‘Bankable Slums’: the global politics of slum upgrading

This article develops a critical analysis of the Slum Upgrading Facility, a new initiative of UN-Habitat which seeks to improve conditions for residents of slums in Africa and elsewhere. The analysis highlights the neoliberal principles underpinning this initiative, and especially the vision of slum improvement by means of financialisation. The article argues that it is necessary and important to recognise the politics of international urban development and housing, which has since the 1970s increasingly emphasised neoliberal principles of private property and market institutions. The novel ambition of financialisation must also be situated in relation to historical transformations of housing finance in Anglo-American capitalism over the past three decades. After situating the ideological principles underpinning the Slum Upgrading Facility in these longer and broader global trajectories of international policy, the final section returns to the present to examine other initiatives currently being pursued alongside slum upgrading: the active promotion of mortgage markets in Africa.     

Escaping the ‘Field Trap’: exploitation and the global politics of educational fieldwork in ‘conflict zones’

There is a growing global demand for Northern universities to provide fieldwork opportunities in ‘conflict zones’ to students in applied International Relations (peace and conflict studies, post-conflict studies, human rights, development and related fields). This demand is generated in macro-level or structural dynamics emerging from three sources: the hiring criteria of major international organisations, competition between universities for fee-paying students and the social commodification of ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ life experience. At the micro level these dynamics can manifest themselves in exploitative relations, two of which are explored here. First, substantial inequalities (or a ‘benefit gap’) may arise between student researchers and their research subjects. Second, student researchers may find themselves in extractive relations with their research subjects. These dynamics lead to a situation in which some of the world’s most vulnerable people are objectified as learning resources for students enrolled in (predominantly Northern) universities. The article argues that these dynamics are a problem of global politics, not just research ethics or pedagogy. It concludes with recommendations for reducing the potential for exploitation in educational fieldwork.     

‘Finishing the Job’: the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the politics of self-governance

This article examines the modern day role and purpose of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. Since its establishment in the 1960s the Committee has helped numerable former colonies achieve independence. Today, with very few ‘colonised’ Non-Self-Governing Territories remaining its work appears almost complete. However, serious flaws have always pervaded its decolonisation strategy; which are now more apparent than ever. The Committee retains narrow and outdated understandings of colonialism and, as a result, fails to recognise how widespread and pervasive global colonial forces remain. This makes its goal of universal decolonisation both unsatisfactory and misguided. The Committee’s problematic approach towards decolonisation stems from its participation within the ‘North–South Theatre’, in which antagonism is perpetuated between the world’s developed and less developed states. The paper argues that the Committee has not prioritised colonised peoples in the way it has always claimed, but instead worked principally in the interests of itself and its members.     

Know thy enemy: Hizbullah, ‘terrorism’ and the politics of perception

The labelling career of the Lebanese armed group and political party Hizbullah is an interesting case with which to investigate the epistemological consequences of the politics of naming. Having found itself since its inception in the mid-1980s on the receiving end of mainly US and Israeli policy makers' and analysts' scorn for being an archetypical terrorist organisation, Hizbullah has been surprisingly successful in achieving its stated aims and in enduring the verbal and military onslaught against it. Although it is not the intention here to reduce explanations for Hizbullah's durability to discursive politics, this article suggests that both the labelling of Hizbullah as terrorist and, conversely, its identification as a ‘lebanonised’ political force that is about to make its conversion into an unarmed political party are misleading and incapable of grasping this organisation's complexities. In fact, both ‘terrorist’ and ‘lebanonised’ labels produce a quality of knowledge inferior to that produced by Hizbullah's own conceptualisation of its enemies. But most importantly, the debate on Hizbullah's alleged terrorist nature has obscured several of its traits that many should register before passing judgement on it. Our analysis shows that the variety of institutions Hizbullah has been carefully elaborating and readapting over the past two decades in Lebanon operate today as a holistic and integrated network which produce sets of values and meanings embedded in an interrelated religious and political framework—that of the wilayat al-faqih. These meanings are disseminated on a daily basis among Shi'a constituencies through the party's institutionalised networks and serve to mobilise them into ‘the society of the Resistance’ (mujtamaa’ al-muqawama), which is the foundation of the hala al-islamiyya (Islamic sphere) in Lebanon. Accordingly, any prospect of Hizbullah's transformation away from armed ‘resistance’ should be firmly placed in an analysis of its hegemony among the Shi'a of Lebanon and of the tools it uses to acquire and sustain this status.     

