Field-level perspectives on Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme

This paper examines the implementation of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), the large scale rural works programme in operation since 1974 in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The analysis of programme management and execution of individual EGS projects draws on the experiences and observations of the unique cadre of employment officers, from different departments, with field-level responsibilities. The first section of the paper describes the organization which administers EGS and reviews the body of directives which guides EGS field operations. Subsequent sections discuss the background characteristics of field functionaries and focus on various problems encountered and solutions adopted by these officers in implementing EGS projects. The discretionary powers enjoyed by field officers as a result of the absence or impracticality of government guidelines for many issues influence the implementation of the project and make officials vulnerable to political pressures. The implications of this discretion need to be recognized by the Government of Maharashtra. Knowledge gained from EGS operations needs to be used to prepare officials for project work.     

Landfill externalities and property values dilemma – emerging insights from three Ghanaian cities

Though debates about the negative impact landfill exerts on land and property values are by no means historically new, research into the case of developing countries has only recently begun. This article attempts to synthesise existing literature on the subject through the analysis of three case studies to enhance our understanding, especially the contextual conditions surrounding the relationship. Applying this theoretical framework to the disposal practices occurring in three cities in Ghana, this article offers insight into the culpability of landfills in negatively impacting property values. In an illuminating analysis, we argue that most engineered landfills in the country serve as a catalyst in correcting the ills of uncontrolled urbanisation (governance, attitudinal and financial constraints, etc.). We opine that landfills’ relationship with host communities must be understood in relation to our overall underdevelopment, coupled with the increasing economic and technical challenges shaping much of the country’s history.     

Urbanization,roads, and rural population change in the Ecuadorian Andes

Like many developing countries Ecuador has experienced extensive urbanization in the pase twenty-five years as well as a shift in the pattern of rural population change between the 1960s and 1970s. Rural places with difficult access to cities (without roads and located far from cities) gained population during the 1960s but lost population during the 1970s. Rural places with easy access to cities (i.e., located near cities or on all-weather roads) continued to gain population during the 1970s. The explanation for the differential ability of rural places to retain their population during the 1970s focuses on increases in labor circulation by peasants and growth in the numbers of small, urban-oriented manufacturing and agricultural enterprises in accessible rural areas. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for policies to reduce rates of rural-urban migration. Tom Rudel is an associate professor in the Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology at Rutgers University. He recently publishedSituations and Strategies in American Land Use Planning (Cambridge, 1989) and is at work on a study of deforestation and development in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Sam Richards is a graduate student in the Sociology Department at Rutgers University. He is currently carrying out NSF supported dissertation research on the Catholic Church and socioeconomic development in Eduator.     

The Politics of National Recognition: Honouring Australians in a Post‐Imperial World

The announcement in January 2015 that Prince Philip had been chosen to receive an Australian knighthood (an honour which itself had been controversially revived the previous year) sparked a fury of debate about honours, and about the continuance of a British connection in Australia's national life. Such debates were not new, echoing earlier arguments about honours as a national or imperial symbol. Through two related case studies — the Australian honours system and the Australian of the Year award — this article explores the politics of national recognition in 1970s and 1980s Australia. We consider both the politics involved in the creation and alteration of awards by which individual achievement and service are recognised by the nation, and the politics involved in imagining and recognising an Australian nation as expressed in those awards. We argue that these two institutions were more than a means to acknowledge hard work or sacrifice; they were also significant sites for contests over the nature of Australia's post‐imperial identity.     

Reviewers for Volume 2

ABSTRACT

This article argues that current passive and static conceptualizations of Chinese approaches to nuclear and conventional deterrence are no longer appropriate. Recent evidence indicates that these postures are far more integrated, flexible, and dynamic than Beijing’s official rhetoric suggests, and that during the past decade a de facto shift toward a limited nuclear war-fighting posture has already taken place. By applying an International Relations (IR) structural-realist lens to conceptualize a relatively under-researched discourse that relates to recent indications that China is contemplating the deployment of nuclear weapons for war-fighting (or victory-denial) purposes. A radical doctrinal shift of this kind (or even the perception of one) could presage a paradigm shift in China’s long-standing nuclear posture and the nuclear balance in Asia.     

Political compromise on land reform: A study of South Africa and Namibia

The fact that both South Africa and Namibia achieved democratic rule through a process of negotiation, rather than revolution, has had implications for the land reform programmes being implemented by both countries. The author suggests that land hunger has not been addressed and that while compromise on the issue has enabled political stability to date, this may not last.