Special Issue - Development Practice, Power and Public Authority

Drawing upon research across multiple countries, the articles in this special issue explore how public authority dynamics affect development and humanitarian practice. Some focus on places in crisis, others examine everyday governance in more stable contexts. They are complimented by a conceptual framework for analysing how power permeates the foundations of public authority dynamics. Together they illuminate why exclusions, coercion and violence are often used by those claiming the legitimacy to govern. They argue that well-intended interventions or reform efforts must confront a reluctance to acknowledge public authority dynamics in their official depictions of progress, learnings and impacts.

Introduction

Development practice, power and public authority - Tom Kirk and Rose Pinnington

Research Articles

Power and public authority - William D. Ferguson

‘Vaccine populism’ and migrant assistance: On the contingency of mutual aid in Italy's Alpine region - Elizabeth Storer and Costanza Torre

Localising aid: Urban displacement, contested public authority and legitimacy in Jordan and Lebanon - Dolf J. H. te Lintelo and Tim Liptrot

Local governance networks as public authority: Insights from Mozambique, Myanmar and Pakistan - Anuradha Joshi, Colin Anderson, Katrina Barnes, Egidio Chaimite, Miguel Loureiro and Alex Shankland

Intermediaries, isomorphic activism and programming for social accountability in Pakistan - Tom Kirk

To go with or against the grain? Politics as practice in the Budget Strengthening Initiative, Uganda - Rose Pinnington

Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Karen Büscher, Stephanie Perazzone, Jeroen Cuvelier, Stephane Lumbu, Espoir Rwakira, Paul Bulambo, Chrispin Mvano Yabauma and Godefroid Muzalia

In the line of duty: Militarising African epidemics - Tim Allen and Melissa Parker