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As successors to structural adjustment programmes, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) were introduced in 1999 as preconditions for World Bank and imf concessional financing and for debt relief. prsps now serve as the basis of negotiations for a variety of development financing and have influenced the design of other aid instruments. This paper considers the impact of the prsp framework on the constitution of global economic governance, in particular its effect in foreclosing possibilities for a radical revision of the rules and institutions of international economic law. The paper argues that the prsp project not only reframes fundamental tenets of international co-operation and global communal responsibility but also establishes a new disciplinary framework for Third World state engagement with the global economy and the international law which sustains it. In this way the discourse and methods of resistance against the injustices of the international order have been appropriated to distil such dissent through qualified operationalising of contestable notions of ‘participation’, ‘ownership’, ‘partnership’ and ‘poverty reduction’, disabling the resurgence of any form of emancipatory politics in the international economic order, whether through a state-led nieo-style revival or cosmopolitan social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper contributes to the growing debate about how China drives change in institutions and norms of global governance. It analyses the case study of China's approach to transnational voluntary sustainability standards as concrete tools of Western-sponsored green value chain initiatives, between integration and contestation. Engaging international political economy scholarship, the paper shows that China participates in such initiatives by reshaping their focus away from contested market-based approaches to more internationally consensual state-led ones. This stance indicates that China's reshaping of international norms and institutions conveys claims made by Global South alliances. These alliances are increasingly important for China, not only politically and militarily but also economically and for the success of key initiatives, like the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries have, in recent years, adopted structural transformation strategies and strengthened state economic activism. While prima facie reminiscent of the post-war era's developmentalist strategies, contemporary industrial policies have resurfaced in a different environment: they are often designed and implemented in (newly) democratic, rather than authoritarian, political regimes. This paper argues that when democratic developing countries seek to (re)deploy industrial policies, governments must navigate the specific demands arising in an institutional setting in which political power is constrained and contestable. Therefore, the focus of the classical industrial policy literature on instrumental-rational, top-down, technocratic -policy-making, with centralised state–business relations, needs to adapt to this environment. This paper discusses how challenges to secure fiscal space, reach parliamentary consensus, and address diverse societal demands in a formal democratic institutional setting influence industrial policies in developing countries. We exemplify this using Indonesia as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of a comprehensive property rights system is an issue of pressing concern in most economies in the Global South. Property rights-related issues have important social, economic and environmental consequences. This paper argues that one of the most impactful uses of blockchain in the Global South could be in the creation, implementation and enforcement of property rights. The article provides an in‐depth analysis of a blockchain-based land registry project in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. It also delves into facilitators for and barriers to a large-scale adoption and deployment of blockchain for this purpose. The paper shows that with blockchain, the benefits of digitisation of land records can be amplified and some of the major drawbacks of digitisation can be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades global labour markets have emerged and skill shortages in particular sectors have generated an international competition for the best and brightest. The developed world is seen to ‘poach’ this talent from poorer countries, with the resultant ‘brain drain’ undermining their capacity to develop. This paper calls into question the assumption that the emigration of the highly skilled will automatically represent a loss to the country of origin. The paper positions itself between the two extremes of brain drain as constituting a pure loss or a pure gain for sending countries and calls for a more moderate approach to skilled migration and its impact on development. The paper goes beyond the simple brain drain/brain gain dichotomy by looking at the flow of the skilled within specific geographic spaces and the resultant policy dilemmas and options. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The literature on developmental states has built theories of growth-enhancing strategies through a mutually constitutive state-business relationship and institutionalised expertise through a professional bureaucracy. Whilst most evidence bears on the East Asian context, recent empirical work has focussed on state agency and new industrial policies in response to global market integration. Our paper contributes to this debate by exploring multiple patterns of state enterprise reforms that have enabled governments to generate competitive domestic firms. These reforms, then, lead to new theoretical insights as regards the diverse institutional arrangements co-constituting state-state relationships across countries and sectors. Overall, the paper views state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as complex organisations that bear new developmental capacities rather than vessels of rent-seeking interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Member states of the United Nations (UN) agree that its development system