Culture in the post-2015 development agenda: the anatomy of an international mobilisation

Throughout 2012–15 several actors were advocating that culture be explicitly integrated within the post-2015 UN development agenda. My article offers an anatomy of the recent international mobilisation in order to understand the cleavages and the contrasting visions. In doing so, it seeks to analyse the policy process through which the agenda is made, why and how a critical mass of actors is attempting to embrace the inclusion of culture in the post-2015 agenda and the political reactions vis-à-vis this mobilisation. The article argues, on the one hand, that the promotion of culture in the post-2015 agenda is largely based on UNESCO’s will to advance its policy agenda and enhance its position within the UN system and, on the other hand, that this mobilisation lacks political support from the most influential governments; therefore its chances of success are more than contingent.     

Making sense of communitarianism: the Bolivian experience

In Bolivia, the state and society is undergoing radical transformations. The indigenous movements have revitalised traditions such as communitarianism, and ‘communitarian development’ has come to the forefront of Bolivian politics. The aim of this article is to identify what communitarian development means in the Bolivian context; how it is conceived and how it is practiced. I examine how communitarian development is conceptualised in the Aymara indigenous movement and in policy documents, and analyse what communitarianism might mean to people who uphold such values. I identify and discuss five different but intertwined significations; communitarian economy, communitarian work, communitarian management, communitarian law and communitarian values. I show that Bolivian communitarianism contains conceptualisations of cultural phenomena, which emerge at the nexus of experiences and expectations for the future, and argue that, despite tensions and pitfalls, communitarian development has the potential to increase indigenous wellbeing and agency and to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of what communitarianism is, or could be.     

Strategic Culture,Representations of Nuclear (In)Securities,and the Government of India: A Critical Constructivist Perspective

In this article, I use Alastair Johnston's concept of strategic culture re-visited through a critical constructivist perspective to analyze the representations of India's strategic culture and nuclear policy choices. In doing so, I explore how the representational practices of (and the mutually-constitutive relation between) India's nationalist identity/Self and its strategic environment, facilitated via its political leaders’ ideological lenses, have produced shifting representations of India's strategic environment to justify the nation's nuclear policy choices. In exploring this representational linkage between India's strategic environment and its nuclear (in)securities, I am cognizant that anarchy is a challenge facing India's task of nation-making and thus realism serves as a partially valid explanation for understanding the logic proliferation. Yet, my study demonstrates how culturally guided interpretations of what constitutes the Indian Self have divergently re-interpreted India's strategic environment and (in)securities to define the nation's nuclear policy choices.     

Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda: the recurring tyranny of participation

This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development experts to the intended beneficiaries of development. Therefore the post-2015 consultation process aptly illustrates the recurring tyranny of participation, this time at a global level, as the UN maintains control over global development goals. Recognising that it would be unjust to ignore the ability of marginalised groups to challenge the UN’s dominant narratives of development, we suggest that there is still time for indigenous voices to be heard in the build-up to the post-mdg era through ‘invited’ and ‘uninvited’ forms of participation.     

Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy

Motivated by a recent World Bank report on achieving of Millennium Development Goals which shows that poverty has been declining in all regions of the world with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this study puts some empirical structure to theoretical and qualitative studies on the reconciliation of the Beijing model with the Washington Consensus. It tests the hypothesis that compared to middle-income countries, low-income countries would achieve more inclusive development by focusing on economic governance as opposed to political governance. The empirical evidence is based on interactive and noninteractive fixed effects regressions and 49 countries in SSA for the period 2000–2012. The findings confirm the investigated hypothesis. As the main policy implication, in order to address inclusive development challenges in the post-2015 development agenda in SSA, it would benefit low-income countries in the subregion to prioritize economic governance. Other theoretical and practical contributions are also discussed.     

