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- Knutsson, Beniamin, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Studying "the Political" in International Aid to Education: Methodological Considerations
- 2017
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Ingår i: Comparative Education Review. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0010-4086 .- 1545-701X. ; 61:4, s. 701-725
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The point of departure of this article is an apparent antinomy. On the one hand, there is the powerful argument in political theory on the emergence and consolidation of a post-political condition. On the other hand, research in international and comparative education demonstrates how conflicts and power asymmetries continue to characterize education aid. Attempting to move beyond this antinomy we engage in a methodological discussion on how to study “the political” in education aid landscapes with strong post-political features. By reviewing the two sets of literature, and bringing them into conversation, we extract five methodological tenets: (i) taking “the political” seriously, (ii) looking beyond face value when scrutinizing policy arrangements, (iii) exploring everyday wars of position, (iv) focusing on subjects and situated practices, and (v) moving beyond scales by analyzing connections across territorial entities. The article primarily makes a methodological contribution but ultimately the findings can also be relevant to the world of policy making.
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- Lindberg, Jonas, 1973
(författare)
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The diversity and spatiality of rural livelihoods in southern Sri Lanka: Access, poverty, and local perceptions
- 2012
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Ingår i: Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography. - 0029-1951. ; 66:2, s. 63-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a consequence of the increasingly multi-local and diversified nature of rural livelihoods, the production of wealth and poverty in the Global South is gradually delinked from local and agrarian resources. In order to understand what affects successful participation in non-farm livelihood activities, it is important, but surprisingly often neglected to incorporate local perceptions of change and of what factors affect the accessibility of key livelihood assets. Based on a guided questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, the article provides both a detailed account of the diversity and spatiality of livelihoods in two villages in southern Sri Lanka and an analysis of the factors affecting differentiated access to non-farm livelihood activities. One key finding is that the categories ‘farm’ and ‘non-farm’ are too general for a grounded evaluation of poverty-reducing livelihood activities, which casts some doubt on more optimistic findings based on large-scale survey data. Poor households participate in both farm and non-farm activities, illustrating a deep segmentation of the non-farm sector. Lack of social assets (e.g. networks and connections) was identified as most crucial for access to lucrative non-farm segments, since it also affected access to other assets.
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- Knutsson, Beniamin, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Depoliticisation and dissensus in the global partnership for education: Rethinking the post-political condition
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of International Relations and Development. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1408-6980 .- 1581-1980. ; 23:2, s. 436-461
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The political significance of multi-stakeholder partnerships has been widely discussed in the global governance literature. This paper takes issue with the undue optimism of the deliberative school of thought that has become dominant in the field. Yet, we also engage in dialogue with the assertion, stemming from representatives of our own theoretical camp, that a post-political condition is being consolidated worldwide. Informed by post-foundational political thought, the paper explores a multi-stakeholder arrangement for global governance of aid to education: the global partnership for education (GPE). Based on interviews with a wide range of stakeholders in the GPE, the paper makes an empirical contribution to a literature that typically operates at a more abstract level. Our findings point to the political dynamics that pervade this global governance arrangement. While it is obvious that the GPE comprises a range of post-political strategies, it is, at the same time, a venue for serious contestation. Hence, although it is imperative to critically expose strategies for depoliticisation in global governance, it is equally important to realise that post-political arrangements convey something more than merely post-politics. Ultimately, we argue that the ubiquitousness of such post-political arrangements only reaffirms that the ‘the political’ forms part of our ontological condition.
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- Lindberg, Jonas, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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De levande samhällenas röveri
- 2012
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Ingår i: Ord & Bild. - 0030-4492. ; 2012:1-2, s. 4-35
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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- Herath, Dhammika, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Swimming upstream: fighting systemic corruption in Sri Lanka
- 2019
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Ingår i: Contemporary South Asia. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0958-4935 .- 1469-364X. ; 27:2, s. 259-272
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Corruption is endemic, pervasive and embedded in the very fabric in social life in some societies, although its degree varies case to case. Previous academic research and anti-corruption watchdogs have examined corruption in Sri Lanka, where corruption is perceived to be pervasive and endemic but, existing studies are inadequate to explain why corruption occurs and anti-corruption continues to fail in Sri Lanka. In our study, we use the contrasting perspectives of ‘collective action problem’ and the ‘principal-agent’ framework to analyse the dynamics that cause and maintain corruption in Sri Lanka as well as the obstacles and possibilities that people fighting corruption are experiencing. We address this aim in a novel way: our observations and fieldwork in Sri Lanka got us in contact with individuals who made concerted efforts to reveal and oppose corruption at different levels; we call them ‘corruption fighters’. We argue, through the insights from corruption fighters, that corruption represents a ‘collective action problem’ and that to understand why corruption fighters still choose to oppose it, they need to be situated within a discourse of corruption and close attention must be paid to personal motivations and the way they construct meaning in the fight against corruption.
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| 9. |
- Knutsson, Beniamin, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Depoliticisation and Dissensus in the Global Partnership for Education: Looking Beyond the Post-political Condition
- 2015
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Ingår i: The 3rd Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research, 5-6 November 2015, Gothenburg.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Over the past years country ownership, donor alignment, public-private partnerships, and result-based management have been at the centre of official development policies. In many respects these arrangements convey the image of an apolitical and technocratic development landscape. Something that, in turn, resonate well with arguments by scholars such as Mouffe, Rancière and Žižek on the consolidation of a ‘post-political’ condition. While this paper is situated within this tradition, thus sharing its basic theoretical assumptions and concerns, we also take issue with some of the work that has emerged thereof. In our argument certain scholars within this tradition tend to contribute to the depoliticised condition they themselves criticize by overlooking mundane instances of political action and by imaging a world were the possibility of transformation has been more or less foreclosed. Hence, the paper opts for a more nuanced assessment of contemporary post-political arrangements in the field of development, which leaves more space for the exercise of agency. This is done through a case study of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) – a multilateral partnership devoted to delivering education for all. The empirical data consists of interviews with representatives of bilateral and multilateral donors, developing countries, civil society organizations, teacher unions and the private sector, alongside staff at the GPE secretariat in Washington and Brussels. The data further includes policy documents, reports and other written material. Our findings point to some of the complexities of contemporary development arrangements. While it is obvious that the GPE comprises a range of sophisticated post-political technologies, it is, at the same time, also a venue for serious contestation and dissensus. The essence of our argument is that while it is important to critically scrutinize technologies for depoliticisation in development aid, it is equally important to realize that post-political arrangements convey something more than merely post-politics. In our contention such conflicts of interest should be brought to the forefront of a democratic development debate.
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