Lyotard: after and with Marx,within and against capital

This article examines Lyotard's thought by means of a review of his conceptions of Marx and capital. Lyotard is taken to hold ambiguous views on both Marx and capital throughout his career. These ambiguities reflect his development of a post-Marxist standpoint. The ambiguous character of Lyotard's reading of Marx and capital is heightened by the fact that the ways in which they are formulated vary in the course of his career. In criticizing Marx, Lyotard tends to assume an absolutist form of Marxism that abstracts from the variety of ways in which Marx can and has been interpreted. Likewise, Lyotard tends to misrecognize how he retains aspects of Marx's critique of capital, and hence does not explore the critical connections between his own standpoint and that of Marx.     

Realism and renewals: Perry Anderson and the prospects for the left

Perry Anderson is a commanding figure within anglophone Marxism. Moreover, his position as editor of the English-speaking world's most authoritative Marxist journal, New Left Review , gives a unique influence to his strategic pronouncements. This article challenges Anderson's reading of the contemporary international conjuncture and argues that his outline of the present-day strategic position of the international left is unduly pessimistic. It is argued that his reading of that moment is based upon an understanding of Marxism that is heavily influenced by the thought of Isaac Deutscher. This interpretation of Marxism has led to an elision in Anderson's thought, as the focus of the struggle between capitalism and socialism has been displaced from the point of production to the tension between statist regimes of accumulation and laissezfaire economies. This article disputes both this approach and his suggestion that the victory of the laissez-faire economies in this conflict implies that the struggle for socialism is no longer a viable goal for Marxists.     

Social Change and Class Formation in a French West African State

This article focuses on migrant children in West Africa in contexts where independent migrations during childhood constitute the norm rather than the exception. The article examines how the relative age and gender of a child influence his/her trajectory. It is based on the biographies of two young domestic workers – a girl in Côte-d’Ivoire and a boy in Burkina Faso. In describing their trajectories during the first eight to ten years of their migration to the city, this article shows that ideas surrounding age-appropriate work and the acquisition of new skills allow both girls and boys to increasingly exercise more power over their own lives. From these detailed trajectories it becomes clear that the dominant institutional categories, on the one hand, mask the diversity of activities of these very young migrants. On the other hand, they conceal the diachronic changes that take place in the course of their migratory work experience.     

A Critical Appraisal of the Statecraft Interpretation

This article subjects the Statecraft interpretation to critical assessment. It argues that, while Bulpitt has provided a parsimonious and stimulating contribution to our understanding of British politics, his work needs to be developed. More specifically, although the Statecraft thesis evolved out of Bulpitt’s concerns with the methodology of political science, a neglect of ontological and epistemological questions has led it to propound explanations which are both reductionist and insensitive to empirical criticism. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which the Statecraft interpretation can be developed to take account of these weaknesses.     

A Critical Appraisal of the Statecraft Interpretation

This article subjects the Statecraft interpretation to critical assessment. It argues that, while Bulpitt has provided a parsimonious and stimulating contribution to our understanding of British politics, his work needs to be developed. More specifically, although the Statecraft thesis evolved out of Bulpitt's concerns with the methodology of political science, a neglect of ontological and epistemological questions has led it to propound explanations which are both reductionist and insensitive to empirical criticism. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which the Statecraft interpretation can be developed to take account of these weaknesses.     

An International Perspective on the African Famines

This article examines the practice of male circumcision among the migrant Yao people in Zimbabwe with the goal of showing circumcision's importance as a platform for social mobilisation against HIV and AIDS. The work looks at how the practice has health benefits and creates a new form of identity to fight AIDS. It therefore examines the role of the rite in the creation of a collective Yao identity that facilitates mobilisation against the pandemic within the community. This mobilisation is a complex and contentious process, which involves various levels of negotiation, reconstruction and reconfiguration of Yao identity and the circumcision practice (the surgical act and teachings about it), both within and outside the group. The article argues that the practice can be viewed as a form of an African social movement that is largely driven by a complex but self-conscious collective identity and is also induced by the global donor interest in the circumcision–AIDS debate.     

Resolving Socioeconomic Disparities through Fiscal Decentralisation in the Republic of Macedonia

This article examines whether fiscal decentralisation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia between 2005 and 2012 has been achieved at the expense of economic and territorial cohesion. It examines the presence of longstanding socioeconomic disparities and rural under-development, before considering whether fiscal decentralisation has: facilitated a more equitable distribution of public resources; created the optimal conditions for expanding citizens’ access to basic services; and reduced socioeconomic disparities between urban and rural areas. The article argues that unless carefully designed and implemented, fiscal decentralisation reforms can have unintended consequences and may actually exacerbate socioeconomic disparities rather than reduce them.     

