In Search of Moral Recognition? Policing and Eudaemonic Legitimacy in Ghana

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (03) ◽  
pp. 576-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justice Tankebe
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Violent Offenders ◽  
The State ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Neoliberal Economics ◽  
Extrajudicial Killing ◽  
Colonial Police ◽  
Economics And Politics

Ghana is widely considered as “a beacon of hope for democracy in Africa” (Gyimah-Boadi 2010, 137). Yet substantive democratic transformations of policing have stagnated mainly because the police continue to act as a handmaiden of the state and powerful elites. Consequently, the reliance on performance in crime control and order maintenance as the bedrock of colonial police legitimacy (as judged by colonial administrators) has survived unscathed. Anxieties about violent crime, mainly in urban areas, have accompanied the pursuit of neoliberal economics and politics. Having staked their legitimacy on performance, the police view these anxieties and doubts about their effectiveness as potentially de-legitimating. They have responded in a highly dramatic but violent fashion, including the extrajudicial killing of suspected violent offenders believed to be the cause of feelings of insecurity. This article examines the nature of this pathway to legitimacy.

Sound-Politics in São Paulo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Crime Control ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Analytical Category

This book is an ethnographic study of controversial sounds and noise control debates in Latin America’s most populous city. It discusses the politics of collective living by following several threads linking sound-making practices to governance issues. Rather than discussing sound within a self-enclosed “cultural” field, I examine it as a point of entry for analyzing the state. At the same time, rather than portraying the state as a self-enclosed “apparatus” with seemingly inexhaustible homogeneous power, I describe it as a collection of unstable (and often contradictory) sectors, personnel, strategies, discourses, documents, and agencies. My goal is to approach sound as an analytical category that allows us to access citizenship issues. As I show, environmental noise in São Paulo has been entangled in a wide range of debates, including public health, religious intolerance, crime control, urban planning, cultural rights, and economic growth. The book’s guiding question can be summarized as follows: how do sounds enter and leave the sphere of state control? I answer this question by examining a multifaceted process I define as “sound-politics.” The term refers to sounds as objects that are susceptible to state intervention through specific regulatory, disciplinary, and punishment mechanisms. Both “sound” and “politics” in “sound-politics” are nouns, with the hyphen serving as a bridge that expresses the instability that each concept inserts into the other.

The Political Economy of Rural-Urban Conflict

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Topher L. McDougal
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The State ◽  
Hierarchical Networks ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Economic Relationship ◽  
Relationship Of

In some cases of insurgency, the combat frontier is contested and erratic, as rebels target cities as their economic prey. In other cases, it is tidy and stable, seemingly representing an equilibrium in which cities are effectively protected from violent non-state actors. What factors account for these differences in the interface urban-based states and rural-based challengers? To explore this question, this book examines two regions representing two dramatically different outcomes. In West Africa (Liberia and Sierra Leone), capital cities became economic targets for rebels, who posed dire threats to the survival of the state. In Maoist India, despite an insurgent ideology aiming to overthrow the state via a strategy of progressive city capture, the combat frontier effectively firewalls cities from Maoist violence. This book argues that trade networks underpinning the economic relationship between rural and urban areas—termed “interstitial economies”—may differ dramatically in their impact on (and response to) the combat frontier. It explains rebel predatory tendencies toward cities as a function of transport networks allowing monopoly profits to be made by urban-based traders. It explains combat frontier delineation as a function of the social structure of the trade networks: hierarchical networks permit elite–elite bargains that cohere the frontier. These factors represent what might be termed respectively the “hardware” and “software” of the rural–urban economic relationship. Of interest to any student of political economy and violence, this book presents new arguments and insights about the relationships between violence and the economy, predation and production, core and periphery.

Spatiotemporal clustering, social inequities and the risk of leptospirosis in an endemic area of Brazil: a retrospective spatial modelling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katyucia O C de Souza ◽  
José Augusto P Góes ◽  
Matheus S Melo ◽  
Paula M G Leite ◽  
Lucas A Andrade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Scan Statistics ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Social Inequities

Abstract Background Leptospirosis is an endemic disease in Brazil of social and economic relevance related to behavioural and socioenvironmental factors. This study aimed to analyse the spatiotemporal distribution of the incidence of leptospirosis and its association with social determinants in health in a state of northeastern Brazil. Methods An ecological study of temporal series with techniques of spatial analysis using secondary data of the cases of leptospirosis notified in the Information System of Notifiable Diseases of the state of Sergipe (2008–2017) was conducted. The analysis of temporal trends was performed using Poisson regression. Spatial analyses were performed using the Moran index, the local empirical Bayesian model, scan statistics and spatial regression. Results The incidence rate decreased from 3.66 to 1.44 cases per 100 000 inhabitants in 2008 and 2017, respectively. Leptospirosis was associated with social inequities, mostly affecting males aged 20–49 y living in urban areas. The space-time scan indicated the formation of a risk cluster in municipalities in the metropolitan region of the state. Conclusions The data indicated the persistence of leptospirosis transmission, maintaining a pattern of high endemicity in some municipalities associated with social inequities. The study showed the temporal and spatial dynamics of the disease to better target specific actions for prevention and control.

