Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BROKERS (Participatory Urban Governance between Democracy and Clientelism: Brokers and (In)formal Politics)

Teaser

This ethnographic research project investigates the role of brokerage – the social mechanism of mediation between different groups or levels in society – in participatory urban governance, and its implications for state-citizenship engagement, political representation and...

Summary

This ethnographic research project investigates the role of brokerage – the social mechanism of mediation between different groups or levels in society – in participatory urban governance, and its implications for state-citizenship engagement, political representation and decision making. It does so at a moment in which brokers, identified as citizens who officially ‘speak for’ and ‘act on behalf of’ their fellow citizens vis-à-vis the state, have become a persistent presence in democratic urban governance across the globe. Through their political representation, brokers impact state-citizen relations and decision-making processes regarding the allocation of resources such as housing, infrastructure, security, social care and healthcare. As brokerage in governance always consists of both formal/official and informal/personal actions and transactions, this study investigates how brokers intertwine practices, discourses, and networks both inside and outside officially sanctioned channels and institutions. It asks: what is the role of brokerage in participatory urban governance, in both its formal and informal dimensions, and what is its impact on state-citizen engagement, political representation and decision making regarding the distribution of resources?
This research focuses on participatory programs that seek to address the needs of underprivileged neighbourhoods, which are the most common sites for such programs. The neighbourhoods are particularly relevant to this research as their low-income residents most directly experience changes in governance and its resource flows, be they direct or via brokers.
This project compares brokerage in four different cities, two in the Global North and two in the Global South, in order to develop a new theoretical framework for understanding the role and impact of brokerage in participatory urban governance. These cities are Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Manchester (UK), Medellin (Colombia) and Recife (Brazil). In these cities, particular citizens operate as brokers; some develop their own initiatives, while others are invited by the authorities to act as representatives of other citizens. Studies of brokers’ impact on democracy are divided: some scholars see brokers as impeding democracy while others see them as facilitating it. The first point of view argues that brokerage elevates personal interests over the common interest; the second asserts that brokerage lubricates bureaucracy or solves democratic deficits, as brokers have knowledge of the population’s needs. Further informing this scholarly debate are two distinct literatures: the first, on neoliberal deregulation and the self-responsibilization of citizens, mainly based on research in the Global North, and the second, on modernization, social inclusion and government transparency, mainly based on studies in the Global South. In practice, however, brokers’ activities and the participatory programs in which they work always contain elements of both frameworks, giving rise to analytical contradictions and ambiguities.
Combining research from these divergent schools of thought, this project approaches brokers as ‘assemblers’, connective agents who actively bring together different government and citizen actors, institutions and resources and who combine formal and informal politics. In so doing, this approach combines recent theories on assemblages – which view urban governance as an amalgam of different actors, institutions and resources – with an anthropological actor orientation. The research is carried out by a project team consisting of five researchers (three PhDs, a Postdoc and Dr. Koster).

Work performed

The project has been carried out according to plan. All team members have carried out field research. The PhDs have collected their data, started their analysis and have all started writing their dissertations. The Postdoc and the PI have worked on the comparative element of the project. The PI has coordinated the project.
We have published several articles, book chapters and a special issue in an international refereed journal.
We have organized an international seminar and two international conferences in Nijmegen. We have presented several papers at different conferences, the PI has been invited to give several presentations at other universities, and the Postdoc has organized a panel that has been approved for an international conference in summer 2019, in which the whole team will participate.
We have also had very fruitful meetings with local practitioners, public officials, NGO members and activists in all four field sites.

Final results

This research is currently developing a new theoretical framework for analyzing brokerage in participatory governance at a moment when the role of citizen representatives and their impact on governance has become a pressing question for cities around the world. This research extends ethnographic work on brokers to the field of participatory governance, and, building on insights from political anthropology, will illuminate the intertwinement of its formal and informal dimensions

In our papers and publications we have advanced theory regarding brokerage, urban governance and (informal) politics. We will continue to do so. More publications (articles, special issues and book chapters) are on their way; some have already been accepted by journals. The PI will publish a book. The drafts of the dissertations by the PhDs are very promising. So are the publications that the Postdoc and the PI are currently writing on the comparative elements (some co-authored with the PhDs).
We will continue advancing theory on the entanglement of formal and informal politics in participatory urban governance. We are juxtaposing the insights from the different subprojects and, based on this, we are developing a comparative theoretical framework to understand the role and the implications of brokerage in participatory urban governance.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.anthrobrokers.com.