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

This article studies the challenges faced by microfinance institutions in Zambia, whose remit it is to provide financial services to the poor. It focuses on loan officers – the agents of delivery on the ground. With reference to loan officers’ experiences and words, the paper examines how gender and education shape and structure their day-to-day encounters. The study finds that different social spaces – ’the office’ and ‘the field’ – and wider context explains the gendered, culturally complex and multidimensional nature of developmental work at grassroots level. Social expectations emerge as major pressure points more for female loan officers than their male counterparts, making them less suitable for microfinance work, which has traditionally targeted poor women.     

How can network leaders promote public value through soft metagovernance?

The aim of this article is to explore the opportunities and challenges of employing ‘soft’ metagovernance to promote public value in governance networks. Soft metagovernance can be defined as a form of relational leadership that is exercised through face‐to‐face contact. This involves making an emotional connection with people to exert influence through a collaborative endeavour, rather than employing bureaucratic authority. Drawing on a case study of a local social enterprise—The Bristol Pound—in the UK, this article examines how soft metagovernance can be used by non‐state actors as a form of leadership to create public value. Evidence reveals that relational forms of leadership are a powerful asset in helping leaders of networks to create public value. Moreover, if network leaders understand how soft metagovernance functions they can use it more purposefully to maximize public value creation and mitigate the risks of public value destruction in governance networks.     

Pardon,punishment, and amnesia: three African post‐conflict methods

This article examines the thesis that A´lvaro Uribe, the new president of Colombia (2002–06) is a neopopulist. Such a thesis holds that Uribe can be classified as a neopopulist given his election to the presidency after breaking ranks with the Liberal Party, his massive support from largely unorganised citizens, his government under a state-of-siege decree, his promotion of a national referendum, and his frequent public meetings with citizens throughout Colombia. I reject this thesis, arguing that Uribe's method of winning the presidency did not constitute a significant departure from previous practice in Colombia's system of fragmented political parties. His personality lacks a strong charismatic aura. More significantly, Uribe made no concerted effort to cultivate political support among the masses. In office Uribe's state-of-siege powers have been curtailed by decisions of the Constitutional Court, which he has, significantly, been careful to respect. His proposed referendum had to be negotiated with—and was significantly transformed by—the Colombian Congress. And Uribe's public meetings consist largely in his listening to citizen complaints, rather than giving electrifying public orations. A close examination of Uribe's history and governing style shows him to be a talented politician but not a populist.     

Approaches to Value for Money

Despite having a high level of voting by women, Japan has a poor record of female representation in elected government at both central and local levels. This article examines the position in local government and seeks to explore a number of possible explanations for the situation. It draws upon both theoretical and empirical work and identifies a variety of cultural, social and political barriers to women seeking election for local government. The article concludes that there are growing pressures for change including from outside the current mainstream of Japanese politics.     

Rethinking civil society: radical politics and the legitimization of unpaid activities

This article examines recent debates on the concept of civil society as a source of renewal for political economy and a contributing factor to the establishment of social inclusion. In terms of political economy it contends that the relationship between markets and civil society has been under-theorized and that the potentially deleterious impact of the hegemony of market discourses on civil society has been neglected. Thus there is a need to engage with more radical theories which suggest that, if we want to support and legitimize socially useful activities such as unpaid work, spaces within civil society should be protected from the penetration of economic rationality. To this end the article argues that, following contemporary radical democratic theory, it is important to think of civil society as a differentiated space in which a wide range of actors engage in a multiplicity of activities. However, where radical democrats have tended to focus on a differentiated space for political engagement, this article concludes that we should do the same for economic and non-economic activities and, in so doing, construct an alternative political economy to the hegemony of market discourses.     

Not throwing the baby out with the bathwater: a Gramscian response to post-hegemony

This article offers a Gramscian response to the theory of post-hegemony, suggesting that its rejection of Gramsci rests on misrepresentations of his work. Through a closer engagement with this work, the article outlines the ways in which Gramscian analysis can in fact complement the insights of post-hegemony in analysing the ways in which the social order is secured and the strategies of resistance to this order. This combination of Gramscian and post-hegemonic insights, the article argues, offers a more nuanced and comprehensive insight into power, radical politics and resistance in the twenty-first century, an insight which risks being lost in post-hegemony's rejection of Gramsci and his work. The utility of this combined approach is illustrated via four short vignettes from contemporary Latin America: the emergence of the student protest movement in Chile since 2011; the Caracazo in Venezuela; the Argentine crisis in 2001; and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.     

The 2004 general election in India and its aftermath

In early 2004 India confirmed that coalition governments are the staple for sometime to come. This article examines the events leading to the general election and thereafter. It contends that there are several forces that will tax the new United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress Party which itself is ridden with many internal squabbles. Among the coalition partners, the Communist Party of India, which tends to be ideological in making its presence felt without accepting any responsibility by being a part of the government, can possibly be the worst threat to stability. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which does not seem to have come to terms with its defeat, seems to be obstructionist rather than being a “loyal opposition”. There are also several major issues of governance such as corruption and “tainted” Ministers which the new government has to deal with. Thus, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wears the mantle of government rather precariously, and with an uncertain future.     