needs substantial reform given its fragmentation and outdated structures, as well as new demands from the 2030 Agenda. Yet, a recent two-year reform process yielded no substantial reform decisions. Why did member states fail to endorse the necessary reforms despite almost unanimous recognition of the need for change? This paper describes member states’ conflicting positions on reforming the UN and analyses their failure to delegate authority to the UN development system. North and South, donors and recipients, are locked in a struggle for power and control, maximising bilateral influence at the expense of the benefits of multilateral cooperation. The paper contributes to the pool of UN studies, adding a decidedly political perspective of the reform process. It is based on diplomatic statements, negotiation drafts and interviews with UN diplomats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries have suffered most of the financial crises in the context of the process of economic and financial globalisation. Both current and previous crises have revealed that unpredictability is a feature common to all the episodes which occurred during the process of globalisation. Although certain alarms went off, any of those external financial crises were actually predicted by the advanced methods in use for prediction and country risk analysis. Taking into consideration the information above, the aim of this paper is to check the ability to foresee external financial crises in developing countries of both the country risk index published by Euromoney and the Credit Ratings variable included therein. We have focused on the external financial crises that took place between 1992 and 2011, that is, in a full globalisation era. The results are negative. It appears that neither the index nor the sovereign ratings are able to reflect early enough the vulnerabilities that arise previously to the setting off the crisis episodes. This leads us to conclude that the existing models of country risk have limits. Thus, it would necessary to develop new instruments to measure this risk, considering uncertainty as an essential feature of the current economic and financial environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations (UN) presented their ambitions for the years until 2030. These new goals also present a new point of reference for the UN's work on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), meaning the use of ICTs in support of the international development agenda. Despite a growing amount of research regarding the potential of ICTs to accelerate progress towards individual SDGs, the actual link between ICTs and the underlying principles of the SDG agenda remains rather opaque. In this paper, we focus on the SDGs' novel principles of universal, global and integrated development. Based on an analysis of 120 ICT-related publications by different UN entities, we explore to what extent these principles are being applied in their work on ICT4D. In particular, we identify a gap in the application of the SDGs' integrated principle, as a majority of documents make no explicit references to side effects of the use of ICTs. The findings allow us to identify challenges in implementing the SDGs in ICT4D, and to discuss how future research can contribute to bridging the current gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lingering legacies of colonialism continue to disrupt the postcolonial condition of Southern spaces including their ontologies, knowledges and creativities. The interdependence of modernity and coloniality further constructs a complex array of overlapping systems of exclusion and marginalisation. In particular, the parameters of the coloniality of power, knowledge and being influence how artistic expressions and creativities are unequally appreciated in cross-cultural situations. The restrictive hegemony of Western-Northern artistic theory maintains the status of the periphery as derivative or exotic in some cases. Although colonialism inculcated the modernising consciousness in the imagination of the colonised, Southern creativities' attempts to join modernity have not often been successful as they remain situated within the margins of the Western grand narrative of modernity. This paper examines (a) how cultural differences in creative expressions are shared, received and interpreted across borders in an intercultural experience; (b) the influence of imbalanced power relations on artistic productions and the communication of creativities; and (c) the contribution of postcoloniality and decolonial knowledges in resisting the Western artistic hegemony and granting visibility to Southern creativities. The main argument here is that communicating creativities is bound into power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction presents an overview of this collection. It aims to clarify the making of the modern world order through the dialectic between the will to dominate and the will to resist. As conventional theories of international relations have been largely focused on the dominating powers, we attempt to highlight the constructive power of the countries from the Global South. By analysing the state-making within, and cooperation among, the Global South countries, we argue that the pursuit of human emancipation and national liberation makes countries in the Global South active agents in the creation of the world order and in human history in general. This paper also presents a short historical contextualisation of the terms 'Third World' and 'Global South'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyse the limitations of contractual mechanisms of resolving collective action disputes against sovereign debtors. The Global South has been at the receiving end of the sovereign debt obligations and collective action clauses (CACs) agenda. The lack of control over the domestic economy and the human rights impacts of mounting sovereign debt brings to the fore the absolute lack of fairness and equity in the CAC-based framework for restructuring sovereign debt. The contemporary international order does not address the non-economic concerns of an indebted state. The unfair treatment meted out to the Global South opens the need for Third World approaches