Environment and Security

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Environment and Security

• A Cultural Theory Perspective
• By
• Dipak Gyawali and Ajaya Dixit

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Social Sciences serving which solidarity?

• Liberal Economics serves individual market
  interests
• Law serves procedural interests of hierarchic
  bureaucracies, national and international
• Anthropology is of interest to the critical
  solidarity of activist egalitarians
• International Relations has the nation state as
  the unit of analysis and has difficulties in
  sub-national or trans-national levels

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Why a new social science approach?

• Development hijacked
• Sustainability nebulous

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Why not replace sustainable development with
security?

• Whose security?
• How do different solidarities perceive their
  security?

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Institutional Environments and Their Cosmologies
GRID
(Strong Ascription/Inequality)
Conscripted
Hierarchical
Limits
COPE
Myth of Nature Capricious
Myth of Nature within Limits
MANAGE
Strategy Coping
Strategy Control
Vision Day-to-day
Vision Practical Risk Averse
- GROUP
GROUP
ISOLATE HERMIT
(Weak Affinity/Unfettered Competition)
(Strong Affinity/Fettered Competition)
Individualistic
Egalitarian/Communard
COMMODITIZE
TABOO
Myth of Nature Capricious
Myth of Nature Fragile/Ephenmeral
Strategy Freedom
Strategy Alarm
Vision Risk Taking
Strategy Millenial
- GRID
Sources 1. Mary Douglas 1992 Risk and
Blame Routledge, London. 2.
Michael Thompson, Aaron Wildavsky and Richard
Ellis 1990 Cultural Theory Westview, Boulder,
Colorado.
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Order and Disjunctions
Rule of Law
Development Input (Foreign Aid)
Equitable and Just Tax
Real
Transparent Exercise of Power
Government
Rule of Individuals
Phantom
Rent Seeking State
Conspiratorial Exercise of Power
Uncontested Terrain
Government monopolizes Social Service State feels
threat from independent NGOs
Government runs inefficient crony capitalism
business. Phantom Market prevails
Contested Terrain of Human Choice
Market
Civil Society
Real (Competitive)
Phantom (Distorted)
Genuine
Phantom
Fiscal Transparency
Monopolies
Fronts for Business and Politics
Sufficient Players
Formal/Informal Divide
Diversity of Trustees
Equal Information
Exchange Control and Multiple Rates
Degree of Voluntariness
Modesty in Operating Expenses
Level Playing Field
License Raj (Tariffs, Quotas,
Permits)