With and beyond the state -- co-production as a route to political influence, power and transformation for grassroots organizations

This paper reviews the use of co-production – with state and citizensworking together – as a grassroots strategy to secure political infl uence and accessresources and services. To date, the literature on social movements has concentratedon more explicitly political strategies used by such movements to contest forpower and infl uence. Co-production, when considered, is viewed as a strategy usedby citizens and the state to extend access to basic services with relatively littleconsideration given to its wider political ramifi cations. However, co-productionis used increasingly by grassroots organizations and federations as part of anexplicit political strategy. This paper examines the use of co-productive strategiesby citizen groups and social movement organizations to enable individualmembers and their associations to secure effective relations with state institutionsthat address both immediate basic needs and enable them to negotiate for greaterbenefits.ESRC-DFI

Partnerships to improve access and quality of public transport: guidelines

This book presents findings from project R7786 Partnerships to improve access and quality of urban public transport for the urban poor carried out by the authors as part of the Knowledge and Research (KaR) programme of the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department, Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government. The purpose of the project was to identify, explore, and document critical issues in the provision of transport services for and in low-income settlements in developing countries. The identified issues can be used at policy and operational levels to provide better transport services to low-income communities in urban areas. In the research methodology, a sustainable livelihoods framework was used to set the research framework. The print publication comes with a CD containing pdf files of all publications in this series including case studies from Faisalabad, Pakistan; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Improving access and quality of public transport services through partnerships

Access to affordable public transport services is critical for the urban poor as it offers a way out of economic and financial deprivation and social and physical isolation. Urban public transport is a key link to access other services such as health and education facilities and other livelihood assets needed to sustain individual and community development. The paper reports the findings of a major study which was undertaken in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Tanzania. The primary objective of the study was to produce Guidelines for use by policy makers and urban public transport operators to ensure that the poor can enjoy improved access and quality of public transport in the future. The Guidelines suggest that a better understanding is required of the inter and intra- linkages of public transport and its impact on other services required by the poor to sustain their livelihoods. This can be assisted through relationships being established between several agencies /organizations which can lead to formal and informal partnerships being developed

Knowledge Matters: The Potential Contribution of the Coproduction of Research

The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences—as academics and professionals—in coproducing knowledge to improve urban development outcomes in the global South. The focus of the paper is on urban research and practice, a field in which academic work influences policy and programming, and professional knowledge (validated and certified by academic institutions) forms the basis for urban planning and management. Collaborative research coproduced with social movement activities highlights that four issues need to be addressed to establish more equitable relations. First, alternative theories of change about how research leads to social transformation must be recognised, even if they cannot be reconciled. Second, the contribution of social movement leaders to university teaching needs to be institutionalised. Third, the relative status of academics vis-à-vis non-academics must be interrogated and better understood. Fourth, the accountabilities of the researchers to the marginalised need to be established. We argue that academics are insufficiently self-critical about the power dynamics involved in knowledge production with social movements. And that long-term relations enable understandings to be built and some of these tensions to be alleviated. Our conclusion highlights the unequal power relations that under-pin these challenges and suggests some steps to address these inequalities and their negative consequences

Knowledge Matters: The Potential Contribution of the Coproduction of Research

The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences—as academics and professionals—in coproducing knowledge to improve urban development outcomes in the global South. The focus of the paper is on urban research and practice, a field in which academic work influences policy and programming, and professional knowledge (validated and certified by academic institutions) forms the basis for urban planning and management. Collaborative research coproduced with social movement activities highlights that four issues need to be addressed to establish more equitable relations. First, alternative theories of change about how research leads to social transformation must be recognised, even if they cannot be reconciled. Second, the contribution of social movement leaders to university teaching needs to be institutionalised. Third, the relative status of academics vis-à-vis non-academics must be interrogated and better understood. Fourth, the accountabilities of the researchers to the marginalised need to be established. We argue that academics are insufficiently self-critical about the power dynamics involved in knowledge production with social movements. And that long-term relations enable understandings to be built and some of these tensions to be alleviated. Our conclusion highlights the unequal power relations that under-pin these challenges and suggests some steps to address these inequalities and their negative consequences

How small water enterprises can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals: evidence from Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Khartoum and Accra