UK development policy and domestic politics 1997–2016

Debate surrounds the relative importance of development aid and development policy in donor efforts to support international development. Likewise, the literature on UK development policy points to its putative stability and consistency over time. Both perspectives, however, underplay the political contention which characterises UK development policy and its variable effects. This article, therefore, examines UK development policy between 1997 and 2016 and the varying extent to which it gave rise to contentious politics over time. It explores three politically-significant periods in the context of UK development policy between 1997 and 2016: the first between 1997 and 2003, characterised, I argue, by political consensus and managed contention; a second between 2003 and 2010, characterised by transition and emerging political contention; and a third, between 2010 and 2016, characterised by contentious politics and political fracturing. I associate the first period with effective political vision and direction and the third with a significant erosion of both, to the detriment of UK development policy and its efficacy. In conclusion, I argue that UK development policy has been most effective when it has been underpinned by a clear and consensual political vision.     

Migration as Social Seismograph: an Analysis of Germany’s ‘Refugee Crisis’ Controversy

This article tests the hypothesis that the attitude towards migration can be understood as a social seismograph for the degree of a society’s degree of democratisation. In this article I present my hypothesis and analyse the constellation of arguments within the public controversy following the so-called refugee crisis in Germany. I work out the internal problematics structuring the three main polarisations in this discourse. Most of the contributions analysed here are interventions rather than academic texts (albeit often authored by academics) making practical suggestions to cope with what they respectively relate to different definitions of crisis. Methodologically, this article is based on a thorough reading of essays and books and their relation to one another, with view to the current conjuncture. Understanding this ‘crisis’ after 2015 requires an approach attentive not only to the different ‘politics of polarisations’ within the public controversy but also to the real and phantasmal dimensions of the crisis. Although the figure of the refugee has began to occupy a central role in the discussion of migration policy, the debate has, I demonstrate, surprisingly little or nothing to do with migration whatsoever, but rather speak to the degree of required democratisation.     

‘Big D’ and ‘little d’: two types of twenty-first century development?

Confusion between the idea of development as purposeful intervention and development as outcome has been addressed by efforts to distinguish ‘intentional’ from ‘immanent’ development, and the distinction between ‘big D’ development as Western post- World War Two modernisation in the Global South, and ‘little d’ as the creation of winners and losers within unfolding capitalist change. As a heuristic device this distinction has been put to a variety of uses within development studies, but it has rarely been subjected to further scrutiny. This paper asks (1) whether the distinction remains coherent or risks being stretched too far, and (2) whether it remains relevant within the changing landscape of twenty-first century development. It first traces the historical evolution of the distinction, and then presents an exploratory case study of Bangladesh’s garment sector in order to analyse the relationship between the two kinds of development empirically, identifying a number of contradictions and ambiguities. It finds that while the ‘D/d’ distinction remains useful at a general level, further conceptualisation is now needed, and its relevance may fade as the significance of Western aid declines.     

The "AIDS and MDGs" approach: what is it, why does it matter, and how do we take it forward?

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been mixed, and many observers have noted the tendency for development actors to address individual MDGs largely in isolation from one another. This in turn has resulted in missed opportunities to catalyse greater interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation towards MDG achievement. The term 'AIDS and MDGs' is gaining currency as an approach that aims to explore, strengthen and leverage the links between AIDS and other health and development issues. Drawing from academic literature and from MDG country reports, this article sets out three important pillars to an AIDS and MDGs approach: 1) understanding how AIDS and the other MDGs affect one another; 2) documenting and exchanging lessons learned across MDGs; and 3) creating cross- MDG synergy. We propose broader policy level implications for this approach and how UNDP and other partners can take this agenda forward. Because the MDGs explicitly locate HIV within a broader international commitment to human development targets, they provide a critical platform for development partners to galvanise resources, political will and momentum behind a broader, systematic and structural approach to HIV, health and development.     

The Wheel of Development: the Millennium Development Goals as a communication and development tool

Despite the shortcomings of the Millennium Development Goals as a development tool, they have proven to be an important communication tool that is worth preserving after 2015. Inclusion of important themes of the Millennium Declaration and elements of the capability theory is essential in a post-2015 system, as well as putting human rights and gender principles at its core. Process orientation rather than end goals could lead to ‘Millennium Development Actions’ with ‘Progress Signs’, which, represented in a circular symbol, form a ‘wheel of development’, complemented by a Wheel of Governance.     

