“Untouchable” cellphones? Old caste exclusions and new digital divides in peri-urban Bangalore

This paper presents a fresh perspective on the complicated relationship between digital communication technologies and historically disadvantaged castes such as Dalits in peri-urban Bangalore (Bengaluru), India, a city popularly perceived as India’s “Silicon Valley.” Based on interviews with Dalit household members, entrepreneurs, and political activists, the study examines whether mobile phones have been insufficiently harnessed by Dalits in the region to overcome historic deprivation, or whether they may have even assisted in the reinforcement of caste-based exclusion. The paper uses oral histories and draws from feminist perspectives on technology to demonstrate how the contemporary socio-technological outcomes among Dalits in peri-urban south Bangalore is a result of a convergence between three elements – the durability of caste in peri-urban metropolitan India, the social construction of the usage of information communication technologies (ICTs), and myopia in the conventional understanding of the digital divide in India. In the process of disentangling this convergence, the paper offers a new perspective on the relationship between caste, ICTs, and development policy. The paper ultimately argues for a re-examination of the idea of a digital divide and the development assumption that access to new technologies will further positive development outcomes.     

Workplace regimes in Sino-Mozambican construction projects: resentment and tension in a divided workplace

Based on a qualitative study of Chinese-led construction projects in Mozambique, this article explores how Chinese engagement in the construction sector affects workplace regimes. The study addresses the following set of questions: What characterises these workplace regimes, and why do the workplace regimes give rise to resentment and tension amongst Mozambican workers? Furthermore, how is labour agency constrained or enabled within these workplace regimes? The data reveals that Chinese companies in Mozambique are granted great freedom to develop workplace regimes as they see fit, characterised by functional flexibility, low pay and few benefits. Furthermore, the creation of a divided workplace, with separate workplace regimes for Chinese and Mozambican workers, exacerbates resentment amongst Mozambican workers. The Mozambican workers employ multiple strategies to express their discontent, but labour agency is constrained by weak national institutional support, and lack of alternative employment opportunities in the local labour market.     

Social Classes and the Neo-Liberal Poverty Regime in Turkey, 2002–2011

The Justice and Development Party (or AKP) era in Turkey has witnessed the emergence of a new welfare regime resting on voluntary public and private transfers. This system has been replacing the former welfare system in which the right to social welfare benefits was constitutionally guaranteed. The new welfare system has tended to distribute transfers on a selective and unequal basis. This article analyses the size and effects of this system using a social class-based analytical framework. In explaining class structure in Turkey, we use the official Household Budget Survey database. The results indicate a massive process of proletarianisation has taken place. Our results indicate that the working classes have constituted the majority of the poor. In this environment, the shares of voluntary public and private transfers in the incomes of households have been rising. For some classes, like rural unemployed, urban unemployed and agricultural labourers, these transfers have captured a very high share of the incomes. These transfers have also been distributed very unequally. Their share in the central budget has also been rising. All these point to the emergence of a new neo-liberal welfare (poverty) regime as part of a new labour control regime.     

国际碳交易机制复杂化及中国应对

目前,国际碳交易机制网络群体呈现复杂化态势,碳交易机制复合体、碳交易机制集群与碳交易机制联结相互渗透,同时其内部也进行着良性协同、建设性合作与功能性竞争的有序互动。在无政府状态、利益认知差异以及全球气候治理体系转型等普遍性因素影响下,国际碳交易机制复杂化的成因有着自身的特殊性,是其发展进程中的必然产物。另外,国际碳交易机制间的互动具有双重效应,其协同合作将会带来经济发展与气候保护的双赢结果,而如果互相掣肘则会增加碳交易成本甚至造成负减排。因此,中国在复杂化的国际碳交易机制中推进新型碳外交并实现碳中和目标,既需要充分发挥自身团结国际力量的优势以及国内和国际双循环新发展格局的核心作用,促进碳交易机制间的协同与衔接,又要积极践行《巴黎协定》关于碳交易机制整合的倡议,与各国及相关国际组织共同将碳交易机制整合的规范推广到整个国际社会以及其他议题的全球治理之中。     

