http://repub.eur.nl/res/col/9757/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/40137/ 2013-05-23T00:00:00Z Since the late colonial period, Sri Lanka has been subject to modern democratic state building experiments. The number of challenges this project has encountered is rising. Many of these challenges have been identified alongside the multi-ethnic character of Sri Lanka’s population, illuminating the antagonistic inter-ethnic relations between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. The various policy measures designed endogeneously and exogenously focused on building a democratic state where the rights of the ethnic minorities could be guaranteed. However, the outcomes of these policy measures have not reflected this goal. These policy measures have not sufficiently contributed to a guarantee of rights for ethnic minorities and paid ill attention to numerous other tensions that are of a non-inter-ethnic nature in Sri Lanka’s state building project. By focusing on the broader state-in-society relations and privileging hegemonic formations in Sinhalese politics through historical and contemporary times, this thesis re-problematises the issue of Sri Lanka’s state building. This thesis also aims to answer the following key questions: what are the key hegemony building processes identified in Sri Lanka’s state building project?; how do the dynamics in Sinhalese politics and the broader political and economic context influence these processes?; what were the main tensions between hegemony building and state building in Sri Lanka?; and how did they affect democratic state building? These questions are examined by applying a qualitative method of inquiry. The data for this study has been collected through a series of field interviews conducted in Sri Lanka in 2009 and 2011, as well as a preliminary literature survey conducted between 2005–07. The in-depth field interviews were carried out with the aim of gathering primary data on the perceptions, first hand experiences and narratives of the trajectories of elite and subaltern politics and state building. The primary data gathered through an extensive literature survey that was further complemented with the field interviews and a process of observation. Based on critical analysis of the data gathered from the above mentioned multiple sources, the research argues primarily that state building in Sri Lanka has been a struggle for hegemony of the right, in which the Sinhalese political elites and the broader Sinhalese community have played a decisive and an equally important role. The empirical inquiry identified four hegemony building processes – Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, a political party driven and a patronage system institutionalised at the state level, and events and discourses of war, peace and conflict that were used by the dominant Sinhalese political elites in their attempt to build political alliances in order to obtain consent and legitimacy for their rule, which essentially influenced the trajectories of Sri Lanka’s state building. The findings of this research suggest that, due to the underlying principle of inequality and right-wing political ideologies present in the above hegemony building processes, the state building project has consequently been drifting away from the path of democratic state building and fermenting the conditions for realising hegemony of the right. The results of this study show several implications for state building at the scholarly and policy level. At the scholarly level, it shows the relevance of examining politics as usual and politics taken for granted. Further theoretically and methodologically this research shows the relevance of enaging with class and the dynamics of class relations for the study of Sri Lanka’s state building. At both the policy and scholarly levels, this study shows that in understanding the paths and dilemmas of state building, particularly in the contexts of civil war and post-civil war scenarios, it is not only the much debated and antagonistic inter-ethnic relations that should receive attention, but also the subtle hegemonic relationship formations and the hegemony building strategies taking place at the intra-ethnic community level. Last but not least, this study highlights the need for re-examining policies aimed at state building by considering state–in-society relations in the broadest possible manner, which is done by tracing the seemingly disconnected strategies that are being pursued by the political elites under changing social, political and economic contexts in both the local and global spheres. Jayasundara-Smits, S.M.S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37928/ 2012-11-06T00:00:00Z The transition and post-transition processes in Mongolia since 1989 have brought work insecurity to Mongolia. This research aimed at understanding diverse and complex urban livelihoods which emerged after the collapse of socialism, the evolving labour market, and increased migration. Despite its age, the Harris-Todaro model of migration is still a useful framework for understanding “excessive” migration in Mongolia. In Mongolia, people have been responding demographically, economically and socially to the changes in the political and economic system. We discover Mongolia has moved from dependent socialism (on FSU/Russia) to dependent capitalism (on China) since 1989 creating new forms of macro- economic imbalance. For the research, we conducted a household survey which covers 2,145 persons aged 12 and above in three urban locations in Mongolia. Dashtseren, A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37927/ 2012-11-05T00:00:00Z This study analyzes determinants of microenterprise success in the urban informal sector of Addis Ababa. The study uses a multidimensional