Informal (In)security in Urban Afghanistan

Poverty and insecurity in Afghan cities are intricately intertwined with conditions of “informality.” The term and the realities it describes refer to living situations in which basic needs and activities such as work, housing, and social security are unprotected by laws and standards. Immersion into such a convolution of informality determines the life of a majority among urban populations in Afghanistan and conveys a deep sense of insecurity for the urban poor. The paper looks at how rapid and unprecedented urban growth in Afghanistan goes along with rising levels of livelihood insecurity and explores how the urban poor cope with livelihood risks through a range of informal arrangements. Conceptually, the notion of “informal security regimes” helps capture informality as a coping strategy and how it relates to urban poverty in Afghanistan. Informed by extensive empirical fieldwork, the paper identifies different elements of the “informal security regime” in urban Afghanistan and explores their specific operations. The paper is mainly focused on the Afghan capital, Kabul, supplemented with evidence from other urban sites in Afghanistan.     

Afghanistan: Imperatives of Stability Misperceived

More than seven years have passed since the intervention of the international community in Afghanistan, yet the country has not only failed to achieve stability; it has actually experienced a downward trend on that account. The worsening situation in Afghanistan has occurred despite the fact that the Afghan government and its international partners have allocated unprecedented amounts of resources, increased their security forces and implemented socio-political and economic programs that they deemed were conducive to stability. Why and how this failure did come about? This article challenges some of the underlying assumptions for stability and the notion of political reconstruction that the international community and the Afghan government have implemented so far as being largely responsible for the gloomy state of affairs in that country.     

Work in crisis: managing fantasies about distant strangers,managing aid workers

This article provides an insight into the world of Polish development workers operating in South Sudan. It shows that the conceptualisations of aid work in terms of a ‘mission’, a unique job with a special, ethical goal, a difficult, risky operation requiring specific skills are not incidental. Instead, the point is made, that such ways of thinking about foreign aid and distant locations are strongly institutionalised sets of values and behavioural patterns, here defined as ‘work in crisis’. This specific notion is shaped by aid organisations who actively promote this rhetoric firstly through producing ‘truth’ about the aid work and project locations, and secondly through governing lived realities of the aid workers. The ‘work in crisis’ rhetoric helps to draw people into a development movement as devoted and allegiant followers. It also enables the management of these employees who are the most crucial for the industry – project coordinators – but who are separated from the organisational headquarters and NGO management by thousands of miles. Finally, it assists in the promotion of foreign aid among wider audiences in donor societies.     

The first Italian geographical congress

EUROPE.

A Geography of Ireland. By O. J. R. Howarth. The Oxford Geographies Edited by A. J. Herbertson. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911. Price 2s. 6d.

The Place‐Names of Berkshire. By the Rev. Walter R. Skeat. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911. Price 2s. net.

Nooks and Corners of Yorkshire. By J. S. Fletcher. With a Map. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1911. Price 2s. 6d. net.

ASIA.

The Story of Korea. By Joseph H. Longford, late His Majesty's Consul at Nagasaki; Professor of Japanese, King's College, London; Barrister‐at‐law, Middle Temple; Author of “The Story of Old Japan.” With Thirty‐three Illustrations and Three Maps. London and Leipsic: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Price 10s. 6d. net.

AFRICA.

The Opening‐up of Africa. By Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. Home University Library of Modern Knowledge. London: Williams and Norgate. Price 1s. net.

“Yakusu” The Very Heart of Africa. Being some Account of the Protestant Mission at Stanley Falls, Upper Congo. By H. Sutton Smith, Baptist Missionary Society. London and Edinburgh: Marshall Brothers, Limited, 1911. Price 6s.

GENERAL.

British Plants: Their Biology and Geology. By J. F. Bevis, B.A., B.Sc., and H. J. Jeffrey, A.R.C.Sc. London: Alston Rivers, 1911. Price 4s. 6d. net.