IEE Newsletter No. 20

New Publications

Read about new publications in our publication series and other recent publications from IEE Members.

IEE Working Papers

iee wp209 coverAs part of her research focus on anti-corruption policies in Africa, Annika Engelbert explores "The Role of Anti-Corruption Agencies in the Investigation and Prosecution of Procurement Related Corruption Cases", a paper which was published as the latest IEE Working Paper.
In most developing countries, anti-corruption agencies were established in compliance with international treaties to prevent and combat corruption in connection with law enforcement. Yet conviction rates in corruption cases have remained very low, undermining the deterrent effect arising from a high risk of detection. Whereas previous research had focused on identifying external success factors for anti-corruption agencies, this paper argues that effective collaboration mechanisms between these agencies, monitoring bodies in corruption-prone sectors such as public procurement, and public prosecution are crucial for curbing corruption. By means of a comparative case study of the situation in Tanzania and Uganda, she explores issues as to whether a more streamlined or dispersed collaboration approach can have more promising effects in a highly corrupt setting. Besides looking at national legislation, the analysis is based on findings from expert interviews and on reports by procurement authorities and the media.
Annika Engelbert (2014): The Role of Anti-Corruption Agencies in the Investigation and Prosecution of Procurement Related Corruption Cases. - IV, 21 S. ISBN 978-3-927276-95-6.

iee wp208 coverWith her paper entitled "Social Capital, Tourism and the Socio-Economic Transformation of Rural Society. Evidence from Nepal" Martina Shakya made a contribution to the IEE Working Paper Series that explores the nexus of tourism and local development in developing countries.
Tourism has a wide range of impacts on the economy, the natural environment and the people living in a tourist destination. In the context of poor, rural societies, many scholars have emphasised the positive impacts of tourism on local economic growth. Concern has been voiced, however, about the social and cultural impacts of tourism resulting from the observed changes in local norms, values and behaviour. This paper proposes a concept of social capital to analyse the social and cultural effects of tourism in Nepal. Empirical evidence from a household survey and four village case studies reveals a decline of bonding social capital and an increase in bridging social capital in the communities concerned. Tourism can exacerbate local conflicts and reduce the relevance of indigenous self-help mechanisms. At the same time, tourism has promoted the formation of new institutions and offers opportunities for the development and expansion of hierarchical, extra-community networks which can be seen as an important precondition for upward economic mobility. Highlighting the interdependencies and trade-offs between economic advancement and changes in social capital, the paper calls for a more pragmatic and less normative academic debate of the social and cultural impacts of tourism in developing countries.
Martina Shakya (2014): Social Capital, Tourism and Socio-Economic Transformation of Rural Society. Evidence from Nepal. Bochum. IEE Working Paper Volume 208.

wp-207 coverEconomist and PhD IDS student Syeda Tamkeen Fatima enriches the IEE Working Paper series with a thoughtful piece adding to the academic literature on the distributional impact of globalization.
Her paper traces the progression of theoretical trade models and their ability to explain the differential impact of off-shoring on skill premiums (i.e. skilled-unskilled wage dispersion) in the recipient developing countries. In the light of the increasing trend of off-shoring activities, the author undertakes the important look at its consequence on labour demand and skill composition in the Global South which can in turn affect the wage dispersion in these economies. The author finds that the varied impact of off-shoring activities on the wage dispersion in the Global South as supported by empirical evidence calls for a comprehensive model that can reconcile these differences. Her paper concludes that the class of theoretical models pointing in only one direction of either an increase, decrease or no change in wage dispersion needs to be enriched to take account of multiple equilibrium or asymmetric pattern of skill premium obtained under different circumstances.
Syeda Tamkeen Fatima (2014): Off-Shoring and Wage Inequality: Where Do We Stand? - IV, 22 pp., ISBN 978-3-927276-93-2.