analysis of success factors whereby internal and external factors of success are analyzed simultaneously. Success is represented by three indicators, namely employment growth, turnover growth and profit growth. A two-round survey of 286 microenterprises over a period of 28 months has allowed computation of annual average growth rates of these success indicators. The study is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter presents an introduction in which summarized issues to be examined in the thesis is presented. This is followed by Chapter 2, which presents the theoretical and conceptual framework of the study. The framework sets a stage for a multidimensional analysis of success. The methodology employed for the study is also discussed in the same chapter. The study uses descriptive statistics and econometric methods. A quantile regression approach is used to analyze success factors across various growth clusters. In Chapter 3, the country background is presented. Here an assessment of some macroeconomic performances has been done while providing the background information on microenterprises in the urban informal sector in Ethiopia as well. Garoma, B.F. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37940/ 2012-08-17T00:00:00Z Since independence, the Kenyan state claims to have pursued the principle of equal rights as an important part of its nation-building project. At the same time, Kenya’s population is differentiated economically and politically along ethnic lines with state resources benefiting mainly those communities close to the ruling elite. At the beginning of the 21st century, important political events took place that seemed to address these inequalities. Focusing on a ten-year period from 2000–2010, this thesis examines the nature of Kenyan state–society relations through the prisms of two social policies: free primary education and HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The thesis asks: what roles have the enactment of social policies and aid within decision-making arenas played in the configuration of the contemporary Kenyan state?; and how have ethnicities and local redistribution of resources shaped negotiations within the implementation arenas? Cifuentes Montoya, M.S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32246/ 2012-05-11T00:00:00Z Hindu nationalism has seen a dramatic growth in India and abroad from the nineteen eighties. This growth has coincided with – and relates in complex ways to – several other highly significant developments, including (in no particular order) the instituting of liberalization in the economy; the legislation on reservations for ‘Other Backward Castes’ and its implementation; the intensification of the integration of the middle classes into the global economy; and the intensifying pauperization of the rural poor. These developments as well as Hindu nationalism’s links with them have been the subject of scholarly attention from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. Apart from these however, one may also note the unfolding of less obvious, but equally significant and related developments in this period: the growth and intensification of female feticide and infanticide; the increase in dowry related violence and deaths; the targeting of women as objects of sexual violence, especially during communal riots, but also routinely; the increasing presence of women in rightwing organizations and mobilizations; an intensification in the policing of sexual discourses and sexuality; conversely and paradoxically, there has also been an increase in the visibility of women in the public sphere (through for instance, the widening of options for employment for women). Feminist scholarship has addressed several of these issues, independently and in their intersections; it has also addressed the rise of Hindu nationalism. However, there is little work on the relations that obtain between these issues and the more obvious ones set out above. Specifically, there was and remains a serious deficiency of attention to the relations between masculinity and Hindu nationalism. This study hopes to contribute towards addressing this deficiency in several ways. Firstly, it seeks to locate itself in the theoretical and analytical spaces between gender studies and political economy. It attempts to do so by reviewing and then parting from, the dominant trends in the theoretical and analytical debates on men and masculinity. In my thesis I have therefore focused, not on kinds and forms of masculinity – which remains the dominant approach in masculinity studies – but on the ways in which institutions, organizations and structures come to be gendered, and consequently, on the processes of gendering that are invoked in the articulation and elaboration of power within specific structural, institutional and/or organizational relations. I have sought to develop this argument specifically with regard to masculinity/ies by proposing the idea of ‘masculine hegemony’. Briefly, through this term I wish to suggest that uneven power distribution may be understood in Gramscian hegemonic terms, and that this hegemony is usually gendered as masculine. Any given society is organised along multiple and intersecting hierarchies of domination and subordination that determine the access to and exercise of power – the distribution and possession of its resources and rights – within it, as well as the terms within which that power is (to be) exercised. Further, the organisation of these hierarchies may be discerned as hegemonic formations that favour specific social groups and/or alignments. Any given hegemonic condition is thus layered by multiple and intersecting hierarchies of domination and subordination that extend far beyond conventionally recognised macro manifestations –race, nation, region, religion, community, class – to its manifestations at the fundamental ‘cellular’ (or in Gramsci’s terms, ‘molecular’) level of the family and the organisation of sexuality. Thus, while the multi-layered hegemonic formations that constitute the given hegemonic condition are all diversely marked by other signs – of race, class, age, region, religion, etc – they are all inflected by the foundational discourse of gender. This is the broad theoretical perspective within which the thesis is elaborated, because it provides for the multiple articulation of complex phenomena with each other, across history as well as across regions. Based on this, and secondly, it seeks to approach the issue of Hindu nationalism from a historical perspective. The study therefore begins by chronologically examining the term ‘Hindu’ and the various semantic and social transformations in its history, beginning with its early derivation from ‘Indus’, through the medieval period when it gradually but nebulously came to identify a community, to its coalescence into the more concrete religio-social entity that emerged through the colonial encounter and the caste and other reform movements of the nineteenth century, to its politicization under B G Tilak and V D Savarkar (among others) into a religio-cultural nationalism in the early part of the twentieth century. Crucial to understanding this evolution, the study argues, is the pan-Indian spread of the Brahmin castes (as opposed to the localized presence of the lower-castes), and the consequent identification of ‘Hindu’ territory with the presence of the Brahmins. In mapping this process, I emphasize the gender and caste dynamics inherent to the construction of this identity, especially in the concretizing of communal lines around the issue of personal laws, and elaborate on the economic, communal and political determinants of this gendered dynamic in the construction of the identity ‘Hindu’. It thus argues that the strongly Brahmanical caste-profile of the anti-colonial nationalist movement indicates the extent to which Brahmanical patriarchy (or masculine hegemony) and its practices came to define the hegemonic understanding of the identity ‘Hindu’ as well as ‘India’ – and continued to do so even after independence. The argument of the thesis is that, unless one takes account of these processes, it is difficult to fully comprehend the depth, scale and reach of Hindu nationalism – as a latent and as an active ideology. Thirdly, I argue the need to factor in another process in the understanding of Hindu nationalism, which also has its roots in the colonial encounter but which gains a different dynamic after independence: the idea and practice of ‘development’. The study proceeds to briefly historicize the idea of development and then to chart the trajectories of its implementation through the Nehruvian emphasis on Planning and state driven social change, and the consequent impact on the changing social, economic and political theatre of the country after independence. It analyses this impact specifically on the gender and caste dynamics of this period, arguing that the Brahmanical hegemony of the pre-independence period begins to transform in the seventies, as it negotiates with and then accommodates the increasing visibility and volubility of lower caste presence in the political domain. Similarly, even as women’s movements successfully moved the state to implement policies that actually empowered women and made possible their greater participation in the public sphere, the gradual and ongoing process of shifting control of the economy from the state to the private sector has ensured that safeguards for women, labor, lower castes and other marginal groups are almost non-existent, or at best, remain arbitrary and at the mercy of the private sector. The study proposes that the processes of liberalization and privatization were thus crucial to the transformation of Brahmanical masculine hegemony, in its strategies to retain hegemonic power. In other words, the study argues that the developmentalist agenda of the post-independence Indian state contributed, in no small measure, to the resurgence of Hindu nationalism on the political stage, from the late seventies and particularly in the eighties, into the present. Finally, the study explores the tensions and relations that obtain between the multiple dichotomies generated in the thesis – the personal and the political, the hegemonic and the hegemonised, upper caste and lower caste, Hindu and non-Hindu, masculine and feminine, modern and traditional, etc. I argue that Hindu nationalist positions should not be understood as manifest only in its organizational and/or institutional manifestations, but in and through this field of beliefs, actions and relations that constitute the masculine hegemony of Brahmanical patriarchy, within and from which Hindu nationalism finds its visceral roots. I close by proposing that unless we take cognizance of this, and look beyond the electoral performances of the Bharatiya Janata Party to the ways in which hegemonies are maintained using the very tools and structures intended to dismantle them we will not truly be able to counter the Hindu right or its masculinist violences. Vijayan, P.K. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38734/ 2012-04-26T00:00:00Z This study, which was conducted in the capital city of Tanzania - Dar es Salaam investigated the impact of urban infrastructure interaction on movement and safety in Dar es Salaam arterial roads. By studying characteristics of urban infrastructure interconnections, the study sought to establish the effects of urban infrastructure interactions on movement and safety in order to recommend strategies for ensuring sustainable improvement of movement and safety in the road corridors. There have been serious concerns about the effects of interaction of urban infrastructure on movement and safety, but this area has not been studied sufficiently so that relevant policy making organs and planners could be advice accordingly. