The second GLD-SAIPAR Covid-19 survey results are now available to the public. You can see the interactive reports on Covid-19 needs and assistance, life changes and fears, community restrictions, and social challenges for Zambia below. 

These reports are part of the GLD project, Developing a Locally Rooted Approach to Covid-19 Response. Please find all reports, publications, and previous webinars here. 

This paper examines Tunisia’s 2015-17 municipal boundary reform process, undertaken in preparation for the decentralization process mandated under the 2014 constitution. It analyzes how municipal boundary decisions were made, the actors who were involved, and the logic that shaped the reform process. Through extensive fieldwork in the capital, Tunis, and in eight municipalities around Tunisia, this paper explores how the underpinning logics of national decision-making collide with the spatial realities of local actors. This paper argues that the municipal boundary reforms were guided by a combination of security-based and clientelist logics that imposed centralized conceptions of space and failed to engage with territories as lived spaces. Furthermore, it argues that, by failing to address the social, economic, and spatial implications of boundary reforms, the reforms contributing to producing a de-spatialized decentralization process that ultimately has little meaning for residents and proves problematic for the resulting municipalities and their constituent relations. The process thus replicates many of the same logic and conceptions of space that have shaped territorial governance since the colonial era.

This paper is part of the larger Governance and Local Development in the MENA project, funded by the Hicham Alaoui Foundation. 

Read the full working paper.

We are pleased to announce that GLD Director Ellen Lust and her colleagues Adel Daoud (Department of Sociology, GU – Principal PI), Dr Fredrik Johansson (Chalmers, GU), Dr Maria Brandén (Linköping University), Professor Xiao-Li Meng (Harvard University), Professor Peter Hedström (KTH), and Professor Devdatt Dubhashi (Chalmers, GU) have been awarded a Research Environment Grant by Vetenskapsrådet for the purposes of studying the extent to which African communities are trapped in poverty and how competing development interventions alter the communities’ prospects to free themselves from ‘poverty traps.’ The project will combine satellite images and artificial intelligence to measure poverty from 1982-2020 and use the data to explain the effects of World Bank and Chinese development programs in Africa. The project will run for six years, starting in 2021. 

More updates on this project will be forthcoming. 

This month, GLD held the first GLD Spring Workshop sessions. The series is aimed at sharing findings based on GLD data and workshopping findings into well-crafted articles. We would like to thank all participants and are looking forward to the upcoming sessions (find the schedule below), 

For more information about the seminar series, or if you wish to attend, please contact rose.shaber-twedt@gu.se.

If you are thinking about pursuing an internship as part of your studies, we are currently accepting applications for three different internships: Research, Data Science, and Project Management/Communications. Click here to learn more about these positions.

We are also looking for research interns who are interested in aspects of migrant integration in Sweden, Jordan, and Turkey. The internship will be carried out in English, but knowledge of Arabic is a requirement for this particular position. Click here to learn more about this position. 

Benefits of a GLD Internship

Details
Length of Internship: 10 or 20 weeks
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Working Language: English
Deadline: April 20 

Application
To apply, please send your CV, English writing sample, and a cover letter describing which track you are applying for and why you want to do an internship at GLD to contact@gld.gu.se. If you have any questions, please contact us via email. We ask that you submit all documents in English.

International Applicants
While we prioritize applications from University of Gothenburg students, we welcome submissions from around the world. In special circumstances, GLD can pay the cost of transportation to our Swedish offices for international applicants. Unfortunately, we are unable to pay for any living expenses during your internship.

PLEASE NOTE – due to Covid-19 restrictions, all work will be done remotely until further notice. However, you will still have the opportunity to work extensively with a wide array of researchers around the globe. Our research is still ongoing, and we look forward to your contributions to the team. 

GLD is offering a limited number of research fellowships for scholars for short-term research projects in the areas of governance and local development. Awards averaging 25,000 SEK will be offered to support projects related to critical governance issues. Themes include, but are not limited to:

Due to the current circumstances, we will only consider Covid-19-friendly projects at the moment. Please keep this in mind when submitting your research proposal.

To apply, please submit your CV, research proposal (including detailed budget), and an English writing sample to contact@gld.gu.se. PLEASE NOTE – all documents must be submitted in English to be considered. Applications close 31 March 2021.

For further information, please click here. If you have any questions, please contact contact@gld.gu.se.  

On February 19, 22, and 23, GLD Senior Research Fellow Kristen Kao hosted a virtual workshop on "Developing Survey Measures of Punishment, Revenge, and Forgiveness in Post-Conflict Settings" with project collaborators Kristin Fabbe (Harvard Business School) and Michael Bang Petersen (Aarhus University). For three hours each day, a group of scholars met to discuss the concepts of just punishment, revenge, and forgiveness, as well as to provide feedback on survey drafts for GLD's "From Revenge to Forgiveness" project.  Michael McCullough, Everett Worthington, Roger Petersen, James Gibson, Fotini Christia, Salma Mousa, Karin Dyrstad, Alexandra Hartman, Mara Revkin, Muslih Irwani, Dan Posner and Marsin AlShamari all participated, and we would like to thank them again for their extremely helpful contributions.

The workshop was part of the "From Revenge to Forgiveness: Strengthening Durable Peace in Post-Conflict Societies" project, funded by Riksbanken Jubileumsfond and the Folke Bernadotte Academy. To see more about the project, click here.