuine political impact and to ensure mutually enhancing linkages between democracy projects and mainstream good governance initiatives. Shortcomings remain, however, both in the conceptualisation of the link between democracy-building and local level social development; and in the more overtly political dimensions of European strategies.     

Beneficiary Participation in Non-Governmental Development Organisations: A Case Study in Vietnam

Beneficiary participation in development projects has been an important topic of debate during the last decades. In the empirical research on the matter beneficiaries themselves are seldom, if ever, asked about their perceptions of participatory mechanisms in place. We present such a (case) study on the Vietnamese local office of a European non-governmental development organisation, also probing into other stakeholders’ perceptions (46 interviews in total). Our observations allow us to refine some aspects of the extant theoretical insights on beneficiary participation and representation, as well as to formulate some recommendations for organisations aiming at increasing beneficiary participation in their decision-making.     

Participatory Initiatives and Political Representation: The Case of Local Councillors in Sweden

The health of political parties and the institutions of representative democracy have been extensively questioned during the last decade due to evidence of a widespread decline in voting turnout, political trust, and party membership as well as identification. An often-proposed, but also often-questioned, strategy to strengthen representative democracy is for political institutions to offer alternative forms of political participation through so-called participatory initiatives. The literature suggests that participatory initiatives will have little impact on representative democracy if no adaptation among political representatives is apparent. This paper explores the consistency between participatory initiatives in Swedish municipalities and the attitudes, practices and role-taking of local councillors, comparing pioneer municipalities where extensive numbers of participatory initatives have been executed vis-à-vis hesitator municipalities where few initiatives have been implemented. The study indicates that local participatory initiatives may stimulate political representation by creating new channels for citizen input and communication between citizens and representatives that are supported by local councillors in the pioneer municipalities. However, the core roles of parties and councillors in representative democracy appear not to be challenged by these initiatives, being similar in both groups of municipalities. The article is concluded by a discussion of the implications of these results for the function of participatory initiatives in local democracy.     

Mediating multiple accountabilities: variation in formal and perceived accountability among international and domestic actors in the health sector in Peru

Based on a comparative case study of bilateral and multilateral donors, this article examines individual and institutional accountabilities among donor officers, implementing agencies, government officials and intended beneficiaries. It explores how multiple accountability demands interact, the extent to which they conflict, and how development actors mediate among them when they do. Institutionally there was substantial alignment of objectives and little goal conflict between international donors and the state; however, there was poor harmonisation across the many donors and numerous projects they were pursuing. There was greater variation within rather than between bilateral and multilateral donor chains, with perceived accountability differing more based on individuals’ positions within their organisation than by the type of organisation for whom they worked. Most informants cited multiple entities to whom they felt accountable. They more frequently acknowledged outward accountability when there existed formal accountability mechanisms, although intended beneficiary groups were conceptualised in different ways.     

Citizen Participation in German and Spanish Local Governments: A Comparative Study

In recent decades, citizens have become more and more disenchanted with the traditional institutions of representative government, detached from political parties, and disillusioned with old forms of civic engagement and participation. This has favored a renewed interest in citizen engagement and citizen participation and a growing re-emergence in academic and political discourse of ideas and values of community, localism, and citizen participation. This article analyzes the main objectives and the actual implementation of citizen participation initiatives in the local governments of two European Continental countries, Germany and Spain. The aim is to find out the factors that affect the possible decoupling between the objectives and the “real” uses of citizen participation. Our results show that most local governments in these two countries are using citizen participation only to increase the level of perceived legitimacy or to comply minimally with legal requirements, without really taking advantage of citizen participation to enhance decision-making processes. These findings confirm that institutional theory becomes the rationale to explain the implementation of citizen participation in these two European Continental countries.     

Patronage,politics and performance: radio call-in programmes and the myth of accountability

The role of media in promoting political accountability and citizen participation is a central issue in governance debates. Drawing on research into the interactions between radio station owners, journalists, audiences and public authorities during Somali radio call-in programmes we argue that these programmes do not simply offer a new platform for citizens to challenge those who are governing but that they are also spaces where existing power structures reproduce themselves in new forms. We identify the ways the programmes are structured and the different motivations the audience has for participation. Three types of programmes are identified and their relationships with patronage, politics, and performance are examined. Rather than focusing on normative assumptions about the media as a tool of accountability, the article emphasises the importance of understanding radio programmes in their social and political environment, including the overlapping relationships between on-air and off-air networks.     

“HEALTHFUL GOODS”: HEALTH,HYGIENE, AND COMMERCIAL CULTURE IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY SHANGHAI

Abstract

This article examines the development of Shanghai’s household-chemical industry, which produced and sold soap, toothpowder, and toothpaste, and other personal hygiene items, and discusses how the ideas of health and hygiene became an integral part of the city’s commercial culture in the early twentieth century. Through various commercial strategies, Shanghai’s businessmen promoted their commodities and hygiene practices simultaneously. They also actively participated in mass movements organized by the Nationalist state, since such movements provided a marketing opportunity for them. This article argues that precisely because they were doing business, Shanghai’s small entrepreneurs successfully connected personal hygiene, national strength, and the act of buying.