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Challenges in speaking topower should research

make recommendations?

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Remember for you are a

researcher first

Not a consultant

Not a social worker

Not a politician Not a journalist

Your primary task is to describe actualchange processes accurately and explainwhy they are as they are.

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Setting the scene

One challenge inherent in applied research is transforming a

practitioners problem into a researchable problem (White, 2009:30)

where critical debate in public is not an established convention, we

should avoid unwarranted assumptions about the accountability of

publicly processed information. (Mosse, 1994: 508)

what Pierre Bourdieu calls officializing strategies whereby the

particular interests of key sections of the community (sic?) become

identified with the general interest. (Mosse, 1994: 509)

Ardener proposed that in any society there are dominant modes of

expression generated by a dominant structure. It is these

articulations that are heard and listened to (Mosse, 1994: 514)

The questions uppermost in villagers minds ... are who are you,

and what is your interest in us?. (Mosse, 1994: 504)

These leaders, who ,, presented themselves as community leaders

to outsiders .... in fact wielded less influence within the community

than a second type of leader, the traditional tribal leader orpatel.

(Mosse, 1994: 505)

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NEPAL IN THE 1970s

All the global indicators suggested an economy in which

about half the population were in absolute poverty (notmuch difference now but depends on which survey isused).

Direct observations suggested many people sawthemselves in the middle of a civil society in which they

have a secure cultural place.

The poorest twenty percent were absolutely very poor,insufficient food for a preferred Nepalese diet.

Any political radicals faced cat and mouse censorship

and repression. Independent research with a Marxian worldview saw

little prospect ofState-led development. Improvementwas seen as depending on middle groups eventuallychallenging a heavily aided, non-developmental State

happened relatively peacefully in 1990.

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FIJI IN THE 1980s

The global indicators suggested a middle income economy with very

little absolute poverty that had used a post-colonial independencehoneymoon well.

Regular multi-party elections were fairly competed and a local massmedia was accessible to challenging ideas.

There were less than ten percent of the population in deep relativedeprivation who could be easily raised above a generously

contextualised poverty line. But the big challenge was convincing people that ethnic culturaldifference was not the fundamental division in society opportunistically used by elite politicians from both ethnic groups toblock deliberation on social justice.

But EU funded research could speak to power e.g. removingpoverty through a tax financed welfare programme. A sovereign,

developmental State model. The rise and fall of the Fiji Labour Party and the role of external

interests in political de-stabilisation and still the coups go on in asociety going nowhere.

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PAKISTAN IN THE 1990s

The global indicators suggest a large number of the worlds poor

were in Pakistan. Using a livelihoods framework, there seemed to behigh underemployment in terms of time, productivity and incomes.

The society is also highly gendered to the acute disadvantage ofwomen, leaving them highly vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic shocks.

The State is highly militarised (even when under nominal civilian

rule) and is easily distracted from developmental activities by highstake games in the global political order

Male private sector employment in some globalised industries pluslarge-scale international migration was very important in increasingincomes in some areas of the country, but has done little in reducinginequality or poverty.

Logical positivist primarily quantitative research for a UN agency

predicted an unsustainable economy ten years ahead. Conclusion:enabling people to help themselves, hinting at political instability asthe alternative.

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AT THE TURN OF

THE MILLENNIUM Since the structural transformation of the global oil market in the

1970s, the United Arab Emirates had undergone massive changes,notably in the creation of an apparently globalised labour forcedrawn from all over the world.

The private sector macro-labour market appears to be global in thatit includes people from many countries (98% of the private sectorworkforce), but de facto it is segmented in that most workplaces arenational or even more local micro-labour markets. This was a factorin UAE nationals having little access to private sector employmentwith a risk of cultural disaffection.

The formal/legal and non-formal/illegal labour market frontier wasshifting and demands for representation by foreign labour wereincreasing.

The UAE government had political fears of loss of authority and was

moving towards increased restrictive regulation to improve thequality of its labour force and create openings for nationals in theprivate sector.

Government funded research sought to improve UAE nationalsemployment in a culturally sensitive fashion. Seen through aresource curse lens, the prospects for radical change were seen asvery limited, ineffective authoritarianism as the most likelygovernment response.

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PALESTINE NOW

A society that thinks middle income (judged by incomes

among the diaspora) but many people have lost virtuallyall their local livelihoods.

Over fifty years for many people being labelled asrefugees being fed by the UN system.

Day to day deprivation of human rights basic mobility

restrictions, loss of productive assets, no legal redressfor mental and physical abuse, detention without trialwith consequences for gender and inter-generationalrelationships.

Poverty as insecurity in day to day life, dependency onaid, and absence of collective freedom.

World Bank financed impact evaluation (research?) of aNGO sectoral support project. Human rights worldview ofa well intentioned sticking plaster.

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SOUTH SUDAN NOW

Emerging from twenty years of civil war (weapons widely available),

no international developmental indicators. All people met at village level live materially very simply but many

with strong local cultural systems (are they in poverty?) someculturally value high local mobility, others accept mobility as aprecaution in case of further violence.

A relatively egalitarian society in material terms, fuzzily genderedthough women are structurally more vulnerable (despite increasingbride prices).

A sense of improvement and potential for environmentally andculturally sustainable further development locally, though perhapsover-optimistic about the long term returns from formal education.

A government starting from virtually zero technical skills, but large oilrevenues. Real risks of further violence internally in the south plus

full military conflict with the north. Research for an INGO into local rural development interventions

found a mixed performance challenges of moving from anemergency relief to a developmental mindset. Telling a storyrather than making recommendations.

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Choices in speaking to power/speaking to truth?

1. Nepal radical pessimism and waiting for arevolution

2. Fiji a developmental State and poverty

reduction recommendations

3. Pakistan a developmentally failing State and

a conditional warning about the long term future

4. United Arab Emirates a vulnerable State and

questioning growing authoritarianism5. Palestine a non-State and recording injustice

6. South Sudan a non-State and improving

very local participatory, deliberative processes