‘Feeling of despair’ as the leading cluster theme of conceptual descriptive analyses in participatory assessment: Russia Oxfam GB case study

This article provides a case study on participatory assessment based on experience gained from an EU-Oxfam GB project entitled“Empowering Municipalities to Effectively Address Poverty”conducted in five small towns in Russia.Participatory assessment through focus group discussions(FGDs)was the main approach used in the implementation of the project.A participatory assessment was performed through 25 FGDs in five remote areas in central Russia.More than 200 participants representing people living in poverty,such as single mothers,people with disabilities,families with many children,families with disabled children,and pensioners,voluntarily participated in the meetings.Most of the participants were women(75%)aged between 25 and 70 years.We consider that the participants’representation is relevant in accordance with the official poverty studies.Through identification of patterns of recurrent ideas and opinions,a qualitative method helps us understand social phenomena from the views of and on the basis of the opinions of the participants.The FGDs’narratives underwent pattern analysis,resulting in the framing of the cluster themes and narrative conceptualization.Cluster analysis of the FGDs’narratives led to the framing of 10 cluster themes of importance,followed by conceptual descriptions and related narratives.The conceptual description of the leading theme,feeling of despair(theme 1),was described by respondents’expressions/narratives,such as“Nobody needs us and there is no future for us and our children in this town,”the narrative idea that crosscuts the subsequent themes.The following nine themes are of equal importance,are interlinked,and for the major part constitute the leading theme,feeling of despair(theme 1):state social and family support(theme 2);health care(theme 3);who are those living in poverty?(theme 4);housing(theme 5);living costs(theme 6);employment(theme 7);children’s well-being and future(theme 8);environment and recreation(theme 9);and legal rights(theme 10).Equal importance of these themes is justified by the analysis of patterns and recurrence of the FGDs’narrative ideas.The assigned numbers from 2 to 10 are given to simplify the references to the corresponding cluster throughout the analysis and do not reflect the ranks of the clusters.The leading theme(theme 1)touches on the psychological status of the FGDs’participants,while the remaining nine themes(themes 2-10)relate to the state system of social services,including health care.For example,per the conceptual descriptions,the state social and family support(theme 2)is described by the following narrative:“Those who have a family network get their support,for those without family help,state support is crucial but is very little and not everybody can get it.Nobody wants to help or provide decent services-people in local government get fed up with you,you get sent from one place to another.”The frustration(“Nobody wants to help or provide decent services;the government gets fed up with you,you get sent from one place to another.”)caused by poor services(“State support is crucial but is very little and not everybody can get it.”) crosscuts the theme’s conceptual description. In this article, feeling of despair refers to a psychosocial condition caused by people living in poverty and their dissatisfaction with state services. Details of the remaining themes are given. The purpose of this article is to draw the attention of practitioners and policy makers to the participatory results rather than their focusing on the qualitative methodological details. We argue that a participatory understanding of community needs, through cluster theme analysis and conceptual descriptions, can help local municipalities develop more targeted community programs on poverty and vulnerability reduction.

Prospects of Deliberative Global Governance

Global governance is often equated with international institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank that were established after World War II to address problems transcending national borders. While these institutions incorporate norms of representative democracy that evolved in national societies, their legitimacy is often questioned on grounds of limited effectiveness and remoteness from the citizens they purportedly serve. The arguments of many democratic theorists that deliberation among ordinary citizens can legitimize policies that heed these views thus bear important implications for global governance. In this paper, the possibility and different ways that civil society enhancing public participation, transparency and accountability in global governance are addressed. The empirical focus will be on the world＇s first global deliberation--WWViews （world wide views on global warming） that was held in 38 countries with all inhabited continents in 2009. The social drivers that encourage innovation in global democratic governance are analysed, as the main successes and challenges of WWViews and sketch three scenarios of the future of deliberative global governance are based on the experiences and plans around global citizen participation. The authors argue that despite some challenges, such as ensuring high quality of deliberation in highly variant policy cultural contexts and building policy pathways conducive to political impact, the prospects of deliberation in helping solve global environmental and policy problems are high, and likely to see cumulative progress in the near future.

