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New Article: Pluriversality and beyond: consolidating radical alternatives to (mal-)development as a Commonist project

University of Helsinki Global Development Studies Professor Barry Gills and University of Newcastle’s Dr. S. A. Hamed Hosseini published a new article entitled “Pluriversality and beyond: consolidating radical alternatives to (mal-)development as a Commonist project” in Sustainability Science Journal. The article is open access and available here.

Abstract
This article addresses contradictions in the ‘pluriverse’ of radical alternatives to maldevelopment, and proposes a an integrative framework for fostering productive convergences among its forces. It argues that the 2020s and 2030s will be pivotal decades, in which the current global conjuncture, characterized by intensifying economic turmoil, climate change, and ecological crises, will translate into increased mass discontent, global polarization, political instabilities, and social unrest across the world. However, there is no reason to believe that this intensification of crises will automatically result in the end of unproductive divisions among the global left. Thus, we argue that a higher level of proactivism, at a meta-ideological standing, which we refer to here as the ‘Commonist Project’, is both necessary and possible. The article proposes a fourfold framework of how to promote sustainable convergences and solidarities, going beyond temporary pragmatic coalitions and alliances. This proposal draws on the idea of ‘commoning transformative knowledge’, realized through creating new transversal integrative assemblages of alternative-futures-making initiatives. In the end, the argument is empirically supported by drawing on the authors’ critical reflections on their own cross-organizational experiences of fostering dialogic and praxis-based methodologies across various groups and forces pursuing post-capitalist alternatives through the People’s Sovereignty Network.

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New Article: Water and power, water’s power: State-making and socionature shaping volatile rivers and riverine people in Mexico

Global Development Studies Professor Anja Nygren has published a new article in World Development entitled “Water and power, water’s power: State-making and socionature shaping volatile rivers and riverine people in Mexico”. The article is open access and can be read here.

Abstract
Water-related disasters have become more unpredictable amidst human-induced climatic and hydroecological changes, with profound effects on people inhabiting fragile river basins. In this article, I analyse drastic waterscape transformations and people’s differentiated exposure to water-related vulnerabilities in the Grijalva River lower basin, southeastern Mexico, focusing on how state authority is reinforced through waterscape alterations and how altered waterscapes shape state-making and scalar politics. Examining interlinkages between 1) state-making and governance; 2) resource-making and politics of scale; and 3) hazard-making and the dynamics of socionature, the article contributes to scholarly and development practice discussions on environmental vulnerability. I argue that the goals of consolidating state power and promoting development through massive waterscape changes and resource extractions have provoked hazards that are difficult to control, resulting in differentiated distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. Drawing on archival research, documentary analysis, thematic interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, the study illustrates the overlapping and cumulative effects of state-making, politics of scale, and the dynamics of socionature on socially differentiated vulnerability. Although the forms of governance shift over time, statecraft as a mode of consolidating state authority and controlling lower-basin environments and residents persists. The government prevents social mobilisation through political persuasion and pressure, and disciplines residents to adapt to altered waterscapes, while allowing few changes in prevalent power structures. Simultaneously, the study demonstrates that water cannot be controlled by political rules and requisites, while local residents reinterpret dominant ways of governing through claim-making, negotiation, everyday resistance, and situational improvisation, albeit within unequal power relations. The study enhances understanding of water-related vulnerabilities resulting from recurrent, yet temporally remoulded agendas of state-making combined with socially differentiating politics of scaling and the dynamics of socionature, which altogether reformulate human-nonhuman interactions and make local smallholders and peri-urban poor increasingly vulnerable to floods.

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New Article: The roles of the state in the financialisation of housing in Turkey

University Researcher Özlem Çelik has published a new article in Housing Studies entitled “The roles of the state in the financialisation of housing in Turkey,” The article is open access and can be read here.

Abstract
What is the relationship between the state and housing financialisation? Much of the literature describes the state playing a role to promote the regulatory, legislative, and financial conditions needed to allow global financial capital to penetrate land and property markets. I build on these arguments to develop in what ways the state is playing an active role in housing financialisation in Turkey. I suggest that the Turkish national state has deliberately, actively, and forcefully pursued housing financialisation by (i) introducing new legislation; (ii) creating financial frameworks to encourage speculation by domestic and international capital on land and housing as assets (iii) enclosing public land and exploiting informal types of tenure; (iv) assetising land and housing by developing revenue-sharing urban regeneration projects; and (v) using coercive legal and penal force to criminalise informal development, and to quell resistance to state-led regeneration. My conclusions add weight to Christophers’ contention that the role of the state needs to be reconceptualised to capture its direct involvement in housing financialisation.

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New Article: Urban Neighbourhood Forums in Ankara as a Commoning Practice

University Researcher Özlem Çelik has published a new article in Antipode entitled “Urban Neighbourhood Forums in Ankara as a Commoning Practice”. It is open access and can be found here.