对市管县体制的理性透视

目前市管县体制存在着许多问题:如市管县体制缺乏法律依据、管理幅度与管理层级之间的矛盾尖锐、“小马拉大车”的现象不宜乐观、城乡经济发展不平衡等。因此,应改革现行的市管县体制,合理划分中央和地方经济社会事务的管理责权,根据属地原则,由市县政府更多地直接管理公共事务。     

'Perspiration' vs 'Inspiration' in Asian Industrialisation: Indonesia Before the Crisis

This article examines trends in and determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) in 28 manufacturing industries in Indonesia over the period 1975-93. The reforms of the mid-1980s appeared to have resulted in a significant acceleration of TFP growth. Among the inter-industry determinants of TFP growth, trade policy and orientation, domestic competitive pressures and ownership factors are singled out for scrutiny. The trade regime and one measure of domestic competition emerge as consistently important explanatory factors.     

Les agents religieux islamiques en Afrique tropicale: réflexions autour d'un thème

There are political and environmental challenges in the Nile Basin. In the past, Egypt's military dominance, civil wars in Sudan and Ethiopia, and negligible use of water by upstream states muted political tensions. But demands for a fairer share of the Nile River have resurfaced, and many countries have openly defied the imposed regime, meaning the 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain and the 1959 bilateral agreements between Egypt and Sudan. The literature suggests this can lead to both conflict and co-operation. The dominant power-based and interest-based regime theories of international relations differ in their formulation of actors or actors' preferences over outcomes. This article argues that, while the former is the most powerful tool to explain what has happened in the past, the latter theory has a much more nuanced and explanatory power in terms of what will happen in the future in the Nile Basin.     

Explaining institutional change in international patent politics

This article seeks to explain institutional change in international patent politics since the conclusion of the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (trips). I argue that the distribution of interests in this issue area adheres to a sharp North–South distinction, and that the pursuit of largely incompatible and conflicting patent agendas by industrialised and developing countries, respectively, has led to the gradual emergence of an international patent regime complex. Focusing on trips-plus measures under various Free Trade Agreements, patent enforcement clubs and a range of UN organisations which have recently gained relevance for international patent politics, I show how the distribution of interests in this area has led to the development of two parallel and partially inconsistent international governance structures. I conclude that the distribution of interests explains the propensity of regime complexes towards stability and change, with institutional change being particularly pronounced when overlapping interests among revisionist actors enhance the prospects of collective action.     

Re-thinking Myanmar's political regime: military rule in Myanmar and implications for current reforms

The Myanmar military has long dominated national politics as well as the state apparatus since first coming into power in 1958. Despite a series of challenges to its rule, the military has been able to constantly re-invent itself while re-asserting its dominance over society. Cycles of popular protests and dissatisfaction with military rule have not led to regime change nor weakened the military as a unified institution. The latest incarnation of the nominally civilian government has introduced a series of liberalising reforms that have dramatically opened more socio-political space for opposition and non-state actors to participate in national politics. Despite the somewhat optimistic outlook of a more liberalised Myanmar in the future, the institutional design and historical legacy of the military's role in state-building have ensured that it has enough ‘reserve domains’ to maintain its prominent role within any foreseeable future governments in Myanmar. By tracing the historical development of the Myanmar military regime, this paper argues that current reforms were introduced as a strategy for the military to ensure its continued survival as the primary political actor in Myanmar.     

Critical infrastructure protection and Russia's hybrid regime

The Russian policy on critical infrastructure protection was outlined in the early 2000s and has been consolidated in recent years as a part of the national security strategy. This policy is evolving against a background composed of an uneasy combination of factors: the degeneration of infrastructures critical for the country's economic and social development, and the de-legitimization of political institutions responsible for protecting ‘population’ and ‘territory’. The recent major catastrophes in Russia, the notorious forest fires in 2010 in particular, have become examples of political events that offer a point of reference for the current regime's failure to uphold its promises of ‘order and stability’.