Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This research examines both privileged and underprivileged literati’s views on the representation of Dalit identity in the Hindi public sphere, specifically focusing on the Hindi magazine Chand (May 1927). This article investigates their response to the prevailing caste system and religious conversion portrayed in the Chand. It also inspects the conception of untouchability by examining the role of caste associations and social institutions in colonial North India, shaping Dalit identity. The special issue of Chand Achhut Ank (May 1927) played a significant role in establishing a new cultural identity among Dalits within the broader framework of Hinduism by redefining the problem of untouchability. It is essential to analyse the social discourse on untouchability that brings consciousness among marginalized sections to comprehend their identity. It had generated anxiety and social distress among the educated middle class as was seen in their active engagement in Dalit literary discourse within the Hindi public sphere. Ultimately, it is necessary to comprehend the sociocultural reform movements aimed indirectly to maintain the existing social structure and how it resulted in the anxieties expressed by middle-class intellectuals in their writings. This work goes beyond by comprehensively examining various crucial facets of the farming Dalit identity.
From Stigmatization to Neo-Buddhist Identity: Reflections on the Changing Identities of the Scheduled Castes of India
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The Scheduled Caste (SC) communities of India have always been locked down with stigmatized social identities since the very beginning of the caste system. They were categorized with certain administrative identities under colonial rule and branded as ‘Harijans’ (Children of God) by the nationalist leaders. On the other hand, the SC communities themselves had asserted for respectable caste identities, opposed the Brahmanical hegemony, and fought against untouchability. Harijan identity, however, has transformed into Dalit identity in the post-colonial period. In such a context, Navayana Buddhism has appeared as a symbol of dignified identity. This article has highlighted this trend of changing identifiers of the SCs of Indian society.
The Scheduled Caste (SC) communities of India have always been locked down with stigmatized social identities since the very beginning of the caste system. They were categorized with certain administrative identities under colonial rule and branded as ‘Harijans’ (Children of God) by the nationalist leaders. On the other hand, the SC communities themselves had asserted for respectable caste identities, opposed the Brahmanical hegemony, and fought against untouchability. Harijan identity, however, has transformed into Dalit identity in the post-colonial period. In such a context, Navayana Buddhism has appeared as a symbol of dignified identity. This article has highlighted this trend of changing identifiers of the SCs of Indian society.
Re-assessing the Classic Frames: Intersection of Caste, Class and Gender in Neelakuyil
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Neelakuyil, produced in 1954, is among the few Malayalam films that represent how caste category and gender norms affect the lives of the proletariat and upper-class women. The film retains its position as a classic and the foremost among works chosen to historicize Malayalam Cinema. This article argues that the symbiosis of patriarchal power, caste discrimination and economic disparities unveil a complex system of discrimination and manipulation of women’s lives. How Neelakuyil illustrates the impact of such a schema on the mindset of dominant selves and the way in which they have a bearing upon the subaltern lives are negotiated. I adopt a Dalit-feminist perspective within the conceptual framework of intersectionality by focusing on the manner in which the protagonist Neeli’s subjectivity is situated within the narrative discourse. I also attempt to examine the ideologies of ‘progressive thought’ and ‘paternal authority’ embodied in the characters Sankaran Nair and Sreedharan Nair and their ideological significance in relation to persistent caste dynamics.
Neelakuyil, produced in 1954, is among the few Malayalam films that represent how caste category and gender norms affect the lives of the proletariat and upper-class women. The film retains its position as a classic and the foremost among works chosen to historicize Malayalam Cinema. This article argues that the symbiosis of patriarchal power, caste discrimination and economic disparities unveil a complex system of discrimination and manipulation of women’s lives. How Neelakuyil illustrates the impact of such a schema on the mindset of dominant selves and the way in which they have a bearing upon the subaltern lives are negotiated. I adopt a Dalit-feminist perspective within the conceptual framework of intersectionality by focusing on the manner in which the protagonist Neeli’s subjectivity is situated within the narrative discourse. I also attempt to examine the ideologies of ‘progressive thought’ and ‘paternal authority’ embodied in the characters Sankaran Nair and Sreedharan Nair and their ideological significance in relation to persistent caste dynamics.
Book review: Rajan Kumar, Meeta Keswani Mehra, G. Venkat Raman and Meenakshi Sundriyal (eds.), Locating BRICS in the Global Order: Perspectives from the Global South
China Report, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 481-484, November 2023.
