Politics and (Self)-Organisation of Electricity System Transitions in a Global North–South Perspective

Dominant electricity systems are inevitably transitioning into new forms in terms of power generation mix, mode of energy system governance and vested interests, the extent of state and consumer/citizen participation in the energy system, and energy justice expectations in different geographies in the Global North and Global South. In this editorial to the thematic issue entitled Politics and (Self-)Organisation of Electricity System Transitions in a Global North–South Perspective, we discuss politics and (self)-organisation of (just) energy transitions to expose how messy, convoluted, and fluid future electricity system transitions can be in both the Global North and Global South

The Challenge of Local Responses to Climate Change

Abstract The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self- organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market- based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of ‘organisation’ and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways

Relational governance of territorial resources in post-colonial Africa – A new analytic framework

Current political sociology scholarship suggests that limited state autonomy from societal organisations undermines state enforcement capacity throughout the national territory, and therefore does superficial separation of the state from civil society (or formal from informal institutions) in the conceptualisation of what effective state system ought to be. These conceptions contradict realities in post-colonial Africa where societal organisations have evolved to bear ‘state-like’ qualities in resource governance, especially in remote locations where the state has no promising alternative to accommodating inputs from revered institutions or charismatic actors to complement its functions. Colonial experiences in Africa have produced institutional pluralism and a consequential split loyalty to the state in the post-independence era. Apparently, limited state autonomy sometimes refract or obstruct state visions; the resultant co-governance regime does not imply ‘wishy-washy’ state leadership. This is because state formation processes have produced an intermeshed governance of people, places, and resources through a complicated interplay between entities which have become indistinct in terms of functions, and hence cannot be simplistically categorised as either formal or informal, state or non-state. In this sense, the activity of regulating affairs in the post-colonial regime is characterised by relational governance – a form of governance sutured via reciprocal relation(s) between multiple actors across differentspatial scales and milieus. Drawing on an empirical study of biofuel projects in Ghana, we believe a relational governance approach provides an analytic framework to challenge this orthodoxy in governance studies and refresh discussions on the nature of state-society relations required for effective governance of territorial resources in postcolonial regimes characterised by institutional pluralism

Self-organisation and the co-production of governance: The challenge of local responses to climate change

© 2018 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self-organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market-based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of ‘organisation’ and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways

Local Self‐Governance and Weak Statehood : A Convincing Liaison?

This thematic issue addresses the relationship between local self-governance and the state. Self-governance is understood as the rules that emerge in the local social and spatial context. Local self-governance of individual local groups, actors, communities, and their social and institutional arrangements are considered. From this situated collective entanglement, the interactions and relations with state authorities are analysed in the various contributions embedded in local contexts of different world regions and based on empirical social science research containing mostly interdisciplinary approaches. The nine case studies of this thematic issue reflect a variety of statehoods (weak to restrained), divers “intentionalities” of local self-governance (emancipatory and democratic, socio-economically, and socio-culturally oriented, security-driven or ecological), and their state-locality entanglements range between four forms of relationships: mutually supportive, conflictual, ambivalent, and avoiding

Intercultural management research – Reflections on an unreflected school of thought

Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich kritisch mit dem akademischen Feld der Interkulturellen Managementforschung auseinander, indem das zentrale, dieser „Schule“ zugrundeliegende Denkparadigma in seiner Kontingenz und Unreflektiertheit offengelegt wird. Hierbei dienen Anleihen an Pierre Bourdieus Reflexive Anthropologie dazu, die sozialen Ursprünge der Wissensproduktion in der Interkulturellen Managementforschung zu enthüllen. Anhand des Kulturstandardkonzeptes nach Alexander Thomas werden diese theoretischen Überlegungen exemplarisch systematisiert, um herauszuarbeiten, welche unbewussten Vorbedingungen in dieser noch jungen Disziplin existieren und in welchem historischen Kontext ihre typischen Fragestellungen, Methoden und Begrifflichkeiten entstanden sind, da diese mitunter nachhaltig die zeitgenössischen Debatten innerhalb der Interkulturalitätsforschung beeinflussen oder gar bestimmen. Als Ergebnis dieser Analyse zeigt sich, dass die im Kontext des Zweiten Weltkriegs in den USA entstandenen Prämissen unter stetigem Praxisdruck und zunehmender ökonomischer Zielorientierung bis heute weitgehend unkritisch verwendet werden und es daher erforderlich ist, diese im Sinne einer kritischen Reflexivität nach Bourdieu zu überdenken. This article critically examines research in the academic field of intercultural management by revealing the central paradigm underlying this “school of thought” in its contingency and its unreflectedness. Hereby, Pierre Bourdieu’s Reflexive Anthropology serves as a reference point to disclose the social origins of knowledge production in intercultural management re-search. Using Alexander Thomas’ concept of cultural standards as an example, these theoretical reflections are systemized to work out which unconscious premises exist in this, still young, discipline and in which historical context the typical scientific research questions, methods and concepts were developed, as they enduringly influence or even determine contemporary debates within intercultural research. On the basis of this analysis, it becomes evident that the premises developed in the US in the context of World War II continue to be used without being sufficiently reflected to date, due to the constant pressure to create applicable research results. Consequently, it is necessary to reconsider these premises according to Bourdieu’s Critical Reflexivity

Interkulturelle Managementforschung: reflexive Gedanken über eine unreflektierte Denkschule

Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich kritisch mit dem akademischen Feld der Interkulturellen Managementforschung auseinander, indem das zentrale, dieser "Schule" zugrundeliegende Denkparadigma in seiner Kontingenz und Unreflektiertheit offengelegt wird. Hierbei dienen Anleihen an Pierre Bourdieus Reflexive Anthropologie dazu, die sozialen Ursprünge der Wissensproduktion in der Interkulturellen Managementforschung zu enthüllen. Anhand des Kulturstandardkonzeptes nach Alexander Thomas werden diese theoretischen Überlegungen exemplarisch systematisiert, um herauszuarbeiten, welche unbewussten Vorbedingungen in dieser noch jungen Disziplin existieren und in welchem historischen Kontext ihre typischen Fragestellungen, Methoden und Begrifflichkeiten entstanden sind, da diese mitunter nachhaltig die zeitgenössischen Debatten innerhalb der Interkulturalitätsforschung beeinflussen oder gar bestimmen. Als Ergebnis dieser Analyse zeigt sich, dass die im Kontext des Zweiten Weltkriegs in den USA entstandenen Prämissen unter stetigem Praxisdruck und zunehmender ökonomischer Zielorientierung bis heute weitgehend unkritisch verwendet werden und es daher erforderlich ist, diese im Sinne einer kritischen Reflexivität nach Bourdieu zu überdenken.This article critically examines research in the academic field of intercultural management by revealing the central paradigm underlying this "school of thought" in its contingency and its unreflectedness. Hereby, Pierre Bourdieu's Reflexive Anthropology serves as a reference point to disclose the social origins of knowledge production in intercultural management research. Using Alexander Thomas' concept of cultural standards as an example, these theoretical reflections are systemized to work out which unconscious premises exist in this, still young, discipline and in which historical context the typical scientific research questions, methods and concepts were developed, as they enduringly influence or even determine contemporary debates within intercultural research. On the basis of this analysis, it becomes evident that the premises developed in the US in the context of World War II continue to be used without being sufficiently reflected to date, due to the constant pressure to create applicable research results. Consequently, it is necessary to reconsider these premises according to Bourdieu’s Critical Reflexivity

Making the case for self-organisation: Understanding how communities make sense of sustainability and climate change through collective action

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Understanding how community groups take on the challenge of climate change is key to understanding the capacity of society as a whole to adapt in the face of climate change in ways that acknowledge a broader need for a sustainable societal transition. In order to show this it is important to identify what distinguishes self-organised responses to the climate change challenge from other responses. Through critically evaluating the existing literature on self-organisation and on locally based responses to climate change, the paper clarifies what we mean by self-organised response and then demonstrates how the concept would enhance the scope of research about local-level responses to enhance societal sustainability. Furthermore, the article presents an agenda for identifying self-organised responses to climate change and distinguishing self-organised responses from other forms of 'community-led' response