Cultural Capital and Sustainable Livelihoods in Sri Lanka's Rural Villages: Towards Culturally Aware Development

Increasing attention is being directed towards the role of culture in the development and well-being of rural communities. Systems of knowledge, beliefs, customs, norms and a wide range of culturally related activities, such as arts, crafts and music, can play a significant role in the everyday lives of people and contribute to the sustainability of human societies. The means through which culture can be effectively incorporated into development processes requires further research. This article develops the concept of ‘cultural capital’ to explore how cultural assets sustain an artisan class in three rural villages close to the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. The field research found that embodied cultural traditions and subsequent material outputs are vital ‘resources’ in achieving livelihood objectives and meeting family aspirations. We argue that the development industry needs to reconsider cultural assets and traditions and incorporate them into its work at conceptual and programmatic levels. Conceptually development needs to see itself as a cultural as much as economic or social process, and programmatically we see openings within sustainable livelihoods approaches for a greater explicit appreciation and awareness of locally-specific cultural traditions, strengths and perspectives.     

Māori,Family Group Conferencing and the Mystifications of Restorative Justice

Abstract

The Family Group Conferencing (FGC) forum is often presented by policy entrepreneurs and advocates as indicative of the ability of restorative justice (RJ) to accommodate the cultural and justice needs of diverse populations. In this article, we present recent empirical research from one of the authors on Māori experiences of the forum. Drawing from this research, as well as other secondary sources, we demonstrate that far from being an exemplar of culturally appropriate justice practice, the forum is experienced by some Māori participants as one that encloses Indigenous culture and Indigenous participants within a Eurocentric, formulaic, and standardized process. The final section of our article reveals changes to the development of restorative policies and the practice in the Aotearoa New Zealand context that Māori participants believe are necessary to make the movement, and interventions such as the FGC, an empowering experience for Māori.     

Governing International Migration through Partnership

Partnerships in international migration governance promise a cooperative approach between countries of origin, transit and destination. The literature has generally conceptualised migration partnerships as a policy instrument. This article suggests that understanding the broader transformations taking place in international migration governance under the rubric of partnership demands a novel analysis. Using a governmentality perspective, I interpret migration partnerships as an instance of neoliberal rule. Focusing on the convergence of international migration governance between the international realm and the European and North American region in particular, I demonstrate that the partnership approach frames international migration governance so as to enlist governments, migrants and particular experts in governing international migration, and invokes specific technologies of neoliberal governing which contribute to producing responsible, self-disciplined partners who can be trusted to govern themselves according to the norms established by the partnership discourse. The partnership approach is not a mere policy instrument; it goes beyond the European region and has become an essential element of the governance of international migration.     

Gender and institutional strengthening: the World Bank's policy record in Latin America

This article examines the gendered nature of institutional strengthening policies at the World Bank, as part of an attempt to analyse what role gender plays in the institutionalist turn within development policy. It focuses on three snapshots of Bank action wherein debates about gender and institutional strengthening are particularly pertinent: Washington, DC policy texts and Presidential speeches; gender policy enacted in the Latin American and Caribbean region; and an Argentine project loan on social capital promotion and family strengthening. Two themes emerge from these sites: (1) that couplehood between men and women has been identified as a key informal institution necessary for development; and (2) that gender reform has been positioned as an institutional change issue requiring attention to issues such as social marketing. New norms about gender interaction thus emerge as an explicit part of the Bank's reform agenda, and are shaping project experiences across Latin America.     

