What’s the Added Value of Legalising City-zenship?

In his kick-off, Rainer Bauböck discusses the influence of citizenship, both urban and national, on the relationship between cities, states and the people that reside in them. His position is that urban citizenship should not, and cannot, replace national citizenship; rather, the future lies in an urban citizenship “derived from residence rather than nationality … that complements national citizenship”. Bauböck believes that such a multilevel citizenship would be able to create a ‘status of equality’ shared by urban and non-urban populations. My response to Bauböck’s reflections on urban citizenship considers some legal implications of the postnational view that Bauböck finds most promising. Specifically, it questions how suited citizenship is – as a legal instrument – for accommodating the concerns raised in Bauböck’s contribution

Ostrom’s Design Principles as Steering Principles for Contractual Governance in “Hotbeds”

The sustainability of complex contractual governance in “hotbeds” depends on steering principles. Ostrom’s design principles provide an analytical framework for robust institutions that enable collective action and cooperative behaviour. The success of Ostrom’s design principles depends on the capacity of social entities to self-govern. This article explores the potential of Ostrom’s design principles as such steering principles for contractual governance in “hotbeds”. We find that the preconditions for successful contractual networks in “hotbeds” and the empirical situations underlying Ostrom’s design principles are comparable. Building on this comparability, we apply Ostrom’s design principles to contractual networks in “hotbeds” area theoretically, and then go on to demonstrate its applied value to three situations in West Papua, Indonesia

When indicators fail electricity policies : the pitfalls of the EU’s retail energy market Barrier Index

Published online: 06 April 2022An important goal of EU energy policy is to ensure energy justice during the green transition. The Commission considers the functioning and competitiveness of the retail energy market for households to be proxies for justice and consumer welfare. The European Barriers in Retail Energy Market Project (the EB Project) is instrumental in assessing and ensuring this competitiveness. The EB Project centres on the creation of the Barrier Index (BI), which identifies barriers to entry in the national markets for electricity and gas suppliers across the EU and ranks Member States on the basis of eight indicators. This article critically assesses the reliability of the BI. A faulty BI could lead Member States down the wrong path or towards bad decisions with respect to the regulation of the retail energy market in light of the EU's policy goals. This research identifies problems with the methodology and data collection regarding the construction of the BI indicators in the electricity market specifically. The latter is exemplified through case studies of the Dutch and Portuguese national reports. The identified issues call into question the reliability of the BI as a whole. Possible measures to improve the quality of indicators are discussed in the conclusions

Assessing drought vulnerability and adaptation among farmers in Gadaref region, Eastern Sudan

Agricultural productivity in rural areas is severely affected by climate variability, and this elevates the vulnerability of rural households to food insecurity. This study examines the socio-economic vulnerability of farmers who are susceptible to droughts in the five agricultural-based regions of Gadaref, Eastern Sudan. A survey was carried out in 500 households to collect data on socio-economic and livelihood indicators. The data analyzed from these indicators were used to generate the three components of drought vulnerability: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The analysis revealed that the regions deemed to be most vulnerable to both drought and climate variability were also projected to have the most vulnerable communities. The most exposed farming communities of Alfaw, Algadaref and Alfushqa regions showed a relatively low capacity for adaptation. Moreover, the study determined that vulnerability to drought and variability is associated with social and economic development in the Gadaref region. The results show that highly vulnerable regions are characterized by features such as low levels of productivity, elevated levels of financing, low crop diversity, agriculture as the primary income source and a low level of agricultural insurance. This research shows the importance of diversified livelihoods in building resilience against hazards linked to climate change