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Data were collected through condition survey, questionnaires, interviews, documentary review, and observation using surveillance cameras. The results indicate that movement and safety are serious problems in the road corridors in Dar es Salaam. It was revealed that infrastructure within the road corridor exist in inevitable interdependencies, which significantly causes deterioration of each other while impairing movement and safety. Impairment is seriously escalated by mismatches in standards and lack of coordination of operators in planning, designing, installation including operational approaches. It is being suggested that in order to attain sustainable improvement of movement and safety, integrated high performance infrastructure has to be adopted; and for enhancing safety, a model has been developed for planners and engineers for evaluating safety compliance for existing and proposed infrastructure within the road corridors. Kayoza, C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32113/ 2012-04-12T00:00:00Z This study aims to understand why some children in rural Yemen stop their basic schooling while others do not. Basic schooling is defined as nine grades of compulsory schooling in Yemen. All of the children in the study had access to basic resources such as nearby schools, female teachers and piped water in their communities – all reasons identified in the literature as potential barriers to basic school completion. Despite improvements over the last two decades, Yemen continues to show some of the worst education statistics in the region. The international education development community has long identified Yemen as a focus country for education aid, which started in earnest in the early 1990s. Having only initiated its mass schooling system in the late 1960s and having only a handful of schools to start with, the initial focus of education development was on access. Enrolment increased dramatically in the system’s early decades, but school completion lagged behind and the gender gap remained wide. In the 2006/07 school year, gross enrolment rates in basic schooling were 64 per cent for girls and 74 per cent for boys. Only about half of the children who start also complete primary school (the first six grades of schooling). Grade repetition rates are high and many children start school later than the required age of six. Both of these factors contribute to children stopping school before they complete the nine grades. International education development aid continues to play an important role in Yemen’s schooling system, although at present (2011) due to recent changes in priorities of major donors and civil unrest, donor investment in the schooling system has come to a near halt. Schooling has also been disrupted by political turmoil, which has increased the chance still further that children will stop school. Maas, L.E.M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32112/ 2012-04-11T00:00:00Z Blandón López, A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32292/ 2012-03-19T00:00:00Z This research examines the potentials for various forms of institutional innovations in building competitiveness of smallholder agriculture in Tanzania. It is inspired by a review of stylized facts on the performance of the agricultural sector since 1961 in Tanzania, from which it is hypothesized that persistent structural and institutional constraints inhibit increases in productivity, quality, and output of smallholders. Agriculture continues to employ a significant proportion of the labour force, and the smallholders dominate production of both food and export crops. While some policies and interventions of post independence contributed to the poor performance in export crop production, structural adjustments and trade liberalization did not reverse performance as envisaged. Recognizing the weakness in the workings of market institutions based on the neoclassical abstraction of free markets, this research draws from institutionalist perspectives which invoke the embeddedness of markets in social structures in the analysis of competitiveness of smallholders’ export crop production. The core argument is that proactive and collective actions among market institutions and non-market institutions are crucial for addressing market failures and other policy and institutional rigidities that impede on competitiveness of smallholders. This research examines this question using an interdisciplinary approach through an in-depth inquiry of three case studies involving smallholder production of cash crops. Mmari, D. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31199/ 2011-12-22T00:00:00Z xv Abstract This thesis investigates the effect of a woman’s bargaining power on her welfare and that of her children in rural Ethiopia. The issue is of particular concern because, as empirical evidence shows, intra-household inequalities in welfare are frequently the direct consequence of inequalities in power positions within the household. Although much progress has been made in this area, the literature still shows substantial gaps. While it is evident that different bargaining power indicators capture distinct dimensions of women’s power, this is often ignored in the literature. Empirical analyses often work with the same narrow set of indicators, independent of the outcomes under study. Only a few studies have analyzed the distinct effects of specific dimensions and, hence, so far only little is known about what factors