Rajan Kumar, Meeta Keswani Mehra, G. Venkat Raman and Meenakshi Sundriyal (eds.), Locating BRICS in the Global Order: Perspectives from the Global South (London and New York: Routledge, 2023), pp. xix + 337, £39.99. ISBN 9780367708085 (Paperback).
Rajan Kumar, Meeta Keswani Mehra, G. Venkat Raman and Meenakshi Sundriyal (eds.), Locating BRICS in the Global Order: Perspectives from the Global South (London and New York: Routledge, 2023), pp. xix + 337, £39.99. ISBN 9780367708085 (Paperback).
Political sovereignty in tension with global capitalist accumulation: the case of the European socio-economic strategy
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Whose Security are We Protecting in a Time of Climate Change? How Gender Bias Affects Human Security for Pacific Women
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Peace Through Violence and Violence Through Peace: Peacebuilding Practices and a Conflictual Peace in Lebanon
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Financial autonomy in Spanish local governments: Empirical evidence of beta and sigma convergence
International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Territorially, Spanish public administrations are organized into State Administration, Autonomous Community Administration, and Local Administration. Local government has the closest contact with citizens and therefore the powers and decisions taken by local institutions have the greatest impact on the social welfare of citizens. To ensure this well-being, it is necessary to analyze and pay attention to the administrative and financial autonomy of local governments. Financial autonomy translates into the capacity of local entities to govern their respective finances, determining, within certain limits, the level of the volume of their own resources and organizing their expenditures. In this work, we study the Financial Autonomy Indicator, which aims to determine the tax resources available to the local entity. Taking into account that Spanish municipalities have, depending on their population size, different obligations when providing services to citizens, the convergence of financial autonomy is studied to detect whether there are common trends by applying the techniques of β-convergence and σ-convergence. It is analyzed whether municipalities starting from lower indicators achieve higher growth over time (β-convergence), and whether dispersion between municipalities is reduced (σ-convergence).Points for practitionersLocal autonomy grants local entities the freedom to manage their own interests within the State's legal framework. Greater economic diversity and the ability to raise more money on their own through taxes, fees, and other sources characterize larger communities. They have a wider tax base thanks to their higher economic diversification, which opens up more opportunities for revenue collection. The speed of convergence is highest in the smallest municipalities. Knowing whether there is convergence or divergence in financial autonomy can help policy makers.
Territorially, Spanish public administrations are organized into State Administration, Autonomous Community Administration, and Local Administration. Local government has the closest contact with citizens and therefore the powers and decisions taken by local institutions have the greatest impact on the social welfare of citizens. To ensure this well-being, it is necessary to analyze and pay attention to the administrative and financial autonomy of local governments. Financial autonomy translates into the capacity of local entities to govern their respective finances, determining, within certain limits, the level of the volume of their own resources and organizing their expenditures. In this work, we study the Financial Autonomy Indicator, which aims to determine the tax resources available to the local entity. Taking into account that Spanish municipalities have, depending on their population size, different obligations when providing services to citizens, the convergence of financial autonomy is studied to detect whether there are common trends by applying the techniques of β-convergence and σ-convergence. It is analyzed whether municipalities starting from lower indicators achieve higher growth over time (β-convergence), and whether dispersion between municipalities is reduced (σ-convergence).Points for practitionersLocal autonomy grants local entities the freedom to manage their own interests within the State's legal framework. Greater economic diversity and the ability to raise more money on their own through taxes, fees, and other sources characterize larger communities. They have a wider tax base thanks to their higher economic diversification, which opens up more opportunities for revenue collection. The speed of convergence is highest in the smallest municipalities. Knowing whether there is convergence or divergence in financial autonomy can help policy makers.