iee wp205 coverBased on her Master thesis former MADM student Lisa Armbruster adds an empirical work from social science to the IEE Working Paper series.
Her paper departs from the observation that behavior, attitudes, and values differ extremely throughout the world and that, whenever two members of different groups such as cultures, nations, or societies interact, such differences become a determining factor for the process of interaction. It considers development cooperation a prime example of such a process of interactions since development policy and cooperation take place in intercultural settings with members of so-called more developed countries interfering in the development of so-called less developed countries, which always includes a cultural component. Against this backdrop, the paper examines the extent to what intercultural competence is a determining factor for the success of organizations of development cooperation. It does so by analysing the case of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Bolivia - a country which represents a highly interesting context for studies dealing with interculturality as the country has passed a constitution in 2006 which explicitly includes concepts of interculturality (interculturalidad).The concept of intercultural competence is analysed on (1) the individual level of the employees of GIZ Bolivia, (2) the organizational-structural level, and (3) the level of the organization's context. The same three-tiered analysis is applied to the concept of success. Then, the author links both concepts and discusses her empirical results in light of her theoretical framework which allows her to provide recommendations for the practice of development cooperation.
Lisa Armbruster (2014): Cooperation across Cultures: an Analysis of Intercultural Competence in Development Organizations. - VI, 77 pp., ISBN 978-3-927276-91-8.


Book Publications

IEE Research Fellow Ruth Knoblich co-edited a new double-volume publication entitled "The Global Politics of Science and Technology".
Global Politics cover Vol 1The publication, co-edited by Ruth Knoblich, Maximilian Mayer (CGS Bonn University) and Mariana Carpes (GIGA Hamburg), pioneers to bring the debate about science and technology to the centre of the discipline of International Relations (IR). It features well-known scholars from various academic disciplines. The two-volume collection shows how integrating science and technology translates into novel analytical frameworks, conceptual approaches and empirical puzzles. It thereby offers a state-of-the-art review of various methodological and theoretical ways in which sciences and technologies matter for the study of international affairs and world politics. The authors not only offer a set of practical examples of research frameworks for experts and students alike, but also propose a conceptual space for interdisciplinary learning in order to improve our understanding of the global politics of science and technology.
Ruth Knoblich co-authored the introductory chapters of the two volumes. In the introduction of the first volume the editors discuss the question in how far science and technology raise difficult theoretical and normative challenges for IR and sketch out several reasons why the overall attention of the discipline to technology and science have remained remarkably narrow, in particular with regard to theorising. By employing the notion of techno-politics the editors explore the question why IR might construe a conceptual place for science and technology by reformulating existing puzzles, opening up space for new topics and synergising existing research.
Global Politics cover Vol 2The introductory chapter of the second volume briefly elaborates two forms of techno-politics – interaction and co-production – and presents the chapters of the book as examples of how the global politics of science and technology might be studied. Besides offering specific perspectives and detailed case studies, the editors provide an open-ended conceptual and methodological toolbox that can be applied elsewhere to support future research on science and technology as a subfield of IR.
Furthermore, Ruth Knoblich conducted two interviews with leading scholars in the fields of science and technology that feature in the double-volume book: Loet Leydesdorff, Professor Emeritus at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) of the University of Amsterdam, elaborates on the framework of the "Triple Helix" that disaggregates national innovation systems into evolving university-industry-government eco-systems, which unintentionally generate niches with synergy. Leydesdorff proposes communication processes as a crucial lens to explore the dynamics of the knowledge economy at the global, national, and regional levels. Dirk Messner, Director of the "German Development Institute (DIE)" and Co-Director of the "Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR)" at the University of Duisburg-Essen, illustrates in how far global power shifts have to lead to new patterns of international cooperation using international science and technology cooperation as a case in point. He argues that investment in joint knowledge creation and knowledge exchange is vital particularly for managing the earth system. In the interview Messner touches on issues, such as the general significance of interdisciplinary research for global development, initiatives taken by development institutions such as the World Bank to set up open-access facilities to research pools, opportunities held by big data and the current redefinition of the discipline of development research itself.
Moreover, IEE research fellow Ruth Knoblich, together with Katharina C. Below, Sarah Herweg, and Krystin Unverzagt, co-authored a chapter that, inspired by the notion of "structural power", presents an approach to conceptualising the knowledge power of states. The authors conceptualise knowledge power as deriving from the occupation of a favourable position in the global knowledge-structure. The authors confirm initial theoretical considerations concerning the asymmetric and path-dependent nature of the knowledge-structure with empirical findings: four clusters of proxy variables (grass-roots, cutting-edge artifacts, infrastructural embeddedness and knowledge regimes) serve to empirically map structural effects and dynamics. The authors conclude that, due to path-dependency, the structure exerts a hampering effect on change: it provides an inert environment, in which states face restraints on their way up to leading positions. As the asymmetric distribution of knowledge capacities derives from past differences in foundational knowledge indicators, the authors argue that power shifts cannot appear out of a sudden and that established powers are likely to prevail.
Maximilian Mayer / Mariana Carpes / Ruth Knoblich (eds.) (2014): The Global Politics of Science and Technology - Vol. 1. Concepts from International Relations and Other Disciplines, Berlin, Heidelberg, XIII, 282 pp., ISBN 978-3-642-55007-2.
The Global Politics of Science and Technology - Vol. 2. Perspectives, Cases and Methods, Berlin, Heidelberg, XIV, 302 pp., ISBN 978-3-642-55010-2.

