Browsing by Subject "development"

This thesis is an investigation of the explanatory capacity of dependency theory in the context of the Argentine Republic from the start of the 20th Century to the COVID-19 pandemic. Explicitly, the research question is: to what extent, if any, can dependency theory explain the evolution of Argentine economic history? The core of the thesis is based on discussion concerning dependency theory as put forth by various scholars, especially dos Santos, Prebisch, and Tansey and Hyman. Argentina is a case study wherein dependency theory can be evaluated, as the country has had struggles developing and industrializing, and has utilized policy prescriptions encouraged by dependency theorists, such as import-substitution industrialization. Dependency theory is explained and analyzed using four tenets central to the theory as outlined by Tansey and Hyman. The theory’s explanatory capacity is tested/evaluated first quantitatively through empirical research, regressions, and a search for statistically significant correlations, then qualitatively through an analysis of Argentine economic history in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Empirical data were also utilized to supplement the qualitative analysis. Empirical findings demonstrated little evidence to support some dependency theory claims, such as negative impacts from conspicuous consumption, and showing meager negative correlations between dependency and economic development. The qualitative analysis suggested that dependency theory has some explanatory power for the reality and struggles of the Argentine economy in the earlier half of the 20th Century, but struggles to explain Argentina's reality in a more modern context. Overall, the Argentine experience does not reflect what dependency theory would expect. The growing importance of international capital, capital markets, and financialization has left dependency theory seemingly outdated. A narrow focus on the core-periphery dichotomy seems to hold the theory back from providing a functional explanation of the Argentine economy today. This thesis has also allowed for insight into the historical and contemporary flaws of the Argentine economy and its weak industrialization, including economic mismanagement, political strife, and a damaging pursuance of import-substitution industrialization.

This thesis examines water grabbing for the avocado agribusiness in the Petorca River located in Central Chile. I argue that avocado agribusiness has turned into what I will call avocado extractivism. Avocado agribusiness functions within an extractive export-development model that perpetuates coloniality under the current economic and political world system. Avocado extractivism alters the bodies, minds, and eco-social spaces of humans and other-than-humans. Furthermore, avocado extractivism prolongs gender, race, and indigeneity inequalities ingrained in Chilean society since colonial times. The research questions that allowed me to unravel the eco-social vulnerabilities and barrenness created by avocado production are the following: • What has the avocado agribusiness done in Petorca? • Why has the expansion of avocado plantations been promoted as development? • How has avocado extractivism impacted communities in the Petorca Province? Through ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews, I carried out a thematic analysis that led to the following global themes: Mentality of inquilinaje; imaginary of development; accumulation by dispossession; encounters and contentions between water ontologies; barrenness; resistances; alternatives to avocado extractivism, and the political agency of water. These themes explain how avocado extractivism exists thanks to a water governance system that privatizes water and separates water and land rights stated in Pinochet’s 1980 constitution. Under this legal structure, avocado producers maneuver the current water code to accumulate water and land to grow avocado plantations. Unfortunately, this process has exacerbated vulnerabilities among humans and other- than-humans in the area. I conclude that avocado extractivism is, in essence, maldevelopment supported by the Chilean state and immersed in the global development apparatus that serves the global capitalist system. Avocado extractivism works within a neoliberal framework reinforced by the coloniality of power and unequal power relations between the Global South and the Global North. Furthermore, this thesis examined resistance and alternatives to avocado extractivism articulated by grassroots and eco-feminist movements. These alternatives contest the dominant ontology of water as a natural resource by proving that a more harmonious future is possible if a multiverse of onto- epistemic perspectives participates in the design of water governance. Ultimately, the resistances and alternatives to avocado extractivism aim at introducing relationality in the existences of humans and other-than-humans in Petorca.

