Social Capital, Social Exclusion and Rights: Opportunities and constraints in propoor urban governan

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Social Capital, Social Exclusion and Rights
Opportunities and constraints inpro-poor urban
governance
Jo Beall Development Studies Institute London
School of Economics
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Key issues in urban governance

• Entitlements of poor urban households and
  communities
• Effective delivery/ coordination of services
• Collective action and participation in urban
  governance
• Responsive and inclusive urban government

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Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Faisalabad a
city in sanitary crisis
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Social capital in waste a solid investment?

• Concept of social capital was used to explore
• Norms and networks in relation to waste
  management in households and neighbourhoods
• Synergies between users and providers of waste
  collection services

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Citizen Responsibility and Participation

• Social capital involves exclusive groups with
  free-riding outside them
• Without the right incentives, citizen
  responsibility for waste is limited to private
  not public spaces

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Private informal collection arrangements already
exist within the public system

• These are built on
• social capital between
• householders sweepers
• sweepers bosses
• sweepers sub-contracted workers

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Policy Issues Problems with promotion of market
based instruments

• Ignores
• private SWM practices within the home
• informal private waste collection arrangements
• private job markets within public sector
• This leads to clumsy and failed policies with
  negative social impact

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Conceptual Issues social exclusion is the flip
side of social capital

• Sweepers use excluded identity and dirty work
  status to keep jobs
• Sweepers collude in exploitative work practices
  and oppressive relationships
• Social capital leads to path dependency and
  impacts on efficiency of policy interventions

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Urban Poverty and Urban Governance a study of
nine cities in the South
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Social capital is it a public good?

• The social resources of the poor are more akin to
  private than to public goods as they exclude as
  well as include
• But benefits accrue to groups as well and members
  fare better than non-members
• So it may be better to call social capital a
  semi-public good

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What does this mean for urban governance?

• The social resources of the poor benefit urban
  development as much as the poor
• The effectiveness of city government does not
  hinge on a vibrant associational life
• But social resources and social organisation
  foster local democracy

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Conceptual Issues Social capital and social
exclusion reflect social structure

• Both social capital and social exclusion reflect
  and promote the corresponding social structure
• The better off have more social resources than do
  the poor or socially excluded
• The better off are better able to determine the
  terms of their inclusion or exclusion

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Social exclusion and urban governance lessons
from Joburg
Uniting a Divided City Jo Beall, Owen
Crankshaw Sue Parnell
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Features of a Uniting City

• Attainment of political and constitutional rights
  are accompanied by policy efforts to address
• Historical disadvantage
• Social and economic rights
• At local government level this is largely focused
  on housing and urban services

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Features of a Divided City

• Accompanying social dynamics include
• Class and intra-racial differentiation becoming
  more salient than race
• Xenophobia accompanying the influx of foreign
  migrants
• Crime and fear shaping thee post-apartheid
  landscape

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Sites of exclusion
Primary and Secondary Employment 1946-96

• Declining mining manufacturing sectors
• Rise in tertiary sector
• Spatially divided city

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Sites of exclusion

• Ascendance of political parties over civics
• Decentralisation by stealth in context of
  centralising tendencies of ANC govt
• Substitution of fiscal and management
  considerations over pro-poor local govt

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Points of inclusion

• The Constitution obliges participation
• But capture of forums by well organised, more
  affluent groups

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What does this mean for urban governance?

• Basic social and economic entitlements are a
  prerequisite for social inclusion
• Constitutional commitment and basic rights are a
  prerequisite for social inclusion
• Political inclusion is a prerequisite for social
  inclusion

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Future Research C3 and Human Rights Governance
How can local funds address entitlements and
promote inclusive governance? How can donors fund
rights based approaches and local democracy?
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Future Research Crisis States Programme
Can sub-national and local government as be a
site of state stabilisation? Should local
democracy include customary and informal
institutions?