Democratizing the Trade Debate

[Excerpt] A thorough democratization of policy debates and decision-making is a precondition for progress in adding social dimensions to trade and investment regimes. Democratizing the trade debate means conceding social justice advocates a serious participatory role in shaping the rules of economic integration and in the operations of the bodies that implement new rules. Without the proverbial seat at the table, social justice advocates will continue to see their concerns treated as afterthoughts

The international missions in Kosovo: what is in a name?

This article problematizes the concept of ‘mission’ in international interventions, who is entitled to missionize and how the missionized subject is conceptualized. By looking at the international missions in Kosovo (those of the UN and particularly the EU), we problematize how the EU mission in Kosovo is entrenched in a trajectory of ‘missionizing’ that makes it bear the stigma of a structure non-responsive and non-sensitive to the local. Employing Derrida’s deconstruction, we explain that the criticism (academic, dogmatic, ideological and empirical) of international missions relates not so much to how they operate in their host countries, or to the policy choices they make. Rather, looking at the path dependency of missions in the Western historical and civilizational trajectory, we maintain that the problem derives from the idea and very concept of ‘mission’ as intervention in itself

The Politics of Democratizing Finance: A Radical View

How can finance be durably democratized? In the centers of financial power in both the United States and the United Kingdom, proposals now circulate to give workers and the public more say over how flows of credit are allocated. This article examines five democratization proposals: credit union franchises, public investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, inclusive ownership funds, and bank nationalization. It considers how these plans might activate worker and public engagement in decision making about finance by focusing on three modes of public participation: representative democracy, direct democracy, and deliberative minipublics. It then considers the degree to which democratization plans might be resilient to de-democratization threats from business. It argues that of the five, bank nationalization goes furthest in guarding against de-democratization threats but is still pocked with pitfalls if it relies solely on representative democracy. It argues that two criteria appear necessary for democratically durable alternatives: the active direct participation of workers and citizens and the weakening of businesses’ capacity for democratic retrenchment. finance, democracy, labor, credit, business powe

Is There Such a Thing as a Post-Apartheid City?

In an introductory section, this paper considers briefly the achievements and problems of urban governance in post-apartheid South Africa through an assessment of three categories: administrative reform, developmental issues and conflicts over service delurban studies, Durban, South Africa, local government, private-public

Science and democracy reconsidered

To what extent is the normative commitment of STS to the democratization of science a product of the democratic contexts where it is most often produced? STS scholars have historically offered a powerful critical lens through which to understand the social construction of science, and seminal contributions in this area have outlined ways in which citizens have improved both the conduct of science and its outcomes. Yet, with few exceptions, it remains that most STS scholarship has eschewed study of more problematic cases of public engagement of science in rich, supposedly mature Western democracies, as well as examination of science-making in poorer, sometimes non-democratic contexts. How might research on problematic cases and dissimilar political contexts traditionally neglected by STS scholars push the field forward in new ways? This paper responds to themes that came out of papers from two Eastern Sociological Society Presidential Panels on Science and Technology Studies in an Era of Anti-Science. It considers implications of the normative commitment by sociologists working in the STS tradition to the democratization of science.https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/383Published versio

From users to custodians : changing relations between people and the State in forest management in Tanzania

Central control of forests takes management responsibility away from the communities most dependent on them, inevitably resulting in tensions. Like many African countries, Tanzania--which has forest or woodland cover over 30-40 percent of its land--established central forestry institutions at a time when there was little need for active management and protection because population pressures were low. But in the face of scarce public resources and burgeoning demand from the growing population for agricultural landand woodland products, there has been growing recognition of the need to bring individuals, local groups, and communities into the policy, planning, and management process if woodlands are to remain productive in the coming decades. Tanzania established its first three community-owned and -managed forest reserves in September 1994. Today, supported by substantive policy reforms that largely grew out of the early experiences with community-based management, more than 500 villages own and manage forest reserves, and anoher 500 or so smaller social units and individuals have recognized reserves. Joint management by the state and the people is getting underway in at least four government-owned forest reserves.The authors describe the evolution of community-based forest and woodland management in Tanzania and the underlying policy, legal, and institutional framework. They draw together some of the lessons from this experience and review emerging issues. They find that the most successful initiatives involving communities and individuals have been those that moved away from a user-centric approach (like that often used in South Asia) and toward an approach based on the idea that communities can be most effective when they are fully involved in all aspects of decisionmaking about management and protection.This suggests that the government should allow communities to become engaged as managers in their own right, rather than as passive participants who merely agree to the management parameters defined by the government. The Tanzanian experience has shown that community-based forest and woodland management can be an integral part of initiatives that seek to improve governance over natural resources by improving accountability and by democratizing decisionmaking at the local level.Forestry,Forests and Forestry,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Drylands&Desertification

New challenges in education

Book description: Dialogue is a privileged method in Luce Irigaray’s work. Covering all the key topics that have been central to her work in the last thirty years, this book offers an essential insight into Irigaray’s career as one of the world’s most important contemporary thinkers. Topics and theorists approached include: philosophy, in particular Hegel, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze; language as information, communication-between and artistic expression; universality and difference; natural and cultural identities; motherhood and gendered subjectivities; cultivation of desire and love; building houses and sharing lives; being two and being in community; the other and others; relational identity and education; globalisation and ethics; politics and human rights; spirituality and religion; practice and culture of Yoga; and, of course, being and becoming woman. Ideal for students seeking an overview of Irigaray’s thought, as well as those already familiar with her work, this collection brings together for the first time Irigaray’s conversations over the years with the people who have been involved in studying and researching her enormous contribution to Continental Philosophy, Spirituality, Cultural Theory and Feminism

Information-Age Populism: Higher Education as a Civic Learning Organization

Viewing higher education as an environment "ripe for change," Harry Boyte makes the case for colleges and universities to forsake their traditional bastions of cloistered scholarship to become "civic learning" organizations. Many faculty members are willing and able to pursue their interests in the public relevance of teaching and research. What is needed to undertake the democratization of the production and diffusion of knowledge, Boyte says in this report from the Council on Public Policy Education, is to stress the need for disciplines to interact across porous boundaries with the wider world