Institute of Development Studies

All Content

2004: Volume 35

New Democratic Spaces?

Volume 35 Number 2 April 2004 Edited by: Andrea Cornwall

Across the world, as new democratic experiments meet with and transform older forms of governance, political space for public engagement in governance appears to be widening. A renewed concern with rights, power and difference in debates about participation in development has focused greater attention on the institutions at the interface between publics, providers and policy-makers. Some see in them exciting prospects for the practice of more vibrant and deliberative democracy; others raise concerns about them as forms of co-option, and as absorbing, neutralising and deflecting social energy from other forms of political participation, whether campaigning, organising or protest. The title of this Bulletin reflects some of their ambiguities as arenas that may be neither new nor democratic, but at the same time appear to hold promise for renewing and deepening democracy. Through a series of case studies from a range of political and cultural contexts – Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, South Africa, England and the United States of America, contributors to this Bulletin explore the interfaces between different forms of public engagement. Their studies engage with questions about representation, inclusion and voice, about the political efficacy of citizen engagement as well as the viability of these new arenas as political institutions. Read together, they serve to emphasise the historical, cultural and political embeddedness of the institutions and actors that constitute spaces for participation.

Climate Change and Development

Volume 35 Number 3 July 2004 Edited by: Farhana Yamin

Climate change is a relatively “young” international issue with significant social, economic and political ramifications. Although there is a wealth of policy-relevant research in the environment community, examination of climate and developmental concerns is in its early days. Evidence of significant consequences for all (sea level rise, changes in agricultural yields, forest cover and water resources; increases of extreme weather events), impacts especially the most vulnerable, and jeopardises achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Climate policies will have to be “development-led” if they are to have any chance of achieving the political support necessary for implementation. The scientific and local evidence of climate change consistent impacts is now overwhelming. The calculus of monetised costs has shifted from centre stage in climate policy as human impacts – loss of life and livelihoods, local migration and the prospect of social unrest – begin to enter policy-making radars. This Bulletin aims to generate awareness and catalyse discussion. It is intended to provide development and climate practitioners with an opportunity for mutual learning and to explore connections, conflicts, and to think “out of the box”. Researchers suggest that “top down” climate negotiations should be accompanied by a range of actions – formal and informal, to engage a broader constituency of policy-makers and publics in future climate policy – bringing together climate and development communities. Multi-disciplinary research will advance specific mainstreaming challenges facing the climate regime, and contribute to the broader challenge of rethinking development.

Repositioning Feminisms in Development

Volume 35 Number 4 October 2004 Edited by: Andrea Cornwall, Elizabeth Harrison and Ann Whitehead

This IDS Bulletin reflects on the contested relationship between feminism and development, and the challenges for reasserting feminist engagement with development as a political project. It arises from the ‘Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and Practice’ workshop held at the Institute of Development Studies and the University of Sussex in July 2003. Centred on how to “reposition” gender and development, debates pointed to the politics of discourse as a key element in social transformation. Participants explored how, after initial struggles to develop new concepts and languages for understanding women’s position in developing societies, feminist phrases came to be filled with new meanings as they were taken up into development policy and practice. Gender’s generalities have been both a success and a hindrance. Reflecting on years of effort, articles critique understandings and outcomes of discourse, as well as different views of the pitfalls and compromises of political engagement.

Feminist engagement with development has required the embrace of simplifications, and as a result, vigilance and struggle to avoid women being represented as cardboard victims or heroines, in order to capture instead nuances, ambiguities and complexities in their lives and choices.

2005: Volume 36

Developing Rights?

Volume 36 Number 1 January 2005 Edited by: Jethro Pettit and Joanna Wheeler

The recent “rise of rights” has sparked much critical reflection, one of the key concerns being ‘What is different this time?’. Can this emerging focus on rights within development help bring about favourable changes for poor and marginalised people? This issue of the IDS Bulletin addresses diverse perspectives and questions across a spectrum of current thinking, policy and practice. Why the rights-based approach and why now? Whose rights count? “Rights” work has evolved from an historical focus on human rights violations and concern for legal protection, but its future depends on direct engagement with civil society causes. Development needs rights as much as rights need development. Illustrated here are struggles for rights within specific contexts (tenants associations in Kenya; children’s organisations in India): the perspective of marginalised groups alters how formal rights are given meaning. Using rights in practice is challenging and filled with contradictions and tensions. The struggle for rights is happening and it is not simply an agenda of the powerful. What emerges from this IDS Bulletin is a vibrant picture of often diverse meanings and strategies pursued throughout the world. If the current enthusiasm for rights in development can open thinking spaces and result in appropriate action, rather than serving as a one-size-fits-all export, then rights bases approaches are to be welcomed. Moving beyond old debates and recognising that rights must be claimed and realised by real people, the development community can discover what rights will ultimately mean in context and practice.

New Directions for African Agriculture

Volume 36 Number 2 June 2005 Edited by: Ian Scoones, Aaron deGrassi, Stephen Devereux and Lawrence Haddad

Both this year’s UN Millennium Report and The Commission for Africa Report highlight the lack of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in sub-Saharan Africa. What role should agriculture have in this challenge? Most of Africa’s poor are rural, and most rely largely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Inevitably, “getting agriculture moving” must be part of the solution to the seemingly intractable problem of African poverty. While the standard storyline about African agriculture is not positive, there have been some notable achievements in the past decade. Are these successes exceptional and limited to particular settings and times, or are they replicable across wider areas, benefiting larger numbers of people?

This IDS Bulletin draws together contributions from a diverse range of researchers and development practitioners working in Africa, with the common goal of exploring why agriculture is contributing to poverty reduction and livelihood improvement in some places. This debate comes at a critical time when there is renewed interest in agriculture in Africa and a real commitment to revitalise the sector. How to translate words into reality? How to avoid the recycling of old ideas, and generate new thinking – rooted in African contexts and ground realities – which makes a difference? Central to all solutions are social, cultural and political factors: rather than an expert-driven, technocratic approach, a more politically-sophisticated stance is required with a new emphasis on understanding and influencing processes of innovation, intervention and policy. The aim of this IDS Bulletin is to contribute to this journey.