This master thesis addresses the concentration of land ownership and land use in Colombia. I focus especially on unallocated state lands, which are called Baldíos. The study on the usage of these lands is important for many reasons, one being the lack of critical studies on their grabbing by elites. Officially, Baldíos should be used in land redistribution programs for landless peasants and other rural poor populations. This should take through an administrative process wherein the State issues property titles to landless peasants; however, as the research done for this thesis uncovered, there are serious problems and wrongdoings in this process. Theoretically, the thesis criticizes the overall development model that is seen as explaining the problematic land grabbing of the Baldíos in the studied Colombian Altillanura region. The crippling effects of the 50 years of armed conflict and the increasing demand for agrofuels receive also critical analysis, given their centrality as processes that are intermeshed with the overall, problematic developmental process. The outcomes of this master thesis are derived from fieldwork conducted in Colombia during July, 2017. The research material consists of 1) various interviews with representatives of land administrative offices, 2) a database that I collected on the extension of different types of cash crops, allocation of property rights, distribution of Baldíos, and numbers on forced displacement. This database was systematically analyzed using various methods and statistical software programs. I also produced a cartography that geographically opens up the key relations between the variables. Thereafter, qualitative, quantitative and geographical methods support the findings of this research. The key analytical concepts used are primitive accumulation, accumulation by dispossession and social capital. I explain how the use of these concepts is fruitful for critical understanding a so-called ‘modern’ dynamics that result however in violent scenarios of land grabbing and sophisticated but predatory practices, such as legal trickery, creation of shell companies and the illegitimate use of public resources. Through these analytical concepts, I relate my findings with important, contemporary global dynamics, such as the promotion of agroindustries in places formerly dominated by family farming. Such projects require considerable investment and use of natural resources. As I show, this may imply the acquisition of land or its control through mechanisms other than ownership. The findings suggest that the processes of expanding cash crops, forced displacement and grabbing Baldíos are interrelated. This holds true especially in the Altillanura region, where I found that: 1. Large investors are prone to take advantage of forced displacement by purchasing the dispossessed lands at low prices and thereby making large profits. 2. Agroindustrial actors have been grabbing former Baldíos; a practice that is completely prohibited. This is made possible by using complex extra-legal mechanisms, such as the creation of various fictional juridical identities to purchase these lands. And finally, that 3. Social influence and status are still valuable assets for accessing lands in Colombia, also illegally. The conclusions explain how these circumstances are due to pervasive armed confrontation and pressures from international markets. These are developmental problems resulting from a model that sees small farmers as an inconvenient and incapable mass of people that uses obsolescent and ineffective methods of agriculture. Currently, agroindustries turn these peasants’ social status and possibilities to that of mere salaried workers. This is unfortunate, as I explain, since small-scale agriculture can be profitable, and should be given more priority in the developmental policies allocating state lands.

Summary This study looks at the way in which the good works inspired by religious motives are related to the secular understanding of development. The aim is to better understand how development workers with religious worldview define the concept of development and how their faith influences their thinking. Faith is understood as the source of values based on which the ideas of development are shaped. The task is approached by interviewing the Finnish staff members of a Pentecostal development organization, Fida International. Their staff members’ understanding of development is studied. Development as a religious concept is formulated based on the interviews. The background chapters give the context of the study by introducing the debate and connections between the concepts of religion and development. Also an introduction of the capability approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum is provided since in this study it represents the secular understanding of development. The key concepts of the approach: functionings, agency and development are used to analyze how religious values influence the understanding of development. Chapter four introduces the research material, the methods and the process of analysis. The data consist of 16 interviews carried out in East Africa by the author in the spring of 2016. In chapter five the results of the analysis are presented. The valued functionings that emerge from faith were: fulfilling God’s call, living out one’s faith, deliverance and trusting God, spiritual growth, freedom from guilt through God’s forgiveness and mercy, and achieving balance and harmony. The results are brought together to formulate a definition of development as religious concept. Chapter six reflects on the results in relation to the literature focusing on the religious perception of development. The elements that faith brings to the secular understanding of development are intertwined around the holistic approach in which the economic, political, social and spiritual dimensions of development cannot be viewed separately. Therefore, the relationship between God and the human becomes central. The human finds his ultimate purpose and thus the aim of development within God in his Kingdom. Therefore, faith widens the time perspective of development from this life into eternity. According to the interviewees of the study God has called the human to love him by loving his neighbors. Solidarity, equality and just world become the aim of development within the time frame of this life. To reach there, to have Shalom in this life already, was seen as too idealistic. Therefore, the aim of the man-made development process within this time frame emerges with the ultimate aim of development, the life in God’s Kingdom in the eternity.

