Understanding the root causes of informal economic activity is crucial for the effective governan... more Understanding the root causes of informal economic activity is crucial for the effective governance of the informal sphere. Precisely what these root causes are, however, is subject to significant debate. This article contributes to these debates by arguing that the state is central to the origin and evolution of informality. Stressing the importance of understanding informality through a historically rooted political economy approach, it analyzes the modern history of informal vending in Kampala, Uganda, and identifies six ways in which the state has fundamentally shaped informal economic activity in the city: colonial planning; a history of poor governance and instability; economic liberalization; geographic development trends; an ineffective taxation regime; and the self-interest of state officials. An appropriate understanding of the centrality of the state in the informal economy highlights the necessity of designing effective institutions, policies and interventions that prioritize the needs of the urban poor.
This article explores the reasons behind Canada’s declining participation in United Nations peace... more This article explores the reasons behind Canada’s declining participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations. It proposes a decision-making model that explains how politicians assess opportunities to commit personnel to peacekeeping missions by balancing their policy objectives with the pressures of electoral politics. Emphasizing the importance of voters in political decision-making processes, it argues that participation in peacekeeping is dependent on three key factors: a belief in the value of peacekeeping in principle; a belief in the value of a given peacekeeping operation; and risk aversion in response to the potential costs of peacekeeping. Tracing Canada’s declining participation in peacekeeping operations since the 1990s, it particularly focuses on how this calculus has, in different ways, limited Canada’s involvement in peacekeeping under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, arguing that the former undervalued peacekeeping as a means of obtaining its foreign policy objectives and as a feature of national identity, minimizing the perceived benefits of participation, while the latter has focused on the inherent risks of peacekeeping despite a professed commitment to peacekeeping in principle, maximizing the perceived costs of further personnel commitments. The decisions of successive Canadian governments have led to a free-rider problem in which Canada is willing to enjoy the benefits of peacekeeping but unwilling to bear the costs.
For a large segment of the urban poor in Kampala, Uganda, street vending has long served as a key... more For a large segment of the urban poor in Kampala, Uganda, street vending has long served as a key livelihood strategy in the absence of formal employment opportunities and a public social safety net. This article explores the effects of de-democratisation on the rights of street vendors in Kampala, describing how changes to local government institutions and processes have forced vendors to adopt new strategies to assert their rights in an environment of closed political space. It argues that for street vendors in the city, economic and social rights are fundamentally rooted in political rights. As de-democratisation has robbed them of their political rights, it has also robbed them of their ability to assert their right to engage in their economic activities, leaving them increasingly vulnerable and marginalised. Barring a fundamental change in the city's political landscape, the hardships that vendors face appear to have no end in sight.
The political evolution of Kampala under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has profoundly af... more The political evolution of Kampala under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has profoundly affected the fortunes of the city's street vendors. This article examines the effects of institutional changes brought about by the NRM's efforts to monopolize power in the city, arguing that the twin forces of democratization and decentralization allowed street vending to flourish while the reversal of these processes precipitated its dramatic decline. Democratization and decentralization initiated a period of intense political competition in which vendors could trade political support for protection from politicians who were more interested in political survival than the implementation of policy. This ability was lost when the central government introduced a new city government that shifted the balance of power from elected politicians to appointed technocrats. The new city government has since sought legitimacy through development and urban management initiatives that aim to transform Kampala into a supposedly modern, well-organized city. In doing so, it has sought to eradicate street vending, a practice it sees as the antithesis of and an obstacle to its ambitions. Lacking the channels for political influence that they previously enjoyed, street vendors have been forced to face the full brunt of government repression.
While recent efforts to analyse resistance to post-conflict interventions have led to important i... more While recent efforts to analyse resistance to post-conflict interventions have led to important insights into the nature of contemporary peacebuilding efforts, their failure to adequately problematize the concept of resistance itself and to adapt it to the specific realities of post-conflict neoliberalism has proven to be problematic. This article explores the internal tensions and inconsistencies that define the concept of resistance in post-conflict environments, focusing specifically on five topics: the interaction of structure and agency; the presence of intent; the role of power; the nature of markets; and the possibility of emancipation. Key problems are highlighted, and, where possible, potential solutions are proposed. The issues raised by this article demand immediate attention if the conceptual viability and analytical value of resistance are to be maintained in post-conflict contexts.