to international law (TWAIL) voices against sovereign debt. The current discourse and literature on CAC have remained mainly aloof to the contributions and importance of TWAIL in the context of CACs. Sovereign debt and the use of CACs need a fresh outlook based on the development of international human rights law. Alternative movements based on Global South solidarity against the present structural and systemic problems of sovereign debt and CACs need to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that emotions play an important role in international development volunteering (IDV), but researchers are divided about how they matter. For some, Northern volunteering in the Global South is an expression of political agency and solidarity with distant strangers, while for others, it is a product of neoliberal techniques of government that mobilise emotions, labour and social practices of care without challenging the status quo. This paper seeks to disentangle these contradictory claims by examining how participants in an IDV programme experience and articulate emotions, and the context in which they mobilise these emotions to fortify or critique dominant power relations. Drawing on recent theorising about the role of affect and emotion in society, and on interviews collected in Cambodia and Peru, I aim to show how emotions are shaped through relations with humans as well as with history, place and foreign policies. Attending to spatial and temporal context is important to understanding how and why volunteerism's affective relations can become sites for critiquing unequal relations and imagining development differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor governments have been accused of not doing enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (mdgs), while the mdgs have been accused from other quarters of not doing enough for development. The former position takes the mdgs as an unquestionable good, while the latter posits them as a Western ruse for the sedimentation of core–periphery relations. This paper transcends this debate, identifying in the goals a logic of ambitious social, cultural and spatial engineering. Inspired by Foucauldian development anthropology, the paper highlights three themes implicit in mdg texts, requiring biopolitical interventions on bodies, societies and spaces, namely risk, sex, gender and family; Homo Economicus; and the city. The paper concludes with a reflection on the likelihood of resistance to such interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the 2016 edition of its World Development Indicators (WDI), the World Bank introduced an important change in the way it categorises countries: it explicitly stated the intention to eliminate the distinction of countries as ‘developing’ and ‘developed’. This decision represents the first time one of the world’s most powerful and influential international organisation has overtly decided to move away from this fuzzy-yet-ubiquitous terminology for categorising countries (and not proposing to replace the division). This paper takes this shift to discuss country groupings based on development levels, particularly the ‘developed’/’developing’ dichotomy, focusing on the latter term. The paper argues for a paradoxical scenario, wherein the label ‘developing’ will increasingly become analytically useless while concurrently retaining – or even strengthening – its power in the context of foreign policy strategies. The analysis details the motives behind this paradox and provides a reasoning for when and why the term’s usage is likely to be weakened or strengthened. Simply put, the ‘developed’/’developing’ dichotomy is weakening in its analytical capacity, mostly due to the increasing heterogeneity among countries under the ‘developing’ label and concurrent porosity of ‘boundaries’ between the two categories, while showing little sign of being phased as a term for self-identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a conceptual exploration of the dimensions of the contemporary politics of informal economies, from the vantage point of collective organising by 'informal workers'. It inquires into the formation of the political subjectivities and collective identities of informal actors. The importance of the relations between their organisations and other organised actors is illustrated with a discussion of emerging alliances with trade unions. The transnational scales of collective organising by 'informal workers' are addressed. The paper suggests an analytical approach that takes account of the diversity of organised actors, of a variety of governing powers and of the various spatial scales of social struggle involved in the politics of informal livelihoods today. The reflections are informed by the considerable social and economic differentiation contained in informal economies and emphasise the importance of the great diversity of actors, positions, agendas and identities for understanding the complex and contingent politics of informality. Empirical illustrations are drawn from the African continent, but the discussions in the paper address wider trends and theoretical debates of relevance for other developing regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the United Nations (UN), frequent references are made to the 'North–South' divide, which presupposes a certain degree of coherence among two broad groups of states: developing countries – often referred to collectively as the 'Global South' – and advanced economies, the so-called 'North'. Whether motivations and preferences among policy elites in UN agenda-setting processes turn out to be homogeneous or coordinated along the lines of this binary divide, however, is an empirical question. This paper hones in on the case of the climate and security agenda to examine the changing interests and positions of so-called 'Global South' actors. Drawing on official documents from UN bodies and member states, as well as interviews with diplomats, I argue that, despite a somewhat united front voiced through the Group of 77 when the topic of climate and security first arose at the UN, over the last 15 years a diversification of interests – resulting in part due to differences in experiences with and perceptions of climate