are relevant for which outcome. Using information from focus group discussions, this thesis shows that the factors that affect a woman’s bargaining power in this context originate from various dimensions. These include material and social resources, marital institutions, and the agency dimension. Using the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey dataset, the thesis analyses the effect of these dimensions on women’s participation in selfemployed off-farm work and various health outcomes. It also analyses the effect of the balance of power within a household on children’s labour and schooling outcomes. The study finds that women with better bargaining power have a lower probability of participating in off-farm self-employed work. This relationship remains the same during times of shocks when more participation in off-farm work is needed to supplement income declines. Dito, B.B. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31201/ 2011-12-22T00:00:00Z This study is concerned with the circulation, composition and character of the core political executive elite in post-colonial Nigeria over successive political regimes and with changing sources and levels of government revenue. The true riddle is perhaps not the instability of the post-colonial governments, as manifest in the frequent regime breakdowns accompanied by rapid turnover of the political executive elite. Rather, the larger puzzle lies in the composition and interactivity of the political executive elite since Nigeria’s independence in 1960. The incessantly troubled manner in which political leadership has changed raises serious doubts about societal influence on elite circulation, composition and character, and by extension, on the political system. This leads to the main question of this research, which is twofold: What social background and styles of interaction have characterized the circulation and composition of the core political executive elite in Nigeria? Have core political executive elite patterns limited the scope of the political system through the succession of different governments with shifts and influxes of economic resources in the post-colonial period? The main objective of the study is to analyse the historical and dynamic composition of the core political executive elite by looking at the periodic circulation (flow) of elite members from specific social and interaction backgrounds. Kifordu, H.A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/30657/ 2011-12-12T00:00:00Z Since the 1990 Jomtien Conference on Education for All, basic education in developing countries has attracted growing attention, both globally and do-mestically. Many policies have been initiated to improve educational access, quality and equity. While the accrued interest in education has followed a certain rationality, context-specific realities have nonetheless imposed dif-ferent turns on the planned interventions. An actor-oriented approach to policy study offers the opportunity to uncover how grassroots actors from the periphery unpack, transform and domesticate globally promoted educa-tion policies. Using an actor-oriented approach, the current study sets out to examine policy in practice. It focuses on grassroots actors in the implementation of a competency-based curricular reform in Benin’s primary education system. In Benin, the development promise attributed to the new curricular para-digm was quickly contradicted by considerable resistance from grassroots actors. Although opinions converged on the failure of the school system to yield satisfactory learning outcomes for students despite the unprecedented nature of the reform policy, actors in the system diverged on the probable causes of this shortcoming. The bone of contention in the debate was the new curricula, which had been initiated to improve Benin’s school system but instead came to exemplify problems of ownership and appropriation at the grassroots level. Bottom-up implementation scholars and normative discourse state une-quivocally that front-line actors’ ownership and appropriation of planned measures are prerequisites for the effective implementation of public policy. In this light, the current study examines the policy debate on the curricular reform in Benin to explore how the controversy affected implementation of the education policy. Set in the tradition of actor-oriented policy studies, the research follows a qualitative design, combining the techniques of extensive fieldwork, interviews, focus-group discussions, direct observations, docu-mentary investigation and analytic induction. Yessoufou, A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26856/ 2011-11-11T00:00:00Z Tourism cooperation at a Chinese regional level is a new phenomenon that has received much governmental and scholarly attention in recent years. This thesis examines regional tourism cooperation in China from a governance perspective. The research objective was formulated as identifing factors in international literature to explain the Chinese situation: iden-tify a set of factors of particular importance for the effectiveness of regional tourism cooperation in China. A theoretical framework is formulated, with eight factors, which are identified in international governance and tourism literature and are of particular importance for the effectiveness of regional tourism coopera-tion in China. The first four factors (political-economic features of tour-ism, commitment, leadership and motives) are related to the pre-cooperation process. We argue that practitioners of cooperation can face failure if they ignore these four factors while engaging immediately in cooperation. The last four factors (representation of stakeholders, involvement mechanisms, areas of cooperation and implementation structure) are related to the