Autonomy in nicaragua

Since the 1979 Revolution, Nicaragua's Sandinista government has been engaged in the reconstruction of political and administrative institutions throughout the country. Problems of administrative development have been especially acute along the Atlantic Coast, which has not only been geographically separate from the Pacific Coast, but ethnically and culturally distinct as well. U.S. intervention into the region since 1981 has intensified Sandinista efforts to accommodate indigenous demands for autonomy. The result has been the establishment of limited self-government involving a regional coordinator and council structure. Although many problems remain unresolved, the Nicaraguan experience offers a novel approach to a number of the policy and administrative issues involving indigenous minority populations within modern nation-states.     

From London to Beijing: Training and Development as an Agent of Policy Learning in Public Management

The education and training of international public managers is a powerful mechanism for policy learning and transfer. In a way similar to the globalization of MBA studies, which has contributed to the international diffusion of Western derived management concepts, a number of countries are investing in overseas training programs for their public servants to bring back international “know how” and good practice. Although this practice has been coterminous with the expansion of relatively easier and affordable international travel, policy learning activity in the area of administrative reform appears to have intensified.

Though largely undocumented, the UK has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of cohorts of Chinese civil servants arriving to enroll in short courses. Many of these courses are conducted outside the University system and are arranged and hosted by independent organizations. Despite this being a growth industry, the impacts are unclear and raise a number of questions, such as, what is being learned about UK public administration and how much of it is being transferred back to China? What is it about UK public administration that has particular appeal to China? Although training and development may have a multiple agenda, the assumption is that its primary purpose is to facilitate knowledge transfer. This article sets out to understand whether this recent trend constitutes an agent of international policy transfer between Britain and China. To do this, the article analyses the nature of policy learning from the UK within a cohort of senior Chinese public servants.     

This time it’s different: lithium extraction,cultural politics and development in Bolivia

As governments throughout Latin America have increased their dependence on resource extraction, the debate around extraction-based development has been reinvigorated. This article argues that, despite historical failures and recurrent conflicts associated with extraction-based development, the way in which development is experienced and conceptualised at the subnational level demonstrates why extraction continues to be perceived as a legitimate means for development. These findings show that, as resource extraction continues to play a critical role in the overall development transition of Latin America, the process must be understood and theorised in relation to the experiences and expectations of actors at multiple scales.     

Beyond the merchant and the clergyman: assessing moral claims about development cooperation

This article proposes to move beyond the categories of altruism and self-interest in the analyses of the motives for development cooperation. This opposition ignores the inherently moral nature of development policy. The article illustrates the shortcomings of such a perspective by tracing the metaphor of the merchant and the clergyman as archetypical figures shaping Dutch development policy. Through these images the suggestion of an opposition between moral and amoral motives in the history of development has gained a strong foothold within the interplay of scholars, policy makers and public opinion. We go on to assess claims about economy, security, solidarity, prestige and guilt, and ecology, which have been brought forward to legitimise Dutch foreign aid. This analysis calls for research on the dynamics of the transnational exchanges of ideas, interests and expectations, especially during episodes when the moral validity of policy has been explicitly contested.     

Hungary and the European Union: The political implications of societal security promotion

Hungary's constitutional commitment to support kin-nationals beyond its borders (nation policy) has been a central feature of its post-1989 foreign policy and highlights a particularly important national security concern—the societal security of national identity, culture, language and tradition. This article examines Hungary's societal security concerns and the policy methods it utilises, including its EU membership and the promotion of minority rights at the European level, to help combat these concerns. It is suggested that Hungary has found it somewhat difficult to balance its societal security policy objective with internal economic demands on its welfare system and its external foreign policy objective to maintain good neighbourly relations. This article also notes that Hungary's attempts to Europeanise, or rather ‘EU-ise’, minority and ethnic rights issues as a means to enhance societal security for the Hungarian nation has certain political consequences for the EU. This suggests that societal security provision is an issue that cannot be overlooked when trying to understand the longer-term implications of EU eastern enlargement.     

Emerging powers and the UN development system: canvassing global views

The importance of emerging powers in the UN development system is undeniable, but their influence over the shape of the post-2015 agenda is less clear. This article examines recent survey data by the Future UN Development System (funds) Project in order to better gauge the perceptions of the world organisation’s problems and prospects.