change – has rendered 'North–South' framings rather unproductive in analysing multilateral positions on climate and security. At the same time, however, references to the 'Global North' and the 'Global South' that acknowledge this heterogeneity still help to highlight underlying structural features that condition the engagement of both state and non-state actors with UN agenda-setting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetries of power are not only a characteristic feature of today's world order but also manifest in knowledge production in the discipline of international relations (IR). Even the use of the 'Global South' concept, which highlights one set of hierarchies in international politics, sometimes perpetuates them latently, instead of offering solutions to overcome them. From a critical pedagogy perspective, I explore whether engaging in a dialogue on the 'Global South' can facilitate an understanding of the structures and processes of knowledge production and the perpetuation of hierarchies in the discipline. The paper argues that such knowledge can be created with reference to Paolo Freire's concept of dialogic encounters by using research designs deriving from participatory action research. The goal of this article is to contribute to making IR as a discipline more inclusive through the co-production of knowledge that incorporates marginalised voices across the Global North and the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the seminar titled "Regional Conflicts and International Laws" organized by the Third World Foundation is presented. Presentors talked about the issue of contemporary regional conflict and focused on regional tension and conflict primarily in the context of international law. Speakers also examined the three principal areas of conflict which include the Middle East and the Gulf, Southern Africa and Central America, and the Caribbean.

This paper examines the knowledge politics and cultures that shape data relations between international aid organisations and Global South public institutions, taking African libraries as an example. International organisations increasingly rely on data from the Global South, purportedly as a resource for development, which has raised valid concerns about the emergence of new practices of data colonialism. One proposed solution is to expand the capacity of Global South institutions to control their own data processes, so they can likewise control the politico-economic relationships that draw on their data. A pan-African library organisation representing 34 countries is exploring this possibility though a multiyear research project to increase library capacity to use data to partner with development aid organisations. However, this work revealed that data colonialism precedes practices of value extraction. In focus groups, a survey of library systems and interviews with aid organisations, aspects of the data cycle are epistemically framed by aid organisations to undercut Global South control, and subtle neocolonial mechanisms encourage libraries to shape their own data cultures according to desires of aid organisations. This underscores the need to expand data neocolonialism as a frame for confronting epistemic injustice by highlighting Western rationalities embedded in data relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emphasis on making markets work for the poor has thrust companies into the role of ‘development agents’ – organisations that consciously seek to deliver outcomes that contribute to international development goals. This paper examines what business as a development agent means in terms of the promise, the conceptualisation and the developmental outcomes of several initiatives engaged in ‘bottom billion capitalism’. It argues that, while these initiatives are hailed as a solution for poverty, the benefits of such engagement must be weighed against other factors, including exclusion, the emphasis on capital assets and the reinterpretation of positive outcomes. The paper presents an alternative model of business as a development agent that better meets the criteria for a genuine development actor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the European Union has recently become a champion of privacy rights and data protection, by enacting its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, there is a growing body of research on the costs and benefits of digitalisation in the aid industry. On the 'cost' side, risks associated with privacy and protection of personal data are clear. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the EU and European aid organisations can protect the privacy rights of individuals residing outside the EU's borders, by scrutinising those GDPR articles that may be relevant from the perspectives of aid-implementing actors working outside the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). This analysis of the important EU documents describing its foreign and development policies shows that promoting digitalisation outside of the EU seems to be more important to the EU than data protection. Furthermore, while aid organisations registered in the EU/EEA are supposed to comply with GDPR, the regulation's territorial scope is not clear enough and the EU is not able to protect the privacy rights of individuals residing in the Global South, nor is it necessarily interested in doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of developing countries during the construction of international institutions that govern the global commons. It argues that developing states are empowered by the problem structure of commons issues because the latter's management requires universal participation. This allows developing states to employ their large numbers to shape institutional outcomes in two ways. First, they can leverage non-participation when the need for commons management arises, threatening the long-term viability of a valued good unless their demands are met. Second, developing states can utilise their majority status in the international venues through which commons issues are addressed to advance their preferred policies. A case study on the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, followed by brief comparisons