http://blog.nibrinternational.no/#post42 Posted by Wed, April 27, 2011 14:05:12Democratic transitions often disappoint in efforts to get popular material issues and interests on the political agenda. What, then, can poor, marginalised and even criminalised groups do to get their interests heard?by A recent report written by Peris Jones, finds that when a human rights and democracy intervention in South Africa conceived socio-economic rights as a bridge straddling everyday struggles for material needs and demands for better governance, interesting differences were made to democracy and development.вЂ
For an electronic copy of the article, please contact the authors (use links in beginning of post).
Little Trust In Politicians, But Great ExpectationsPeople in Nepal ascribe the positive change to personal agency rather than efforts of govern¬ment, political parties, non-governmental organizations or international donors. This should not, of course, be seen as a sign that political agency is unimportant. The majority of Nepalese people believe that the future will continue to bring progress both in terms of socio-economic improve-ments and socio-cultural integration. The challenge for policy-makers and those with political influence is then to provide opportunities for personal agency and social mobility, in particular among those people who have reaped fewer of the benefits of previous change, regardless of their group belonging and geographic location.
To the extent that social mobility has taken place among traditionally disadvantaged groups, Dalits and Muslims perceive social change in a very similar way to other castes and religious groups, and representatives of other groups with the same background characteristics are no more positive in their assessments of change than are Dalits and Muslims. Our findings lend support to those who argue that social mobility cuts across ethnic, caste and religious divides. However, one cannot conclude that ethnicity, caste and religion are irrelevant, because there may well be barriers in society, including discrimination and cultural traditions, that make social mobility less accessible for some groups than others.
Class Beats Caste?The article ends with a discussion of the finding, highlighting improvements across group characteristics and stressing the fact that poverty, human resources and region explain more of the variation than ethnicity, caste or religious belonging. While Dalits and Muslims are somewhat less positive in their evaluation of past change than other groups, our multivariate analysis shows that this cannot be explained by their group but rather by a set of other background characteristics, most notably their lower socio-economic status.
Socio-Cultural Change: More Mixed FindingsAs regards socio-cultural change, findings differ somewhat: Firstly, much less of the differences observed when it comes to socio-cultural change can be ascribed to the background characteristics of the respondents than was the case with perceptions of socio-economic change. The largest effect is found for whether the respondents observe a traditional way of living (resulting in a less favourable assessment of change). A sense of being excluded from the national mainstream has a negative effect on assessment of socio-cultural change, while civil society and political participation have positive effects. Ethnicity, caste and religion do not have effects on the perception of socio-cultural changes after controlling for other variables. With one exception (Surkhet) the same is the case with geography.
As could have been expected, present socio-economic resources of the household are closely associated with perceived socio-economic change. It is noteworthy that the most decisive type of resources is the level of amenities and household consumer goods, while food avail¬ability and household income have somewhat smaller effects. Having outstanding loans or debts gives a negative effect on perception of socio-economic change.
While we found marked differences between caste, ethnic and religious groups in bivariate analysis, these effects disappear when controlling for other variables in the model. This is a very important finding; to the extent that there are differences between representatives of groups in assessing improvements of their socio-economic conditions, such differences are more a function of their score on other variables (notably socio-economic resources) than a result of which group they belong to.
Socio-Economic Change: Geography More Important Than CasteRegarding socio-economic change, geographical differences are marked and do not seem to follow the Hill/Terai divide. Rather, centre-periphery differences seem more relevant: the more central districts display more social improvements. Interestingly, however, people living in rural districts give a more positive assessment of change than people living in cities.
Different Groups вЂ" Different Perceptions Of Progress?The article studies whether responses to the seven questions are evenly distributed across the different population groups, according to caste, ethnicity, religion, geographic location as well as a number of social characteristics (sex, age, educational level, occupation, etc.). An index was constructed and multivariate analysis applied. Through factor analysis we were able to show that perception of social change could largely be ascribed to two separate dimensions: socio-economic change and socio-cultural change, each with specific features and differences in terms of population groups having experienced them.
How do you rate the general economic condition of your household today compared to 20-25 years ago?
The household survey (2007-8), which was conducted as part of obtained representative data about close to 2,900 households (more than 18,500 individuals) in four districts of the country (Banke, Dhanusa, Sindhupalchowk and Surkhet). In the survey the respondents were, among others, asked to compare different time periods, and whether they had experienced progress or deterioration across a set of indicators. Most people have experienced improvements across these different life domains, whether it is household facilities, income, access to services (including health services), and experience of discrimination. A substantial proportion report a feeling of status quo, while very few have experienced a deterioration of the situation. The figure below shows the level of improvements households have experienced for their general economic condition, a picture which is quite representative of other life domains as well.