Chinese infrastructural investments in Africa have increased significantly. In mainstream development studies, such investments are strongly encouraged due to their potential to create economic growth and modernisation. Because of controversies around such projects, regarding their impacts on the economy and locals, they require continuing political-economic analysis. Using Lamu Port in Kenya as a case study, this thesis provides a critical analysis of the justification, planning, implementation and construction processes of the project are examined especially from the point of view of local artisanal fishermen. Framed around the theory of social costs developed by K.W.Kapp, as a critique of neoliberal modernisation, fieldwork was carried out in Lamu to systematically analyse both the official justification of the project and the perceptions of local fishers and other locals on the impacts of the port construction on their lives. Data collected from one-on-one interviews have been systematised using Attride-Stirling’s thematic networks analysis. Along with a textual analysis of original official documents by the Government of Kenya and the LAPSSET authority, the thesis avoids earlier problems of methodological nationalism and, instead, develops a holistic analysis of social costs. The results show that, while some local jobs have been created, they are temporary and marginal and are nowhere near significant enough to make up for the undermining of local livelihoods through the reduction of fish stocks. A wider question of food security and long-term job security needs to be raised. The local economy before the construction of the port was stagnant, but it was stable. New jobs related to port construction proved not to be available. Widespread discrimination against locals further complicates the social costs of public-private enterprise. These results show a lack of congruence between the statements by the Government of Kenya, the optimism by international development agencies, and modernisation theorists on the one hand and the lived realities of fishers on the other. The transnational corporations constructing the port in this case the China Communications Construction company have, in the meanwhile, continued to make more profit and increased the price of their share on the world market. This disconnect indicates one way in which development projects are socially constructed and justified, while the dominance of a profit-oriented capitalistic system shifts costs of production to third parties and the environment in order to continue to extract profit from the Global South. As these social costs are systemic, their remedy would require restructuring the institutional foundations of the local, national, and global political economy of development and change

This study discusses the importance of artistic practices and community arts centres for development understood as a process of social and individual emancipation. Specifically, the study looks at emancipation from the point of view of overcoming social and psychological hindrances to the autonomy of an individual. The empirical case under scrutiny is a community centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, its arts and crafts project (ACP) and one of its drama projects. The study asks, what is the role of the projects in project participants’ lives, and what kinds of spaces the projects are. Initially, I assumed that the role of the creative action taking place in the projects, as critical theory suggests, would be substantial for the participants, because of the “learning by doing” taking place in the projects, and because of bigger “ownership” of one’s own doing, when compared to, for example, school environments. The research material is derived from 18 interviews, observations, written products of the projects, and my field and research diaries, which compose the text for hermeneutic analysis. The research questions were developed and further answered through a hermeneutic process of dialogue with this text. The analysis results in new ‘facts’ that answer the research questions, as is the nature of results in hermeneutic studies. These facts, or, the findings, support the assumption about the importance of the method of learning by doing, and ownership of one’s doing, but turn the emphasis towards the social context of the projects. The projects had a great impact in the project participants’ lives in two intertwined spheres. These are: 1) sphere of learning, and 2) sphere of “feeling at home”. The projects enhanced the participants’ feeling of freedom. One of the main reasons for this was the non-discriminatory social environment of the projects, especially regarding non-discrimination based on socio-economic class. In the study, I argue that both projects contributed to the emancipation of their participants. The theoretical framework of development as emancipation, which is discussed with the empirical part of the study, is founded on the Freirean concept of humanisation, the capabilities approach as developed by Martha Nussbaum, and the idea of orienting towards objects formulated by Sara Ahmed. The study is an addition to the recent body of research on community arts centres in South Africa, conducted by South African researchers such as Gerard Hagg, Eben Lochner, Thamsanqa Mzaku, and Zanele Madiba.

