http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/21735/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38420/ 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z Solidarity economy (SE) initiatives constitute a worldwide phenomenon that is today at the heart of numerous economic and social debates. They are active in very diverse economic sectors, aiming for example to create employment for poor and low-qualified workers. We begin with presenting a Polanyian framework for the analysis of such economic activities, which enables us to develop a plural and integral conception of a productive organisation. We draw on Polanyi's thesis that economy is a political and institutionalised process and present a historic overview of the construction of the SE 'sector' in Brazil. We put forward the hypothesis that the SE today in Brazil represents a social movement. Then, we ask ourselves if the SE movement led to a change in grassroots economic initiatives, such as 'people's cooperatives'. We present the results of exploratory research undertaken on 15 people's cooperatives in the State of Rio de Janeiro and its conclusions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39168/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23656/ 2011-06-15T00:00:00Z Solidarity economy initiatives constitute a worldwide phenomenon that is today at the very heart of numerous economic and social debates. They are active in a very diverse number of economic sectors, aiming for example to creating employment and income for poor and low-qualified workers, excluded from the conventional, State or private, labour markets. In the paper, we begin with presenting a Polanyian framework for the analysis of such economic activities, which enables us to develop a plural and integral conception of a productive organization, and study all these dimensions together. In a second part, we draw upon the thesis of Polanyi that economy is a political and institutionalized process and present an historic overview of the construction of the solidarity economy ”sector” in Brazil. We will put forward the hypothesis that the solidarity economy today, in Brazil as well as in Latin America in general, represents a social movement. In the third and last part of the paper, we ask ourselves if the solidarity economy movement led to a change in grassroots economic initiatives, such as the “people’s cooperatives”. We present the results of an exploratory research undertaken of 15 people’s cooperatives in the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32931/ 2011-04-01T00:00:00Z There is growing recognition within local and regional studies regarding the importance of institutions. A ‘soft institutionalism’ predominates, which is criticised here for leaving out the explicit role of the State and for having a bias towards synergies and positive externalities. We seek to contribute to an institutional political economic theory of local development. We bring together social and political conceptions of ‘old institutional economics’ and evolutionary economics, and the State is explicitly brought back into the analysis. The construction of new institutions is explored as a path dependent process in which institutions (re)shape the development path of an area in a particular direction. Using different kinds of power resources, different social groups struggle for control. We use the framework to analyze the divergent stories of two cases of local development in Brazil based on tourism. Prainha do Canto Verde developed community-based tourism, while in Jericoacoara local development culminated in mass tourism. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18132/ 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z This paper examines the evolution of the Ethiopian cut flower industry, illustrating how rapidly a potential comparative advantage can be realised. But the question is to what extent a country benefits from this in the long run, if foreign direct investment is the principal driving force. Will the new industry become an enclave, or will it be accompanied by a process of building local capabilities, a process which we denominate endogenisation? A value chain framework is used to analyse the industry and to develop a number of indicators on the development direction. The cut flower industry in Ethiopia is characterised by a dominant role of Dutch foreign investors, Dutch trade auctions which dominate the export trade, and the Dutch development cooperation which plays an important role in the development of the sector. This raises the question to what extent this triple role of the Dutch contributes to endogenisation or to enclave formation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18136/ 2009-11-26T00:00:00Z [Introduction] In light of the importance of agricultural activities for the livelihoods of millions of people in rural areas, poverty-alleviating growth depends to a high degree on access to lucrative consumer markets. However, smallholder farmers in developing countries face various institutional constraints that hinder them taking advantage of market opportunities. A lack of information on prices and technologies, lacking connections to market actors, underdeveloped financial markets and scale diseconomies make it difficult for smallholders to reach out to international or new domestic markets. Thus, new institutional arrangements are needed to fill the gap in between current local practices/institutions and the institutions required for participation in value chains. As an example of a new institutional arrangement, partnerships between businesses, NGOs, farmers and public agencies have emerged to create new and better outlets for smallholders’ products, achieve positive socio-economic and environmental outcomes for farmers, and serve the purpose of pro-poor growth. By building on the expertise of each member, partnerships are an example of collective action based on differences in comparative advantage and agency specialization to create collaborative advantage. Actors have different roles that can complement each other and address the institutional constraints faced by smallholders, thereby fulfilling development goals and private business interests at the same time. For this reason, partnerships have made a remarkable breakthrough in the international development discourse. