The difference

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s meant living in a time of turbulence and change. The music, literature, and films, combined with the passionate activism of the era, profoundly influenced people in my generation. My working class family struggled to raise a family and make a decent living, instilling values of social justice along the way. I knew from an early age that I wanted to make a difference, but had many internal conflicts to resolve before I could effect change. An education in sociology taught me what was wrong in the world and law school gave me the tools I needed to effect change. Working in the court system and with students has made a difference, one person at a time.     

Age patterns of migration among Korean adults in early 20th-century Seoul

In this study, we examine age patterns of migration among adults who resided in Seoul in the early twentieth century. We use information, obtained from the Seoul household registers, on the length of time these adults lived in their current residences to estimate age-specific migration rates and construct migration life tables. Our findings point to the following: First, Seoul residents were quite mobile. On average, during the early twentieth century, Seoul residents moved approximately four times between their primary working ages of 15 and 64. Second, upper-class individuals were more mobile than lower-class individuals. While the upper-class individuals moved approximately five times between ages 15 and 65, the lower-class individuals moved less than three times. This class differential can be explained because Korean bureaucrats experienced frequent duty changes during this period. Third, household composition also affected migration rates. We compare our results with European migration studies and discuss the implications of these finding on urbanization that occurred in early twentieth century Seoul.     

Do Labour Parties Suffer from Declining Turnout? Evidence from Norwegian Local Elections

The argument that declining voter turnout harms social democratic parties has received little support in research on national elections, but partisan consequences of declining turnout in local elections has been less explored. Norwegian local elections – where both turnout and support for the Labour Party have declined since the early 1960s – are used as a test case. Analyses of aggregate data gave no systematic support for the hypothesis that Labour suffers from lower turnout. Declining turnout and declining Labour Party vote were not causally related, and the correlation between the two variables seemed to be the result of other long-term social changes. Analyses of survey data pointed to three flaws in the premises on which the hypothesis was based. First, the effect of declining turnout on the biased class composition of the abstainers was ambiguous. Second, the Norwegian Labour Party suffers less from differential turnout than before as a result of declining class voting. Third, the Labour Party may suffer from a demobilisation of the working class, but the party may also benefit from a demobilisation of the young.     

Democratization without enlargement? The European Neighbourhood Policy on post-communist transitions

This article explores the concept of normative power in Europe by assessing the democratic impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in Eastern Europe. By focusing on democratization as a normative objective of the ENP, the authors argued that the European Union (EU) should not be assumed to be a normative power in international politics. It is argued that the EU vision of creating a ring of friends through the ENP has failed. Although the number of EU member states has significantly increased, and the Western European norms and values have become consolidated in most of Europe, Europe remains divided between EU member states and the others. The democratic decline in Russia, the conflict in Georgia in 2008, and the growing authoritarianism in Belarus and Ukraine have had negative effects on the notion of a whole, free, and democratized Europe.     

“At That Time We Were Intimidated on All Sides”: Residues of the Malayan Emergency as a Conjunctural Episode of Dispossession

ABSTRACT:

This article proposes that the Emergency counterinsurgency campaign of the British colonial state should be viewed as a conjunctural episode of dispossession of Malayan laboring people. Conjunctural episodes of dispossession of working people through state violence and racialized rhetoric emerge as a response to crises in capitalist accumulation occurring at multiple and overlapping scales of capitalist systems – the imperial, the national/colonial, and the local/regional. During these episodes state and capitalist strategies destroy political organizations and solidarities among laboring people and demoralize them over long periods of time, through processes simultaneously material and semiotic. Employing new theorizations of the global anthropology of labor, this article first examines the postwar and Emergency years when the multiethnic and industry-wide bases of Malayan trade unions were destroyed while an estimated half a million working people were forcibly concentrated in so-called New Villages. This had the effect of suppressing a discourse of class and class struggle in favor of a dominant discourse of ethnic conflict. In an effort to articulate class struggle despite the presence of this dominant discourse of essential ethnic difference this essay examines the formation of a new working men's “society” in 1978–1980 and a dispute between truck drivers and truck owners in northern Malaysia.     

