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A Discussion of Three Theoretical Approaches to Modernity: Understanding Modernity as a Globalising Phenomenon
Get PDFThe paper compares the potential of three theories of modernity for explaining the current Islamist revival as an element of modernising Muslim societies. The theories discussed are rationalist fundamentalism as represented by Ernest Gellner, what may be called Muslim fundamentalism as represented by Akbar Ahmed, and a relativist approach as represented by Anthony Giddens
Income-generating Programmes in Pakistan and Malawi: A Comparative Review
Get PDFThis paper reviews income-generating programmes in Pakistan and Malawi organised by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). It compares the different strategies chosen by the NRC regarding project design and the creation of efficient income-generating programmes for refugees. In Pakistan the project design and implementation focused on training and support to income-generating activities based on the traditional artisanal skills of mainly men. In Malawi the programme approach was less conventional as the gender issue was high on the agenda, but the aim of targeting women was constrained by poor project design and implementation. The paper discusses problems involved in creating programmes which can enhance the income of refugees, increase their skills and contribute to self-sufficiency in the country of asylum and eventually upon repatriation
Bistand og næringsutvikling. Noen kommentarer til St. meld. nr. 19 (1995-96)
Get PDFSt. meld. nr. 19 (1995-96) tar til orde for en sterkere binding av bistandsmidlene til norske eksportleveranser og norske investeringer i u-land. Meldingen tar videre til orde for at bistandssamarbeidet skal utvides til også å inkludere vekstøkonomier i Asia. Det er disse landene som i denne sammenhengen er mest interessante for norsk næringsliv. I dette notatet stiles det spørsmål både ut fra effektivitets- og fordelingshensyn, ved en slik omlegging av bistandspolitikken. Tilgangen på kommersiell finansiering og kreditt til eksport og investeringer i land i øst og sørøst Asia er i dag generelt svært god. Finansiering av slike tiltak over bistandsbudsjettet betyr derfor i praksis at en subsidierer tiltak som mest sannsynlig ville blitt gjennomført uansett. Denne støtten går dermed på bekostning av tiltak i land der behovene er større og kommersiell finansiering kun i begrenset grad er tilgjengelig
Political Institutions and Economic Reform: Zambia and South Africa in Comparative Context
Get PDFThis paper presents the theoretical and methodological framework of a joint research project by Lise Rakner and Tor Skålnes, "Political Liberalisation and Economic Reform in Southern Africa". The project consists of two separate studies. Lise Rakner analyses the interconnections between political and economic liberalisation in Zambia between 1991 and 1996. Tor Skålnes examines the politics leading to the establishment in South Africa of NEDLAC, a corporatist body with representatives drawn from unions, business organisations and the government. The two research projects share a theoretical and methodological framework. In the first section, we briefly discuss some major theoretical issues raised by these cross-national studies. In the second and third sections, we present the tentative results of the two research projects. The fourth section is devoted a discussion of our choice of design and method. The paper was presented at a conference organised by the Norwegian Research Council at Leankollen in November 1995
Rational Choice and the Problem of Institutions. A discussion of Rational Choice Institutionalism and its Application by Robert Bates
Get PDFThe paper discusses and reviews various directions within new institutional economics. A central question of concern is whether theories of institutionalism based within rational choice reasoning provide a theoretical basis for understanding institutional formation and change. The paper presents what is perceived as core elements of rational choice theory, and focus is on new institutionalism in particular. General perspectives are compared to the works of Robert Bates. By way of conc1uding, the paper questions whether rational choice theory, as it evolves to inc1ude an increasing number of factors such as institutions, ideology, norms and culture, may lose its parsimony and strength
Debt and Deforestation: A Tenuous Link
Get PDFThis paper examines the hypothesis that heavy foreign debt causes high rates of tropical deforestation. Empirical evidence indicates that no universally valid link exists between debt and deforestation - in either direction. After a brief discussion of the debt and deforestation problems, the paper outlines two different frameworks for understanding the (possible) links between debt and deforestation. It then considers various statistical analyses of the linkage, and review some more detailed country studies. The debt crisis lead up to the widespread adoption of structural adjustment programmes during the 1980s, and the paper also addresses the environmental impacts of the adjustment process
Trade and Growth with Static and Dynamic Economies of Scale
Get PDFThis paper develops a dynamic two-country, two-sector model of international trade with asymmetric technological spillovers, static increasing returns to scale in one sector and dynamic increasing returns to scale in the other sector. It is found that the country with comparative advantage in the static sector is subject to slow structural changes, but the gains from exploiting economies of scale may outweigh the disadvantage of being locked into a static industrial structure
Dealing with the good and the evil. Introducing morality as an anthropological concern
Get PDFQuestions of morality and ethics - good and evil - have not been anthropological favourites. Such issues have been addressed within certain applied environments as well as currently within American cultural anthropology, but more generally they seem to have been pushed aside within a basically very relativist discipline. Global problems like ethnocide, military rule and occupation, accompanied by - or perhaps spurred by - a truly international arms trade, do not appear to have shaken social anthropology out of its insistence on morality being studied in Its local context. This paper concludes that such an approach to morality is partly dishonest, limits the scope of our discipline, and serves to make us peripheral in an increasingly global discourse on morality and human rights. The paper seeks, tentatively, to show how morality could be incorporated into anthropology
Hard Methods for Soft Policies. Environmental and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis
Get PDFThe quest for sustainability has put the conventional Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) technique under fierce attack. Much of the critique is, however, misplaced or based on misunderstandings. Alternative methodologies for project appraisal are often insufficient for making the unavoidable hard choices on resource use and distribution. The paper further argues that it is impossible to formulate any unified and operational definition of sustainability applicable to project appraisal. As an alternative strategy, two basic concerns in the sustainability debate, environmental and distributional, are identified. The paper explores how these can be integrated into the consistent framework which CBA provides. This expansion of the conventional analysis, which is labelled Environmental and Social CBA (ESCBA), particularly focuses on environmental valuation, distributional weights, and discounting
Living in the Commons: Local Institutions for Natural Resource Management
Get PDFGarett Hardin' s essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" has for almost three decades stimulated research on common property regimes. This report provides an overview of this research and reviews a selection of empirical and theoretical contributions to the "commons" debate.
Despite the hectic research activity, the report is critical of the tendency to reproduce well-worn arguments instead of questioning them. In order to progress beyond a rebuttal of Hardin, the report calls for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of common property regimes and advocates an analytical focus on local institutions. In paricular, the report discusses those circumstances under which local institutions represent an alternative to state management of renewable natural resources.
Are J. Knudsen is a social anthropologist and research fellow at the Chr. Michelsen Institute. His research interests include natural resource management, economic change and modernization. He is currently working on forest management and entrepreneurship in Northern Pakistan