A society ill-equipped to deal with the effects of climate change on cultural heritage and landscape: a qualitative assessment of planning practices in transport infrastructure

This paper provides insights into the handling of climate change issues related to cultural heritage at different government decision levels dealing with physical planning, and in particular roads. Data are derived from a qualitative analysis of official reports and interviews with local and regional planners in three Swedish regions with contrasting climates. The theoretical lens of Institutional Interplay is applied to an analysis grouped into six themes: Climate threats to cultural heritage, Adaptation measures, Preparedness, Institutional preconditions, Institutional interplay, and Challenges. The results suggest that despite a strong environmental reputation internationally, Sweden is not particularly well prepared for dealing with future climate change impacts on cultural heritage and landscape. The lack of national standards and standardised methods risks regional and sectoral variation in the treatment of similar tasks, a problem which deficiencies in knowledge and continuing education are perpetuating. The degree to which discussions and cooperation occur between divisions within the same authority, between authorities, and in national networks varies considerably. Routines and criteria for prioritisation of cultural heritage mitigation, essential under conditions of limited resources, have yet to have been implemented. We conclude with five recommendations for improving the planning process with respect to climate change risks to cultural heritage.

A leverage points perspective on institutions for food security in a smallholder-dominated landscape in southwestern Ethiopia

Despite concerted efforts, achieving the goal of universal food security remains challenging. Food security interventions occur at different levels of systemic depth. Some interventions target visible supply-side gaps, while others focus on deeper systemic problems in the food system. Here, we used a leverage points perspective to ask how multiple types of more superficial (shallow) and more fundamental (deep) interventions in the food system interact. Focusing on a case study in southwestern Ethiopia, we examined (1) recent changes in formal and informal institutions related to food security; (2) the effects of formal and informal institutions on the food system at different levels of systemic depth (i.e., on parameters, feedbacks, design, and intent); and (3) issues of institutional interplay between formal and informal institutions. We surveyed 150 rural households and analyzed key policy documents. Both formal and informal institutions were perceived to improve food security. However, at the intent level, formal institutions primarily aimed to enhance food supply, while informal institutions additionally sought to build trust among farmers. At the design level, formal interventions targeted information flow through a newly created agricultural extension system, while informal institutions facilitated labor sharing and communication. In terms of institutional interplay, new formal institutions had partly undermined pre-existing informal institutions. We conclude that both visible supply-side gaps and deeper drivers of food insecurity should be targeted through food security interventions. Interventions need to be cognizant of potentially unexpected ways of institutional interplay, especially between formal and informal institutions.

A society ill-equipped to deal with the effects of climate change on cultural heritage and landscape: A qualitative assessment of planning practices in transport infrastructure

This paper provides insights into the handling of climate change issues related to cultural heritage at different government decision levels dealing with physical planning, and in particular roads. Data are derived from a qualitative analysis of official reports and interviews with local and regional planners in three Swedish regions with contrasting climates. The theoretical lens of Institutional Interplay is applied to an analysis grouped into six themes: Climate threats to cultural heritage; Adaptation measures; Preparedness; Institutional preconditions; Institutional interplay, and Challenges. The results suggest that despite a strong environmental reputation internationally, Sweden is not particularly well prepared for dealing with future climate change impacts on cultural heritage and landscape. The lack of national standards and standardized methods risks regional and sectoral variation in the treatment of similar tasks; a problem which deficiencies in knowledge and continuing education are perpetuating. The degree to which discussions and cooperation occurs between divisions within the same authority, between authorities, and in national networks, varies considerably. Routines and criteria for prioritization of cultural heritage mitigation, essential under conditions of limited resources, have yet to have been implemented. We conclude with five recommendations for improving the planning process with respect to climate change risks to cultural heritage.