Despite recent scholarly attention, the phenomenon of resistance in post-conflict environments re... more Despite recent scholarly attention, the phenomenon of resistance in post-conflict environments remains largely under-conceptualized. This represents a major shortcoming in the theory and praxis of post-conflict peacebuilding and development. Seeking to address this problem, this study explores how, why and by whom the economic dimensions of contemporary peacebuilding and development projects are contested in their local applications, using South Sudan as a case study. A theoretical framework for analyzing resistance is proposed and subsequently employed to provide insights into activities that are cast as informal, illicit or illegitimate by dominant neoliberal orthodoxy. This is done in three distinct yet overlapping ways. First, the role that informal economic activity plays in the political economy of post-conflict South Sudan is examined. Informal economic activity is conceptualized as a form of resistance to the failings of the formal sphere, but also as a form of power where agency is absent and that is encouraged as a type of local neoliberalism. Second, the legitimate/illegitimate and licit/illicit dichotomies that define economic activity in post-conflict South Sudan are problematized through an exploration of current debates surrounding corruption and land tenure. These debates demonstrate how neoliberal economic orthodoxy breaks down and becomes redefined in its local contacts. Finally, the centre/periphery dynamics that define the political economy of South Sudan's borderlands are conceptualized in terms of power and resistance, and resistance is shown to be fundamentally tied to power in ways that are characterized by subjectivity and hybridity. Resistance plays an important role in post-conflict environments. Addressing its economic dimensions must be a central task of contemporary peacebuilding and development projects.
This article explores common approaches to informal economic activities in post-conflict South Su... more This article explores common approaches to informal economic activities in post-conflict South Sudan. Placing these within the context of broader peacebuilding and development initiatives that are based on core neoliberal economic principles, it argues that neoliberalism simultaneously incorporates and disavows informality, viewing it as a manifestation of natural local market activity while treating its imperfections as solvable through further economic liberalization. In doing so, neoliberalism ignores its own role in producing and sustaining informality while informing theoretical and practical approaches to it that are conceptually problematic and contextually inappropriate. An analysis of the nature of informality in South Sudan not only reveals these flaws, but also points to how the very nature of informality itself undermines some of the central tenets of neoliberal economic orthodoxy.
Understanding the root causes of informal economic activity is crucial for the effective governan... more Understanding the root causes of informal economic activity is crucial for the effective governance of the informal sphere. Precisely what these root causes are, however, is subject to significant debate. This article contributes to these debates by arguing that the state is central to the origin and evolution of informality. Stressing the importance of understanding informality through a historically rooted political economy approach, it analyzes the modern history of informal vending in Kampala, Uganda, and identifies six ways in which the state has fundamentally shaped informal economic activity in the city: colonial planning; a history of poor governance and instability; economic liberalization; geographic development trends; an ineffective taxation regime; and the self-interest of state officials. An appropriate understanding of the centrality of the state in the informal economy highlights the necessity of designing effective institutions, policies and interventions that prioritize the needs of the urban poor.
This article explores the reasons behind Canada’s declining participation in United Nations peace... more This article explores the reasons behind Canada’s declining participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations. It proposes a decision-making model that explains how politicians assess opportunities to commit personnel to peacekeeping missions by balancing their policy objectives with the pressures of electoral politics. Emphasizing the importance of voters in political decision-making processes, it argues that participation in peacekeeping is dependent on three key factors: a belief in the value of peacekeeping in principle; a belief in the value of a given peacekeeping operation; and risk aversion in response to the potential costs of peacekeeping. Tracing Canada’s declining participation in peacekeeping operations since the 1990s, it particularly focuses on how this calculus has, in different ways, limited Canada’s involvement in peacekeeping under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, arguing that the former undervalued peacekeeping as a means of obtaining its foreign policy objectives and as a feature of national identity, minimizing the perceived benefits of participation, while the latter has focused on the inherent risks of peacekeeping despite a professed commitment to peacekeeping in principle, maximizing the perceived costs of further personnel commitments. The decisions of successive Canadian governments have led to a free-rider problem in which Canada is willing to enjoy the benefits of peacekeeping but unwilling to bear the costs.