A Comparative Assessment of Land Use Functions Based on Perceptions of Policy Makers and Local Farmers in Guyuan, Western China

The land use function （LUF） concept is a useful tool in assessing sustainable development. With the goal of exploring the conceptive difference of policy makers and local farmer on LUFs and understanding the capacity of different land use types to provide LUFs, we used a participatory method to assess LUFs in Guyuan, which included four phases： literature review and field surveys; specification of the LUF context; ranking of priorities and weighting of LUFs; and visualization and discussion of the results. It was found that policy makers perceived regional prob- lems and critical LUFs well, whereas farmers had a clearer perception of local issues that affect their livelihood. For policy makers, environmental functions had a higher priority than economic and social functions; in contrast, farmers prioritized economic and social functions. However, based on the perception of both groups, the result was the same whereby environmental functions had the highest LUF value and economic functions had the lowest. Participatory assessment methods enhanced our understanding of causal linkages between land use and LUFs, and may help stakeholders improve future land use decisions and management for regional sustainable development.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Changing Ecosystem Services Consumption in the Jinghe Watershed: A Household Survey and PRA

This paper presents cognitive awareness levels of ecosystem services and their consumption by farmers in Guyuan City, which lies in the Jinghe watershed. Household Surveys and Participatory Rural Assessment （PRA） were used to determine differences in farmers cognitive awareness levels. The household survey results showed that farmers have a cognitive awareness of 11 ecosystem services： food supply, air purification, environmental purification, soil and water conservation, clean water supply, natural disaster minimization, increasing income, fuel wood supply, aesthetic recreation, fodder supply and sand stabilization. The job-related requirements of a farmers’ daily life, their direct consumption of ecosystem services and the importance of ecosystem services to them all influence their cognitive awareness of ecosystem services. Through group interviews the PRA method can provide the opportunity for information exchange and discussion. The process can help farmers to gain more cognitive awareness of ecosystem services. Large changes in ecosystem services have been observed in the study area. Food production and fuel wood supply have decreased markedly, yet incomes have increased. Spatial and temporal variables, changes in ecosystem services and the level of income all have an impact on farmers’ food supply and resource consumption. Overall, the total consumption of food （cereal and potato） and fuel wood declines for most farmers and consumption of vegetables, meat, coals and gas have increased.

Multifunctional Forest Management in Guyuan:Potentials,Challenges and Trade-offs

水土流失、人口激增和水资源短缺是制约中国西部固原市农村地区可持续发展的关键因素。为此,中国政府从1999年底开始实行退耕还林工程并于2003年完成第一阶段的计划任务。该工程以生态恢复为首要任务,同时兼顾减轻农村贫困及加快经济发展的目标。本研究旨在评估3种森林管理政策情景对当地可持续发展的潜在贡献和弊端,研究首先应用参与式影响评估框架(FoPIA)设定了3种森林管理政策情景,然后针对各个情景下土地利用的变化,进行了土地利用变化的影响评估。3种情景分别为"生态林"、"经济林(以种植水果为主的复合农林业)"和"生物能源林"。通过与当地利益相关者座谈,界定了与固原市可持续发展相关的9项重要森林功能,包括3项社会功能,即提供就业机会、生活质量、森林可达性;3项经济功能,即木材收入、非木材林产品收入、林业相关产业和服务收入;3项生态功能,即提供生物性资源、提供非生物性资源、生态过程维持。研究进一步通过多学科专家讨论和专家知识,评估了不同情景对森林功能的影响,探索了当地不同可持续发展目标间的权衡关系。结果显示:生态林可以达到生态恢复的首要目标,但是社会功能和经济功能较低;水果经济林对社会经济贡献大但对环境改善作用较小;生物能源林可以同时兼顾社会、经济和环境功能,但是在当地缺乏实践经验。基于专家观点,讨论了各情景的优势、劣势、机会和风险。研究发现,生态林树种选择需要重新考虑,并优先采用本土树种;水果经济林在经营得当情况下能促进社会经济发展;生物能源林在农户或村落尺度上提供清洁能源方面潜力巨大。