Poor Practices: contestations around ‘Below Poverty Line’ status in India

This article has two objectives. First, it interrogates the normative understanding of the identification of poor people as a technical process confined to the domain of experts. The paper analyses the construction of Below Poverty Line (bpl) status in India, and provides evidence for how this is contested at multiple levels of the policy process, through both formal and informal policy practices. Second, the paper uses a case study of a major anti-poverty policy, the Suvarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, to demonstrate how the cumulative outcome of formal and informal policy practices is the erosion of the redistributive intent of policy. The paper emphasises the importance of foregrounding within policy discourse the politically contested nature of the processes of identifying poor people, and of determining their eligibility for anti-poverty policy resources. The typology of policy practices generated calls for deeper recognition of the significant influence of informal policy practices on the policy process in India.     

The ‘Poverty’ of Political Society: Partha Chatterjee and the People's Plan Campaign in Kerala,India

Prominent postcolonial thinker Partha Chatterjee's concept of political society is an important one in understanding the vast domain of politics in the ‘Third World’ which falls outside hegemonic Western notions of the state and civil society. This domain, which is often marked by the stamp of illegality, nevertheless contributes to the immense democratic churning that characterises much of the ‘Third World’. However, this paper argues that the series of binaries set up by Chatterjee, like modernity/democracy, civil society/political society and the privileging of the latter half of the binary is ultimately counterproductive to the goal of democratisation. Based on empirical research on the People's Plan Campaign in Kerala, one of the most extensive democratic decentralisation programmes in the world, it will argue that the extension of popular sovereignty requires that we go beyond political society. The failures and prospects of the Plan and the struggles around it demonstrate clearly the breakdown of the binary.     

Derivative Nature: interrogating the value of conservation in ‘Boundless Southern Africa’

Many conservationists nowadays talk about the urgent need to value nature. To bring out the ‘true value’ of nature and make conservation compatible with poverty reduction, so the argument goes, it must be appropriated into the realm of commodities and priced in monetary terms. By employing the concept of ‘derivative nature’, this paper explores the consequences of this neoliberal move. Derivatives are financial mechanisms whose monetary value is literally derived from the value of underlying assets. They were originally devised to reduce risk in the marketplace, but have actually made the global financial market immensely more complex and created more systemic risk and uncertainty because of their susceptibility to speculation. The paper suggests that similar processes can be seen in the arena of conservation. It argues that both nature and ‘the poor’ are increasingly becoming ‘underlying assets’ for what has become the ‘real’ source of value of neoliberal conservation, namely images and symbols within the realms of branding, public relations and marketing. Empirically grounded in a discussion on transfrontier conservation in Southern Africa in the run-up to the 2010 soccer World Cup, the paper examines the consequences of ‘derivative nature’ and calls for critical thinking to start facing these consequences.     

The manipulation of tradition: ‘politics’ in Northern Ghana

In the Dagomba kingdom in Northern Ghana there has been a protracted dispute between two branches of the royal family over rights to the skin (throne). This dispute erupted into violence in September 1969 when at least eighteen people were shot dead by the security forces. This article examines the background to the so‐called ‘Yendi skin dispute’ and considers the significance of the distinction between ‘tradition’ and ‘politics’ as used by participants to explain the conflict and to allocate responsibility. It concludes that ‘tradition’ is both artificial and highly malleable.     

The ‘Neo-Taliban’ and Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan

Reporting on the growth of volunteer tourism, a recent Time magazine article explains, ‘Getting in touch with your inner Angelina Jolie is easier than it used to be!’. In myriad ways celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Madonna have made international volunteering sexy. These women and their adopted children from the so-called ‘Third World’ have come to symbolise popular humanitarianism in the West. This paper addresses the cultural politics of female celebrity humanitarianism and the corollary implications of this practice for 20-something female volunteer tourists in northern Thailand. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that the cultural politics of gendered generosity in these encounters overshadows the institutional and historical relationships on which the experience is based and that, in a neoliberal sleight of hand, the political is displaced by the individual with celebrity sheen.     

The ‘Crisis’ in political development theory

The authors argue that high borrowing costs discourage many rural poor in low income countries from using formal loans. Borrowing costs are defined as nominal interest payments, plus borrower loan transaction costs, plus changes in the purchasing power of money. Farm level information from Bangladesh, Brazil and Colombia is presented to show that small borrowers incur substantially higher borrowing costs on formal loans than do large borrowers. It is suggested that higher nominal interest rates may induce lenders to reduce overall borrowing costs for the small and new borrower.     

Global Production Networks, Chronic Poverty and ‘Slave Labour’ in Brazil

For large parts of the world's poor labour force, participation in global production networks (GPNs) is associated not with poverty reduction and ??social upgrading??, but with highly precarious, unprotected and exploitative forms of work and employment, resulting in a perpetuation, rather than alleviation, of chronic poverty. In this article, we seek to understand these dynamics of ??adverse incorporation?? in the context of Brazilian agriculture, focusing on the extreme ends of the spectrum of exploitation associated with what, in Brazil, is usually termed ??slave labour??. We explore two questions which reveal the circular character of adverse incorporation. First, to what extent, in what ways and under what circumstances does chronic poverty foster patterns of precarious and exploitative employment within GPNs for poor workers? Second, to what extent, in what ways and under what circumstances can the workings of GPNs, and the terms on which poorer workers are incorporated into them, be said to produce and reproduce chronic poverty?     