The State Connection in China's Rural-Urban Migration

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 354-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Guang
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
The State ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
State Textile ◽  
Facilitative Role ◽  
Rural Urban Migration ◽  
Urban State

This study explores the role of China's rural local state-owned and urban state-owned units in its rural-urban migration process. Most studies on Chinese migration have focused on migrants moving from rural to urban areas through informal mechanisms outside of the state's control. They therefore treat the Chinese state as an obstructionist force and dismiss its facilitative role in the migration process. By documenting rural local states' “labor export” strategies and urban state units' employment of millions of peasants, this article provides a corrective to the existing literature. It highlights and explains the state connection in China's rural-urban migration. Labor is … a special kind of commodity. What we do is to fetch a good price for this special commodity. Labor bureau official from Laomei county, 1996 If we want efficiency, we have to hire migrant workers. Party secretary of a state textile factory in Shanghai, 1997

Local Communities as a Tool for the Development of Municipal Democracy: German Experience and Lessons for Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Larichev ◽  
Emil Markwart
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Household Waste ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Issue Management ◽  
State Management ◽  
Municipal Level

Local government as a political, legal and social institution finds itself in a very difficult period of development in Russia. The long-established tendency of its subordination to the state has intensified today in connection with the newly adopted constitutional amendments. At the same time, it seems obvious that further “embedding” of local government into the state management vertical, in the absence of any positive effect in terms of solving socio-economic and infrastructural problems, will inevitably lead to other hard to reverse, negative results both for local government institutions and the system of public authority as a whole. The normal functioning of local government requires, however, not only the presence of its sufficient institutional and functional autonomy from the state, but also an adequate territorial and social base for its implementation. To ensure the formation of viable territorial collectives, especially in urban areas, it seems appropriate to promote the development of self-government based on local groups at the intra-municipal level. Such local groups can independently manage issues of local importance on a small scale (landscaping, social volunteering, and neighborly mutual assistance), and provide, within the boundaries of a local territory, due civil control over the maintenance by municipal authorities of more complex and large-scale local issues (repair and development of infrastructure, removal of solid household waste and more). At the same time, the development of local communities can by no means be a self-sufficient and substitutional mechanism, whose introduction would end the need for democracy in the full scope of municipal structures overall. In this regard, the experience of local communities’ development in Germany, a state with legal traditions similar to Russian ones, with a centuries-old history of the development of territorial communities and a difficult path to building democracy and forming civil society, seems to be very interesting. Here, the progressive development of local forms of democracy and the participation of residents in local issue management are combined with stable mechanisms of municipal government, and the interaction of municipalities with the state does not torpedo the existing citizen forms of self-government. At the same time, the experience of Germany shows that the decentralization of public issue management which involves the local population can only be effective in a situation where, in addition to maintaining a full-fledged self-government mechanism at the general municipal level, relevant local communities are endowed with real competence and resources to influence local issue decision-making. The role of formalized local communities in urban areas, as the German experience shows, can not only facilitate the decentralization of solving public problems, but can also help in timely elimination of triggers for mobilizing citywide supercollectives with negative agendas. This experience seems useful and applicable in the Russian context.

Land Records Modernisation: Maharashtra

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepika Jha ◽  
Varun Panickar ◽  
Dipankar Das
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Indian Institute ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Settlements ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Land Records

During 2017–2020, a team of researchers at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements conducted a series of primary and secondary studies on land record modernisation initiatives in five states and union territories of India. Based on extensive on-ground research, this work is part of a five-volume set that presents findings from Delhi, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, with a focus on urban land and property records and the associated complexities. This volume on Maharashtra brings out the impact of having a historically enshrined system of maintaining property records even in urban areas, created via city surveys. The state also has a supporting legislative framework, which has enabled capturing some details of vertical property, although in a fragmented and decentralised manner.

(Neo)liberalizing the state – Privatization of core government competencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-648
Author(s):  
Johannes Scherling
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Profit Motive ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Neoliberal Economics ◽  
Corpus Size ◽  
Basic Human Needs

Abstract For a few decades now and most prominently promoted by the US, neoliberal economics have been on the rise, epitomized in recent austerity policies with regard to countries that have met financial trouble. In particular the drive for privatization of core public services relating to basic human needs, such as water, social services or pensions, has been increasingly criticized because of a perceived incompatibility between the profit motive and social solidarity. This article uses a corpus-based analysis of the discourse on privatization in the US of proponents supporting, respectively opposing it, with an overall corpus size of about 230,000 tokens. It examines how the two groups conceptualize privatization differently and which strategies are applied to fore- or background particular aspects of it.

scholarly journals EXPANSION OF VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL: REPORT OF THE FIRST AUTOCHTHONOUS CASE IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF VOLTA REDONDA AND THE DIFFICULTY OF DIAGNOSIS

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Henrique Conde Sangenis ◽  
Sebastião Roberto de Almeida Lima ◽  
Cíntia Xavier de Mello ◽  
Daniela Trindade Cardoso ◽  
Jurema Nunes Mello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Symptom Onset ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Correct Diagnosis ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
The State ◽  
Differential Diagnoses ◽  
The North ◽  
Kala Azar ◽  
Epidemiological Changes

