Development in difficult sociopolitical contexts fragile, failed, pariah preface

This edited volume explores development in the so-called 'fragile', 'failed' and 'pariah' states. It examines the literature on both fragile states and their development, and offers eleven case studies on countries ranking in the 'very high alert' and 'very high warning' categories in the Fund for Peace Failed States Index.

Development in fragile states and situations: theory and critique

This chapter examines the evolution of ‘fragile’ and ‘failed’ state terminology noting the background to the ideas and examining the theorisation around the concepts, before surveying the literature on development in ‘fragile’ and ‘failed’ states in some depth. The OECD Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations are examined in particular, together with the follow-up OECD fragile state evaluations and related literature, as the primary and often normative guidance on development in ‘fragile’ or ‘failed’ states. A range of alternatives and critiques are explored. This chapter, therefore, sets the literature and theory in place as a backdrop for the diversity of case studies presented in Part II of this volume.

Is global citizenship possible, and can international schools provide it?

This article questions the notion of global citizenship, arguing that it is not possible in strictly legal terms as there is no global state that could guarantee citizenship. However, metaphorically there are several possible conceptions of global citizenship. These are examined along with associated notions of global education. The issue of for whom such global citizenships might be possible is addressed, as is the issue of what citizenship might mean in failed states. It is suggested that international schools will respond variously to this variety of conceptions of global citizenship, and that where they locate themselves within this complex of metaphors will have major impact on their presentation of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Beyond the usual suspects: complexity of fragility and analytical framework

Development in so-called ‘fragile states’ has become a key priority for the international community over the past few years, but international actors have not yet adequately incorporated sufficiently nuanced understandings of fragility into policies or practices. The increasing proportion of the world’s poor living in fragile contexts, the depth of human need in these contexts, and the potential regional spillover implications of this fragility, all make this an urgent concern. This chapter examines this growing need and discusses the origins and methodological approach in this volume, before setting up the rest of the book with definitions and an analysis framework. The chapter concludes with a summary of the book chapters and contributions.

Critiques and alternatives: development in contexts of fragility

The question of effective development in fragile contexts is increasingly significant, but as the literature and case studies throughout this volume have shown, the existing literature and principles for development effectiveness are built on a narrow conceptualisation of fragility. By exploring case studies that go well-beyond the ‘usual’ examples of ‘fragile states’, this volume has demonstrated that a much broader range of fragile contexts (set of causes and characteristics) exist, requiring a much more nuanced range of principles and approaches. This concluding chapter therefore summarises the key critiques of development theory and practice in fragile contexts found woven throughout the literature review and case studies, then offers tentative first steps towards more nuanced, context-specific recommendations for the roles of development actors, development approaches and modalities of interaction with structures and use of power in development, arranged according to thoughts around potential key drivers and characteristics of fragility, as illustrated by the case studies.

Evaluating a measure of content quality for accounting narratives (with an empirical application to narratives from Australia, Hong Kong, and the United States)

This paper evaluates a texture-based approach developed by Sydserff and Weetman (1999), to examine corporate annual report narratives. This is achieved by using the texture index to evaluate information content (which includes readability) in accounting narratives. Specifically, we examine the letter to shareholders of reports from Australia, Hong Kong and the United States.

We suggest a texture-based evaluation provides a robust measure of narrative quality due to the incorporation of readability and content analysis. The ability to measure content quality assists in promoting accountability, with the aim of improving usefulness of corporate
information and disclosures, and greater investor confidence in capital markets.

This paper also investigates these exploratory results to consider variations in quality between different countries. Considerable differences were found between the countries with Hong Kong reports generally superior. These tentative findings provide a small contribution to the comparative annual report literature and the emerging area of narrative evaluation.

The Canadian response to Aboriginal residential schools : lessons for Australia and the United States?

The common policy of the Australian, Canadian and United States governments of removing aboriginal children from their families and placing them in institutions is now well documented. This article considers the responses to the stolen generations in Australia, Canada and United States. A major focus of the article is the historic compensation package agreed to by the Canadian government. Whilst the Canadian federal government has not been without criticism on this issue, it must be applauded for its efforts to meet a peaceful solution to a tragic past. The political responses in Australia and United States and Canada are simply incomparable. The failure to address the plight of the stolen generations of Australia and the United States evidences a major failing in Indian/Aboriginal policy in these two nations that needs to be addressed. Australia and the United States have much to learn from the reconciliatory policies of the Canadian government.