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18138/ 2009-11-05T00:00:00Z [Introduction] In essence poverty is not only about lack of resources but also about the lack of opportunities. High value, tradable crops may provide opportunities to escape from what Dorward et al (2005) call a ‘low level equilibrium trap’ but as they observe there are important technological and institutional gaps that prevent small producers to produce for and transact in associated markets. The central question in this paper is how technological and institutional processes to overcome these gaps are interconnected. In these processes normally firms are the key players with a more or less active role of governments, but as Dorward and others have argued on different occasions for developing countries, NGOs can help overcome market and government failures in these processes (Dorward et al, 2003, 2005, Kydd et al, 2004, Helmsing & Knorringa, 2009) We will use a case study of a Peruvian NGO and its efforts to assist small producers to acquire technological competences and develop institutional arrangements amongst themselves and with new suppliers and buyers in new agro-export chains. These efforts concern simultaneously technological change and innovation as much as the construction of new institutional arrangements. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18263/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z This document reports on the first year of the DPRN process entitled ‘Value chains, social inclusion and local economic development’, as organised by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS/EUR), Wageningen University (WUR), Woord & Daad, HIVOS, ICCO, Concept Fruits BV and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV). International trade is increasingly undertaken through organised global value chains in which quality competition plays a central role. Quality competition is achieved by means of increasingly complex standards and the introduction of new technologies at the level of individual links in the chain, as well as at the level of their interaction (transaction and logistics) and therefore for the chain as a whole. These requirements and their associated costs make networked markets an increasingly predominant form of exchange. Chain governance consequently denotes the manner in which the various actors in the chain, namely firms, governments and NGOs, are coordinated. It shapes how standards are defined, implemented and enforced. This proposal concerns the degree of inclusion of governance mechanisms within a value chain configuration. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18271/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18276/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z This document reports on the discussions during the dinner event held in November 2008. We believe that these discussions and the conversations with the co-applicants set clear directions for next phases of this project. In the first half of 2009, the researchers will be invited to help write evidence-based inputs. In the second half of 2009, we hope to meet all participants again for bilateral discussions. At the beginning of 2010 we aim to organise a final conference on the results of this search for coherencies and synergies between business, policy, practice and research. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31313/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z This article gives three reasons why development scholars concerned with civil society should move beyond an enemy perception of the private sector. First, private entrepreneurs are important social actors in development, possessing a variety of motivations and behaviours which defy monolithic perceptions. Second, entrepreneurs - active and retired - are moving away from passive charity and become active participants in civil society and in international development co-operation. Third, private sector discourses about development need to be unpacked and critically confronted. Here we examine the case for Corporate Social Responsibility: we conclude that established enemy perceptions block learning about and from the private sector. The private sector should be both welcomed and critically engaged, and that requires established civil society thinkers to re-examine the accuracy of their perceptions about the behaviour of private sector actors. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32605/ 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z This paper discusses local currency systems as an instrument of selective spatial closure to mitigate impacts of externally induced changes and to promote endogenous local economic development. Drawing on data collected in Argentina, it was found that local currency systems provided relatively protected economic spaces, thus enabling poor households-and especially women-to launch micro-enterprises and diversify income sources. They also supported existing enterprises by offering an emergency market outlet and, when combined with other measures, by building local trading and production networks. Following recent theory on local economic development, the Argentine case represents an example of local economic regeneration. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21573/ 2007-07-11T00:00:00Z During 1970 to mid 1980s, governments’ policies on basic services in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had an almost exclusive focus on directly provided, publicly-funded. This approach coupled with disintegration of the economic structures resulted in steep decline in people’s access to basic services. Recent developments however show that policies and strategies have changed and so is people’s access to the services. Decentralisation within the state and from the state to market and to civil society has been implemented in an unprecedented fashion in a number of countries. In addition, the strategy of ‘unbundled’ chain of service production has resulted in increasingly complex institutional arrangements between governments and non-state actors. Using data on the provision of primary education, primary health care, sanitation and solid waste collection, and drinking water from a number of countries in SSA, this paper shows that the new approach has not only changed how basic services are provided and managed but has also influenced improvements in coverage and people’s access, though quality varies and inequalities between localities have not much declined. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19167/ 2005-03-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31375/ 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract This article observes that the conceptual bases for regional industrial policies has been undergoing substantial changes. A distinction is made between several generations of policies. The ‘first generation’ of regional policies was based on the importance of exogenous growth factors. The ‘second generation’ of policies focussed on local endogenous factors. The theoretical base supporting these policies received strong impulses since the mid-80s from new insights derived from flexible specialization and industrial districts literature. A new and ‘third generation’ of policies is emerging that goes beyond endogenous growth, and seeks to superceed the division between exogenous and endogenously oriented policies. The analysis of growth and competitiveness has moved from the firm itself, and clusters of firms and to incorporate basic and institutional conditions fostering growth. This article provides an overview of contributions to the theory of regional industrial development underlying second and third generations of regional policies. A distinction is made between macro-regional theories and those that have an industrial organization focus. The review includes a selected number of case studies drawn from Europe and Latin America. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21577/ 2001-03-01T00:00:00Z In spite of growing mobility of production and production factors, economic development is increasingly localized in economic agglomerations. This article reviews three partially overlapping perspectives on local economic development, which derive from three factors intensifying the localized nature of economic development: externalities, learning and governance. Externalities play a central role in the new geographical economics of Krugman and in new economic geography of clusters and industrial districts. The dynamics of local economic development are increasingly associated with evolutionary economic thinking in general and with collective learning in particular. Inter-firm and extra-firm organization has experienced considerable innovation in the last few decades. New institutional devices are based on the notions of commodity chain, cluster and milieu. These innovations introduce new issues of economic governance both at the level of industry and of territory. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19080/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/30876/ 2000-01-27T00:00:00Z In the late seventies, John Friedmann made an attempt to formulate a new paradigm for regional development. His basic proposition was that the then prevailing development paradigm had been dominated by functional integration (Friedmann and Weaver, 1979). The integrity of local territorial life had been surrendered in the interests of growth and efficiency. Efficient large-scale functional organisation meant centralisation at higher levels. The trans-national corporation was seen as the ultimate embodiment of this approach. In his view regional planning was at a crossroads; it would have to choose between function and territory. He subsequently formulatedthe'development of territory as an alternative paradigm. As a guiding principle this was more egalitarian, distributive and integrative, including economic, social as well as political dimensions of development. Friedmann and Weaver's book received a mixed reception. One of the critiques was by Jos Hilhorst, my predecessor (Hilhorst, 1980). The formulation of function and territory as two opposites had, in his view, a number of basic flaws. Subsequent developments in the literature have proven Hilhorst to be right in a number of respects. The interaction between function and territory became, in the late eighties and early nineties, an important dimension of localised economic growth and embedded development. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19050/ 1999-11-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19036/ 1999-06-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21570/ 1998-09-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21568/ 1990-02-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21574/ 1986-12-01T00:00:00Z Since Independence central government has stressed the importance of district council local authorities and their role in decentalizing both economic and political activities [...] http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21566/ 1985-04-01T00:00:00Z Over the last five to ten years the framework in which processes of regional development are analyzed has considerably changed, not only in level and scope but also in terms of the variables considered [...] http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21562/ 1984-10-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21564/ 1984-05-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19024/ 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21557/ 1983-06-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18784/ 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18788/ 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21554/ 1982-06-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18781/ 1982-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21542/ 1982-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21575/ 1981-09-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21550/ 1979-03-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21546/ 1978-11-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21543/ 1971-05-01T00:00:00Z