While cash transfers gain prominence as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a strong impulse to regard them as a stepping-stone towards the formalization of employment and... Show moreWhile cash transfers gain prominence as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a strong impulse to regard them as a stepping-stone towards the formalization of employment and universalization of social protection. This contribution problematizes how populations in informality are included in narrowly targeted social assistance interventions, which are heavily reliant on targeted schemes and fail to make informality legible to programme administrators. The focus of the article lies in the politics of exclusion and inclusion that permeate digital infrastructures, particularly data infrastructures such as social registries, that are used to target Ecuador's most prominent social assistance programme, Bono de Desarrollo Humano, and the COVID-related programme Bono de Proteccion Familiar. The article is based on ethnographic work, interviews and narrative analysis. It finds that social registries compiled for proxy means testing weaken the link between eligibility and informal employment and obscure the processes that perpetuate precarity. More recent data innovations, such as machine learning, are also insufficient to locate vulnerable workers as they learn from historical social registries data and replicate their biases, for example by overlooking non-poor areas where informal employment also occurs. Data infrastructures have shifted attention to the technicalities of the selection of beneficiaries and away from power imbalances in the design of social assistance, despite their selectivity and politics. Show less
This article explores social policy reforms championed by the Philippines’ strongman president Rodrigo Duterte during his first three years in office (2016–19), as a case for examining the... Show moreThis article explores social policy reforms championed by the Philippines’ strongman president Rodrigo Duterte during his first three years in office (2016–19), as a case for examining the transformative potential of social policy expansion under rising new right‐wing and authoritarian leaders. By showing how political economy and historico‐institutional conditions foreclose the transformative possibilities of the social policy changes effected by Duterte, the author offers a critique of current tendencies in global development discourses to treat all forms of social policy expansion as progressive. In the Philippines case, there is no progressive ideology guiding the reforms, nor are there political movements overseeing the expansion of social rights now inscribed in law. Rather, the reforms institutionally entrench a minimalist approach to universalism and strengthen the foothold of poverty targeting as an organizing principle of social provisioning. Social policy expansion under Duterte manifests aspects of the ‘dark side’ of social policy reforms during the current global political moment, including the use of such policy reforms to legitimize a conservative and authoritarian political order, and the functionality, across the political spectrum, of ‘narrow universalism’ — the type championed by international development agencies — which serves to deepen segmentation in social provisioning. Show less
Since the early 2000s, legal development cooperation has displayed an increasing willingness to engage with customary justice systems. However, this engagement is frequently problematic. External... Show moreSince the early 2000s, legal development cooperation has displayed an increasing willingness to engage with customary justice systems. However, this engagement is frequently problematic. External actors often lack knowledge about the different versions of customary law, the negotiable nature of customary justice and the power differentials involved in defining customary law. In customary justice systems, norms are defined and negotiated in administrative structures and dispute‐settlement institutions. Inclusion in these fora is therefore of paramount importance to improve the position of vulnerable groups. To illustrate the point, this article analyses two case studies of customary justice reform, respectively focusing on gender dimensions in northern Namibia and land management in Ghana. These case studies demonstrate that when programming ignores issues of power and empowerment, it will not have the hoped‐for positive impact on vulnerable groups. Show less
The authors argue that conventional agroecological and organizational concepts used in pastoral development are strongly biased towards the formulation and enforcement of norms. This leads... Show moreThe authors argue that conventional agroecological and organizational concepts used in pastoral development are strongly biased towards the formulation and enforcement of norms. This leads development experts to attempts to control pastoralists and their herds. The policies and development interventions based on these assumptions have been largely unsuccessful. As a consequence, attention for dryland areas and pastoral development has declined among researchers and development agencies. An important reason for this failure is the fundamental misfit between these normative concepts and the reality of dryland ecosystems and pastoral society. In order to show this, an alternative view on rangeland ecology and pastoral society is presented, supported by a case study of Fulbe pastoral society in dryland central Mali. The authors argue that approaches to pastoral development must be revised in the direction of the dynamics inherent in the pastoral way of life. The paper is based on field research carried out in central Mali in the periods March 1990-March 1991 and June 1991-February 1992. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum Show less
In response to the need for further conceptual development in the field of anthropological globalization studies, this article concentrates on the concept of virtuality, arguing that this... Show moreIn response to the need for further conceptual development in the field of anthropological globalization studies, this article concentrates on the concept of virtuality, arguing that this constitutes one of the key concepts for a characterization and understanding of the forms of globalization and provisionally indicates their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of a locality-obsessed anthropological tradition (as explored in the article) then provides the analytical framework within which virtuality makes an inspiring topic. The transition from theory to empirical case studies is made by examining the problem of meaning in the African urban environment. Finally, an ethnographic situation is invoked (urban female puberty rites in the towns along the 'Line of Rail' in present-day Zambia) which illustrates particular forms of virtuality as part of the globalization process. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum Show less
Fundamental changes are taking place within the African State system which is still, in essence, the one created by the colonial powers and inherited at independence by the governments of modern... Show moreFundamental changes are taking place within the African State system which is still, in essence, the one created by the colonial powers and inherited at independence by the governments of modern Africa. Powerful forces in the industrialized world continue to have a crucial influence on events in the African continent. This paper identifies some of the key features of the emerging political economy of Africa, focusing on the manner in which external forces combine with internal ones in affecting Africa's politics. It pays attention, amongst others, to the importance of foreign aid as a source of revenue for African elites; the industrialized world's misperceptions of Africa; democratization and the decline of African States since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; surviving patterns of precolonial political entities; new economic patterns in Africa; the policy of the industrialized world towards Africa and the role of African political elites now that, with the end of the Cold War, Africa has lost its global significance; the end of the Cold War as the real end of the colonial order in Africa and the intimate connection to the present crisis of African States; the collapse of African States and the world's policy of abandonment. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum Show less
The few existing studies on the response of labour to the economic crisis and structural adjustment in African countries tend to focus on the (oppositional) relations between the State and central... Show moreThe few existing studies on the response of labour to the economic crisis and structural adjustment in African countries tend to focus on the (oppositional) relations between the State and central labour organizations. They largely ignore the response of workers and unions at the workplace. This article describes how workers and unions in the tea estates of Cameroon have dealt with the economic crisis and structural adjusment. It shows that the workers have adopted various strategies to cope with the structural adjustment measures planned and implemented by the management in close cooperation with the State-controlled unions. Two striking facts emerging from the analysis are that the majority of the estate workers have never completely abandoned their 'traditional' militancy, and that gender differences in the degree and modes of labour resistance tend to be slight. The data are derived from fieldwork carried out in 1991-1993 in the tea estates of the Cameroon Development Corporation, the largest agro-industrial parastatal in Cameroon. Show less
