Eastward bound: A case study of post-soviet labour migration from a rural Ukrainian town

This case study uses ethnographic interviews and survey data to explore temporary work migration from Komsomolsk, a rural town in central Ukraine. At the time of the Soviet collapse, experts expected temporary work migrants to orient toward labour markets in Western Europe but our data show that in 2002 the majority of temporary migrants made trips to Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union from Komsomolsk. Women were less likely than men to engage in temporary work migration, yet those women who did migrate for work were more likely to migrate west. Men, particularly older, ethnically Russian men, sought work in the east. Ethnographic data indicate language skills and knowledge of the Russian labour market influenced migrants' choice of destination. Social contacts, such as recruiters from Russian construction firms, helped to bring Ukrainian workers east. Survey data show that younger ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians from all age groups were more likely to seek work within the country or in Western job markets than in Russia.     

Football and post-war reintegration: exploring the role of sport in DDR processes in Sierra Leone

Growing enthusiasm for 'Sport for development and peace' (SDP) projects around the world has created a much greater interest among critical scholars seeking to interrogate potential gains, extant limitations and challenges of using sport to advance 'development' and 'peace' in Africa. Despite this interest, the role of sport in post-conflict peace building remains poorly understood. Since peace building, as a field of study, lends itself to practical approaches that seek to address underlying sources of violent conflict, it is surprising that it has neglected to take an interest in sport, especially its grassroots models. In Africa, football (soccer) in particular has a strong appeal because of its popularity and ability to mobilise individuals and communities. Through a case study on Sierra Leone, this paper focuses on sports in a particularly prominent post-civil war UN intervention—the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process—to determine how ex-youth combatants, camp administrators and caregivers perceive the role and significance of sporting activities in interim care centres (ICCS) or DDR camps. It argues that sporting experiences in ddr processes are fruitful microcosms for understanding nuanced forms of violence and healing among youth combatants during their reintegration process.     

The role of local government in rural communities: culture-based development strategies

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses local development and various governance strategies that local governments can use to engage actors in rural communities and resources from a broader environment to achieve desired socio-economic outcomes. We ask: How can local governance vary in rural communities? How can governance arrangements lead to contrasting socio-economic outcomes? Our conceptual framework combines a typology of local governance roles with socio-economic outcomes associated with neo-endogenous development theory. We explore culture-based development projects from three rural communities. We find that local governance strategies vary between relatively similar rural communities and that they represent compromises in terms of socio-economic outcomes. Local government in rural communities can act strategically through use of local networks. Local governance here is best understood as an emergent quality of the local context, history, institutions, culture, and, power relations. Therefore, governance strategies in rural contexts should be based on careful reflection on potential roles, trade-offs and desirable outcomes.     

Popular culture and development: A case study

Communications and development in the broadest sense of the terms are examined in relation to evaluation of the work of the Communication Foundation for Asia (CFA). CFA produces, in conjunction with public and private development agencies, flip-charts, comics, a fieldworker's handbook for use in family planning education, sound cassette magazines for agricultural extension work, booklets and sound-slides on forming cooperatives, and other educational materials. CFA operates in the Philippines. A developmental radio drama produced by CFA delivered a pro-development message, one that tells people they can do something about their conditions/situations, compared to the passive, consumer-oriented commercial radio drama. The most prominent theme was achievement. The characters had complex motivations and displayed wide range of motives. Like other forms of propaganda, developmental radio drama is not welcomed by radio station owners. Not many people in the industry perceive the opportunity for increasing overall development and economic growth. All pressures from commercial radio are in consumerist directions while developmental drama encourages production.     

Project oasis: A case study in jamaican development administration

This paper is concerned with development administration in practice, at the level of a particular project which was implemented in the Caribbean island of Jamaica in 1979. We are essentially concerned with the problem of the degree of fit between operational project objectives and the management of project resources, including personnel. The intent is to provide empirical evidence of some of the major difficulties encountered in the field by the development administrator, with a focus upon project organization and the managerial sub-system. We found the management of Project OASIS to be characterized by the lack of control mechanisms, weak discipline, and inadequate information flows. These problems were only exacerbated by the nature of the local policy environment. Development is in fact particularly difficult to administer. The conclusion emphasizes the need to involve the target communities directly in both development planning and in the process of implementation. It is also imperative to mobilize and maintain sufficient political concensus to attain the agreed outcomes, on the basis of a congruent ordering of values and utilities.     

The role of committee systems in post-communist legislatures: a case study of the Lithuanian Seimas

European parliamentary committee systems play an important role in organising the work of legislatures so as to assure the parliamentary leadership of its agenda. At the same time, the strategic positioning of committees in the legislative process provides opportunities for chairs to potentially undo the will of the leadership. We consider the degree to which committees in the Lithuanian legislature serve the private interests of legislators or those of the parliamentary leadership. We argue that while committees most often assist the leadership in obtaining preferred legislative outcomes, chairs on occasion have been able to change proposals or even frustrate the parliamentary leadership of governing coalitions.     

“Three disconnects” and China's rural election: A case study of Hailian Village

With the case study of the local elections in a poverty-stricken, largely illiterate and isolated village in the remote and mountainous Yi minority village, this article is intended to address the so-called “three disconnects” phenomenon in the development of China's rural election. They refer to the disconnect between economic development and democratic elections, the disconnect between democratic elections and democratic consciousness, and the disconnect between direct local elections in the rural areas and the higher level elections in urban regions. The article examines the political reasons and institutional logic behind this unique development of rural democracy in China as well as the existential value of the three “disconnects.”     