Afterword

This chapter reviews the collective exploration into the entanglements of science and technology, the state, the market, and everyday life in contemporary China. The chapter presents a compelling argument for why it is critical, at this particular moment, for anthropologists to step in and make their accounts and analyses of science in/of/and China relevant to academic and public discussions and debates. It emphasizes that China is not a place outside of the West where “usual science” proliferates and changes its forms in a non-Western national or cultural context. Rather, the translocal sociohistorical formation and the complex conceptual and institutional interplay of state, market, and technoscience shaping and shaped by post-Mao, post-socialist, and now Xi's authoritarian China demand thoughtful and experimental ethnographic engagement on the ground. The chapter also invokes governmentality as an analytical point of entry into the enmeshments of science, state, and market and as a way to forge a conversation with topics central to science and technology studies (STS) literatures.

Role of institutional interplay in the post-project sustainability of watershed development programmes: a case study in Kadwanchi, Maharashtra, India

This thesis studies how institutional interplay (i.e. interaction between institutions), across different scales and levels of governance, can determine the post-project sustainability of watershed development programmes (WDP, henceforth), which are institutional interventions taken towards the holistic development of rural farming systems. Integrated watershed development has become one of the main vehicles of rural development in rainfed areas in India. Yet, in spite of the several local success stories, the participatory watershed development has not reached their desired scaling-up. Lack of the post-project sustainability of these projects is considered as one of the main factors behind this failure. This study frames the problem of post-project sustainability as the query of institutional analysis, where a WDP is construed as a composite of institutional interventions. To understand how the institutional interplay between this intervention (i.e. WDP) and other institutions of its environment affect its governance, especially in the post-project sustainability, this thesis investigated the following core research questions: i. How the interactions between WDP and other institutions influence its post-project sustainability? ii. What are the mechanisms of these interactions, in terms of causal pathways and instruments by which one institution affects the outcome or development of another? To answer these questions, this thesis used the case study method. The design of this case study was made with the intent of understanding the institutional factors behind the post-project sustainability of a drought-prone village in District Jalna of Maharashtra, where a watershed development programme was implemented during 1996-2002 under the aegis of Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP). After more than a decade of the project’s conclusion, the village has come to the forefront as an example of successful watershed development and general water literacy that enabled the local farmers to survive and even prosper through the recent drought of 2012-13. While Kadwanchi had relatively unique position among the many other watershed development programmes in the area due to its success, it also shared many common characteristics of the rainfed farming systems of the region. However, it should be noted that the unit of analysis of this case study was not the Kadwanchi watershed per se, but the phenomenon of institutional interplay in the local-level governance. The constructivist-interpretive approach influenced the data collection and analysis. Primary methods of data collection during the fieldwork were interview, narrative inquiry, and participant observation. The data was coded qualitatively by both the sets of deductive and emergent codes through the assistance of web-based QDA software WeftQDA. The empirical analysis also contained a component of policy analysis, that focused on understanding how policy developments at regional and national level can influence the local governance of watershed management. The analysis of these interactions focused on understanding their causal mechanisms. For this purpose, it sought to identify the tangible structures and processes through which, the institutional changes were brought upon in these interactions. The thesis proposed these structures and processes to be called as ‘transmission instruments’ of interplay. Altogether, this case study along with analysis led to inferences on both empirical and theoretical quests of this thesis. In the former category, the study identified historical and emerging policy developments influencing the watershed sector in India. It also acknowledged that the concept of post-project sustainability is multidimensional in nature, which proved to be crucial in its institutional analysis. The thesis identified the key institutional interactions that facilitated Kadwanchi’s post-project watershed resource governance. The narrative analysis of the fieldwork drew the attention to the significance of equitability in this context. Observed and analysed the key institutional interactions shaping the local governance of Kadwanchi’s watershed management. These inferences led to the modification of its proposed analytical framework for interplay analysis. In conclusion, this thesis considered these inferences vis-à-vis the emerging policy trends in the sector and identified the policy implications of the case study in the larger scope of watershed governance. These implications mainly concerned the changing nature of the ‘participation’ in rainfed farming systems and challenges of policy integration. On theoretical front, the thesis reconsidered analytical framework of interplay in the light of case study inferences, and modified it with additional suggestions of transmission instruments, before emphasizing on their importance in interplay analysis.