scholarly journals Power in relations of international organisations: The productive effects of ‘good’ governance norms in global health

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-414
Author(s):  
Laura Pantzerhielm ◽  
Anna Holzscheiter ◽  
Thurid Bahr
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Over Time

AbstractIn recent years, scholarship on international organisations (IO) has devoted increasing attention to the relations in which IOs are embedded. In this article, we argue that the rationalist-institutionalist core of this scholarship has been marked by agentic, repressive understandings of power and we propose an alternative approach to power as productive in and of relations among IOs. To study productive power in IO relations, we develop a theoretical framework centred on the concept of ‘metagovernance norms’ as perceptions about the proper ‘governance of governance’ that are shared among IOs in a governance field. Drawing on discourse theory, we contend that metagovernance norms unfold productive power effects, as dominant notions of how to govern well and effectively (i) fix meanings, excluding alternative understandings and (ii) are inscribed into practices and institutions, hence reshaping inter-organisational relations over time. To illustrate our framework, we trace metagovernance norms in discourses among health IOs since the 1990s. We find a historical transformation from beliefs in the virtues of partnerships, pluralisation, and innovation, towards discursive articulations that emphasise harmonisation, order, and alignment. Moreover, we expose the productive power of metagovernance norms by showing how they were enacted through practices and institutions in the global health field.

Cultivating Ice over Time: On the Idea of Timeless Knowledge and Places in the Himalayas

1969 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karine Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Indian Himalayas ◽  
Over Time

Assumptions that local communities have an endogenous capacity to adapt to climate change stemming from time-tested knowledge and an inherent sense of community that prompts mobilisation are becoming increasingly common in material produced by international organisations. This discourse, which relies on ahistorical and apolitical conceptions of localities and populations, is based on ideas of timeless knowledge and places. Analysing the water-place nexus in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas, through a close study of glacier practices as they change over time, the article argues that local knowledge is subject to change and must be analysed in light of changing conceptions and experiences of place by the state and by local populations alike.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Commercial Environment

This chapter introduces the concept of extralegal groups and a theoretical framework for analyzing them—how they emerge, develop, and become entrenched over time. It explores their dual nature as threats to the state and as local statebuilders. Formally, an extralegal group is defined as a set of individuals with a proven capacity for violence who work outside the law for profit and provide basic governance functions to sustain its business interests. This framing shows how political authority can develop as a by-product of the commercial environment, even where the state has little or no presence. In post-conflict societies, the predatory nature and historical abuses of citizens conducted in the name of the state means that government is not always more trusted or better able to look after the interests of local populations than an extralegal group. Ultimately, extralegal groups blur the lines between the formal and informal; the licit and illicit.

‘Scene’ as a critical framing device: Extending analysis of chemsex cultures

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072199546
Author(s):  
Kerryn Drysdale
Keyword(s):  
Entry Point ◽  
Temporal Logics ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Expert Commentary ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Male Culture

The term ‘chemsex’ references an identifiable set of circumstances and behaviours ascribed to gay male culture at the same time as operating as a politically salient category capable of spurring policy and programmatic responses. Increasingly, the word ‘scene’ is used in association with ‘chemsex’ in media reporting, expert commentary and research on the phenomenon. Rather than dismissing the coupling of chemsex and scene as mere vernacular, ‘scene’ offers a fruitful entry point for exploring how the combination of sex and drugs achieves cultural salience over time. In this article, I read chemsex cultures through the material and representational elements characteristic of ‘scene’. By emphasizing scenes’ temporal logics, I speculate on the value of this alternative approach in generating new understandings of chemsex cultures.

Good Governance, State Capacity, and the Millennium Development Goals

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devin Joshi
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Statistical Correlations ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Per Capita

AbstractInternational development agencies argue that “good governance” is crucial to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there are many ways to define and measure good governance. The paper begins by examining the World Bank’s minimal state conception of governance and then proposes an alternative approach based on strengthening state capacity. The paper tests this framework by developing a provisional Millennium Governance Index (MGI) for 126 countries. In comparative empirical analysis, the MGI has noticeably higher statistical correlations than the World Bank’s governance indicators on six out of seven MDGs even after controlling for per capita income levels.