to the creation of the focal institutions for ozone and climate governance, illustrate the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State fragility has become a resonant term in the development discourse over the past decade. In its early days it served as a catch-all phrase used by donor organisations to draw attention to the need to assist ‘fragile states’. In response to the call for a better understanding of how to deal with these countries, there was a surge in measures of fragility. However, it was not long before academics pointed to the murkiness and fuzziness of the term, and identified several caveats to most of the proposals for quantification. This paper reviews existing approaches to operationalise this concept, distinguishing between those that offer no ranking or only partial rankings of fragile states, and those providing ordinal lists of countries. The examination of their theoretical underpinnings lends support to the critical view that most existing approaches are undermined by a lack of solid theoretical foundations, which leads to confusion between causes, symptoms and outcomes of state fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on feminist and development literature, this paper suggests several important lessons and considerations for building equitable approaches to REDD+. Specifically, we illustrate the conceptual and practical significance of women's participation for achieving the goals of REDD+ as well as the limits and opportunities for gendering participation in REDD+. We argue that the standing debates over how and in what context gender becomes instrumentalised, technicalised or institutionalised in development provide important cautionary tales for the implementation and reporting of REDD+safeguards. By doing so, this paper contributes to the growing literature on gender, development, natural resource management and REDD+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds a critical geography of poverty finance with recourse to a relational comparison of the microfinance and subprime mortgage markets. It probes paradoxical claims about the nature of poverty, the poor, states and markets that have surfaced in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In doing so it aims to generate new understandings of neoliberal global finance with specific emphasis on 1) the social constitution of risk through racialised and gendered forms of difference; 2) the exercise of dispossession and imperialism by financial means; and 3) articulations of poverty finance with the social relations of debt in specific conjunctures. Each of these terrains of inquiry forms a subsection of the paper, following a preliminary section that poses the animating paradox in more detail. The paper concludes with some reflections on the conditions of possibility for democratising finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impact of intellectual property laws on food security in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), taking the Pacific Islands countries as an example. It argues that ip laws are increasingly impacting upon food security, but are not being adequately taken into account in national policy development. Consequently, national ip regimes are developing in ways that undermine, rather than promote, food security. The paper argues that the particular context of LDCs, including a lack of technological development and reliance upon traditional agricultural systems, requires an approach to intellectual property that is substantially different from the ‘one size fits all’ approach mandated by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The first decade of the 21st century has been characterised by complex and interrelated changes that have affected development. Development studies as a discipline has traditionally been concerned with the impact of colonisation and neocolonialism, and with neoliberal-related growth models. This paper argues that, since around the turn of the century, there has been a major shift in development, driven by a series of fundamental changes, including the relative failure of the neoliberal project in the 1980s and 1990s, which by the 2000s was partly replaced by a greater concern with addressing security issues with aid; the rise of China and other middle-income countries as large resource providers for development; and the rapid increase of remittance flows to lower and middle income countries. The paper looks at how both development studies and aid policy in Australia and elsewhere have been relatively slow to engage with this rapidly changing context. The big challenges for development studies will be: engaging with developing countries as development donors with different agendas for development; the decline of much of the current neoliberal paradigm; alternative sources of development finance; and the securitisation of Western aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Zizek's theorisation of power, we analyse the UK Conservative Party's Green Paper on international development, 'One World Conservatism' (OWC). We argue that by placing the West's giving of development aid as something beyond politics, on the moral high-ground of self-evident certainty, it acts to deflect attention from critical engagement with the nature of globalisation, power and aid itself, hiding both economic and epistemological violences behind the apparently benevolent act of giving. An analysis of the nature of the green paper demonstrates the ways in which it draws in UK citizens as active subjects complicit with this vision of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research concerning mobile phones and financial services in developing countries has undergone rapid growth in recent years. This paper seeks to improve understanding of the current state of knowledge by reviewing the content of 43 research articles. A framework is developed that differentiates research activity according to a lifecycle model that incorporates financial needs, design, adoption and impact. The review finds that research to date has resulted in a high level of practitioner involvement, providing valuable links from the mobile phone industry to the research community but, as a consequence, research has become