Power, Politics, and Rural Development

Power, Politics, and Rural Development
Author: Georges Kristoffel Lieten
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN:

Based on fifteen years of intensive anthropological and sociological fieldwork, this book presents provocative insights in the daily life of men and women in various villages of India. The topics dealt with are varied as also important and policy relevant. The author deals with the propensity of the village panchayats and their actual working in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the impact of land reforms on development, the causes of the high human development index in Kerala, communalism at the village level, the views of poor villagers on the post-modernist views on development, child labour and family views on children as capital, and with the changing world view in relation to religion, caste and the position of women. The author deals with these issues drawing on a multifaceted background, taking care at the same time that the views of the villagers, and their daily concerns come through as the principal empirical evidence.

Thailand’s Political Peasants

Thailand’s Political Peasants
Author: Andrew Walker
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299288234

When a populist movement elected Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister of Thailand in 2001, many of the country’s urban elite dismissed the outcome as just another symptom of rural corruption, a traditional patronage system dominated by local strongmen pressuring their neighbors through political bullying and vote-buying. In Thailand’s Political Peasants, however, Andrew Walker argues that the emergence of an entirely new socioeconomic dynamic has dramatically changed the relations of Thai peasants with the state, making them a political force to be reckoned with. Whereas their ancestors focused on subsistence, this generation of middle-income peasants seeks productive relationships with sources of state power, produces cash crops, and derives additional income through non-agricultural work. In the increasingly decentralized, disaggregated country, rural villagers and farmers have themselves become entrepreneurs and agents of the state at the local level, while the state has changed from an extractor of taxes to a supplier of subsidies and a patron of development projects. Thailand’s Political Peasants provides an original, provocative analysis that encourages an ethnographic rethinking of rural politics in rapidly developing countries. Drawing on six years of fieldwork in Ban Tiam, a rural village in northern Thailand, Walker shows how analyses of peasant politics that focus primarily on rebellion, resistance, and evasion are becoming less useful for understanding emergent forms of political society.

Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development

Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development
Author: Keith Halfacree
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, social, political and cultural restructuring processes taking place in rural Europe and of the various national, regional and local development programmes devised to respond to these. It focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes.

Energy Politics and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Energy Politics and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Naaborle Sackeyfio
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2017-09-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319601229

This book addresses the paradox of uneven electricity in one of the fastest growing and now petro rich economies, Ghana, by addressing the question of why one of the most hydro rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa produces irregular access for all but ‘swing’ voter regions of the country. The book questions why targeted rural electricity initiatives over the course of the last two decades have yielded uneven benefits for what is a substantial portion of the country’s population. Using Ghana as an emblematic case-study that speaks to broader regional concerns, including those of Nigeria and South Africa, this book contextualizes the variegated nature of how power sector reforms could not be undertaken without significant political costs. Indeed, the book situates an unfolding political landscape that prompted the successful but partial implementation of power sector reforms in part prompted by the Washington consensus and undergirded by a shrinking role for the state in the wider economy.

Law, Power and Politics in Niger

Law, Power and Politics in Niger
Author: Christian Lund
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1998
Genre: Law
ISBN:

This book analyzes the recent land tenure reform in Niger, and the eruptions of violence as a result of these measures. Through detailed analysis of these conflicts, this book elucidates the complex institutional structure of dispute management and the ambiguous nature of the rules pertaining to land rights. The book also shows how institutional and local competition over natural resources plays a part in the fights for jurisdiction in rural Nigeria.

The Water–Food–Energy Nexus

The Water–Food–Energy Nexus
Author: Jeremy Allouche
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351805533

The world of development thinkers and practitioners is abuzz with a new lexicon: the idea of "the nexus" between water, food, and energy which is intuitively compelling. It promises better integration of multiple sectoral elements, a better transition to greener economies, and sustainable development. However, there appears to be little agreement on its precise meaning, whether it only complements existing environmental governance approaches or how it can be enhanced in national contexts. One current approach to the nexus treats it as a risk and security matter while another treats it within economic rationality addressing externalities across sector. A third perspective acknowledges it as a fundamentally political process requiring negotiation amongst different actors with distinct perceptions, interests, and practices. This perspective highlights the fact that technical solutions for improving coherence within the nexus may have unintended and negative impacts in other policy areas, such as poverty alleviation and education. The Water–Food–Energy Nexus: Power, Politics and Justice lays out the managerial-technical definitions of the nexus and challenges these conceptions by bringing to the forefront the politics of the nexus, around two key dimensions – a dynamic understanding of water–food–energy systems, and a normative positioning around nexus debates, in particular around social justice. The authors argue that a shift in nexus governance is required towards approaches where limits to control are acknowledged, and more reflexive/plural strategies adopted. This book will be of interest to academic researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the fields of international development studies, environmental politics, and science and technology studies, as well as international relations.

Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development

Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development
Author: Imre Kovách
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351922572

Contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring are having profound impacts on the form and function of rural areas within the countries of the European Union and beyond. Furthermore, rural development policies and programmes at EU and national levels have been critical in shaping the responses of different rural areas across Europe to these wider processes of restructuring. Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the restructuring processes and the various national, regional and local rural development programmes. Adopting a different national perspective in each chapter, it focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes. Five broad issues are examined in each case: socio-economic changes in rural areas, the administrative context in which rural development and political activities take place, the sociological context, the political control of rural development, and the use of different discourses of rurality in shaping the development process.

Rural Development

Rural Development
Author: S. N. Tripathy
Publisher: Discovery Publishing House
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2000
Genre: Rural development
ISBN: 9788171415366

Contents: Economic Reforms and Rural Development, Rural Developments and Dairying in Orissa, Social Elites and Social- Economic Change, Rural Power Structure and its Sequel, Intellectual Abilities and Personality Development of Rural Children in Andhra Pradesh, Land Reforms: A Key to Rural Uplift Need and Reorientation of Policies, Demand Supply Mismatch of Credit and Role of Co-operative Bank in Rural Development, The Role of Co-operatives for Rural Development, Co-operative for Rural Development, KVI for Rural Development, Regional Rural Banks for Rural Development, Co-operative for Development of Health, Agro-Forestry & Social Forestry for Rural Development.

Rural Development Theory and Practice

Rural Development Theory and Practice
Author: Ruth McAreavey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2009-06-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1135907145

Rural development is inherently viewed as a positive thing; it is seen as something that brings together groups of individuals with automatic positive implications and outcomes. Policy rhetoric frequently uses popular terms such as involvement, participation and power sharing to describe rural development activities. However, the reality of experience on the ground does not necessarily concur with these ideals. It is not always clear who ultimately benefits from rural development: the State, the community or rural development practitioners. This book critically analyses key concepts associated with rural development policy and practice, and using the concepts of power and micro-politics to analyze rhetoric and reality, reveals the intricacies of rural development. Challenging popular ideals associated with rural development, this book presents the notion of rural development less as a spontaneous, all-inclusive affair and more as a limited, controlled and exclusive process. Ultimately it contends that within structures of rural governance, a regeneration power elite predominates development and regeneration activities.