The influence of climate change on Thorthwaite moisture index on the design of light structures

Significant long term changes in the earth’s climate have occurred in the past but recently there has been more severe climate fluctuation than have occurred in the past few centuries. The effect of this climate change on the foundation conditions of roads and low-rise buildings is costing several hundred billion dollars world-wide. A method which tracks this climate change will be of great value for companies and governments. C.W. Thornthwaite (1948) defined the Thornthwaite Moisture Index (TMI) as the first base for his climate classification system and mapping in the United States. There are 3 important factors to predict ground movement: (a) the degree of moisture index change (b) the depth at which this change occurs and (c) the foundation soil type. The water budget model was used by Thornthwaite (1948) to calculate the moisture index. This paper also discusses two typical examples of the use of this model. Originally TMI’s were mainly used to map soil moisture conditions for agriculture but soon became a method to predict environmental and pavement foundation changes.

Post-colonial states, ethnic minorities and separatist conflicts : case studies from Southeast and South Asia

Post-colonial states in the Asian region have frequently been subject to political tensions derived from their multi-ethnic make-up and, what some have argued to be, the failure of states to adequately represent the interests of their ethnic minorities. This article will look at examples of where states in Asia have failed to adequately represent or otherwise incorporate their ethnic minorities as full and equal citizens. It also considers the range of responses to such perceived or actual state failure in adequately incorporating all citizens, including inter-ethnic and racial violence and separatist conflict. The article will conclude by considering conceptual and actual models of state organization intended to resolve racial and ethnic tensions in the Asian region.

Creating the Iraq cultural property destruction database: calculating a heritage destruction index

Over the past decade there have been constant reports of damage to significant cultural property in several complex (post-)conflict and (post-)revolutionary states. Recent events in Syria, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Afghanistan and Iraq – as devastating as they have been for people – have also had dramatic consequences for a number of important cultural heritage sites. Despite the severity of these events and global concern, the field of heritage studies has not developed a methodology for cataloguing such heritage destruction in a database. Addressing this paucity in the literature, this article details the methodology developed to produce the Iraq Cultural Property Destruction database, the world’s first database to document the destruction of cultural property in Iraq. This article also documents the calculation of the Heritage Destruction Index – a scale for measuring both the heritage ‘significance’ of a site and the overall level of destruction. Finally, this article also demonstrates the manifold uses of such a database in measuring and monitoring heritage destruction in Iraq. This study therefore sets a significant precedent in heritage studies by providing methods that can be applied to other contexts (past, present and future) to document the destruction of cultural property in complex contexts.

Development in Kyrgyzstan : Failed State or Failed Statebuilding?

This chapter examines the tensions present in approaches to development in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that development in this small post-Soviet republic has been approached primarily as formal statebuilding (Marquette & Beswick 2011), implying a belief that domestic political institutions and processes are the primary cause of fragility and that the adoption of democratic institutions and free market economic policies will result in development. The consequences of this inherently normative endeavour are explored in terms of the local political economy that has developed since independence and especially in the 2000s. Centrally, it is demonstrated how the competing interests and priorities of donors and local elite have undermined development efforts. On the basis of this analysis, it is suggested that rather than being framed as a failing or failed state, Kyrgyzstan is better understood as a case of failed statebuilding that cannot be remedied by the adoption of the current principles for development in fragile states situations, as adopted by the international community. Instead, the focus needs to be on facilitating the rebuilding of state-society relations both locally and internationally with a view to beginning to check the marketization of the state that has occurred.

Mapping 100 years of Thornthwaite moisture index: Impact of climate change in Victoria, Australia

Geographer C. W. Thornthwaite proposed in 1948 a moisture index called Thornthwaite Moisture Index (TMI) as part of a water balance model for a new classification system for climate. The importance of TMI climatic classification has been recognised in many areas of knowledge and practice worldwide over the last 60 years. However, although past climate research was focused on developing adequate methods for climate classification, current research is more concerned with understanding the patterns of climate change. The use of TMI as an indicator for climate change is still an incipient area of research. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, it is to fully document a methodology based on geostatistics adopted to produce a time series of TMI maps that are accurate and have high spatial resolution. The state of Victoria, in Australia, over the last century, is used as the case study. Second, by analysing these maps, the paper presents a general evaluation of the spatial patterns found in Victoria related to moisture variability across space and over time. Some potential implications of the verified moisture changes are discussed, and a number of ideas for further development are suggested. © 2014 Institute of Australian Geographers.

Saving the United States from lurching to another sentencing crisis: taking proportionality seriously and implementing fair fixed penalties

We make recommendations regarding how the United States cansignificantly lower its incarceration rate, while at the same time ensuring that community safety is not diminished. Moreover, we identify and recommend a consolidation and extension of the positive aspects of the current sentencing regime.