too narrowly defined. Thus, issues of assessing financial need and the measurement of impact have been comparatively neglected, while application design and adoption studies have received greater attention. This paper suggests a future direction for research and practice within the mainstream of micro-financial services and finance for the poor, correcting this imbalance, and contributing towards the mobiles-in-development-research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine how and why gender needs to be brought into the analysis of state developmentalism in Asia. In doing so, the paper focuses on ongoing processes of labour market and industrial relations reform that have accompanied Malaysia's economic development since the early 1970s. Understanding these reforms from a gender perspective means that we must recognise both the significant contribution that women make to the growth of export manufacturing industries and the role that social relations of reproduction play in underpinning economic reform and transformation. The analysis explores how gendered social relations (of production and reproduction) have been central to the labour politics of Malaysia's state-led developmentalism and how ideas of maintaining 'competitiveness' through the attempts to transition to a more knowledge-centred economy have entailed particular roles and responsibilities for women. Attempts to maintain economic competitiveness in Malaysia have rested upon ideas concerning the need to integrate women more fully into the formal labour market and a greater recognition of the contribution of social relations of reproduction to capitalist accumulation. The article discusses some of the tensions and contradictions that have emanated from this policy shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we make a theoretical argument that the Third World be returned to its political origins to inspire an updated Third World Project (TWP), revived as a global movement for progressive, anti-imperialist forces, through the Fourth World movement, which highlights internal colonialism. Both the TWP and the United Nations recognise only nation states as full members. We examine how a Third World strategy that brings in the Fourth World, or indigenous, minority and/or stateless groups, can help oppressed groups gain more autonomy and rights through a transnational solidarity rooted in empathy. We trace the intellectual roots and history of the TWP and consider obstacles in bringing together the TWP and the Fourth World movement. A Fourth World strategy corrects the TWP's implicit approval of an underlying imperialism, and the TWP provides the Fourth World movement a model to accomplish its goal of resisting uncritical modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the seemingly paradoxical behaviour of states of the Global South, which on one the hand conform to transnational norms in order to integrate into the international society and on the other hand (sometimes simultaneously) differentiate themselves from them. To that end, this article develops the dilemma of the marginalised in order to show that conformity and differentiation become two paradoxical strategies for marginalised actors to pursue the same goal: equality with powerful states. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union, where significant changes in Africa's policy vis-à-vis global powers took place, serves as a case study to illustrate how marginalised actors struggle between conformity and differentiation in order to claim their place in the international arena. It also shows how the dilemma of the marginalised can be compelling to help us understand the predicaments of marginalised actors across vastly different situations of structural inequality. Acknowledging the dilemma helps us understand their behaviour rather than to dismiss it as irrational, thereby recognising Third World agency in shaping the international system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This concluding paper examines issues that are seen as important for the future of tourism by drawing on key themes from the collection making up this special issue on tourism and development in the global South. Building on these, and noting some of the contradictions apparent in attempts to use tourism as an aid to development, it goes on to focus on ethics and responsibility, and education and training. As essential elements of both research and action agendas for this rapidly emerging and changing field, these should both be a priority for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical perspective on the growing phenomenon of governance indicators in international politics. I employ a governmentality approach to shed light on the political meanings and outcomes of the increasing tendency of various international actors to rate and rank the governance capacities and performances of states. In particular, I argue that, beyond being an analytic tool or an advisory system for governments, this practice in fact reproduces structures of authority and hierarchy in the international system. Power and knowledge are bound together in many governance indicators, as powerful states either examine themselves, the quality of governance of Third World states, or adopt the examinations carried out by other agents. Consequently, poor and developing states cannot simply ignore these ratings and rankings. The governance indicators establish a discursive field of state legitimacy and normalcy and 'responsibilises' states: construct them as ethical actors that are capable of correct and responsible choices and policies. As a result, the responsibility of powerful states and international actors for a host of social, economic and political problems in many Third World countries is obscured. Therefore the paper calls for closer attention to be paid to the elements of power in these governance indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korea Aid was a development project delivering Korean medical services, food and pop music via trucks to rural communities in Africa. The project was poorly conceived, vulnerable to corruption and ultimately ineffective. While Korea Aid marked a backward step for Korea's development cooperation, revealing