Visceral Leishmaniasis has been showing remarkable epidemiological changes in recent decades, with marked expansion and an emergence of cases in urban areas of the North, Southeast and Midwest regions of Brazil. The Kala-azar cases reported here, despite being very characteristic, presented a great difficulty of diagnosis, because the disease is not endemic in Volta Redonda. The child underwent two hospitalizations in different hospitals, but got the correct diagnosis only after 11 months of symptom onset. In this report we discuss the main differential diagnoses and call attention to the suspected symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis in patients with prolonged fever, hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia, even in areas not traditionally endemic for the disease.

scholarly journals Exploring practical use of Garden ring in radial-circular layout of Moscow, typology of greening and normative balance indicators

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-110
Author(s):  
P.V. Kopylov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The State ◽  
Positive Experience ◽  
State Program ◽  
Essential Aspect ◽  
Public Areas ◽  
Balance Indicator ◽  
Subsequent Comparison

The article examines the current dynamics of the development of the Garden Ring, and the state program of repairs «My street» in Moscow. For the purpose of analysis and typology of individual divisions of the highway into segments and elements of landscaping and greening, with their subsequent comparison of their balance indicators of greening. The article analyzes the positive experience of construction and an assessment of the possibilities of its application for the development of similar urban areas. The values of the irregularity of greening of the Garden Ring and the analysis of the normative balance indicator of greening are obtained. The addition and updating of indicators, as well as the normative nature of greening of urban objects, are seen and solved at various stages and by various participants: both for the state customer and for the executors, during the construction, repair and reconstruction of public areas. Normative indicators of greening is a essential aspect for creating the minimum areal values of a comfortable urban environment.

scholarly journals A Formação de Dolinas em Áreas Urbanas: o Caso do Bairro de Cruz das Armas em João Pessoa-PB (The Formation of Dolines in Urban Areas: The Case of Cruz das Armas in João Pessoa-PB)

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Max Furrier ◽  
Saulo Roberto de Oliveira Vital
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
The State ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
Terrain Models ◽  
Geological Map ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The City

Evidências de dolinas são bastante comuns na cidade de João Pessoa-PB, mas ainda pouco estudadas. As dolinas são consideradas depressões fechadas, circulares, associadas a rebaixamento topográfico coadjuvado por fenômenos cársticos de sub-superfície, caracterizando um carste inumado. Assim como as encostas e os vales entalhados, as dolinas também são alvo da intensa ocupação nas cidades por parte da camada social menos favorecida, tendo em vista, serem áreas bastante deprimidas e susceptíveis a enchentes. A partir de então, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo, identificar os principais fatores de predisposição do terreno para criação de relevo do tipo carste, exclusivamente as dolinas e os riscos associados. Para isso, foram levantados dados sobre o embasamento geológico a partir do mapa geológico do Estado da Paraíba, e informações sobre a morfologia do terreno, coletadas a partir do radar SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission), além das observações de campo. Como produto, obteve-se os Modelos Digitais do Terreno, por meio dos quais se tornou possível realçar as evidências de subsidência do relevo local, corroborado pelas informações sobre a geologia local, marcada por uma intensa interação dinâmica entre as Formações Barreiras e Gramame (Sub-bacia Sedimentar Alhandra). Concluiu-se que os planos de falha existentes nos calcários da Formação Gramame contribuem de forma conspícua para percolação da água nessa formação perfazendo uma reação química capaz de dissolver o calcário, rebaixando a Formação Barreiras que se encontra sobreposta, dando origem a depressões circulares.Palavras-Chave: Dolinas, Formação Gramame, Formação Barreiras, João Pessoa. The Formation of Dolines in Urban Areas: The Case of Cruz das Armas in João Pessoa-PB ABSTRACTEvidence of dolines are much common in João Pessoa, the capital of the state of Paraíba, but they are still poorly studied. The dolines are considered to be closed and circled depressions, associated to a topographic smoothing assisted by subsurface karstic phenomenons, characterizing an inhumed karst. As well as the slopes and the carved valleys, the dolines are also intensively occupied in the city by people who are less favoured, what represents a serious problem considering that these are depressed areas and susceptible to flooding. The research aims to verify the major factors of the terrain susceptibility to the karst features formation, exclusively the dolines, and the associated risks. In view of this objective, the geological basement data were gathered from the geological map of the State of Paraíba and the terrain morphological information were collected from the SRTM radar (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission), besides the observations of the fieldwork developed. As result, the Digital Terrain Models were achieved enabling to present the evidences of the local subsidence features, corroborated by the information about the local geography marked by a intense dynamic interaction between Barreiras and Gramame Formation (Alhandra Sedimentary Sub-Basin). The analysis showed that the failed plans presented in the limestones of the Gramame Formation contribute evidently to the percolation of water on this formation totalizing a chemical reaction able to dissolve the limestone, lowering the superposed Barreiras Formation, what give rise to circular depressions.   Key-Words: Dolines, Gramame Formation, Barreiras Formation, João Pessoa.

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