Impact of Wetland Development and Degradation on the Livelihoods of Wetland-Dependent Communities: A Case Study from the Lower Gangetic Floodplains

Wetland ecosystem services exceed those provided by terrestrial ecosystems and their ‘wise use’ has implications for achieving sustainable development goals. Yet we have lost almost 87% of wetlands since pre-industrial times with losses projected to be much higher by 2050 in developing economies, particularly in Asia. Little is known about how this loss impacts people’s dependency at local scales in human-dominated landscapes. We identified 18 ecosystem services of Dankuni wetlands located in the Lower Gangetic Floodplains by analysing oral testimonies of wetland-dependent villagers. The ecosystem services include 12 provisioning services and two each of regulatory, cultural and supporting services. Farming and use of wetland products including molluscs, fuelwood, fodder, fibre and fish was found to subsidize living costs and provide diverse livelihood options to local residents. Encroachment of wetlands by factories and blockage of its riverine connection was reportedly degrading the wetland’s quality and eroding its ecosystem services since the last 20 years and especially since the last three years. In years of excessive and unseasonal rainfall such as during the study year, post-monsoon farming was severely impacted. We portray the human costs of wetland development which will affect vulnerable sections the most, especially landless widows and older residents. Respondents believed that it was possible to rejuvenate the wetland by restoring its riverine connections but stressed that local politicians had vested interests in supporting its degradation. We strongly assert the need to increase government accountability for protection of wetlands amidst a determined pursuit of development at the cost of sustainability.

Determinants of the Citizen Engagement Level of Mayors on Twitter

Today, politicians like other political actors use social media to interact with their audiences. In the relevant literature, studies on the use of social media by politicians focus more on how politicians use social media for political communication during the election periods and its impact on the election results. Furthermore, these studies mainly focus on national politicians. Few studies focus on the use of social media during a non-election period by the local politicians, and these studies analyse the purpose of using social media. Therefore, in the relevant literature, there is a need for empirical studies to measure the citizen engagement level of local politicians during the non-election period and analyse its determinants beyond the purpose of using social media. In this context, this study aims to analyse the relationship between some factors and the level of citizen engagement of the mayors on Twitter in Turkey. The findings of the analysis show that there is a relationship between the status of municipalities and the engagement level of mayors.

Upward and downward accountability in local government: the decentralisation of agricultural extension services in Tanzania

A key assumption behind decentralisation in developing countries is that it enhances the accountability of local government and results in policies that reflect the preferences of the local community. However, previous research shows that local politicians and administrators in many developing countries to a large extent behave as if they were primarily accountable to central government, not local communities. The literature suggests various explanatory factors but does not provide insight into their relative weight and into how different factors interact. This paper combines comparative case-study research with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with local government politicians and officials involved in the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania. It shows that limited administrative and political decentralisation and centralistic human resources management restrict downward accountability to the community. Downward accountability is also constrained by the social rules that local politicians and administrators observe. For downward accountability to materialise, formal systems of public administration need to introduce incentives to that effect.

Problematizing Local Knowledge Preservation of the Complex Social Assemblage in Globalizing Tai Lue communities in Chiang Kham

This article proposes to look at local knowledge preservation as a continual and contested process rather than as a static social activity. The preservation of local knowledge should be studied by situating it within a complex set of relationships among various social actors and organizations, and also within specific spatio-temporal conditions: in this case, the Tai Lue people of Chiang Kham, Phayao, Thailand. The local knowledge of the Tai Lue in Chiang Kham has been revived in accordance with the distinct desires of the local people, local politicians, academic institutions, and local and national governmental sectors. These various agents and organizations make up a social assemblage, in which local knowledge revival and preservation projects take place within a space where distinct cultural, political, and economic meanings are contested. This paper seeks to examine this social activity using the analytical perspective of glocalization. Taking a glocalization approach, local knowledge preservation is problematized as a culturally and socially instrumentalized activity that is pursued by some actors for political and economic identity negotiation. This will be complemented with a strategic essentialism analysis, which can help better illustrate how Tai Lue people utilize their local knowledge to benefit their positions within an increasingly globalized Chiang Kham. Keywords: Glocalization, Local knowledge, Social assemblage, Strategic essentialism, Tai Lue

More than just an experiment? Politicians arguments behind introducing participatory budgeting in Budapest

