Search results for " economy."
showing 10 items of 1490 documents
State and Religion in Ethiopia
2016
In this chapter, Steen-Johnsen presents a study of religious peacebuilding in Ethiopia to depict how religious peacebuilders are affected by the political strategies of state authorities related to civil society. She outlines how Ethiopian politics have been historically dominated by an Amhara-Orthodox elite. This dominance persists in contemporary political life in Ethiopia. Steen-Johnsen also presents the current political strategies of the Ethiopian authoritarian regime aimed at controlling political mobilization in the civil and religious spheres. She outlines how religious and civil actors in the country have historically been submissive to state authorities and suggests that this form…
State Control over Religious Peacebuilding
2016
Steen-Johnsen argues that it is necessary not only to consider the political strategies of a state related to the civil sphere, but also to study the enactment of these strategies in state–religious relationships. By drawing upon empirical data from Ethiopia, Steen-Johnsen shows how the political authorities in this context exert subtle and more open strategies to control political mobilization when religious actors engage in peacebuilding. This underscores the possible double nature of political strategies, as some forms of control are open and others more subtle. Steen-Johnsen outlines how the religious actors adapt to these forms of state control and develop an understanding of their own…
Conversion as Negotiation. Converts as Actors of Civil Society
2020
This article focuses on the religious movement of the Ahmadiyya and its civil society organization, Humanity First, in West-Africa and in Europe. Particular attention is paid to the place of converts within these two institutions. Conversions to an Islamic minority and the actions of this minority are studied through the prism of social commitment. I examine the intersections between religious values, the ideas of solidarity in the societies under scrutiny and, the kaleidoscopic range of Muslim charities. The paper investigates conversion as negotiation in regard to gender, social mobility, and power. Conversion is approached here as a matter of social relations and not personal belief. I a…
Citizenship, Civil Society, and Development: Interconnections in a Global World
2012
1. Citizenship, Civil Society, and Development: Interconnections in a Global World 2. Citizenship Quality: A New Agenda for Development? 3. Water Privatization and Social Citizenship: The Case of Urban Water Sector in Ghana 4. CSO Law in Ethiopia: Considering its Constraints and Consequences 5. Cooperation for the Enhancement of Environmental Citizenship in the Context of Securitization: The Case of an OSCE Project in Serbia 6. The Arab Spring Meets the Occupy Wall Street Movement: Examples of Changing Definitions of Citizenship in a Global World
Is there a Nordic Approach to Questions of Democracy in Studies of Network Governance?
2009
Abstract The notion of democratic network governance has attracted growing interest among students of local and regional governance in all the Nordic countries since the 1990s. This article examines whether research in this area reflects a particular Nordic account of democracy. The Nordic countries have strong traditions of local autonomy, local networks and the inclusion of civil society associations. The authors find reason to expect that the Nordic traditions of local and regional governance may have stimulated a common approach to democracy questions with the features of an integrative perspective. At the same time, the differences in the history of democratisation are likely to have u…
Necesidad de gobernanza política: La esfera política como articuladora y garante en la teoría walzeriana
2014
Tomando como pretexto la teoría política de Walzer, el presente artículo pretende mostrar la necesidad de política en los tiempos y sociedades actuales. A pesar de lo depauperada y defenestrada que ésta pudiera parecer, sigue siendo necesario articular su papel en nuestras sociedades y mostrar su rol clave para librarnos de problemas tan omnipresentes como puede ser la corrupción en nuestros días. Para ello trataremos de indagar en cuál es el papel de la política y cómo es su relación con la sociedad civil y otras esferas de actuación, poniendo en valor su necesidad.
Informal Institutions and Democracy
2000
Informal institutions have grown in relevance for the analysis of new ‘third wave’ democracies. The research strategy receives its impetus from the debate on neo‐institutionalism theory, which offers a productive perspective for structuring the field of analysis. This article explains the distinguishing factors between formal and informal institutions. It addresses five basic types of informal institutions, examines the ways in which they function and discusses their relevance in terms of democracy theory. Each type is characterized by the way in which it enacts its respective means of political influence. The study distinguishes between forms of specific relationship (clientelism), of mate…
Climate Change and Energy Issues in the North
2011
Highly industrialized societies are mostly responsible for the emerging anthropogenic climate change. There are different ways to measure this responsibility (e.g., whether based on causal contribution or strict responsibility, see Muller et al. 2007). However, regardless of the specific method applied to measure the impact, presently, the USA and the EU are the global leaders in green house gas emissions with countries such as China, India and Brazil following closely behind. Globally, GHG emissions are still increasing among the highly industrialized countries, particularly in the USA – a country that never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. However, the EU has managed to curb its emissions, co…
Co-operative wineries: Temporal solution or efficient firms? The Spanish case during late Francoism, 1970–1981
2015
Part of economic theory has regarded co-operative firms as useful tools for dealing with market failures during periods of economic contraction, but also as suffering severe efficiency problems during periods of growth. The main aim of this article is to test this hypothesis in the case of Spanish co-operative wineries during the years of late Francoism. In order to do this, the balance sheets of 75 co-operative firms from the 1970s have been subject to financial-ratio analyses. The main conclusion is that these firms were inefficient due to their excessive financial debt. The Spanish Francoist government promoted their creation and granted financial aid – for their value as social and econ…
Communication, Cohesion, and Corona: The Impact of People’s Use of Different Information Sources on their Sense of Societal Cohesion in Times of Cris…
2021
Solidarity among society is considered crucial to tackle the corona pandemic. With the crisis evoking a high need for orientation, the information people obtain from different sources may shape whe...