Conceptualising a New Knowledge Management Logic Model for Global Health: A Case-Study Approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saori Ohkubo ◽  
Sarah V. Harlan ◽  
Naheed Ahmed ◽  
Ruwaida M. Salem
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Logic Model ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Program Outcomes ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Health Field

Over the past few decades, knowledge management (KM) has become well-established in many fields, particularly in business. Several KM models have been at the forefront of promoting KM in businesses and organisations. However, the applicability of these traditional KM models to the global health field is limited by their focus on KM processes and activities with few linkages to intended outcomes. This paper presents the new Knowledge Management for Global Health (KM4GH) Logic Model, a practical tool that helps global health professionals plan ways in which resources and specific KM activities can work together to achieve desired health program outcomes. We test the validity of this model through three case studies of global and field-level health initiatives: an SMS-based mobile phone network among community health workers (CHWs) and their supervisors in Malawi, a global electronic Toolkits platform that provides health professionals access to health information resources, and a netbook-based eHealth pilot among CHWs and their clients in Bangladesh. The case studies demonstrate the flexibility of the KM4GH Logic Model in designing various KM activities while defining a common set of metrics to measure their outcomes, providing global health organisations with a tool to select the most appropriate KM activities to meet specific knowledge needs of an audience. The three levels of outcomes depicted in the model, which are grounded in behavioural theory, show the progression in the behaviour change process, or in this case, the knowledge use process, from raising awareness of and using the new knowledge to contributing to better health systems and behaviours of the public, and ultimately to improving the health status of communities and individuals. The KM4GH Logic Model makes a unique contribution to the global health field by helping health professionals plan KM activities with the end goal in mind.

Neighborhood Firearm Victimization Rates and Social Capital Over Time

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin C. Medina
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Policy Planning ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Neighborhood Social Capital ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Victimization Rates

Distribution of firearm victimization is not equal within cities. Victimization can persistently concentrate in a small number of neighborhoods, while others experience very little violence. Theorists have pointed to one possible explanation as the ability of groups to control violence using social capital. Researchers have shown this association at the U.S. county, state, and national levels. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between neighborhood social capital and violence over time. This study uses longitudinal data to ask whether neighborhood social capital both predicts and is influenced by firearm victimization over 3 years in Philadelphia. The results of several regression analyses suggest that trusting others and firearm victimization are inversely related over time. Implications for neighborhood policy planning and social capital as a theoretical framework are discussed.

Islamic International Relations Towards a Theoretical Framework

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gubara Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The World

The Western originators of the multi-disciplinary social sciences and their successors, including most major Western social intellectuals, excluded religion as an explanation for the world and its affairs. They held that religion had no role to play in modern society or in rational elucidations for the way world politics or/and relations work. Expectedly, they also focused most of their studies on the West, where religion’s effect was least apparent and argued that its influence in the non-West was a primitive residue that would vanish with its modernization, the Muslim world in particular. Paradoxically, modernity has caused a resurgence or a revival of religion, including Islam. As an alternative approach to this Western-centric stance and while focusing on Islam, the paper argues that religion is not a thing of the past and that Islam has its visions of international relations between Muslim and non-Muslim states or abodes: peace, war, truce or treaty, and preaching (da’wah).

Toward a Post-Sraffian Theory of Income Distribution

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Roncaglia
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Distribution Theory ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Sraffian Theory ◽  
Over Time

After recalling the Sraffian critiques to marginalist distribution theory, and hence the need for a different approach, the paper illustrates the classical conceptualization of social classes and its flexibility for the application to the modern world. The relationships among market forms-above all oligopoly, mark-up pricing, and income distribution-are then discussed, in search of a theoretical framework for the analysis of the evolution of distributive variables over time: an approach suggested as superior to the traditional one which aims at determining equilibrium values for the distributive variables at a moment in time.

scholarly journals COVID-19 opens a window of reflection for comparative health systems and global health research

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Tuba İ. Ağartan
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Global Health Research ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Opportunities For Learning ◽  
National Information ◽  
The Voice ◽  
North And South ◽  
Health Field

AbstractThe Covid-19 crisis that led to the loss of thousands of lives and initiated one of the most complex social and economic upheavals has also a created a window of reflection for health systems researchers to revisit our major concepts, frameworks, and underlying assumptions. This commentary reviews two literatures that remain rather separate: comparative health policy and global health. First, I examine whether convergence in circumstances brought about by the spread of Covid-19 creates opportunities for learning “about” as well as unpacking the motivations of policy actors and how they use the cross-national information. However, given the emphasis on national policy actors and processes, this literature may overlook the importance of global actors, institutions and ideas. Second, global health differentiates itself with an emphasis on multilateralism as a political positioning and its multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. However, the global health field is also challenged to consider its mission, political standing on multilateralism, changing relationships between North and South and its commitment to multidisciplinary approach. I argue that health systems scholars should use the window of opportunity created by Covid-19 pandemic to reexamine their methodologies and rearticulate their positioning by acknowledging the voice and agency of the Global South.

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