many of the challenges associated with emerging donors, it also reflected Korea's aspiration to become a cultural and developmental alternative to hegemonic nations. This paper examines the historical circumstances that led to the formation of Korea Aid, and further argues that Korea Aid embodied a synthesis of 'cultural soft power' and 'developmental soft power' intended to create the perception of Korea as culturally and developmentally attractive and benign. Korea's current pursuit of developmental soft power intentionally transforms the country's development experience into a 'politically odourless' model, masking its authoritarian undercurrent and in turn camouflaging growing aspirations to expand its global influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, the process of convergence between culture and development began to emerge in the context of post-colonialism and changing geopolitical realities. Later on, along with increasing multilateralism, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) eventually became the main actor in promoting culture as a fourth pillar of sustainable development. The paradigm shift in the heritage-development agenda is examined in the context of growing aspirations of non-Western states to play an active role in the global heritage regime, and the interests and strategies of UNESCO's secretariat and the member states. At first, heritage and development were perceived as separate or opposed fields. Recently, a sustainable development framework emerged as a new global development model. UNESCO has engaged in the shaping of the United Nations (UN) 2030 agenda, and advocated a pragmatic approach to heritage. This paper examines the evolution of ideas and concepts linking 'development' and 'heritage' forged at the forum of UNESCO as part of its Culture and Development framework. The role of the Global South in the paradigm change is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a plethora of writings - by scholars, journalists and policy makers alike - on India's rise to power. This paper argues that this much-vaunted rise needs to be viewed with caution. It examines the case for India's rise, and operationalises its growing influence by applying and further developing the concept of 'veto-player'. It highlights ways in which India has indeed acquired the status of a de facto veto-player in international relations. But the paper then presents three sets of reasons for caution. First, even though India's rise to power might appear dramatic and sudden, it is a product of a long and incremental process. This has policy implications: not all the policies of the preceding era should be carelessly abandoned by India or by other developing countries in similar circumstances. Second, there are still significant hurdles - many of which are domestic - that it must overcome if it is to fully realise its potential and acquire the status of a great power. Third, India may have acquired effective veto-player status in certain crucial negotiations, but this does not automatically translate into an ability to achieve preferred outcomes. Having examined the hurdles that India faces on its pathway to power, the paper goes on to suggest strategies that could be adopted to convert veto-player status into positive influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the case of the Monsanto Smallholder Programme (shp), an initiative implemented by the US-based transnational biotechnology, agri-chemicals and seeds company, Monsanto, between 1999 and 2002. The programme was intended to provide a package of agricultural extension support to 'smallholders' in selected developing countries. Based on empirical research in the USA and India, the paper examines why Monsanto came to undertake such an initiative, and how the company designed and implemented the programme. The paper traces the evolution of the shp over time and discusses the reasons why it was suddenly terminated in 2002. Drawing on insights from the literature on corporate social responsibility (csr), the paper argues that the shp represented an attempt to 'mainstream' the values and principles of sustainability into Monsanto's operations, but that this led to the distinctive philanthropic and developmental aspects of the programme being undermined by competing commercial and financial pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on non-governmental organizations (NGO). The argument in this paper are based on the assumption that, whether NGO will like it or not, their developmental activities in the Third World will remain substantially defined by the demands of project-related work, and that, therefore, such work should be accepted as an opportunity rather than defined as a constraint. If the central contention of this paper--that the indirect political impact of discrete NGO projects is cumulatively rather than individually significant--is correct, there is certainly ample available evidence indicating the growing quantitative impact of NGO project-related activities across most of the states of the South. Lacking institutionalised consultative mechanisms for influencing policy at the stage of formulation, those affected were forced to present their particularistic demands retrospectively, at the implementation stage, to the administrators whose remit it was to apply and enforce the policies and programmes arbitrarily defined and selected by national governments.