A Legitimate Paradox: Neo-liberal Reform and the Return of the State in Korea

This article examines the neo-liberal reforms that the Kim government implemented in post-crisis Korea. It argues that by embracing the reforms, the state, paradoxically, re-legitimised itself in the national political economy. The process of enacting the reforms completed the power shift from a collusive state-chaebol alliance towards a new alliance based on a more populist social contract - but one that nonetheless generally conformed to the tenets of neo-liberalism. Kim and his closest associates identified the malpractices of the chaebols as the main cause of the crisis, so reforming the chaebols would be the key to economic recovery. Combining populism and neo-liberalism, they drew on support from both domestic and international sources to rein in, rather than nurture, the chaebols.     

Evaluating Public Management Reform: Designing a'Joined Up' Approach to Researching the Local Government Modernisation Agenda

This article examines the major programme of research on the'Local Government Modernisation Agenda' which is currently being funded by the UK's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It argues that this heralds a new approach to government-funded research which seeks to address some of the weakness of previous evaluations. In particular it involves longer-term studies than have been conducted in the past and an attempt to achieve a much greater degree of collaboration between research teams. It is also trying to ensure effective application of the learning derived from evaluations. This new approach raises a number of practical and methodological problems, including in particular the need for effective data sharing among research teams and with other agencies. If this can be achieved there is though a real prospect that the research will provide useful insights that help to inform current and future policy and practice at both national and local levels.     

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE IN LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A WARM EMBRACE OR AN ARTFUL SIDESTEP?

This article examines the extent to which changing approaches to performance management have had an impact on a range of agencies responsible for local economic development programmes in Britain. It explores the possibility that the effectiveness of public programmes could be more sharply highlighted and incorporated in the performance review of organizations. It demonstrates that major improvements have occurred but that overall the planning and management of local economic development remains largely incremental. While the FMI (Financial Management Initiative) has led to greater understanding of the extent to which corporate and programme accountability can be achieved in public agencies, it is not clear that sufficient momentum has been achieved for future changes to be self-generating. Further progress in performance management continues to be dependent on strong external pressures to publicize, probe and reward demonstrable improvements in public sector performance.     

Trust and inter‐firm relations in developing and transition economies

The role of trust in facilitating economic growth has been highlighted in previous contributions to this journal. In order to take this debate forward, this article argues (1) that more attention needs to be given to the relationship between sanctions and trust, and (2) that it is worth distinguishing between the minimal trust for making markets effective and the extended trust required for deeper kinds of inter‐firm co‐operation to work. The article goes on to ask why minimal trust is lacking and so hard to construct in the republics of the former Soviet Union. It then examines how extended trust grows or can be made to grow in industrial supply chains and clusters in developing countries.     

Walter Benjamin, a Methodological Contribution

This article examines the work and philosophy of Walter Benjamin as an important source of information for international relations (IR) and International Political Sociology (IPS) scholars, particularly in light of his methodological contributions, which could provide important ground for movements such as the aesthetic turn in IR and everyday life/popular culture studies within IR and IPS. Benjamin's contributions are examined in light of his most controversial, albeit unfinished, project— The Arcades Project , a recently published volume that focuses on a selection of documents from the Benjamin archive; and a study by Howard Caygill on Benjamin's attempt to create a "new philosophy," and along with it, a new methodology for studying "experience." The article focuses on three main elements that stand at the basis of Benjamin's unique methodology: (1) his process of selecting the object of study; (2) his treatment of temporality and processes of change/history; and (3) his focus on the visual as key to escaping the limitations of traditional "philosophical" text.     

Heidegger and post-colonial fascism

Alexander Dugin is considered a fringe figure in contemporary Russia. Yet, his writings exert considerable influence and develop a virulent nationalism that exploits the vocabulary of post-colonial resistance in an unaccustomed way. Dugin should not be ignored, and this article gives a brief account of Dugin’s peculiar brand of post-colonial thinking by reference to its central source: Martin Heidegger. Specifically, the article examines how Dugin adapts the anti-metaphysical thinking of Heidegger’s most radical work of the 1930s – a thinking that seeks to renew Western thought in an other beginning – to the context of modern Russia as it tries to free itself from Western (American) domination. Dugin aims at nothing less than the creation of a new Russian identity and destiny that will not only save Russia but also, in a nod to Heidegger, renew the Western tradition itself from the “outside.” If Dugin’s political project is ambitious, so is his interpretation of Heidegger which attempts to bring out the full radicality of Heidegger’s thinking, both as philosophy and as politics.