As deliberative and participatory practices play a greater role in political decision-making of democratic political systems in many parts of the world, political parties must adapt to demands of an increasingly more cognitively mobilized citizenry. While there is a growing body of literature about the functioning of such procedures in different social and political contexts, little is known about politicians’ reasons behind introducing them. Based on qualitative data collected among Hungarian politicians, this paper brings evidence to empirically assess why local politicians introduced Participatory Budgeting in Budapest, Hungary. Our findings suggest that politicians accept theoretical arguments for promoting citizens’ participation, newly elected local politicians expect to increase their party’s local embeddedness by creating new contact opportunities and emphasize that the introduction of Participatory Budgeting is a ground for experimentation. The article ends with a discussion about arguments that are put forth in the literature on European Participatory Budgeting but missing from the views of politicians, and concludes by highlighting the risks of institutionalizing Participatory Budgeting.

Spaces of learning – practising the SDGs through geographical fieldwork methods in a nature park

Purpose While the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and visions for sustainability education apply to many methods, they can be hard to put into practice. This study aims to concern an undergraduate geography course designed not only to teach geographical methods but also to engage with the multi-scalar nature of the SDGs and apply them to various local urban sustainability issues in a real-world context. Design/methodology/approach By means of a mixed-method approach, the authors examine a fieldwork course that invites students into learning situations in which they combine critical thinking with entrepreneurial solutions to local sustainability challenges. The authors examine the learning material from the students’ cases and explore the geographical knowledge the students’ practise. Findings Fieldwork helps students contextualise the multi-scalar nature of the SDGs and thereby apply them to analyses in a local context. Students learn first-hand how their planning proposals can be seen as counterproductive by some local stakeholders while remaining attractive to others. Originality/value Student tasks are developed in collaboration with a local municipality and students present their findings to local politicians and stakeholders. Presenting and localising the SDGs within a local community not only encourages students to undertake a local community analysis but also provides new perspectives to local stakeholders.

Pre-Colonial Religious Institutions and Development: Evidence Through a Military Coup

This paper offers a novel illustration of the political economy of religion by examining the impact of religious elites on development. We compile a unique database on holy Muslim shrines across Pakistani Punjab and construct a historical panel of literacy spanning over a century (1901-2011). Using the 1977 military take-over as a universal shock that gave control over public goods to politicians, our difference-in-differences analysis shows that areas with a greater concentration of shrines experienced a substantially retarded growth in literacy after the coup. Our results suggest that the increase in average literacy rate would have been higher by 13% in the post-coup period in the absence of shrine influence. We directly address the selection concern that shrines might be situated in areas predisposed to lower literacy expansion. Finally, we argue that the coup devolved control over public goods to local politicians, and shrine elites, being more averse to education since it undermines their power, suppressed its expansion in shrine-dense areas.

Subnational Turnover, Accountability Politics, and Electoral Authoritarian Survival: Evidence from Museveni's Uganda

Most non-democratic regimes engineer elections such that regime change is effectively impossible via the ballot. However, many of these elections see high turnover of politicians at the subnational level, often through competitive processes that occur within ruling parties. This is the case for President Yoweri Museveni's dominant National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Uganda, the ranks of which have been decimated by intra-party competition at each election throughout its three decades in power. This competition includes high levels of voter participation in mass primaries and general elections and is particularly acute in the rural southern areas where Museveni's simultaneous presidential candidacy draws most support. Based on qualitative data from the 2016 elections, this article investigates the relationship between this local, intra-party competition and Museveni's survival, building a theory that local competition in electoral authoritarian regimes can provide an outlet for accountability politics by redirecting widespread voter frustrations away from a regime and towards expendable local politicians.

Prudent Adventure: how does political status affect local government innovations?

What are the concerns and motivations behind policy innovations? Theories claim that local policymakers carry out policy innovations mainly because of economic reasons or other internal concerns but seldomly notice the political structure they face. This study constructs a unique dataset of Chinese local government innovations during 2001-2016 and categorizes them with Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. We then examine how economic factors affect policy innovations and how political status brings better explanations. In a centralized authoritarian state like China, local politicians concern political resources and risks more than economic development. We argue that local officials can take the adventure to make institutional rearrangements when enabled but ultimately have to be prudent when closely bonded with the center.