Government intentions stand at the heart of debates about how big data can and should be used in the Global South. This paper provides new insights by examining the political and economic visions promoted by emerging power governments in Brazil, India and China (the BICs). Doing so is crucial as these countries not only comprise some of the world's largest populations, but have also demonstrated their initiative in national and international promotion of big data politics. Drawing on a content analysis of strategic and legal documents discussing the use of big data, we identify potential areas for big data cooperation among the BICs by determining the compatibility of national policy visions. Three visions are apparent: data as a force for political liberation or repression, for improving public services and for facilitating development. Successful BIC cooperation is likely related to the latter two, but less probable for the liberation/repression vision. We conclude by identifying the implications of BIC engagement with big data for the Global South more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the causes of state-initiated human rights violations? Are intra-national factors alone causally responsible for the emergence of human rights crises in the developing world? This article critically examines contemporary social science literature on the causes of human rights compliance and violations, particularly in the fields of international relations and comparative politics. It underscores the finding that the current research agenda on human rights has yet to fully recognise the causal and constitutive links between transnational and domestic factors in generating variations in states’ level of compliance. The main goal of the paper is to analytically explore the possibilities of generating social scientific research that recognises the interactive causal dynamics among extra-national and domestic variables as they jointly produce cross-national variations in the quality of a state’s compliance with human rights norms. Based on a critical analysis of the current scholarship in human rights research, the paper offers several pathways the academy must traverse in order to enhance our understanding of the causal underpinnings of human rights violations in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This review paper focuses on low-income migrants in (or from) developing countries and their social reproduction, and asks what this means for their social protection. We focus on the recognition that migration involves (re)negotiations of social reproduction by migrants and their families. These renegotiations are heavily inflected with gendered power relations in ways that are specific to individual and family life course. As such, migration involves taking on new risks and dynamic vulnerabilities in sustaining everyday and intergenerational social reproduction. These are sharpened by the increasing feminisation of migration flows and obstructed by wider changes in social provisioning and exclusionary citizenship regimes. The resulting social protection challenges unfold over lifetimes, and are especially marked at critical periods of transition. Life-course thinking has the potential to theoretically integrate emerging insights from rich empirical studies; doing this supports the rationale for revaluing the importance of social reproduction within debates about migration and social protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the ongoing reconfiguration of peasant labour processes from agriculture to informal mineral extraction, outlining the motivations of the rural poor in adopting mining and quarrying, and discusses how social sciences can best account for this significant shift towards extractive livelihoods. It argues that the 'extractive peasants' best explain the contemporary changes in rural, mineral-rich tracts throughout the Global South, and peasant mining practices are part of the informal economies. The extractive peasants return intellectual attention to practices that disrupt contemporary global mineral production and place the politics of the poor within broader debates on resource politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Paris Agreement, 80% of all proven fossil fuel reserves become stranded resources and investments already made in such resources turn into stranded assets. Much of the existing literature focuses on equitable burden sharing; only a few articles examine the risks for developing countries that invest in new fossil fuels. Hence, this paper addresses the question: What are the risks of investing in fossil fuels for developing countries? In doing so, it examines Kenya, a prospective fossil fuel producer, and China, an investor in fossil fuels. In terms of short- to long-term risks, ignoring new fossil fuels and investing in renewables is favourable and politically, socially, ecologically and economically more rewarding, not least because latecomers to development run the risk of having to compensate investors when new fossil fuel assets strand prematurely and become unrecoverable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to positively engage with the religious character of many development contexts through an exploration of my own fieldwork in Mindanao. Through problematising a secular development industry and building on the momentum of the religious turn some scholars have identified, I share my initial explorations of how a postsecular framing might offer an alternative approach to development and peacebuilding. Through a deconstructive framing of the religious-secular binary I analyse the practices of one small non-governmental organisation (NGO) and suggest that a practice of ‘journeying with’ – Muslims and Christians on the shared philosophical/theological project to nourish each other’s faiths – can contribute to material and spiritual benefit, and the conditions to enable this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (cdm) has been envisaged as a powerful tool for reconciling the global South’s environment and development problematic. By allowing Southern states to produce and sell carbon credits into the Kyoto Protocol’s compliance market, many predicted a growing North–South transfer of carbon finance, technology and profit. Confronted by deep crisis in global carbon markets, however, the cdm, rather than spurring development, is furnishing the conditions for rising debt and insecurity since project costs must be financed upfront, with the expectation that future project revenue will subsequently fulfil these obligations. This paper analyses the dialectic entanglements between the cdm’s ex post and market-dependent financing structure, the carbon market crisis and uneven development, based on the contention that cdm-related debt reveals the deeply unequal power relations that underpin contemporary approaches to climate change mitigation, whereby the North’s ecological debt is displaced, both materially and financially, onto Southern actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]