International Development Planning

Com base na coleta de espécimes e entrevistas etnográficas realizadas numa feira semanal do bairro da Tijuca na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, este trabalho procura relatar as relações encontradas entre o meio ambiente, os vendedores e compradores do mercado. O nível inesperado (40%) de espécies extraidas da Floresta da Tijuca e remanescentes da mata atlântica corresponde à profuda interação entre a floresta e as populaces locais. Os ervatórios coletam plantas para seram utilizadas por familiars, colegas e para vender. 75% das plantas foram descritas como sendo medicinal, o restante sendo vendido para simpatias e ceremoniais religiosas afro-brasileiras. Os vendedores providenciam os ingredientes para remédios caseiros que em termos culturais e de custa são alternativos importantes à biomedicina, além de forneceram as plantas de uso ritual. Encontra-se no mercado um contato afastado da violência e da violação que caracteriza a interação entre residentes das comunidades do morro, de onde vêm os ervatários, e seus clientes da classe média. Neste sentido, o mercado exerce um papel vital e positivo na vida cultural e econômica dos moradores da cidade.
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Observers view the expansion of China’s relationship with African countries not only from its perspective as a multifaceted endeavour but also from the nuances extant in the academic and non-academic professional circles. The factors underlying the relationship have created debates across diverse academic disciplines including trade and finance, development, Peacekeeping and global security, diplomacy as well as in the areas of geopolitics and technology transfer. These discussions and debates emerged after China’s aid and investments in Africa increased with incredible annual surges; thus
attracting global attention. Drawing on the background of those discussions, this study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate by producing the perceptions (pros and cons) of individuals unrelated to official voices and state policies with regard to China’s exploitations of African resources and the oft cited Chinese policy of ‘no strings’ attached.
Keywords: China-Africa relations, development, FDI, ‘no strings’, US, West

Se trata de una síntesis del proceso de elaboración del Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial de la zona del volcán Ilamatepec en El Salvador, que comprende seis municipios: Ataco, Apaneca, Salcoatitán, Santa Catarina Masahuat, Juayúa y Nahuizalco. Se incluyen los principales elementos del diagnóstico ambiental, económico y de asentamientos humanos para aterrizar en un conjunto de propuestas estratégicas relacionadas con: 1/ visión de desarrollo; 2/ estrategia de ocupación del suelo; 3/ institucionalidad y 4/ proyectos detonadores.

This article addresses the political transition of Porto Alegre’s Participatory Budget from a mechanism of restraining and managing some of the harshest manifestations of neoliberal urbanization to a promoter of profit-driven urban development. The most emblematic instance of the transition is the public–private partnership for the construction and management by a developer of a marketplace to relocate downtown street hawkers to an enclosed building. The article describes not only how the mayor´s office was able to approve, as part of the downtown revitalization project, the relocation of street hawkers into a working-class popular shopping mall but also how the executive branch succeeded in transforming a public–private partnership into an elected participatory budget demand. Furthermore, I demonstrate how neoliberal programs of public–private partnerships undermine more redistributive participatory practices, such as the participatory budget, by combining their mechanisms with the older practices rather than eliminating the rival planning tool. This article provides an analysis of local class interests and strategies regarding the issue of street hawking in Porto Alegre by contrasting models of
participatory planning. I argue that social classes with an investment in the urban question are key actors in developing hybrid models of neoliberal urbanization.
Keywords: Participatory Budget; City Planning; Neoliberalism; Street Hawkers; Informality
Forthcoming, Economic Anthropology, Vol. 2, Issue 1

This article traces the evolution of the policies implemented by the Brazilian state, aimed at both the adoption of a distinctive national and international stance vis-à-vis the the global networked economy, and the "digital inclusion" of the majority of Brazil's populace.  In particular, with regard to the adoption of open-source, or FOSS systems, as a lynch-pin of Brazil's leadership role both within increasing regional integration within the Latin American nations, and the various blocs and alliances which comprise the "Global South". Domestically, the implementation of FOSS systems has symbolised the nation's attempt to assert national sovereignty over social and economic infrastructures; to attain a distinctive model of technological autonomy and development; and as a core principle in domestic strategies to combat digital inclusion. The second part of the article treats the synergy that has developed between the technological infrastructure provided by the Brazilian state,  and the methodologies developed for using this infrastructure by representatives of community initiatives and NGOs within Brazil's civil society. The particular example given here is the praxis known as Metareciclagem, a method of recycling computer hardware for the benefit of social inclusion and grassroots cultural projects. The article concludes by describing the adoption of Metareciclagem as a point of reference for the elaboration and implementation of other forms of cultural and pedagogical practice in Brazil, signalling new directions in the concept of digital inclusion, and an example of Brazil's unique praxis within the global knowledge economy.

This paper analyzes comparatively the role of planning policy and practice in the diffusion of the neoliberal competitiveness agenda to improve the position of the Dutch and Colombian cut-flower agroindustries in world markets. The Netherlands seeks to meet national competitive aims by deploying an infrastructure approach to planning, coupled with a framing concept to generate cross-scale coordination. The Colombian government seeks to diffuse the competitiveness agenda through the formation of institutional arrangements at the national scale and processes of decentralization, yet it meets resistance from municipal governments through their land-use plans. The findings indicate that national governments rely on context-specific mechanisms and endogenous planning tools
to diffuse the competitiveness agenda across scales. While this partially accounts for variation in its diffusion, the findings point to the significance of the social organization of commodity chains in the uptake of the competitiveness agenda subnationally. The analysis draws from field research in the
Netherlands and Colombia, and the critical examination of planning policy and practice in both sites.

Discussing the urgent issues arising from rapid urbanisation, with particular emphasis on the benefits of a ‘future proofing’ perspective – helping cities develop programmes of investment which meet their changing objectives and build upon the institutional capacities they have available.