Accountability at the Local Level in Fragile Contexts: Nepal Case Study

This paper presents the Nepal case study from a research project on accountability carried out in three countries. The research project aimed at identifying practices and factors contributing to the success of accountability initiatives in fragile contexts. In the case of Nepal, the research focused on the relationship between the state and its citizens and on the accountability mechanisms operating on the supply side and demand side of that relationship. This relationship was observed in the framework of a trail bridge project implemented with a community approach and including the Public Audit Practice, an accountability tool developed in Nepal by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. This paper argues that the public meetings held in the framework of the Public Audit Practice, as well as the trail bridge user committee, represent participatory spaces that are created by the project organisation but whose boundaries and internal functioning are shaped by (in part pre-existing) power relations. Furthermore, the active engagement of villagers in these spaces can represent an opportunity for ‘empowerment’, mostly in the form of the building of a network of useful contacts within and outside the community. However, in a context of polarised power structures and discriminatory social and cultural traditions, the meaningful participation of traditionally disadvantaged groups is limited. The findings also suggest that, in this context, accountability, and in particular the information-sharing process, assumes rather informal forms. This has to be considered in the planning of interventions so that the positive potential can be exploited and the risk of exclusion inherent to informal practices can be reduced. Finally, the paper argues that it is the space of the user committee that represents an accountability tool, while the space of the Public Audit Practice is more a symbolic one that can be used to build trust in, and legitimacy of, the actors involved

Expanding spaces of participation: insights from an infrastructural project in rural Nepal

The spread of participatory development worldwide has multiplied opportunities for local population to engage in paid and unpaid development activities. However, scholars have pointed out that participatory approaches bear the risk of strengthening unequal social structures, despite their emphasis on democratisation and inclusion. This paper investigates the case of a Swiss-funded infrastructural project in rural Nepal, analysing the role of participatory spaces in the dynamics of development resource capture. The empirical material collected suggests that, although participatory development has created more opportunities for social mobility, these opportunities are not necessarily open to everyone. In the case studied, the transformational potential of participation is only partially fulfilled

The end of postsocialism (as we knew it): Diverse economies and the East

This paper brings together two streams of literature which rarely enter into conversation: diverse economies scholarship and critical readings of postsocialism. Mobilising the cases of food self-provisioning (FSP) in Czechia and agricultural cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan as an empirical basis for our reflections, we pursue a two- fold aim. Firstly, we call for attention to the postsocialist East as fertile ground for the study of diverse economies. Secondly, we offer a postcapitalist reading of postsocialism as embedded and emancipated theorising, arguing that diverse economies thinking can support novel representations of this geopolitical area and open space to appreciate economic diversity on the ground

Sensing Urban Manufacturing: From Conspicuous to Sensible Production

Environmental destruction, social inequalities, geopolitical vulnerability—the limits of the long‐time praised paradigm of post‐industrial cities and globalised value chains are becoming evident, while calls for (re)localising production in cities are getting increasingly vocal. However, the material implications—i.e., where and in which form manufacturing should concretely take place in cities and the consequences on urban space and relations—are rarely addressed in debates on (re)industrialisation. In this article, we engage with the concept of conspicuous production by combining research on mixed‐use zones with sensory methodologies. We focus on the multisensory dimension of urban manufacturing to inter‐ rogate the spatial possibilities for production in a small town in Switzerland. Together with a group of graduate students, we apply sensory methods to explore how production shapes urban sensescapes and how these sensescapes affect our relation to production. Our exploratory endeavour provides ideas of how sensory methods can be integrated into urban planning research and practice: we suggest that these methods, which necessarily emphasise subjective experience, can constitute powerful tools if they take into attentive consideration the local political and economic context, including the norms and power relations that shape individual perception. Our study sparks critical questions about conspicuous production and mixed‐use zoning and tentatively advances the concept of sensible production: a production that not only is perceptible and can actively be engaged with, but that also shows good sense, makes sense, and focuses on what we need rather than on appearance

Editorial: Expanding knowledge geographies

In this editorial, we sketch out an agenda committed to exploring and fostering situated yet global perspectives on the manifold connections, disconnections, and differences within Europe, as well as between Europe and other parts of the world and discuss how we seek to advance this agenda and some of the continuing practical hurdles we face