For a large segment of the urban poor in Kampala, Uganda, street vending has long served as a key... more For a large segment of the urban poor in Kampala, Uganda, street vending has long served as a key livelihood strategy in the absence of formal employment opportunities and a public social safety net. This article explores the effects of de-democratisation on the rights of street vendors in Kampala, describing how changes to local government institutions and processes have forced vendors to adopt new strategies to assert their rights in an environment of closed political space. It argues that for street vendors in the city, economic and social rights are fundamentally rooted in political rights. As de-democratisation has robbed them of their political rights, it has also robbed them of their ability to assert their right to engage in their economic activities, leaving them increasingly vulnerable and marginalised. Barring a fundamental change in the city's political landscape, the hardships that vendors face appear to have no end in sight.
The political evolution of Kampala under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has profoundly af... more The political evolution of Kampala under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has profoundly affected the fortunes of the city's street vendors. This article examines the effects of institutional changes brought about by the NRM's efforts to monopolize power in the city, arguing that the twin forces of democratization and decentralization allowed street vending to flourish while the reversal of these processes precipitated its dramatic decline. Democratization and decentralization initiated a period of intense political competition in which vendors could trade political support for protection from politicians who were more interested in political survival than the implementation of policy. This ability was lost when the central government introduced a new city government that shifted the balance of power from elected politicians to appointed technocrats. The new city government has since sought legitimacy through development and urban management initiatives that aim to transform Kampala into a supposedly modern, well-organized city. In doing so, it has sought to eradicate street vending, a practice it sees as the antithesis of and an obstacle to its ambitions. Lacking the channels for political influence that they previously enjoyed, street vendors have been forced to face the full brunt of government repression.
While recent efforts to analyse resistance to post-conflict interventions have led to important i... more While recent efforts to analyse resistance to post-conflict interventions have led to important insights into the nature of contemporary peacebuilding efforts, their failure to adequately problematize the concept of resistance itself and to adapt it to the specific realities of post-conflict neoliberalism has proven to be problematic. This article explores the internal tensions and inconsistencies that define the concept of resistance in post-conflict environments, focusing specifically on five topics: the interaction of structure and agency; the presence of intent; the role of power; the nature of markets; and the possibility of emancipation. Key problems are highlighted, and, where possible, potential solutions are proposed. The issues raised by this article demand immediate attention if the conceptual viability and analytical value of resistance are to be maintained in post-conflict contexts.
Despite recent scholarly attention, the phenomenon of resistance in post-conflict environments re... more Despite recent scholarly attention, the phenomenon of resistance in post-conflict environments remains largely under-conceptualized. This represents a major shortcoming in the theory and praxis of post-conflict peacebuilding and development. Seeking to address this problem, this study explores how, why and by whom the economic dimensions of contemporary peacebuilding and development projects are contested in their local applications, using South Sudan as a case study. A theoretical framework for analyzing resistance is proposed and subsequently employed to provide insights into activities that are cast as informal, illicit or illegitimate by dominant neoliberal orthodoxy. This is done in three distinct yet overlapping ways. First, the role that informal economic activity plays in the political economy of post-conflict South Sudan is examined. Informal economic activity is conceptualized as a form of resistance to the failings of the formal sphere, but also as a form of power where agency is absent and that is encouraged as a type of local neoliberalism. Second, the legitimate/illegitimate and licit/illicit dichotomies that define economic activity in post-conflict South Sudan are problematized through an exploration of current debates surrounding corruption and land tenure. These debates demonstrate how neoliberal economic orthodoxy breaks down and becomes redefined in its local contacts. Finally, the centre/periphery dynamics that define the political economy of South Sudan's borderlands are conceptualized in terms of power and resistance, and resistance is shown to be fundamentally tied to power in ways that are characterized by subjectivity and hybridity. Resistance plays an important role in post-conflict environments. Addressing its economic dimensions must be a central task of contemporary peacebuilding and development projects.
This article explores common approaches to informal economic activities in post-conflict South Su... more This article explores common approaches to informal economic activities in post-conflict South Sudan. Placing these within the context of broader peacebuilding and development initiatives that are based on core neoliberal economic principles, it argues that neoliberalism simultaneously incorporates and disavows informality, viewing it as a manifestation of natural local market activity while treating its imperfections as solvable through further economic liberalization. In doing so, neoliberalism ignores its own role in producing and sustaining informality while informing theoretical and practical approaches to it that are conceptually problematic and contextually inappropriate. An analysis of the nature of informality in South Sudan not only reveals these flaws, but also points to how the very nature of informality itself undermines some of the central tenets of neoliberal economic orthodoxy.
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