A Truly Developing CountryAccording to the ranks 138 out of 169 countries with comparable data. Despite this modest rank, the country has undergone significant economic and social improvements over the past decades. Between 1980 and 2010 Nepal's HDI rose by 2.4% annually. Educational opportunities have increased, especially for women, and the health situation has improved considerably. Politically, Nepal has gone from being a country ruled by an authoritarian king, to becoming a fragile, but pluralist democracy with many political parties competing for power in competitive elections.
In an article recently published by the we have used data from a large household survey conducted in collaboration with to assess how ordinary people perceive the changes that have taken place in their country. Particular attention was paid to possible differences in the assessments made by people of various castes and ethnic groups, religions and geographic locations. These are all characteristics that are politically salient and commonly referred to in the debates about the crafting of a new constitution, for example as regards to the geographic delimitation of the new federal states, and the division of political power.
Nepal has undergone profound political, social and economic change over the past decades. NIBR has now been present in Nepal for six years and has analyzed developments not only as seen from Kathmandu but in many different parts of the country.
http://blog.nibrinternational.no/#post46 Posted by Fri, May 27, 2011 16:35:31by and
http://blog.nibrinternational.no/#post49 Posted by Tue, November 15, 2011 15:58:44CALL FOR PAPERS - NOW OPENDissemination conference and academic workshop organised by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), the Department of Sociology and Human Geography (University of Oslo) and the Work Research Institute (AFI). Funded by the Welfare, Working Life and Migration (VAM) programme of the Research Council of Norway.TIME: 13-14 June 2012VENUE: Helga Enghs hus, University of OsloRead more at the 's homepage.
Posted by Wed, March 28, 2012 15:01:49By and A collaboration project between NIBR and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities ( ) was completed with a conference in Yuzhne, South Ukraine, on February 23rd. From the reserachers’ one-week training seminar in Odessa, in the summer of 2009. Researchers Aasland and Myrvold are nr. 4 and 5 from the right (back row). The Norwegian Model - In UkraineThe project, which has been funded by the , has involved 11 Ukrainian municipalities and KS’ local partner the Association of Ukrainian Cities ( ). The aim of the project was to develop efficiency networks in service delivery based on the Norwegian model. The efficiency network methodology involves mapping local services within selected service areas, comparing efficiency and quality in service delivery, and exchanging experiences in order to find good solutions to common challenges and to set targets for improvements.Recruiting, Educating And SupervisingNIBR’s role in the project was to recruit, educate and supervise young Ukrainian researchers in their work with the networks. The researchers have identified and collected indicators for local service delivery, carried out user surveys for the selected services, and analyzed the data collected. The results of these analyses have served as a common platform for the discussions that have taken place among the municipalities participating in the efficiency networks.The Value Of Including Local CitizensThe project in Ukraine started in 2009 and has included two networks: one on health services, and one on services in the housing sector. In Ukraine this has been a completely new way of working. All the municipalities that were part of the project, have been fully committed to the project, and have been very enthusiastic about the prospects of developing their services within the efficiency network framework. None of the municipalities had previously conducted surveys among the users of the services. At the conference they asserted that they found the methodology to be very useful and claimed they had learnt a lot from using it. They particularly valued the inclusion of local citizens in assessing the services provided to them.The 11 project municipalities are located in the Mykolaiv (pictured) and Odessa districts in South Ukraine. (Photo: Tetiana Bochkarova) From Preparation To ImplementationDuring the conference the cities presented how they had benefitted from participating in the networks. They all now worked actively with implementing the development plans that they had prepared in the networks, based on the collected indicators, user surveys, as well as the exchange of experiences that had taken place among the municipalities in the networks. The Ukrainian researchers who have participated in the project have produced a number of publications in Ukrainian, Russian and English.The Project Continues Through a new grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, NIBR and KS will be able to continue and further develop the project during the next three years. The next phase will involve some new elements, such as a nation-wide local democracy survey.More information about the project and links to many of the publications can be found .
The NIBR International Blog WelcomeWelcome to the international blog of the (NIBR). Here you will find discoveries, opinions and travelogues from our researchers вЂ" scientific and personal observations from around the world. The opinions expressed here are those of the individual researchers. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NIBR.
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