Who will make the ‘best’ use of Africa’s land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Conflict over African land – between smallholders and large industrial farmers and between domestic farmers and global agribusinesses – raises key questions about who will make the best use of African land and which farmers do most to decrease poverty and produce more food, industrial inputs and exports. Zimbabwe has already gone through two major changes in land occupation, and thus provides an important test of what is the ‘best’ use of the land. Three measures of ‘best’ use have been cited in Zimbabwe: reward for military victory, poverty reduction and agricultural production. Initial evidence indicates that commercial smallholder production is a better use of the land than larger, more mechanised farming.     

The myth of ‘independent judiciary’: the evolution of judiciary-executive relations in Turkish politics

The position of judiciary in politics is an important area of discussion for both legal and political experts. The issue has particularly been on Turkish political agenda for the past decade with the emergence of a strong single-party government under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi-JDP) rule. This article aims to analyse the evolution of relations between the judiciary and executive in Turkey from a historical perspective by examining the Republican era until the JDP rule. The struggle over the control of institutions becomes more visible during periods of strong government and the analysis shows that the idea of an independent, apolitical judiciary is a myth that was created by the institutional and legal design of the Republic in the Turkish case and is not peculiar to the JDP government.     

‘Mimicking’ the West? Russia's legitimization discourse from Georgia war to the annexation of Crimea

The 2008 Georgia war represented a turning point in Russian foreign policy. It was for the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union when Moscow invaded an independent country and for the first time when two members of the Council of Europe fought against each other. A premiere for Russian post-Soviet foreign policy was registered in 2014 too. The annexation of Crimea represented the first incorporation of foreign territories by Moscow since World War II. These two events generated the West's protest and blatantly contradict Russia's proclaimed foreign policy discourse centered around the respect for states' sovereignty and equality of actors in the international system. Starting from the assertion that the formulation of Russia's foreign policy is determined by the West's international behavior – Moscow looking whether to emulate or to find alternatives to it; the present paper will compare Russia's legitimization arguments for the 2008 war and the 2014 annexation of Crimea trying to assess how Moscow answers Western criticism and whether there is a continuity in Russian official legitimization narratives.     

Thinking about the ‘Local’ of Local Government: a Brief History of Invention and Reinvention

In 2004, Local Government Studies published an article in which I reflected on the implications of new Labour’s modernisation agenda for the remaking of local government and the reshaping of the welfare state. Here I return to some of the issues raised in that paper in the different context of localism, austerity and dreams of urban entrepreneurialism. I argue that exploring the changing meanings of the local, as a contested political as well as geographical category, is a fundamental task for those of us seeking to understand the nature of contemporary local government; the wider processes of state restructuring which frame it; and the possibilities of local politics.     

‘Saving the Congo’: transnational social fields and politics of home in the Congolese diaspora

Abstract

This paper explores the diasporic ‘politics of home’ of Congolese migrants in Europe, in particular in the UK, and to a lesser extent in Belgium. We focus on the fragmentation and heterogeneity of the diasporic political sphere by examining the role of first generation activists, religious groups, as well as youth and women's organisations. Within the transnational political field, first generation leaders are in a dominant position and the involvement of other groups, such as women and young people is marginalised by their control of the diasporic ‘rules of the game’ in the Bourdieusan sense. However, the increasing involvement of Congolese women in the field of women's rights advocacy has opened up new paths of political action which can, in certain occasions, lead to transnational forms of engagement. Similarly, second generation Congolese activists are constructing a space of autonomous engagement, relying heavily on the Internet and especially on social media, some attempting to link up with wider social movements. The paper provides an understanding of the social and political construction of these different fields of diasporic engagement as well as their intersectional and dialogical relations.     

Resources,Sovereignty, and Governance: Can Mongolia Avoid the ‘Resource Curse’?

The revenue generated from Mongolia's natural resources has the potential to transform the Mongolian state and society. Indeed, investment in mining has already led to a spate of urban growth in Ulaanbaatar and rural development throughout the rest of the country. Yet Mongolia's natural resources could also contribute to a ‘natural resource curse’ if not properly managed. Effective governance in relation to the state's natural resource sector is, therefore, essential. This article examines Mongolia's sovereignty in order to determine whether or not the state is capable of ‘good governance’ in relation to the mining sector.     

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.     

