SSEE 2006 Working Papers in Development
Working Paper 5/2006
'Are You Viable? Personal avarice, collective antagonism and grassroots development in Papua New Guinea' - Nicholas A Bainton
Abstract
In this paper I consider the emergence of locally produced neo-liberal economic development strategies in Papua New Guinea. In particular I concentrate on the Personal Viability course – a short 'self-help' course, devised by a Papua New Guinean-born Chinese businessman, which emphasises entrepreneurialism and individual financial autonomy. I argue that the Personal Viability course is essentially an introduction to the values inscribed in Macpherson's notion of "possessive individualism" (1962). The course was designed to lift Papua New Guineans out of material poverty in accordance with individualist behaviour however, it continuously confronts Melanesian ideals of 'community' and 'morality' that often shape local economic behaviour and compromise entrepreneurial endeavour.
Working Paper No 5 / 2006 - Are You Viable? Personal avarice, collective antagonism and grassroots development in Papua New Guinea
Working Paper 4/2006
'Does liberalization work: A discussion paper on how economists know what they know' - Jo Sanson
Abstract
For roughly three decades economic liberalization has been viewed by many in the international financial community as the best practice for managing national economies in the developing world. Despite more than a quarter of a century of extensive research and evaluation of liberalization experiments affecting billions of people across the developed and developing world, there remains little consensus about the effects of neo-liberal policies on most macroeconomic and social indicators. This paper is an attempt to interrogate some of the methodologies behind both positive and negative assessments of "liberalization". Neither a definitive thesis nor attempt to reveal new empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of liberalization, this paper instead is a review of a) the narrative situated logics of such assessments, and b) how the scope of empirical arguments are both influenced by and contribute to political economic paradigm shifts in understandings of the nature and causes of economic growth, poverty reduction and 'development': How do development economists know what they know?
Working Paper 3/2006
'Sharing the protection space: can the military and humanitarians work together?' - Major General Michael G Smith AO (ret'd)
Abstract
Humanitarians and the military are increasingly finding themselves in the same place at the same time. This is particularly evident in conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as in response to natural disasters. In such situations the “protection” of civilians remains a key issue, but the roles and responsibilities of military forces and humanitarian agencies are very different. Military 'battlespace' may coincide with 'humanitarian space', but to what extent, if at all, can the two protagonists agree and achieve common ends? Much depends on political realities and perceptions, on the legitimacy of military intervention, and on the acceptance by the host government and population (which themselves may be divided). But much also depends on the degree of mutual understanding and level of training by military forces and humanitarian agencies. East Timor provides an example of where the Australian Defence Force has worked closely with humanitarian agencies. What lessons can be learned, and what initiatives can be implemented to enhance protection in such situations?
Working Paper 2/2006
'The impact of motor vehicles upon the environment and health': a study on technological hegemony and grass-roots counter hegemony' - Hans A Baer
Abstract
This article discusses the role of motor vehicles, particularly automobiles, within the larger context of the capitalist production and the culture of consumption. It particularly focuses upon the environmental and health consequences of motor vehicles. Finally, this article examines counter-hegemonic movements, particularly ones that have appeared in developed societies, which have come to challenge the technological hegemony that motor vehicles have assumed within the capitalist world system.
Working Paper No 2 / 2006 - 'The impact of motor vehicles upon the environment and health'
Working Paper 1/2006
'Urban Development, Rural Visions' - Sulikah Asmorowati and Anthony Marcus
Abstract
It has often been said that there is an 'urban bias' in development, due to the assumption that economic growth and modernization naturally occurs in cities and has as its ultimate destination development by urbanization. This has meant that problem oriented interventions are typically focused on excluded rural people and built around rural paradigms. Even in development practice that is explicitly urban, stakeholders are often viewed through a rural lens. This has often left development practice with what amounts to a rural bias. Nowhere has this urban bias in development policy and rural bias in development practice been more clearly manifest than in the developmentalist states of Asia. Drawing on contemporary empirical data from the Urban Poverty Project (UPP), an ongoing World Bank/Indonesian government urban anti-poverty initiative in Northern Java, we discuss some of the ways in which this rural bias has weakened the conceptual tools for imagining development in urban environments. It will be our argument that the dominant rural/village development trope and its corresponding scalar dichotomies between local and global and social dichotomies between traditional and modern have formed the basis of much of the way we think about and practice development. This has often obscured, rather than clarified what people actually want and need and how it can best be delivered.
Working Paper No 1 / 2006 - 'Urban Development, Rural Visions'