The Role of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Rural Development in the Karakorum, Hindu Kush ＆ Himalayan Region： Examples from the Northern Mountainous Belt of Pakistan

Pakistan is predominantly a mountainous country where rural development activities are characterised by inconsistency, politically motivated short-term projects without proper feedback. Since the inception of the country, the top-down approach has been followed, and the same development plans that were formulated for the plain areas have been extended to the mountains without any modification. In doing so, neither the participation of the local communities was cared for, nor the mountain specificities were considered in the planning process. Moreover, the representation of the local inhabitants was improper and contradictory to the facts. This biased approach has been one of the main causes for the failure of development projects carried out by different agencies of the Government. Contrary to the perception of the state authorities, the mountain communities proved to be more open to accept new approaches and demonstrated the capacity and capability of being a dependable development partner. In this paper, a detailed account of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme （AKRSP） has been presented to assess and evaluate the approach followed by this non-governmental organisation （NGO）, and the response of the local inhabitants as collaborators in the development process. The achievements of the AKRSP from project planning, implementation and monitoring can be adopted as a model for rural development not only in the plains, but also in the mountainous areas of the developing countries in the world.     

Nationalism, Populism, Dependency: Southeast Asia and Responses to the Asian Crisis

Opposition to neoliberal globalisation has been especially intense since the Asian crisis. This paper assesses three responses to the crisis: a broad localist reaction in Thailand, and the approaches adopted by two major Asian-based organisations, the Third World Network (TWN) and the Focus on the Global South. The discussion of these approaches focuses on the issues of nationalism and populism; dependency; industrialisation and the state; and liberalisation, international institutions, and local society. Their critiques range from the conservative populism of the localists, to reformism of TWN, and to the more radical "deglobalisation" approach of the Focus group. However, none have been able to free themselves of the influence of dependency models. Their populism and "progressive nationalism" prevents an accurate location of the causes of exploitation in capitalist processes. This paper questions whether the national-global dichotomy of these approaches is an adequate way to conceptualise capitalist production and exploitation in the era of globalisation.     

Ecological conflicts in Poland

Transformation of the political system, observed in Poland for 10 years in connection with economic restructuring and basic socio-economic reforms to harmonise with European Union structures, is also evident in terms of environmental management. Pollution has been reduced in many ways but the rise in living standards, linked with the rapid growth of cars and other forms of consumption, has had a negative effect and environmental conditions have deteriorated in the central areas of large cities. The growth of waste water and refuse is a considerable problem. More areas are now officially protected and the three levels of local government established at the beginning of January 1999 (voivodeship, district and community) all have certain defined environmental protection responsibilities which are cumulatively greater than before. Meanwhile there is a greater awareness in society of environmental issues, although it does not yet lead to a high level of participation in protection work. However, there are strongly-expressed opinions on the ecological acceptability of certain economic developments and conflicts are frequently arising within communities and local governments and also between investors on the one side and ecological organisations and environmental protection institutions on the other. Most controversial are new roads, power stations (like the Zarnowiec nuclear project) and reservoirs like the one on the Dunajec river at Czorsztyn. Local communities frequently resist plans for waste dumps, incinerating plants and other developments which are seen as injurious to health or the quality of life. The planned reprivatisation of the state-owned forests is also criticised by foresters and ecological movements. Conflicts are likely to grow as economic development accelerates but better information and greater public understanding of the need for sustainability should make for consensus. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

浅谈防震减灾管理中非政府组织的作用

地震灾害是自然灾害引起的危机事件,防震减灾管理是一项社会系统工程。NGO在社会管理和服务中发挥着重要的参与作用。在防震减灾管理中,NGO的作用体现在地震灾害管理的各个阶段。同时,NGO在参与地震灾害管理的行动中要与政府部门协调一致,并且要重视日常管理中的自身制度建设。     

The community morphology of skilled migration: the changing role of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in the grounding of British migrant identities in Paris (France)

Research into skilled migrant communities tends to emphasize the grounding of identities through transnationalism and mobility. Less research has been conducted into how skilled migrants actually ground their identities within the city through everyday social networks. The paper addresses this imbalance by examining the changing significance of British voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in Paris, France. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, findings show local migrant networks to be important focal points for the British even though migrants’ lives may increasingly be transnational in orientation. The research also shows that in situ social networks are evolving. Specifically, traditional forms of elite expatriate communality are not as omnipotent as they once were, with the popularity of some high-profile British VCOs in Paris declining over recent decades. The paper argues that the link between social dynamism and communal morphology helps explain this shift: as British middle-class lifestyles have fragmented, and as the British migrant population in Paris has grown in scale and scope, so the range of VCOs and associated informal networks has grown. Whilst some skilled migrants still embed within traditional expatriate organisations, Britishness is increasingly grounded elsewhere; both within the city through alternative social networks, and located beyond the city through transnational ties.     

