scholarly journals 50 Years of Africa Spectrum

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-95
Author(s):  
Andreas Eckert
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Context ◽  
African Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
50Th Birthday ◽  
Interdisciplinary Character ◽  
German Enterprise

This article offers a portrait of the journal Africa Spectrum (known through 2008 as Afrika Spectrum), which just celebrated its 50th birthday. The essay outlines both the political and institutional context of its founding and traces its major transformations in format and content. Africa Spectrum's metamorphosis also reflects significant changes and trends in African studies in Germany and beyond. One of the journal's main features has been its strong interdisciplinary character and its geographically wide coverage. Over the last decade, Africa Spectrum has successfully trans formed itself from a mainly German enterprise into a highly visible international journal.

One Step Forward or One Step Back? Explaining the Performance Paradox in the Civil Service of Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Asif M Asif M Shahan
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Rules ◽  
The People ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Bureaucratic Responsiveness ◽  
One Step

In Bangladesh, two contrasting scenarios regarding the responsiveness of the bureaucrats working at the field level are present. Whereas some bureaucrats reach out to the people and respond to their demands, others remain unresponsive and unapproachable. So, why do the bureaucrats working at the grassroots, while performing under the same rules, same institutional context and reality, perform in two different ways while interacting with citizens? How can these two contradictory sets of understanding regarding bureaucratic responsiveness coexist in Bangladesh? This article attempts to unpack this puzzle by relying on a slightly modified version of historical institutionalism. Building on Bell’s model of ‘agent-centric institutional change’ and by using a modified version of Mahoney & Thelen’s framework of institutional change, it argues that dialectical interaction between agents (bureaucrats) and institutions (i.e., rules- both formal and informal, norms that affect the behavior of the agents) within the broader political setting can best explain the variation in behavioral pattern of the bureaucrats. The political context allows agents to exercise discretion in a specific manner in executing their roles and functions while being constrained by institutional rules and norms. The dialectical interaction between structure (political context), agent, and institution determines the current administrative reality, which has allowed the contradiction to emerge and sustain.

scholarly journals Europe, Blurred: Migration, Margins and the Museum

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Poehls
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
City Region ◽  
The Public ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Consequent Effect ◽  
Public Museum

More and more museums all over Europe are discovering migration as a topic for exhibitions. These exhibitions on migration question notions of objectivity or of European universalism. This article looks at a broad range of recent exhibitions and museums that address the topic of migration. Taking into consideration their varying scope and institutional context, this text argues that exhibitions on migration tell several stories at once: Firstly, they present stories of migration in a certain city, region or nation, and within a particular period of time. For this purpose, curators make extensive use of maps – with the peculiar effect that these maps blur what seems to be the clear-cut entity of reference of the museum itself or the exhibition. To a stronger degree than other phenomena that turn into museal topics, ’migration’ unveils the constructed character of geographic or political entities such as the nation or the European Union. It shows how, hidden below the norm of settledness, mobilities are and have always been omnipresent in and fundamental for European societies. Secondly and related to this, exhibitions on migration add a new chapter to the meta-narrative of museums: implicitly, they challenge the relevance of the nation - specifically, of both the historical idea that initiated the invention of the public museum (cf. e.g. Bennett 1999) and the political fundament of European integration today. They provoke questions of settledness, citizenship, or contemporary globalisation phenomena that are equally implicitly put on display. The consequent effect is a blurring of the concept of the nationstate. Finally, migration as a museal topic conveys a view on how the institution of the ’museum’ relates to such a fuzzy thing as mobility, thus provoking questions for further research.

scholarly journals NGOs and the Making of EU Migration Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-383
Author(s):  
Tineke Strik
Keyword(s):  
Migration Policy ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Legislation ◽  
And Migration

This article analyses the role of NGOs in the decision-making process of EU legislation on asylum and migration. It shows that during the first phase NGOs struggled to benefit from the Europeanisation of migration policy. The Commission and European Parliament were the most receptive to the lobbying activities of NGOs but they had only little influence themselves. NGOs faced many difficulties in being able to follow and influence the Council negotiations. As the institutional context of that time had made the Council extremely powerful, the final outcome of the ngo lobbying was close to zero. Their shift towards outsider tactics by using their moral authority did not mobilise the public either. The Europeanisation of asylum and migration nevertheless provides NGOs with additional avenues to use their expert and logistical authority. The current institutional context has strengthened their possibilities, though the political climate and the revival of intergovernmental methods constrain their success.

Promoting the archives of the Alliance: a case study of outreach at the NATO Archives*

Comma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2019 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Nicholas Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
North Atlantic Treaty Organization ◽  
70Th Anniversary ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Disclosure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Specific Experience

Following the institutionalization of the Policy on the Public Disclosure of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Information in 2008, the NATO Archives tasked itself to regularly exhibit publicly disclosed NATO documents, video, audio, photos, publications and artifacts to promote the increasing accessibility of its collection. The success of these exhibitions, which were all initially displayed at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, led not only to a boost in the visibility of the NATO Archives within the organization, but also resulted in their expansion as part of the promotional activities of the Alliance itself, leading up to its 70th anniversary celebrations in 2019. This paper presents an overview of the outreach activities of the NATO Archives, discussing its origins and evolution in an institutional context, highlighting its role in communicating the mission of the NATO Archives and, by extension, of NATO itself. While this case study illuminates a specific experience that is heavily determined by the political and security demands of its particular environment, the resulting narrative is intended to be broadly applicable and perhaps even inspirational for archivists who recognize similar challenges at their respective international organizations.

Restitution of Private Property: Re-privatization in Central and Eastern Europe

1997 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej K. Kozminski
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Political Game ◽  
Property Restitution

The article deals with the relatively little researched problem of the restitution of property confiscated by the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, After the fall of communism, new democratic governments and parliaments were faced with the problem of compensating former owners. This problem has practical aspects related to investors' confidence, as well as moral, symbolic, and emotional ones. Quite often it becomes a pawn in the political game. Legislation adopted and proposed in the key countries of the region is examined and compared. The political, economic, and institutional context of re-privatization is analysed. From the point of view of the key objectives of property restitution, the different re-privatization formulas, practised throughout the region, are assessed.

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