Clashes and agreements between regulatory agencies and courts: The influence on regulatory governance
International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Literature on the operation of regulatory agencies and their interactions with the executive branch of government is well established. Much less attention has been devoted to the relationship between these agencies and the courts, especially in case of judicial review of regulators’ decisions. This paper examines how judicial review of regulatory decisions produces clashes and agreements between regulatory agencies and the courts, and the influence of these relationships on regulatory governance. The research was conducted in Brazil with 21 interviews, consisting of eight officials of six federal regulatory agencies, seven attorneys from five agencies, and six federal judges. Regulatory governance, institutional theory, and regulatory overlap were the main analytical frameworks for this research. Data was subjected to content analysis. The findings showed that judicial review plays an important role in the overlapping scopes between courts and regulatory agencies. The institutional details of regulatory governance are crucial for the regulatory bodies to function. Despite the conflicts, judges seek more coordination with regulators, because of a greater awareness of the specifics of regulatory policies. Attorneys of regulatory bodies perform a key role in the dialogue between regulators and courts, especially by bridging the gap between technical and legal protocols. Regulatory litigation provides powerful economic agents with the opportunity to obtain a successful remittance of fines, thereby diluting the regulators’ ability to enforce regulation.Points for practitionersJudicial review is the only coordinating mechanism between regulatory agencies and the courts and plays a crucial role in defining regulatory policies and in controlling administrative behavior. In the process of judicial review, regulatory bodies confront the uncertainties that mark the blurred boundaries between the roles performed by state actors and authorities in dealing with regulation. By examining the Brazilian case, the research sheds light on regulatory governance and deals with the balance of power between the judiciary and formally independent regulatory bodies. The findings indicate the value of closer dialogue between regulators and courts in a context where regulatory agencies are increasingly called upon to make important technical and social choices on highly sensitive public issues.
Literature on the operation of regulatory agencies and their interactions with the executive branch of government is well established. Much less attention has been devoted to the relationship between these agencies and the courts, especially in case of judicial review of regulators’ decisions. This paper examines how judicial review of regulatory decisions produces clashes and agreements between regulatory agencies and the courts, and the influence of these relationships on regulatory governance. The research was conducted in Brazil with 21 interviews, consisting of eight officials of six federal regulatory agencies, seven attorneys from five agencies, and six federal judges. Regulatory governance, institutional theory, and regulatory overlap were the main analytical frameworks for this research. Data was subjected to content analysis. The findings showed that judicial review plays an important role in the overlapping scopes between courts and regulatory agencies. The institutional details of regulatory governance are crucial for the regulatory bodies to function. Despite the conflicts, judges seek more coordination with regulators, because of a greater awareness of the specifics of regulatory policies. Attorneys of regulatory bodies perform a key role in the dialogue between regulators and courts, especially by bridging the gap between technical and legal protocols. Regulatory litigation provides powerful economic agents with the opportunity to obtain a successful remittance of fines, thereby diluting the regulators’ ability to enforce regulation.Points for practitionersJudicial review is the only coordinating mechanism between regulatory agencies and the courts and plays a crucial role in defining regulatory policies and in controlling administrative behavior. In the process of judicial review, regulatory bodies confront the uncertainties that mark the blurred boundaries between the roles performed by state actors and authorities in dealing with regulation. By examining the Brazilian case, the research sheds light on regulatory governance and deals with the balance of power between the judiciary and formally independent regulatory bodies. The findings indicate the value of closer dialogue between regulators and courts in a context where regulatory agencies are increasingly called upon to make important technical and social choices on highly sensitive public issues.
The civil service careers of university support staff and new public management: A qualitative study from Chile
International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
New public management policies have been in effect in Chile since the 1980s, influencing the development of human resources policies and procedures, particularly within higher education institutions. While the impact of these policies on academic staff is evident, their implications for non-academic personnel who operate under the same regime as public servants remain unclear. This research aims to investigate the relationship between new public management principles and the career beliefs of non-academic personnel in Chile. Utilizing focus groups, this study analyzes the perceptions of career trajectories among the collaboration staff at the country's most prominent public university. Finally, the results are discussed.Points for practitionersOur study calls on public sector professionals to recognize the distance between legal frameworks and policies that manage public servants’ careers and organizational cultures that have funded a traditional civil service career model. Thus, those who work in the public sector need to strengthen the agency capacity of civil servants by expanding their professionalization. Likewise, career flexibility and merit ideas must be critically addressed, especially in developing countries, as in the case analyzed.
New public management policies have been in effect in Chile since the 1980s, influencing the development of human resources policies and procedures, particularly within higher education institutions. While the impact of these policies on academic staff is evident, their implications for non-academic personnel who operate under the same regime as public servants remain unclear. This research aims to investigate the relationship between new public management principles and the career beliefs of non-academic personnel in Chile. Utilizing focus groups, this study analyzes the perceptions of career trajectories among the collaboration staff at the country's most prominent public university. Finally, the results are discussed.Points for practitionersOur study calls on public sector professionals to recognize the distance between legal frameworks and policies that manage public servants’ careers and organizational cultures that have funded a traditional civil service career model. Thus, those who work in the public sector need to strengthen the agency capacity of civil servants by expanding their professionalization. Likewise, career flexibility and merit ideas must be critically addressed, especially in developing countries, as in the case analyzed.