The Evolution of ‘Homegrown Conditionality’ in India: IMF Relations

This article explores the historical relationship between the Government of India (GOI) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a successful model for the ways in which a developing country can learn to work with and through multilateral organisations to promote economic and political development while sustaining democratic institutions and relative international political autonomy. In the mid-1960s, India's relations with the USA, IMF, and World Bank were strained after an attempt by these institutions to exert ‘leverage’ over Indian economic policies was exposed to parliamentary debate and the scrutiny of a free press. By the late 1970s, the GOI charted a new course in its interaction with the IMF. In 1981, India was awarded the largest IMF loan to a developing country up to that time. This article will evaluate India's economic reform strategy in the early 1980s and explain the development of the concept of ‘homegrown conditionality’ within the GOI.     

The ‘green revolution’ in South Asian ricefields: Environment and production

Many of the arguments on the ‘green revolution’ in rice‐growing in South Asia are concerned with socio‐economic factors in the adoption of the new technology and with unequal distributive consequences. This essay, while not denying the importance of these arguments, shows that the varying natural environment in South Asia still exercises a critical and differential effect on the adoption of new varieties, with implications for equity and lessons for plant‐breeders and others.     

The Transformation of ‘Holiday’ in Post-Soviet Space: Celebrating Soviet Victory Day in Latvia

This article discusses the celebration in Latvia of the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II. Since the restoration of Latvia’s statehood, 9 May has not been an official holiday, but it has become—as ‘Victory Day’—the most important history-linked celebration for the Russian-speaking community in Latvia. The post-1991 history of ‘Victory Day’ makes it possible to track changes in: policies toward history and memory in Russia and Latvia; how political groups have used these celebrations to further their own agendas; and the organisation of events on public holidays.     

Geopolitical Imaginaries in Russian Foreign Policy: The Evolution of ‘Greater Eurasia’

Abstract

Russian foreign policy thinkers have used a succession of geopolitical imaginaries to articulate a Russian role and identity in the post-Cold War era. This essay analyses one such spatial project, the idea of ‘Greater Eurasia’, which imagines a new geopolitical geometry centred on Sino–Russian cooperation. The ‘Greater Eurasia’ discourse provides a new role for Russia in international affairs but also makes far-reaching claims about the nature of the emerging, post-liberal world order. The essay concludes with an analysis of the main challenges to the ‘Greater Eurasia’ project.     

The ‘shared workplace’ agenda in Northern Ireland: lessons from local government

The study considers the ‘Shared’ Workplace agenda in Northern Ireland, which is a significant aspect of the reconciliation process. Our emphasis is on the capacity of a wide group of work-based social identifications to affect, limit, and frustrate this policy. Specifically, we address the impact of spatial and functional factors as well as occupational and professional characteristics through fieldwork in three local authorities. Interviews were held with a cross section of 65 subjects, each of whom had either been employed by or worked in partnership with one of these authorities. Our study thus contrasts with much of the literature on Northern Ireland, which is concerned with the impact of Protestant/Catholic or Unionist/Nationalist identities on such reconciliation processes in the workplace and more widely. This approach enables us to develop insights about implementation of such agendas, specifically concerning Northern Ireland and other deeply divided societies. In the conclusion, connections are also made between our findings and consociational forms of governance.     

The ‘philanthropic’ gene: biocapital and the new green revolution in Africa

Climate change and population growth have prompted calls for African countries to embrace a ‘new Green Revolution’ in order to promote food security. What is ‘new’ about this new Green Revolution? What configurations of capital, the state, agribusiness, and the law define this period of agricultural transition? In this new Green Revolution, I argue, there is a proliferation of new forms of capital – biocapital and philanthrocapital – that integrate biotechnology with philanthropy to create market value. These shifts are engendered by philanthropic giving, in the form of donated genetic material for the development of ‘pro-poor’ biotechnology which normalises seed as commodity, and legislative reform that renders seed patentable material.     

Alternative Definitions of Headship and the ‘Feminisation’ of Income Poverty in Post-Apartheid South Africa

In measuring gender differences in the risk of income poverty, many studies use female headship as a proxy for gender. However, a number of well-documented concerns with the use of self-reported headship as an analytical category have suggested that headship is often a relatively blunt unit of analysis. Against the backdrop of a large and growing difference in income poverty rates between self-reported female- and male-headed households in post-apartheid South Africa, this study considers several alternative definitions of headship that have been proposed in the development literature. The findings suggest that there is an association between self-reported female headship and a female household member being identified as the main breadwinner. However, the conventional definition of headship is likely to underestimate the growing risk of income poverty in female-headed households (relative to male-headed households) compared with several alternative definitions. The findings also suggest that alternative definitions of female headship may be more appropriate given the narrow way in which the household is defined in most national surveys. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological and policy implications for alternative headship based studies of poverty.     

Where is the ‘Plus’ in ‘Credit-Plus’? The Case of Chiapas,Mexico

Abstract

It has become common to try and increase the effectiveness of microfinance programmes by adding supplementary services to the financial product. However, the added value accruing from this ‘credit-plus’ approach has been little analysed. We hypothesise that the extent of added value from credit-plus depends on the ability of the credit supplier to cultivate trust, or social capital, amongst clients. Applying difference-in-difference estimation, we exploit a natural experiment of two ‘credit-plus’ programmes in Mexico. The findings suggest that credit-plus is not universally effective, but that it is at its most effective, especially with low-income groups, where ‘bonding’ (within-group) social capital exists.     

‘Frenchmen’ in Polish Mines: The Politics of Productivity in Coal Mining in Poland 1946–1948

In the period 1946–1948, 13,721 Polish miners were repatriated by the state from France to Poland. The repatriation was vital to the development of coal mining. This repatriation was distinct because it did not involve returning to Poland people who had been displaced during the war. These Poles had emigrated to France during the interwar period. After a successful start, when over 5,000 men and their families came to Poland in 1946, the project came to a halt. Poland was not a welcoming environment for these men and France wanted to retain them.