Uganda’s recent oil discoveries have been described as one of the largest onshore findings in Africa within the past 20 years. It has been estimated that there are 6.5 billion barrels of oil in the Albertine Graben, of which about 1.4 are recoverable. Since the foreign and national stakeholders have launched their oil investment projects, concerns around human and environmental rights violations have been raised internally and internationally. Whereas much scientific work has been produced on oil in Africa, most of this can be placed under the concise umbrella of resource blessing and resource curse. The approach of ‘extractivism’ has come to challenge this simplistic dichotomy, but most of the work about extractivism focuses on Latin America. This thesis, thus, contributes to this growing body of literature. It does so by investigating the discourses that the Ugandan state and the transnational corporation TotalEnergies utilize to promote extractivism in Uganda. More specifically, this thesis aims to answer two questions, namely, what justification methods does the Ugandan state use to legitimate oil extractivism in the Lake Albertine region, and how does the oil corporation Total reproduce narratives of extractivist mindset in legitimizing its operations in the Albertine Graben? Data were collected from policy documents, newspaper articles, and website material. The methods of critical discourse analysis and content analysis and the approaches of extractivism and postcolonialism are applied. The findings show that the Ugandan state legitimates oil through five discourses, namely: economic arguments, employment and social arguments, no substantial ecological effects arguments; statements for energy poverty, energy security, and just transition; and stigmatizing critics arguments. Total uses three distinct discourses, namely, self-regulation and best practice, social and developmental arguments, and no substantial ecological effects arguments. These discourses, while reproducing the extractivist mindset, should be taken seriously as they have severe implications for the wider world.

This thesis discusses Yemeni civil society in the context of development aid using Bourdieu’s social theory. It examines the hypothesis that Yemeni aid-civil society comprises a distinct social class in the Bourdieuan sense. It is an analysis of restrictive and asymmetrical structures and the possibilities for social movement and repositioning. Often times Yemeni civil society is studied through a strictly local lens and is pinned down in normative terms; does it represent a popular base, is it donor-driven, is it democratic -in other words, does it fit into the pre-cut mould of civil society as envisioned by development aid or by society at large? Instead this thesis studies aid-civil society as a social class and attempts to understand how this social class is constituted by its members and how, in turn, it constitutes its members. The thesis also presents an initial attempt to broaden the framework and shed light on the position of Yemeni aid-civil society in relation to broader civil society trends and shifting relations between state and society - a phenomenon that is not exclusive to Yemen. The analysis of the social space is done in three stages; the first is through determining the perceptible distinctions that mark the outer boundary of the social space from other social groups; the second is through analysing legitimation practices articulated in the form of putative roles and functions of aid-civil society; and the third is the relational tensions and hierarchies which lead to the clustering of practices in different fields within the social space. Together these three dimensions provide an outline of the social space and allow for a discussion on the possible forms of social movement through which agents assert their subjectivity.