For centuries, Small Water Enterprises (SWEs) have supplied a large share of the water market in the urban centres of most low-income countries. Such SWEs have proved themselves economically viable, and often operate in competitive conditions. They extend water services to informal settlements that have little prospect of being supplied with piped water from the local utility. Unfortunately, they attract comparatively little investment, and even less support from governments. The incremental but critically important improvements they can provide tend to be overlooked by governments and international agencies. In international statistics any household that gets its water from vendors is defined as lacking access to improved water supplies. This book is one of the outputs from a project designed to identify and test out ways of improving the water services delivered to the urban poor through SWEs. As such, it will prove an invaluable resource for water utility managers and policymakers. The book includes accounts of fieldwork undertaken in a number of African cities: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania); Nairobi (Kenya); Khartoum (Sudan) and Accra (Ghana). Even in these cities, where dependence on SWEs is high, the services provided by these SWEs have been poorly documented until now

Resonance properties and microstructure of ultracompliant metallic nanoelectromechanical systems resonators synthesized from Al-32 at. % Mo amorphous-nanocrystalline metallic composites

This study details the resonance properties of 20 nm thick nanoelectromechanical system scale cantilevers fabricated from a metallic Al-32 at. %Mo nanocomposite. The advantage of the Al-32 at. %Mo alloy is that its strength and near-atomic surface smoothness enable fabrication of single-anchored metallic cantilevers with extreme length-to-thickness ratios, as high as 400:1. This yields uniquely compliant structures with exquisite force sensitivity. For example, an 8 ??m long, 20 nm thick Al-32 at. %Mo device has a spring constant of K280 ??Nm. We show through transmission electron microscope analysis and continuum modeling that the relevant damping mechanisms are related to the device microstructure.open3

Amplification of Fluctuations in Unstable Systems with Disorder

We study the early-stage kinetics of thermodynamically unstable systems with quenched disorder. We show analytically that the growth of initial fluctuations is amplified by the presence of disorder. This is confirmed by numerical simulations of morphological phase separation (MPS) in thin liquid films and spinodal decomposition (SD) in binary mixtures. We also discuss the experimental implications of our results.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Adaptation to flooding in low‐income urban settlements in the least developed countries: A systems approach

This study aims to use a whole systems approach (1) to understand the processes of adaptation to flooding of the urban poor; (2) to identify new knowledge of how low‐income settlements might better adapt to climatic risks; and (3) to begin to develop appropriate guidance on this. Low‐income urban settlements in the least developed countries (LDCs) present an extreme case where catastrophic natural hazards and chronic social hazards overlap. These low‐income urban populations face the greatest adaptation challenges as they often occupy informal settlements that are particularly exposed to hazards, and have multiple vulnerabilities arising from their lack of basic services. There is a dynamic complexity of issues arising from the many levels of actor involved and multiple social and physical factors. Analysing such a complex phenomenon calls for a specific conceptual framing, and a systems theory approach is suggested to provide a holistic perspective. The case study for this research is located in Dhaka East, where there is both high vulnerability to flooding, and a significant low‐income population. The research has adopted a mixed methods approach involving different data collection methods governed by the different scales and actors being investigated. The research develops new systems understandings of perceptions and experiences of the local population about adaptation processes in low‐income urban settlements, and how these processes may be positively influenced by integrating bottom‐up and top‐down approaches

Continuation for thin film hydrodynamics and related scalar problems

This chapter illustrates how to apply continuation techniques in the analysis of a particular class of nonlinear kinetic equations that describe the time evolution through transport equations for a single scalar field like a densities or interface profiles of various types. We first systematically introduce these equations as gradient dynamics combining mass-conserving and nonmass-conserving fluxes followed by a discussion of nonvariational amendmends and a brief introduction to their analysis by numerical continuation. The approach is first applied to a number of common examples of variational equations, namely, Allen-Cahn- and Cahn-Hilliard-type equations including certain thin-film equations for partially wetting liquids on homogeneous and heterogeneous substrates as well as Swift-Hohenberg and Phase-Field-Crystal equations. Second we consider nonvariational examples as the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, convective Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard equations and thin-film equations describing stationary sliding drops and a transversal front instability in a dip-coating. Through the different examples we illustrate how to employ the numerical tools provided by the packages auto07p and pde2path to determine steady, stationary and time-periodic solutions in one and two dimensions and the resulting bifurcation diagrams. The incorporation of boundary conditions and integral side conditions is also discussed as well as problem-specific implementation issues