Marketing Development: celebrity politics and the ‘new’ development advocacy

Politics and culture, once considered separate, are now fusing in new and interesting ways. Political activism is becoming popular, particularly through the expansion of a new kind of development advocacy made highly visible through celebrity involvement. Theorists of globalisation celebrate the democratisation of civil society made possible by new information and communications technology; critical theorists will note the various ways in which ict ambivalently makes the contradictions in global capitalism more obvious and has become the means by which globalisation is contested. Some metropolitan governments have sought to capitalise on this new knowledge economy by making knowledge for development part of their strategies to produce ‘global citizens’ necessary for the global economy. This paper examines the linkages between celebrity and government-funded development advocacy in Australia, which comprise the introduction of free market principles to form a marketing campaign for neoliberal globalisation.     

The politics of post-conflict space: the mysterious case of missing graffiti in ‘post-troubles’ Northern Ireland

Why is there so little graffiti in Northern Ireland compared to cities in North America and Europe – including Great Britain, to which it is constitutionally connected, and Ireland, with which it is geographically connected? This question is particularly perplexing given the highly developed political mural tradition on both sides of the sectarian divide in the North, and the almost 15 years that have passed since the signing of the Peace Agreement ending some three decades of militarized conflict. This paper explores the connections between the absence of graffiti, and the street-level structures and processes of reconciliation or conflict – with a specific focus on the geopolitics of paramilitary control within communities throughout Northern Ireland. The contributions of the paper are three-fold: (1) it highlights the importance of graffiti as a (usually neglected) lens for assessing the degree to which the expected benefits of a peace agreement are experienced at the street level; (2) it addresses the methodological challenge of how to examine something that is not there (specifically, it studies the absence of graffiti in Northern Ireland by comparing it to the logic, mechanics and meanings of graffiti elsewhere); and (3) it questions the well-marketed representation of Northern Ireland as a unqualified case of successful post-agreement peace.     

Is Citizens’ Trust Escalating the Effect of Sound Governance on Citizens’ Satisfaction in Ethiopia?

ABSTRACT

In the context of widespread criticisms to good governance, sound governance is proposed to be a viable alternative. This study examines the effect of sound governance on citizens’ satisfaction with the mediating role of citizens’ trust in the context of Ethiopia. Using a concurrent mixed method design, data were collected from eight key informant interviews besides 175 respondents through questionnaire. The results show the positive link between sound governance, citizens’ trust, and satisfaction. It also reports a partial mediating role of trust into the relationship between sound governance and citizens’ satisfaction.     

The rise of the ‘China Model’ and ‘Beijing Consensus’: evidence of authoritarian diffusion?

The rise of authoritarian great powers has raised questions about the dominance of the liberal democratic model and has led to a perception that the relative balance between democracy and authoritarianism is shifting. Consequently, there is increasing interest in and concerns about the diffusion of alternative ‘models’ of political and economic development. Given that China's impressive economic development has led to growing military strength and geopolitical prestige, evaluating perceptions of the legitimacy, effectiveness, and applicability of that country's model of ‘illiberal capitalism’ is a good place to start. This paper evaluates whether the ‘China Model’ or ‘Beijing Consensus' is gaining traction internationally through a content analysis of eight years of US and non-US media sources. It finds that concerns about the beginnings of an anti-democratic ‘reverse wave’ are exaggerated and that at the present time there does not appear to be a decisive shift in favour of a model of authoritarian-capitalism.     

The ‘Ankara Moment’: the politics of Turkey’s regional power in the Middle East, 2007–11

Around 2007 Turkey became a regional power in the Middle East, a status it has maintained at least until the outset of the Arab Revolt in 2011. To understand why Turkey only became a regional power under the Muslim akp government and why this happened at the specific point in time that it did, this article highlights the self-reinforcing dynamics between Turkey’s domestic political-economic transformation in the first decade of this century and the advantageous regional developments in the Middle East at the same time. It holds that this specific linkage—the ‘Ankara Moment’—and its regional resonance in the neighbouring Middle East carries more transformative potential than the ‘Washington Consensus’ or the ‘Beijing Consensus’ so prominently discussed in current global South politics.     

Regionalisation as a Driving Force of EU Widening: Recovering from the EU ‘Carrot Crisis’ in the ‘East’

This article focuses on the ‘globalisation-cum-regionalisation’ process in the European Union that has led to the emergence of functional macro-regions. It provides first a classification of regionalisation, and describes the organisational and mental barriers of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The second part traces the shift of the ENP from the South to the East that has also activated the EU's pre-accession policy in the West Balkan region and the Eastern Partnership programme. Finally, it argues that the Baltic Strategy and the Danube Strategy as functional macro-regions are the main instruments to overcome the weaknesses of the incentive-based approach in the EU's conditionality (or, as it is described here, its ‘carrot crisis’).