This book examines the various ways in which some fragile states in the Global South (or states with limited statehood) have adopted, and adapted to, processes of governance in their quests to address the socialized problems affecting their societies. It tells the story of these states’ resilience in the societal adaptation to a liberalized notion of governance. In addition to comparative case studies, the book also analyzes the engendered interplay of culture, economics, and politics in the creation of people-centric governance reforms. The contributing authors shed light on weak states’ often constructive engagement in the promotion of state governance under a variety of societal conditions, adverse or otherwise, and on their ability to remain resilient despite the complexities of the political and economic challenges they face.

The book examines the various ways that fragile states (or states with limited statehood) in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas have adopted, and adapted to, the processes of liberal political governance in their quests to address the problem of political fragility. It presents the stories of resilience in the political adaptation to Western liberal conceptions of governance. In addition to singular or comparative country case studies, this project also examines the interplay of culture, identities, and politics in the creation of people-centric governance reforms. Towards these ends, this volume sheds light on weak states’ often constructive engagement in the promotion of state governance with a variety of political conditions, adverse or otherwise; and their ability to remain resilient despite the complex political, sociocultural, and economic challenges affecting them. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the authors aim to counter the noticeable shortcomings in the discursive representations of fragility, and to contribute a more balanced examination of the narratives about and impact of political adaption and governance in people’s lives and experiences.

This book examines the various ways in which some fragile states in the Global South (or states with limited statehood) have adopted, and adapted to, processes of governance in their quests to address the socialized problems affecting their societies. It tells the story of these states’ resilience in the societal adaptation to a liberalized notion of governance. In addition to comparative case studies, the book also analyzes the engendered interplay of culture, economics, and politics in the creation of people-centric governance reforms. The contributing authors shed light on weak states’ often constructive engagement in the promotion of state governance under a variety of societal conditions, adverse or otherwise, and on their ability to remain resilient despite the complexities of the political and economic challenges they face.

The impacts of human-induced climate change are largely mediated by water, such as alterations in precipitation and glacial melt patterns, variations in river flow, increased occurrence of droughts and floods, and sea level rise in densely populated coastal areas. Such phenomena impact both urban and rural communities in developed, emerging, and developing countries. Taking a systems approach, this book analyzes evidence from 26 countries and identifies common barriers and bridges for local adaptation to climate change through water resources management. It includes a global set of case studies from places experiencing increased environmental and social pressure due to population growth, development and migration, including in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. All chapters consider the crosscutting themes of adaptive capacity, equity, and sustainability. These point to resilient water allocation policies and practices that are capable of protecting social and environmental interests, whilst ensuring the efficient use of an often-scarce resource.

States of Fragility 2020 sets a policy agenda for fragility at a critical turning point: the final countdown on Agenda 2030 is at hand, and the pandemic has reversed hard-fought gains. This report examines fragility as a story in two parts: the global state of fragility that existed before COVID-19, and the dramatic impact the pandemic is having on that landscape.

Three years into the 2030 Agenda it is already apparent that those living in fragile contexts are the furthest behind. Not all forms of fragility make it to the public’s eye: fragility is an intricate beast, sometimes exposed, often lurking underneath, but always holding progress back. Conflict ...

This book explores African domestic and regional responses and approaches to environmental protection and sustainability. Written by African experts, the collection consists of five parts covering the whole of Africa. It provides broad coverage of specific themes, including environmental constitutionalism, climate change, gender and the environment, wildlife trade, environmental justice, and human displacement. The key aims are first, to explore theoretical and empirical studies to interrogate and provide clarity on academic discourse on how and whether environmental human rights approaches and policy implications have effectively enhanced environmental protection and sustainability at African domestic levels. Second, to investigate and present innovative solutions on how African domestic legal regimes deal with environmental justice, natural resources governance, refugees’ environmental rights, and climate-induced displaced persons. Finally, to propose innovative legal and institutionalised solutions to Africa’s ecological realities by determining the legal and regulatory gaps on environmental human rights issues on the continent. The collection will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics, and policymakers in human rights law, environmental law, political science, ecology and conservation, environmental management, disaster management, and development studies.

This book explores the use of foreign judges on courts of constitutional jurisdiction in 9 Pacific states: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We often assume that the judges sitting on domestic courts will be citizens. However across the island states of the Pacific, over three-quarters of all judges are foreign judges who regularly hear cases of constitutional, legal and social importance. This has implications for constitutional adjudication, judicial independence and the representative qualities of judges and judiciaries. Drawing together detailed empirical research, legal analysis and constitutional theory, it traces how foreign judges bring different dimensions of knowledge to bear on adjudication, face distinctive burdens on their independence, and hold only an attenuated connection to the state and its people. It shows how foreign judges have come to be understood as representatives of a transnational profession, with its own transferrable judicial skills and values. Foreign Judges in the Pacific sheds light on the widespread but often unarticulated assumptions about the significance of nationality to the functions and qualities of constitutional judges. It shows how the nationality of judges matters, not only for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Pacific courts that use foreign judges, but for legal and theoretical scholarship on courts and judging.

This book offers an original and timeous snapshot of contemporary lines of argument from various authors in the Global South on the Covid-19 pandemic as a complex emergency at the height of the pandemic. At the time of writing, there were various levels of uncertainties from different countries, citizens, the public and private sectors, industries and economies who were in disarray. The book traces the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in the province of Wuhan in China, the challenges, and the responses from a multiplicity of countries particularly from the Global South. Of particular importance, the book notes that vaccine uncertainty, limiting the spread of the virus and loss of life and employment, were some of the major challenges that these governments and citizens were confronted with. Also, the sizes of various economies lead to various challenges that the abovementioned governments shouldered. The contributors shed light on various aspects related to the Covid-19 pandemic from various countries in the Global South and include, but were not limited to securitised lockdowns, the use of militaries and complete closures of national (and sometimes fragile) economies, as well as overburdened health systems. These are just some dire consequences of Covid-19 on the public and private sector, industries and economy. The book emphasises that despite myriad challenges reported, there are various lessons that can be learnt in terms of how the countries responded to the pandemic, and in terms of how future pandemics can be handled. Finally, this is an interesting piece of work wherein contributors, as a collective, seek to shed light with regards to the unique perspectives from the Global South and at the same time give some guidance, related to their specific areas of focus.

Language and Decolonisation is the first collection to bring together views from across scholarly communities that are committed to the agenda of decolonising knowledge in language study. Edited by leading figures in the field, the chapters offer new insights on how ‘decolonising’ can be adopted as a methodology for charting the next steps in solving practical language-related problems in educational and related social policy areas. Divided into two sections, the book covers the coloniality of language, the materiality of culture and colonial scripts, the decolonisation imperative, multilingualism discourse and decolonisation, and decolonising languages in public discourse. With 20 chapters authored by experts from across the globe, this pioneering collection is an essential reference and resource for advanced students, scholars, and researchers of language and culture, sociolinguistics, decolonial studies, racial studies, and related areas.