How to build a better future? Kyrgyzstani development workers and the ‘knowledge transfer’ strategy

The development industry has moved from concepts of aid and technical assistance to the idea that closing ‘gaps’ in people's knowledge is the most effective way of alleviating poverty and injustice. My data show the means through which this ‘knowledge transfer’ is actually supposed to happen. I examine the micro-politics of development: the role and agency of development workers, who are so frequently employed to conduct ‘training’ on a wide range of topics affecting citizens' well-being, such as conflict prevention or sustainable agricultural practices. This paper draws on ethnographic research between 2010 and 2012 with Kyrgyzstani NGO workers to analyse the ‘side-effects’ of development, such as the creation of a new social class and softening age hierarchies. I examine the widespread conviction among trainers that education can solve most social ills, and their concepts of how knowledge, sometimes in the guise of ideologiya, shapes people. I argue that this faith in knowledge reflects both the life course of NGO workers themselves and what they can offer from within the ‘knowledge transfer’ paradigm. An understanding of the friction between different expectations of knowledge content, teaching relationships and aims in creating well-being is not only essential to a critical reflection on these development efforts but also illuminates wider political and social processes and relationships, such as expectations of the state and international community.     

Conclusion: Getting It All Together

Abstract

As the aticles of the symposium present a wide variety of conclusions on whether public administration has “grown up,” this overview article does not attempt a unified synthesis of the authors’ views but rather makes a composite analysis of contrasts and patterns among them. Attention is then shifted to the organizing metaphor itself, that of maturation. Following a review of how each article employs it, some general reflections are offered on its usefulness.     

From revolution to reform and back: EU-Security sector reform in Ukraine

ABSTRACT

Security Sector Reform (SSR) is an important element of the EU’s external intervention toolkit. In an increasingly uncertain global security environment, the EU has currently stepped up its SSR endeavours. However, success of these efforts largely depends on the EU’s capabilities in navigating complex context-specific challenges. In particular the EU needs to be able to simultaneously address the functional and normative-societal imperatives that underpin SSR. This article considers the case of the EU’s ongoing SSR mission to Ukraine – the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM). It asks, what are the unique context-specific challenges faced by EUAM in Ukraine? How do these challenges influence the EU’s ability to satisfy both the normative-societal imperative of SSR through the EUAM? This article mainly relies on secondary data, and applies a “Whole of Society” approach to conflict prevention and peacebuilding (WOS). Amidst a situation of ongoing multiple armed conflicts and EU-Russian relations of mutual dependence, a key finding is that the mandate of the mission has become more narrow and exclusive by sacrificing vertical coherence and the normative-societal imperative. We recommend EUAM adopt a more “revolutionary” approach to SSR, by adhering to key SSR normative principles so that the mission can overcome the challenges of the unique reform environment of Ukriane. This will also make it able to contribute more meaningfully to the wider reform process in an effective and sustainable manner.     

Comment on Kirk McClure's “Are low-income housing tax credit developments locating where there is a shortage of affordable units?”

Kirk McClure's article makes important contributions to our understanding of the way in which state allocating agencies are using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). However, one of the premises of his analysis – that allocating agencies should encourage the location housing developments in census tracts with a “surplus” of low-income renters – is mistaken. Census tracts are too small to be considered closed-system housing markets. Additionally, the LIHTC program does not exist in isolation, but instead as part of a combined national rental housing policy that includes both supply-side programs (LIHTC) and demand-side programs (housing vouchers). A final flaw in the notion that LIHTC units should be built in census tracts with a surplus of renter households in the 30% to 60% of AMI range compared with the units affordable to them is that increasing the amount of affordable housing in those tracts could have the effect of further concentrating households by income and race.     

Supporting low-income homeowners: lessons from a program to coordinate weatherization and rehabilitation services

Homeownership is the primary way most families build wealth in this country. Low-income homeowners are less likely to get that benefit because they are more likely to own older houses that are more costly to operate and need more essential maintenance. Rapidly escalating home energy costs are straining the budgets of many low-income homeowners, increasing the likelihood of under maintenance and mortgage default. This paper presents an evaluation of a demonstration program designed to coordinate weatherization and rehabilitation programs in order to assist low-income households, decrease energy costs, and to improve the condition and value of their homes. The experience of 11 local non-profit organizations, funded to develop programs to coordinate weatherization and housing rehabilitation services, were studied over a five-year period. The results of the evaluation indicate that there are many obstacles to coordinating weatherization and rehabilitation programs, but that it can be accomplished under the right conditions. Major gaps exist between program eligibility thresholds and in the types of assistance available to low-income homeowners. Policy recommendations for facilitating coordination are presented.