during-cooperation process. We argued that during cooperation, these four factors should be kept in mind to secure effective performance of regional tourism cooperation in China. In combination, we consider the above-mentioned eight factors as the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of regional tourism cooperation in China. Furthermore, the collective actions of these eight factors lead either to positive or negative cooperative outputs, such as the increase or decrease in the number of regional tourists. The theoretical framework was applied to three typical cases of tourism cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta Region: the Tourism City Summit of the Yangtze River Delta region, the Zhedongnan Tourism Alliance, and the projects catalysed by the Shanghai World EXPO 2010, each reflecting one prominent regional tourism cooperative modality in China (e.g. the long-term conference, long-term alliance and short-term project modalities). The empirical studies modified the eight factors identified in the literature with new explanations in the Chinese context. The thesis shows that these eight factors with the ‘new explanations’ are essential to the effectiveness of regional tourism cooperation in China, including: 1) the consistency between the goal of cooperation and the operational capacity or the political communication power of involved tourism bureaus; 2) more detailed actual commitment of primary stakeholders’ engagement; 3) a mechanism to secure the attendant equality of less-power primary stakeholders to access the cooperative resources; 4) collective motives of cooperation to be more quantitative, short-term response, and oriented to optimize the individual interests; 5) the representation of small or medium-sized travel agencies, economic chains or single hotels, and regional based tourism attractions (if they are defined by the cooperation as the primary stakeholders) in the decision-making process; 6) the consultative mechanism to incorporate opinions of secondary stakeholders into those of primary stakeholders in the decision-making process; 7) more priorities of cooperation, which incorporate clear action plans and explicit task descriptions; and 8) a stable attendance record of stakeholders, an institutionalized daily operational office, more qualitative indicators to evaluate the performance of cooperation, and a stable internal funding mechanism to secure the daily operations. The study is based on the Chinese context, which may limit its appli-cation to the case studies outside China. Importantly, however, this does not imply that the generalization and application of this research is problematic. The study can trigger research initiatives of other academics if their future studies require the incorporation of theories in a local context. In addition, the research findings are not rigidly confined to the tourism sector. It may be also applicable to other sectors concerning public-private partnerships at different spatial levels. In the future more studies weighing the importance of the identified factors for the effectiveness of regional tourism cooperation in China can be expected. The relevance of other factors such as social, psycho-logical and communication factors to the effectiveness of regional tour-ism cooperation in China may also be identified; or tests whether the current theoretical framework developed based on experiences in China would also work in Europe and other developed countries. Feng, X. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26113/ 2011-10-05T00:00:00Z A rapidly growing urban population leads to the dramatic increase of water consumption in the world. The water resources available to the human being are limited. Meanwhile climate variability and environmental pollution decrease the quantity of water resources available for human use. It is a significant challenge to provide sufficient water to urban residents in a sustainable and effective way. Facing urban water crisis, researchers point out a paradigm shift in urban water management for sustainable water supply and services. This requires multi-disciplinary approaches, including technical improvements and economic evaluations. Advanced technology can contribute to the solution of problems physically, but it may not ensure sustainable operation of water systems. The obstacles to sustainable water supply and services often are from non-technical problems such as low cost recovery, lack of sound pricing systems and sustainable financing for increasing service coverage. The financial and economic factors could be a large barrier to the operation of water systems. This research aims to use economics to assess water systems for sustainable urban water management. How to use economics on urban water systems and what contributions can economics bring to sustainable water management are the two main research questions in the thesis. Liang, X. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26111/ 2011-09-16T00:00:00Z This thesis examines child labour and schooling in Portugal from a historical and contemporary perspective and comprises three essays. Throughout the thesis, I attempt to strike a balance between research of the local context and a comparison with an international context. Goulart, P. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26110/ 2011-08-29T00:00:00Z This thesis focuses on the private sector involvement in solid waste collection, and the influence of private sector capacity and local governments‘ regulations on private sector performance. Private sector involvement in public service pro-vision evolved to deal with market and government failures (van Dijk, 2008b). The public sector is playing a leading role of purchaser (buyer) on behalf of citi-zens through subsidies and/or user charges, whiles the private sector is taking on an increasing role as provider (seller) of public services, and being regulated by the public sector to correct market failures associated with ‗public good‘ nature of solid waste service. It is believed that private sector involvement is a way to maintain market discipline and to bring private sector management and technical expertise and private finance into public service to achieve cost efficiency and better service provision (improve service quality) (Cointreau, 1994; Bartone, 2001; van Dijk, 2008b). Even though private sector involvement (PSI) provides opportunities for improved efficiency and service quality, the few studies on PSI in solid waste management in developing countries did not explore the private sector performance to ascertain the expected gains and the factors influencing efficiency and service quality at the firm level. The main objective of this research is to examine the evolving involvement of private sector in urban solid waste collection, and the factors explaining dif-ferences in performance of private sector companies. The main research question is: To what extent do capacity and regulation for solid waste provision influence private sector performance? Oduro-Kwarteng, S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31200/ 2011-06-24T00:00:00Z Mozambique has been a centralized State since its independence in 1975. During this time, local government has depended on the Central Government and has lacked autonomy in both local policy decisions and resource management in addition to the complete failure of effective local services delivery. However, from the first democratic local elections in 1998, municipalities have put in place new structures and more participatory processes to aid decision-making and implementation. They have also each elected a mayor and a municipal assembly, the latter representing local communities, and they have enjoyed more autonomy in decision-making and management of financial resources. The study seeks to assess the extent to which these new structures and decision-making processes are able to respond to the needs and wants of the communities they claim to represent. Considering that the aim of decentralization down to the local level is to cure the ills of centralization of decision-making, when devolving powers and competences to municipalities, it is important to develop local capacities for effective basic service delivery coverage. Since these are new institutions, the study also identifies and examines if the capacity-building initiatives delivered by Central Government, donors and non-governmental organizations to these municipalities address the gaps in their capacity to deliver services. Because decentralization is a relatively new phenomenon in Mozambique, there is a lack of literature in the area. This research contributes to fill the gap and provides a detailed framework that combines leadership, politics and local government capacities to translate participatory approaches to governance into positive results. This study took place in five Mozambican municipalities: Dondo, Matola, Manhiça, Nacala-Porto and Chimoio. The Mozambican municipal governments are meant to involve various actors, namely local community members, community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations, the private sector and others in the process of decision-making to respond to local needs effectively. The study looks at the following factors: leadership personal characteristics, institutional set-up and influence of political parties in decision-making. Apart from these political factors, this study examines other explanatory factors involving local government capacities namely the capacity to plan and make decisions, local government administrative capacity, local government financial management capacity and local government capacity to convene. These factors explain improvements in basic service delivery coverage. In some instances, ineffective leadership, inefficient administrative services and financial management explained poor service delivery coverage. Although the decentralization process is still relatively in its infancy, the research found that the existing municipal capacity to deliver services was still poor in most municipalities studied except Dondo and Matola. Apart from this, the impact of capacity-building initiatives delivered by donors, Central Government and non-governmental organizations to these new municipalities remained weak and municipalities still had shortage of qualified staff, infrastructure, finances, work materials and equipment. Because of these slow and weak capacity-building initiatives, local service delivery coverage was still unsatisfactory to local communities in most municipalities studied. In addition, although the Local Government Act (1997) seems to be clear and addresses most relevant issues concerning devolution, the Central Government resists change from fear of the unknown and departure from the status quo. Although it takes time for municipalities to learn and deliver services effectively, it seems that patron-client relationships pervaded the entire municipalization process, affecting service delivery negatively. In the end, a decentralization process intended as de-concentration for districts and devolution for municipalities became de-concentration for both districts and municipalities. Evidence also indicates that the party in power applies the majority democratic system to stifle political party competition and participation, to stimulate ruling party monopoly in decision-making, poor accountability and to limit the voice of the minority. In this regard, a single-party system is re-emerging in a country that claims to be a multiparty