This Master’s thesis has two sections. The first section is a methodological introduction that presents the data collection and analysis methods. The second part is an article ’Household energy technologies in voluntary carbon markets: storylines of co-benefits’ that has been sent to the international, peer-reviewed journal Global Environmental Change. The thesis examines how the co-benefits of voluntary carbon market offset projects are conceptualized in household energy technology projects. Carbon markets have been presented as one of the solutions for climate change mitigation. In carbon offsetting, emissions produced in one place are compensated through reducing emissions elsewhere. Offset projects have been financed especially in the global South. In addition to reducing emissions, carbon offset projects are justified on the basis of creating local co-benefits. The focus of this thesis is on the voluntary carbon markets, where the price of emission reduction credits is influenced by perceptions of created co-benefits. Household energy technologies are technologies that produce emissions reductions either through increasing energy efficiency or using renewable energy. Three technologies that have been popular project types in the voluntary carbon markets are examined, namely improved cookstoves, ceramic water purifiers and biodigesters. The popularity of the technologies is based on win-win assumptions where the technologies are seen to tackle multiple goals, such as climate mitigation and development. The research material consists of interviews with 18 experts. The interviewees consisted of representatives of NGOs, carbon offset project developers, donors, carbon standards and entrepreneurs. The interviewees were selected based on their familiarity with household energy technologies and voluntary carbon markets. The interviews were conducted in Cambodia in March 2013. In addition, publicity material, speeches and documents from an international seminar on clean cooking was reviewed. The concept of storylines is used to examine how the co-benefits of household energy technologies are conceptualized. Storylines are middle-range concepts that enable a discourse-analytical approach to research. What is viewed as a relevant problem, how it has been created, how it should be solved and by whom are all important elements of a storyline. The research presents three different storylines through which the co-benefits of household energy technology projects are conceptualized in voluntary carbon offset projects. The first storyline focuses on the impacts of the technologies on the users’ health. The storyline emphasizes the efficiency of the technologies as key to producing health impacts. The second storyline criticizes current ownership practices in carbon offset projects. The storyline claims that the greatest co-benefits would be realized if users would receive monetary compensation for the emissions reductions they produce. The third storyline emphasizes the role of developing local markets for the technologies. In the storyline, co-benefits are realized when local employment is improved and local markets developed. The first and third storyline were the most dominant ones in the analyzed material. Both storylines stressed the importance of scientific expertise and markets. The storylines differed in their views towards supporting local markets for producing the technologies versus importing more efficient technologies. The critical stance of the second storyline towards current practices in carbon credit revenue distribution was less present in the research material. Discursive forms, such as storylines, can influence what type of projects succeed in creating positive images and receiving better prices for the emissions reductions produced. How the co-benefits of household energy technologies are conceptualized carries material implications through influencing what type of projects are successful in the voluntary carbon markets.

The purpose of this study was to describe and get a deep understanding of pedagogical change process. The phases of pedagogical change process and the nature and the role of teacher's pedagogical thinking in it were mapped. The change process as a whole was also modeled. The previous research of teaching change process has had been scarce on an individual teacher level, but on a school level it has been investigated abundantly. The theoretical background of this study consists of theories of teacher's pedagogical thinking and action and how their thinking and action change and develop. Teacher change has been researched from the point of view of both school change and professional development. The basic principle in the theoretical frame is that change in teacher's thinking leads to change in action. Three men teachers and a woman teacher who have put change into practice took part in this study. The data consisted of two parts: teachers' essays of their change process and interviews that were based on the essays. The data was analysed by content analysis. The categorizations of both parts of the data were made separately but they were interpreted together. In this way a deep understanding of pedagogical change process could be reached. The results of this study were descriptions of the phases of pedagogical change process and the nature and the role of teacher's pedagogical thinking in it. In addition a model of pedagogical change process was presented. Pedagogical change process started up because of disorder in teacher's pedagogical thinking and action. The disorder leads to an absolute necessity to change the activities. Change activities stabilize throughout intuitive experiments and reflection-on-action. The change in a teacher's thinking is a prerequisite for the start of the process but also, a teacher's thinking develops as a result of the process. Thus, the whole process results in a real, deep level change in instruction and in the teacher's thinking. That is why pedagogical change processes are visible, significant and they have wide and extensive effects. The study gives out information of controlling the change processes. Consequently, the results of this study encourage teachers to confront change and put their new ideas into practice.