Narrating the Natural History Unit: institutional orderings and spatial strategies

This paper develops a conceptualisation of institutional geographies through participation observation and interviews in the BBC’s Natural History Unit (NHU), and the approach of actor network theory. The methodological and theoretical tenets of actor network theory are examined for the insights they offer for understanding the achievements of this pre-eminent centre for the production of natural history films. The scope, scale and longevity of the NHU are analysed through the means by which localised institutional modes of ordering extend through space and over time. Drawing on empirical material, the paper outlines three different modes of ordering, which organise relations between actors in the film-making processes in different ways: prioritising different kinds of institutional arrangements, material resources and spatial strategies in the production of natural history films. Through these three modes of ordering, and through the topological insights of actor network theory, a series of overlapping and interlinked institutional geographies are revealed, through which the identity of the Unit as a centre of excellence for wildlife film-making is performed.     

Rural Self-Reliance in Bondolfi, Zimbabwe: the role of beekeeping

Community-based economic self-reliance has become critical in many African countries because of the severity of prevailing soci-economic and environmental constraints. Concerns over food security have encouraged a re-evaluation of the importance of indigenous technical knowledge. This study examines a rural area in Zimbabwe where members of the local community have established a successful beekeeping association to improve their livelihoods. The history of the initiative, its broader impact on the community and the role played by external facilitation feature in the study.     

Actors working the institutions in sustainability transitions: The case of Melbourne's stormwater management

The role of agency in overcoming path dependence and enabling sustainability transitions is receiving increasing attention. Currently lacking are more empirically derived explanations of the co-evolutionary dynamics between actors and institutional change that could potentially provide guidance on facilitating such transitions into the future. This paper investigates these dynamics through a longitudinal case analysis of Melbourne's transition to improved stormwater quality treatment. The complex data collection, analysis and validation approach, which included oral histories, semi-structured interviews, industry workshops and documentary analysis, examined the nuances of the actor-related strategies and institutional enabling processes throughout the different phases of the transition over the last fifty years. The results revealed the importance of a small group of loosely connected frontrunners from across government, private, community and scientific sectors who, through a mix of creating and disrupting institutional strategies, managed to facilitate a growing and diverse actor-network that steered this transition over decades. The establishment of networked bridging organisations was also instrumental because they formed different types of networks and alliances over time for protecting and deepening the reach of the transition dynamics across the city. The findings suggest there is no single cause–effect relationship nor one dominant intervention or action that shifted the urban stormwater management regime. Rather, it showed that the co-evolutionary processes between the broader transitional dynamics were played into by frontrunners and their actor-networks in such a way that emerging new narratives diffused, giving meaning to the evolving scientific agendas and on-the-ground experiments, which led to new institutional structures and enabling administrative tools. It seems as though each one of these dimensions is as crucial as the other in explaining the outcomes of this successful sustainability transition.     

Anchored locally – Linked globally. Transnational social movement organizations in a (seemingly) borderless world*

Dial locally -act globally: this slogan seems to appropriately reflect, under prevailing conditions of globalization and disembeddedness, the seemingly unrestrained possibilities of a variety of actors to influence events - without being present - anywhere on the planet. While focusing on a broadly conceived group of transnational social movement organizations - from non-governmental organizations to loosely linked transnational advocacy networks - the aim of this paper is to give evidence of the fact that geography - and all manner of borders - still matters even for these actors. Despite being linked with the world, they continue to act from deeply embedded local contexts, very often not triggering true transnational interaction but much more limited translocal encounters. In doing so, however, they literally cause collisions between different worlds while not only modifying existing but also constructing new spaces.September 1984 – first week of my field-work on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, eastern Canada. A teacher at the local high school had agreed to make the first contacts with environmental groups, who were opposed to the use of pesticides by a Swedish forest products company. In return, he asked me to give two geography lessons on Germany to his class.After the lessons the 15-year-old pupils asked questions. One of the first of these was what I did with my family on a free weekend. Without long consideration, I answered: ``We often go for a walk in the forest with our children'. The pupils doubled up laughing in response, and the geography teacher was obviously also amused.A few days later I understood the reason for this reaction, when I saw typical forest land in Nova Scotia for the first time. Forests of an age which in Germany would be airy timber forests, which could be walked through even away from paths, were here largely inpenetrable thickets with numerous trunks per square meter not much thicker than an arm. Nobody could `go for a walk' here...This episode serves as a background to the issues that will be discussed, and I will return to it in my conclusion. It supports a central aspect, which is often neglected in many discussions about globalization: geography matters.