democracy. Machohe, A.P.J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22885/ 2010-11-02T00:00:00Z The thesis investigates police performance management in Maputo, which is the capital city of Mozambique. To conduct the analysis, it applies a multiangle and multi-factor framework that enables examination of core values and indicators of governance while taking into account the influencing factors within and around the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM). The thesis sets the stage for the investigation with an historical analysis of changes in socioeconomic and political factors over time, as well as an institutional analysis of the public sector context in which the police have been operating and a stakeholder analysis encompassing the courts, donors and urban communities. It evaluates organisational systems and dimensions in terms of patterns of human and material resources, management styles, and organisational cultures that have characterised the PRM from the one-party socialist regime adopted after independence in 1975 to multiparty democracy and open market system introduced through the Constitution in 1990. The analytical framework of the thesis combines capacity building, strategic management concepts and governance perspectives. In addition, literature on informality is used to interpret the reality observed in the field. The study’s relevance and importance lie in its unique approach. Instead of analysing police performance in the usual way through crime statistics and public opinion, it provides insights into the organisation and surrounding factors that shape the PRM performance management style. It goes beyond performance measurement and tries to understand whether and how the police manage their performance, by assessing the availability and usage of the systems, including vital databases, that are necessary for internal and external performance management and monitoring. ... Alar, F.I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32306/ 2010-10-04T00:00:00Z Material Abstract: Against a background of processes of rural change that are on the brink of unfolding in the Lao PDR and triggered by capitalist expansion and agendas of regional integration, the rural population has become increasingly mobile. Studies have shown that it is primarily the young population that is involved in migration, and a considerable proportion of these young migrants is below the age of 18 and, therefore, technically of child-age. Through the theoretical lens of rural change these young migrants are depicted as actors of social change who through their involvement in migration rework their own social position but also contribute to wider processes of change. However, young people’s involvement is mostly presented as an issue of human trafficking in which the young migrants are depicted as the victims of processes of capitalist expansion. This study has broken down the binary representation of young migrants as either victims of change or agents of change. Detailed ethnographic accounts have revealed the various structuring relations shaping different forms of migration in which young Lao are involved. It has further illuminated how young villagers, as social actors, subtly negotiate the process of becoming and not becoming a young migrant, and, once at migration destination, exercise agency in the workplace, although often in a constrained manner. These constraints, it is argued, are in part produced by the indigenisation of the modern notion of childhood and global migration discourses. The institutionalisation of a modern childhood contributes to bringing the young population within state spaces, allowing the state to impose itself on this politically important segment of the population for an increasing number of years. However, young people’s involvement in migration undermines these efforts, thereby, contributing to making the political space for addressing the urgent issue of harm in migration, other than by removing minors from migration, a very narrow one. Huijsmans, R.B.C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20824/ 2010-09-29T00:00:00Z The cluster approach continues to gain ground as a key strategy for industrial development in today’s globalised era. Nevertheless, not every country and cluster achieves the desired competitiveness goal of cluster development. While many cluster studies have examined factors and conditions that influence the success or failure of cluster development, most focus on only one or two aspects. But cluster development is a complex process that involves numerous interdependent actors and institutions. To develop clusters successfully, policymakers must view cluster development as a ‘process’ and understand their intertwining elements and mechanisms. This study, hence, develops a holistic framework for cluster policy analysis. This framework provides a better understanding of cluster development processes and mechanisms so as to bring about more effective formulation and implementation of cluster policy. The analytical framework takes account of the interplay and interrelationships of five key elements: (1) context and external factors, (2) cluster characteristics, (3) cluster governance, (4) the institutional modality of cluster intervention and (5) the effectiveness of the institutional modality. A case study approach and a multi-dimensional comparison of clusters across national contexts and sectors were applied as the main study methodology. Seven clusters in three sectors and in three country settings were purposively selected for comparative analysis. These include the Thai hard disk drive (HDD) cluster, the Taiwanese semiconductor cluster, the Malaysian electronics cluster, the Thai and Malaysian automotive and auto-parts clusters, and the Thai and Taiwanese orchid clusters. Onoparatvibool, P.