Nidhi Srinivas

Managerial Knowledge as Property: The Role of Universities

In this paper, we analyze the manner in which universities have been deployed as institutions to privatize knowledge. We use the example of the establishment of management institutes in India in the 1960s by US institutions such as the Ford Foundation. The import of management education into India served to delegitimize local managerial practices, and to produce a workforce capable of serving the interests of multinational corporations rather than addressing local priorities. We conclude through this example that management pedagogy has constantly been deployed to render certain forms of public knowledge appropriable by private institutions such as corporations. We end by suggesting that management pedagogy should act to restore a new concept of knowledge, where it is presented not merely as a resource, but as a public consciousness..

The phenomenon of NGOs: a lateral reading from Latin America

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ask what can be learned from contemporary resistance to neo‐liberal policies in Latin America, in terms of broadening the disciplinary understanding of civil society actors.Design/methodology/approach – Management, international management, and non‐profit management studies are reviewed and assessed through a lateral reading.Findings – The field of management studies and the sub‐field of international management are identified as parochial in orientation, ignoring the diversity of local management knowledge and the organizational settings where practiced.Originality/value – The paper demonstrates the narrow foci of the field of management, on Northern contexts, and large international business organizations. It calls for greater sensitivity to the diverse and significant efforts to resist and mitigate neo‐liberal policies globally.

Governança transnacional e os Trilhos Urbanos: resistência da sociedade civil a megaeventos no Rio de Janeiro

Mega-events are urban spectacles that bring together capital, physical materials, symbols, people and organizations, to produce sports and cultural events. Rio de Janeiro hosted the soccer World Cup in 2014 and will shortly host the 2016 Olympics, two such Mega-events. This paper discusses these Mega-events in terms of a new and influential model of transnational governance that involves market-based alliances between urban leaders, real-estate developers, global corporations and sports-related civil society groups. It begins by defining mega-events and their significance to transnational governance, and then describes the mega-events being held in Rio de Janeiro. In the final section, the implications of these mega-events are reviewed, highlighting the on-going period of contestation within urban visions of transnational governance.

Environmental Grassroots Partnerships and Potential for Social Innovation

This chapter reviews the concept of social innovation (SI) towards two sets of ecological questions: How can local management actions strengthen ecosystem response to crises? Through what organizational arrangements are ecosystem responses coordinated? The first part of this chapter reviews the concept of social innovation; the second part presents cases from southwest Rajasthan and west Yunnan on social innovation, based on fieldwork conducted in January and August 2011. The cases describe SIs that vary in scale and technology: beehives; improved wood burning stoves; pump sets; working groups to raise funds and share technology; working groups to clean shared water sources; community forest wardens; village councils for water sharing and commons access; and seed banks, land regeneration, child care, and night schools. However these cases can be read as not only demonstrating social innovation but also, in terms of critiques of the policies of neoliberal governments, and in terms of narrative ruptures, puzzles that reveal the push and pull of agential interests in the realm of ecology. The final part of the chapter argues for a focus on the politics of social innovation. As a term SI signifies the possibilities for shifting power structures through networked engagement. Networks including of NGOs must work with state governments to mobilize local people with their own interests. This requires a variety of groups, such as village councils, state-mandated bodies, registered NGOs, and networks, to negotiate and mobilize around ecological response.