Kei Otsuki

Infrastructure in informal settlements: co-production of public services for inclusive governance

ABSTRACT Recent studies on urban governance have advanced our understanding of how governance could become inclusive through community-based participation in urban development. However, a concrete process by which participatory public service provision in informal settlements consolidates inclusive governance has not been sufficiently evident in the context of the dynamic urban development witnessed in Africa. Drawing on a case study of the informal sanitation infrastructure known as a bio-centre, which has been introduced by a participatory upgrading programme in Nairobi, Kenya, this article proposes to pay attention to ways that informal settlers experience infrastructure, embed it into their everyday context of place-making and use it in unplanned manners. Inclusive governance that is effective in providing public services in informal settlements requires every development actor to be engaged in deliberating how to deal with such unplanned outcomes and eventually to co-produce services. This article argues that, rather than participation, communities’ capacity to enrol the state actors in the space of deliberation is crucial to make governance genuinely inclusive.

“I made a pact with God, with nature, and with myself”: exploring deep agroecology

ABSTRACT This article reports on the consequences of agroecology for smallholders’ personal and social world in a coffee-growing region of Zona da Mata in Brazil. Agroecology is usually considered a technically and politically rational approach for smallholders to counter large-scale agribusinesses. However, while practicing agroecology, smallholders come to reinforce their religious views and rearticulate personal relationships with the natural and social environment. This article argues that we need to pay more attention to such “deep” experiences that are caused by agroecology and to clarify the relevant policy implications. Some aspects of studies on indigenous cosmology in Latin America and deep ecology may become useful.

Linking Individual and Collective Agency for Enhancing Community Resilience in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore the relationship between individual adaptive actions and enhancement of community resilience to climate change as a communal objective. It proposes to pay attention to the concept of reflexivity as the primary individual capacity to link adaptive actions and community resilience. Drawing on the field research conducted in northern Ghana in 2015, this article specifically examines life histories of four small farmers and shows that they individually take adaptive actions and reflect on these actions. However, little opportunity exists for them to systematically communicate the reflections with others to learn from their experiences, nurture collective agency and enhance community resilience. The article concludes by outlining new strategies needed to facilitate the communication in particular cultural and policy contexts.