Abstract
The neighbourhood forums in Ankara began to convene during the Gezi protests in 2013 and lasted about three years. The activities of Ankara Gezi forums are urban commoning practices in terms of a new set of demands and methods. This paper conceptualises urban commoning practices as method, content, and demand. This framework offers an understanding of urban commoning that is not based on monetary transaction, but focuses on seeing commoning as a social process. Commoning is not ahistorical, rather it is engaged with the historical political potential of urban spaces. Commoning as method discusses organising in commons, commoning as content focuses on the form and meaning of political action, and commoning as demand emphasises the discursive use of right to the city. The case selection of this research enables us to reflect on how urban commoning is experienced in a city under less financial investment pressure, but at the centre of national-level politics.

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New Book: Studying Complex Interactions and Outcomes Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Practical Guide to Comparative Case Studies and Ethnographic Data Analysis

GDS Associate Professor Markus Kröger has a book coming out this week: Studying Complex Interactions and Outcomes Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Practical Guide to Comparative Case Studies and Ethnographic Data Analysis You can find more information here or check out the PDF of the flyer (with discount code for purchasing the book):

Studying Complex Interactions and Outcomes Flyer

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Statement in solidarity with Dr. Faith Mkwesha

We, the undersigned scholars based in the discipline of Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, express our solidarity to our colleague Dr Faith Mkwesha, a researcher of our wider academic community.

Dr. Mkwesha has been accused of slander by the police for having shared photos and videos revealing the unlawful and violent treatment by the security personnel in Helsinki against her son, a minor. Holding an expired bus ticket, her son was landed, handcuffed, brought to a police car for interrogation without parents or legal support, and released in the night, when there were no transports anymore to guarantee a safe return back to his home, in Turku. In contrast, the police did not take action toward his white Finnish friend who was with him, also without a valid ticket.

We understand the trauma for the young boy and his family, and believe it is natural and just, for a mother, to express sorrow and pain through social media.

We condemn this violence and any other discriminatory treatment that increases feelings of insecurity in the country, for minorities and black residents.

As workers and residents in Finland ourselves, we are concerned for the rampant racism that is taking place in Finland, and believe that, on the contrary, respect and inclusiveness of any ethnicity and culture is welcome. As scholars, we strongly believe in internationality and diversity, as they bring enrichment in society in terms of knowledge and civilization, and we are deeply concerned for the discomfort and other consequences that racial and discriminatory behaviour may cause in our multicultural community.

Therefore, we hope that the company providing public transportation security services will renounce prosecution of any legal action for this particular case.

We also demand the Finnish authorities to address the various forms of everyday racism, either subtle or violent, that are happening in the country.

Finally, we invite the University of Helsinki to initiate a survey on lived and perceived discrimination, diversity and interculturality within our community.

Signed during the anti-racism week:

Paola Minoia, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Marjaana Jauhola, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Barry Gills, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Gutu Wayessa, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Christopher Chagnon, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

William LaFleur, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Juhani Koponen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Marketta Vuola, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Helena Jerman Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Mira Käkönen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Saila-Maria Saaristo, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Sanna Komi, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Ilona Steiler, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Riikka Kaukonen Lindholm, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Anna Heikkinen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

Johanna Hohenthal, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki

 

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A public statement from scholars in Finland regarding the military coup d’etat in Myanmar/Burma

Today 50 scholars and activists based in Finland responded to the pressing situation in Myanmar with a joint statement. Amongst them are several researchers from our discipline, Global Development Studies.

Civil society, scholars and governments around the world have been called upon to denounce the coup d’etat in Myanmar/Burma, demonstrate solidarity and offer support. Thus far there hasn’t been any coordinated reaction from the Finnish scholarly community. This is why the undersigned scholars and activists wanted to send out a statement that includes a message of solidarity to those resisting the coup in Myanmar as well as a call for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as well as the Finnish Government and the international community more broadly to condemn the coup very unambiguously and take rigorous, comprehensive actions for safeguarding democracy and human rights in Myanmar.

You can read the statement here below.

Original pdf can be found here: https://bit.ly/3apEnos

* * * * * *

February 15th, 2021

Public statement on the military coup d’etat in Myanmar/Burma and call for a rigorous response from the Finnish government

We, the undersigned scholars and activists based in Finland,stand in solidarity with the peoples of Myanmar/Burma to condemn the military coup on 1 February 2021, and with all those who currently risk their lives trying to bring the country back to the path of democratisation. We urge the Finnish government, the EU, and the international community to do the same.