In his recent book publication "Social Rights and International Development - Global Legal Standards for the Post-2015 Development Agenda" IEE Director Markus Kaltenborn provides a comprehensive introduction to the jurisprudence of international social rights standards and explores social rights as a core element of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The book addresses practitioners in development cooperation as well as postgraduate academics and students who are interested in the interaction of human rights and development issues. In the practice of development cooperation, linking poverty reduction programmes with human rights is mainly achieved by employing so-called "Rights-based Approaches to Development." In this context the right to an adequate standard of living (including access to food, water and housing), the right to health and the right to social security are of particular importance. These human rights will play a key role in the design of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which is currently being negotiated as a framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. Against this practical and political backdrop Markus Kaltenborn in his book provides an overview of the main international legal standards that are relevant for the protection of social rights and also analyses the content of those rights. Moreover, he informs readers on the current debates surrounding the extraterritorial obligations of donor countries and the duties of transnational corporations and international organisations (e.g. the World Bank and the WTO) with regard to the implementation of social rights in the Global South.
Markus Kaltenborn (2014): Social Rights and International Development - Global Legal Standards for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Berlin, Heidelberg, IX, 117 pp., ISBN 978-3-662-45351-3.

Journal Articles and Book Contributions

The reputable German language law journal "Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft" (Law of International Business) published an article on global standards for corporate social responsibility written by IEE Director Markus Kaltenborn and IEE research fellow Johannes Norpoth.
In light of globalised value chains and reports on human and labour rights violations and environmental degradation caused by enterprises at their production sites in the Global South, the authors delve into the multiple voluntary self-regulatory and network-based mechanisms that are often summarized under the headline of "Corporate Social Responsibility". The authors provide a systematic overview of some of the most influential initiatives in this field based on the respective initiators and actors, ranging from relevant documents from international organizations, to business-led codices and standards developed by businesses and NGOs in cooperation, to initiatives involving business community, civil society and institutions from national states. While portraying the different degrees of responsibility for enterprises resulting from the various standards, the paper also highlights recent signs of convergence of standards which were particularly stimulated by the adoption of the "United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights". Finally, the authors point to recent legislative initiatives in the European Union and the United States that, by way of reporting obligations for multinational enterprises, add a legally binding element to the existing voluntary initiatives. The authors conclude that these interactions between legally binding public regulation and voluntary private regulatory initiatives are likely to give relevant new impulses to the further development of this field of transnational economic law.
Markus Kaltenborn / Johannes Norpoth, Globale Standards für soziale Unternehmensverantwortung (Global Standards for Corporate Social Responsibility), in: Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft (Law of International Business) Vol. 60, Issue 7 (2014), 397-472.

Together with co-editor Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan, PhD IDS associate member Qin Tang contributed a chapter on "The China-Taiwan Economic Relationship: rapprochment and normalization" to a recent treatise on economic integration in Asia.
The cross-Strait economic relationship is complex given the uneasy political connections existing between mainland China and Taiwan. Although attempts at fostering economic links between the two countries date back to the late 1970s, it is only after the 1985 Plaza Accord that the Taiwanese firms started using China as an economic platform for trade and investment. The authors review the normalisation (and increased integration) between the two countries which was given a decisive impetus with their accession to the World Trade Organisation. They conclude that the political rapprochement after 2008 has changed the trade and investment pattern into a more balanced cooperation and that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, signed in 2010, is a critical agreement in redressing the imbalances in the relationship.
Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan / Qin Tang, The China - Taiwan Relationship: rapprochement and normalisation", Chapter 4, pp.56-77, in: Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan, Jacques Jaussaud and Bruna Maria Zolin (eds.) (2014): Economic Integration in Asia: Towards the Delineation of a Sustainable Path. Palgrave Pivot, ISBN 9781137432926.

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