The state and rural development in Tanzania: The village administration as a political field

The Village Administrations (VAs) created by the Tanzanian state in the 1970s have been regarded as new state apparatuses intended to facilitate control over a recalcitrant peasantry. Field research in Dodoma revealed two kinds of factions competing for their control: Christians, who co‐operated with higher level state apparatuses in establishing working institutional structures, and Traditionalists, who sought to reconstruct the VA as an entity performing predominantly ritual functions and, by tactful non‐compliance, to insulate households from the demands of the state. If the VA is to be regarded as a state apparatus then it must be recognised that it has substantial autonomy, conditioned by its internal constitution as a political field.     

Changing development models in small economies: The case of Jamaica from the 1950s to the 1990s

By examining in detail the successes and failures of different development models in one developing country over a four-decade period, this article sketches a development model for small economies in the 1990s as an alternative to the neoliberal model pushed by the International Monetary Fund. It reviews the experience of Jamaica with various development models from the 1950s to the 1990s, with special attention focused on the experience of the Seaga government of the 1980s. It also draws lessons from the successful development experience of small European countries and of the East Asian Newly Industrialized countries. In normative terms, the alternative development model attempts to combine growth with equity and democracy. In analytical terms, it takes account of the constellation of domestic forces and appropriate political strategies, as well as of international economic and political conditions. The main features are a strong role for the state in economic interactions with transnational corporations, in identification of export markets and promotion of export production, in selective protection of domestic industry with an export potential, in promotion of agriculture linked to industrial development, in improvement of human resources and promotion of regional economic integration. Within these parameters, a crucial role is assigned to the domestic private sector and a complementary one to foreign investment. Distribution is to be addressed primarily through distribution of productive assets and access to health care and education. Evelyne Huber is professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is a coauthor ofDemocratic Socialism in Jamaica andCapitalist Development and Democracy. She is currently involved in research on the changing role of the state in Latin America and on comparative social policy. John D. Stephens is professor of political science and sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a coauthor ofDemocratic Socialism in Jamaica andCapitalist Development and Democracy. His current research focuses on options for social democracy and comparative social policy.     

Environmental terrorism: A case study

Abstract

The radical environmental movement, Earth First, was founded in 1980 by David Foreman, a Washington environmental lobbyist. Adopting as their slogan “No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth,” the movement progressed through the early formative stages usually associated with protest groups: letter‐writing campaigns, staged protests, sit‐ins, antiestablishment skits, and so forth. But over the past several years, Earth First has turned to violence, sabotage, and terrorism against land developers and the lumber, oil, and electricity industries.

Their well‐educated, white, middle‐class members have more recently focused their attention on planning serious attacks on nuclear facilities and associated electric systems. In 1986 they were responsible for a successful attack on the Palo Verdes nuclear facility's transmission lines. In June 1989, three members were arrested for attempting to cut down power lines in Arizona as part of a plan to disrupt operations at the Diablo Canyon nuclear generating plant. The overall radical environmentalist movement and its sabotage efforts appear to be spreading. On April 29, 1990, eco‐terrorists claimed responsibility for a serious sabotage incident in Palo Alto, California, and on the same day power lines were sabotaged in Fairfax County, Virginia, by unknown perpetrators.

It is clear that in the United States a national ecoterrorist network exists whose main purpose is to commit illegal acts in defense of the environment. These ecoter‐rorists appear to be gaining strength as well as the capability to increase their activities around the country. The radical environmentalist movement has the potential to become the country's major domestic terrorism problem.     

The Slovak Greens: A complex story of a small party

This article is a case study of the Green Party in Slovakia. The line of explanation of the party's trajectory is chronological, from foundation to its present marginal status. The two main causes of repeated internal party splits identified by the article are the influence of nationalism and the party's relationship to the most important formation in Slovak politics during the 1990s, Vladimír Me?iar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia. It, furthermore, points to the barrier of a relatively high clause in the electoral system to national parliament which determined the Greens' tendency to enter wider coalition partnerships. These partnerships, however, had a negative impact on the long-term perspective on the distinctiveness of the Greens from the point of view of voters. Other important factors in the party's lack of political success have been their isolation from the environmental movement and the public's low level of interest in ecological and other post-material issues.     

The role of government in economic development: the chinese experience

This study examines the role of government in China's economic reform and development years. The study first provides a literature review about major functions government played in the modern economic system and the importance of government policies to economic development. It then evaluates the experience of the Chinese government in the process of reform and development by focusing on five major roles: (a) promoter of growth, (b) manager of economy, (c) distributor of income, (d) regulator of industry, and (e) protector of citizen and business. The implications of the Chinese experience are discussed.     

Land consolidation as a factor for rural development in Moldova

This article draws on data from several recent surveys in Moldova to examine the question of land consolidation within the process of agrarian reform. It suggests that larger individually owned farms produce higher family incomes than smaller ones and thus farm augmentation makes a positive contribution to the well being of the rural population. Also, for farms of a given size, productivity increases as the number of parcels decreases. The article then proceeds to discuss the actual use of various market mechanisms for land consolidation, including leasing as well as buying and selling of land. According to various surveys, farms with leased land are in fact larger than farms that rely on owned land only. The article argues that land consolidation leads to better economic performance, while land leasing is actually used as a market mechanism for consolidation, which benefits both lessees, through increased farm incomes, and lessors, through income from lease payments for their land.