We align with the statement of Fingo (February 4th, 2021), an umbrella organisation of 300 organisations in Finland, and call for the Government of Finland to establish a comprehensive response that strongly condemns the coup clearly positioning itself to only recognize the elected government. We also urge the Finnish government and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to push the EU to call on the Myanmar military to immediately return power to the democratic institutions of the country, to unconditionally release all who have been detained, and to respect people’s right to protest peacefully. We thus join Fingo’s call for Finland to push the EU and the broader international community to safeguard democracy, human rights and civic space in Myanmar.

We have read with concern a recent commentary published by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA​) (February 9th, 2021). We agree with its call for targeted sanctions. But we strongly disagree with its suggestion at the end of the statement saying “in light of the US-China rivalry, dialogue and pragmatic engagement with Myanmar’s military regime may need to be part of the strategic bargaining in order for the West to have an impact on future developments in Myanmar.” This line of reasoning, particularly at this historical juncture, may not only add legitimacy to the illegitimate seizure of power by the Myanmar military but it also risks signalling a disregard to the repeated calls by Myanmar civil society upon the international community “to support existing civil society actions on the ground, as well as instituting targeted sanctions against the military, military enterprises and their crony partners.” (​Nang Zun Moe in ​​Progressive Voice (PV)​, February 5th, 2021).

Considerations of Eurocentric and interest driven engagements with the military regime are highly problematic, especially at this moment when hundreds of thousands of people are taking the streets everyday and risking their lives for the cause of peace and democracy, actively fighting for the future of their country under a democratically-elected civilian government. The current civil disobedience movement is immensely diverse – spanning from students, factory and mine workers to doctors, lawyers, artists, monks, part of the public police, and civil servants amongst many others. We salute and stand in deep solidarity with these brave civilian initiatives in resisting the military coup. We urge the international community to put all its efforts into supporting the civilian initiatives in all ways possible. This includes condemning condescending, eurocentric lines of reasoning and educating ourselves by listening to the demands made on the ground. All possible dialogue with the illegitimate military officers who led the power grab should be strictly limited to focus on how to restore democracy.

The signed scholars and activists thus call on the Finnish Government and the international community for an unambiguous and forceful condemnation of the coup. Most immediately the international community should do everything to make the Myanmar military (and police) respect people’s right to protest and not use violence against people in the streets. We also call for carefully planned, targeted sanctions that encompass the military leadership and all military-owned,-controlled or –linked companies and enterprises. Sanctions that negatively impact ordinary people more than the military would be unacceptable. Importantly, Finland should also push all EU members to effectively execute the arms embargo, including related technology transfer. A comprehensive response from Finnish government should also include continuation of support to Myanmar/Burma that is conflict-sensitive, humanrights-based, supportive of civil society and not in anyways beneficial to the military. It is crucial that the assistance is truly guided and where necessary, reoriented by the advice and perspectives of communities on the ground now and in the future. All actions should be planned in alignment with the calls of citizen initiatives on the ground.

Signed by

Johanna Götz, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Mira Käkönen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Marjaana Jauhola, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Eija Ranta, globaali kehitystutkimus, Helsingin yliopisto
Tiina Seppälä, International Relations, University of Lapland
Bonn Juego, University of Jyväskylä
Barry Gills, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Paola Minoia, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Tuomas Tammisto, Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki
Fernando Oliveira Di Prinzio, Social Anthropology, Tampere University
Heikki Wilenius, Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki
Christopher Chagnon, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Mari Valdur, Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki
Henri Onodera, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Noora Vähäkari, University of Turku
Tuija Veintie, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Ville-Veikko Hirvelä, New Wind Association
Kukka Ranta, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland
Sanna Komi, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Florencia Quesada, World Cultures, University of Helsinki
Gutu Wayessa, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Samuli Lähteenaho, Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki
Kai Vaara, New Wind Association
Tove Selin, Finnish Asiatic Society
Marketta Vuola, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Usman Ashraf, Global development studies, university of Helsinki
Anna Heikkinen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Ratih Adiputri, Political Science, University of Jyväskylä
Jyrki Luukkanen, University of Turku
Ullamaija Kivikuru, University of Helsinki
Kaarle Nordenstreng, Tampere University
Jyrki Käkönen, Tampere University
Élise Féron, Tampere University
Johanna Hohenthal, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Martta Kaskinen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Tarita Memonen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Tuomo Melasuo, TAPRI, Tampere University
Juhani Koponen, Global Development Studies, University of Helsink
Saila-Maria Saaristo, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Ilona Steiler, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Anja Nygren, Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Anu Lounela, University of helsinki
Ella Alin, Sociology, University of Helsinki
Marja-Liisa Trux, vapaa tutkija, Helsinki
Heidi Härkönen, University of Helsinki
Linda Annala, Hanken School of Economics
Esin Duzel, Independent Scholar, Helsinki
Johanna Kivimäki, University of Helsinki
Marianna Vivitsou, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki

 

 

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Brown Bag Seminar (ONLINE): Can Refugees Save the World? Post-Development Approaches to Livelihood from Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon

Wed 11 November from 12:00 to 13:30

Join Zoom Meeting: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/62027652136?pwd=RmpWbExSMTBRbXpjb2pXUW5tNUpsQT09

Meeting ID: 620 2765 2136
Passcode: 869521

 

Can Refugees Save the World? Post-Development Approaches to Livelihood from Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon

Yafa El Masri – PhD Student in Geography at the University of Padova, Visiting Researcher at the University of Helsinki

Moderator: Paola Minoia, GDS/Helsinki

A growing number of academics across the globe now share the conviction that the mainstream notion of development needs to be deconstructed to open a way for cultural alternatives that nurture and respect different forms of life on Earth (Kothari et al, 2019). The concept of post-development, which is squarely rooted in solidarity, has appeared as a way to defend the local against the global, giving value to community economics, human wellbeing and local traditions (Mathews, 2017). Refugees have long been silenced by the humanitarian government and widely portrayed solely as recepients of humanitarian aid (Agier, 2011: Rajaram, 2002: Silvermann, 2008), however, this study explores innovative post development approaches to managing space and livelihood practiced by refugees, and even identifies the expansion of solidarity-based initiatives to the refugee hosting communities. This study attempts to demonstrate how refugees are agents of their own space and post development through a strong base of solidarity, rootedness and collective emplacement. This study takes Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon as case of observation, utilizes postcolonial methods and Donna Haraway’s feminist concept of situated knowledge, to reflect on my own positioned rationality of growing up as a stateless Palestinian refugee in Lebanon’s refugee camps. Using recent participation observation, auto-ethnography and interviews in Lebanon and Europe’s Palestinian refugee community, the study finds that solidarity-based dynamics (cooperation values, food sharing and gift economies) tend to be increasingly replacing the shrinking humanitarian development aid and market activities within Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Then, if “grassroots solidarity can transform the world” and if “Another world is possible”, and possibly another world is even necessary, along these lines, can refugees help change the world?

 

Keywords: Refugees, Livelihood, Post-Development, Pluriverse, Refugee Agency

 

Yafa El Masri is a visiting researcher at the Development Unit at the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Helsinki. Yafa is currently conducting her PhD in Geography at a joint research program by the University of Padova, University of Venice and University of Verona. She has a MSc in Local Development from the University of Padova, and a BA in Corporate Social Responsibility from Beirut Arab University. She has 5 years of work experience with grassroots initiatives but also with international organizations operating in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. Yafa’s work focuses on refugee autoethnography. she co-authored the book “Eleven Stories from Exile” published by the Palestinian Institute of Studies in 2017, and is currently writing her dissertation on Livelihood in Palestinian refugee camps through the lens of situated knowledge.

 

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Editorial: COVID-19, Inequality, and Social Stratification in Africa

Associate Professor Franklin Obeng-Odoom has published a new editorial in the African Review of Economics and Finance entitled “COVID-19, Inequality, and Social Stratification in Africa”. The article is open access and can be found here.

Abstract

The global health emergency reflects systemic global inequalities central to which is social stratification in Africa. While existing analyses frame Africa as needy of global ‘help’, this editorial argues that whether in terms of the economics of inequality, pandemics, or recovery, Africa can teach the rest of the world key lessons.

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New Article: Afro-Chinese Labour Migration

Associate Professor Franklin Obeng-Odoom has published a new article in the Forum for Social Economics entitled “Afro-Chinese Labour Migration”. It can be found here.

Abstract

Labour migration is, perhaps, the most widely discussed economic issue today. Yet, its underpinning theory and its empirical tests have remained largely Western-centric. In turn, the causes, effects, and policy options for the substantial, but widely neglected, Afro-Chinese labour migration, are poorly understood. By systematising existing data, this article shows that Afro-Chinese labour migration experience is far more complex than what neoclassical economics suggests. Driven, or, at least moulded, not so much by the migrant as a rational utility-maximising individual but by holistic processes of ‘circular, combined and cumulation causation’, Afro-Chinese migration, and Afro-Chinese relations, more generally, have contributed to economic growth, but at the cost of much socio-spatial displacement, and socio-ecological degradation. Added to these social costs is widespread labour exploitation. So, the insidious attempts by the state, business enterprise, corporate finance, and capital to consider migration as a ‘spatial fix’ for economic growth are questionable. Seeking to wall out migrants, embarking on widespread surveillance, pursuing migrant scape-goating, and framing migration as a Malthusian problem are, however, not a panacea. The social costs of migration need to be directly redressed, among others, by redesigning the institutions that shape the conditions of labour. Doing so would require leaving behind neoclassical economics theories of migration and exposing their vested interests. Social economics theories and theorising that more comprehensively address the labour migration problematique and strongly emphasise the coupling of migration, economic, and social policy can usefully be considered as alternatives.