Victoria Beard - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Victoria Beard

Planning and Decentralization: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South, Jun 4, 2008

In the late 1990s, a series of events occurred that would change the course of Indonesian history... more In the late 1990s, a series of events occurred that would change the course of Indonesian history in dramatic and irreversible ways. The Asian economic crisis resulted in months of runaway inflation followed by civil unrest in Indonesia’s major urban centers. Many observers concur that the turning point was on May 12, 1998, when four Indonesian university students were killed by Indonesian security forces (Bird 1999: 29). These and other closely related events, such as violent attacks on Indonesians of Chinese descent and the occupation of the National Assembly building by university students, led ultimately to the resignation of President Suharto (Siegel 1998). The resignation was followed by a period of consolidation of the pro-democracy and political reform movements. This consolidation encompassed a national dialogue about the need for clean government, an opening up of the news media and civil society in unprecedented ways and a series of electoral reforms. Another significant event in the late 1990s was the passing of two pieces of decentralization legislation, Law 22/1999 and Law 25/1999, that began to reverse a thirty-year process of centralization and that gave substantial political and fiscal power to local, municipal-level governments. These events presented incredible challenges and opportunities for Indonesia’s national development.2 One challenge was dealing with the rise in urban poverty rates spurred by the crisis. Another major challenge was sustaining the national momentum for more democratic, transparent and accountable governance from the village to the national level. Finally, there was the question of how successful state and civil society actors would be in using the new political spaces created by these events while also protecting them from elite capture

World Resources Institute, 2021

Urbanization is happening differently today than in the past and occurring most rapidly in places... more Urbanization is happening differently today than in the past and occurring most rapidly in places with the fewest resources. Traditional approaches are not able to keep up, leaving billions of people with poor access to basic necessities, dragging down economies and damaging the environment. This synthesis report of the Towards a More Equal City series proposes a new way of thinking about urban development, where the metrics for a functional and thriving city are defined by the quality, reliability and affordability of essential services. The report brings together the best thinking from over six years of research and more than 160 authors and reviewers. It acts as a roadmap for how to break through sectoral silos and the status quo to make cities more equal, which will in turn create prosperity, reduce environmental damage and improve livelihoods. The report documents breakthrough innovations from numerous cities, revealing real solutions and the outcomes of investing in equitable ...

Science of The Total Environment, 2018

• Robust data on drinking water safety is currently not available for many cities. • This is a st... more • Robust data on drinking water safety is currently not available for many cities. • This is a standard and scalable methodology where data is not readily available. • Access to infrastructure does not mean access to safe water. • Current drinking water safety levels in Cochabamba do not meet UN SDG 6. • This method yields credible and comparable urban drinking water safety data.

Journal of the American Planning Association, 2014

ABSTRACT Problem, research strategy, and findings: In this study, we analyze why a low-income com... more ABSTRACT Problem, research strategy, and findings: In this study, we analyze why a low-income community failed to meaningfully affect plans for the redevelopment of the Station District in Santa Ana (CA) although they used three avenues to do so: public participation, liberal democracy, and deliberative democracy. The city provided opportunities for public participation but controlled the agenda, effectively preventing residents from reframing the discussion. The liberal democratic electoral system failed residents because many were ineligible to vote, while city council members received campaign contributions from external business interests. Residents did develop extensive deliberative democratic processes that produced collaborative plans; however, these plans were not well incorporated into the official plan. In addition, the city refused to sign a community benefit agreement through which residents could hold the city and developer responsible for the redevelopment plan.Takeaway for practice: We suggest that planners have an obligation to improve the participatory process by empowering community residents to set the agenda and frame the issues at the local level while addressing the role of corporations in local politics and in campaign finance, and by seeking to achieve elections that more fairly represent spatially segregated public interests. Less-ambitious changes to the public planning process will fail to achieve a balance of power among low-income communities of color, city officials, and those representing private market interests.

International Journal of Population Geography, 2001

The RAND unrestricted draft series is intended to transmit preliminary results of RAND research. ... more The RAND unrestricted draft series is intended to transmit preliminary results of RAND research. Unrestricted drafts have not been formally reviewed or edited. The views and conclusions expressed are tentative. A draft should not be cited or quoted without permission of the author, unless the preface grants such permission. 20000815 114 RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis. RAND's publications and drafts do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors.

Urban Studies, 2006

The article analyses differences in collective action in rural and urban communities that partici... more The article analyses differences in collective action in rural and urban communities that participated in a poverty alleviation project in Indonesia. It was found that the main determinants of collective action are relationships among multiscalar social, political and historical factors, internal and external to communities. Two distinct forms of collective action are also identified. The first form is based on community cohesion, stable social relationships and adherence to social hierarchy. The second form is based on a community's perception of an interdependent future and a shared desire for structural change. Both forms of collective action are effective in delivering project resources to beneficiaries; however, only the second form demonstrates potential for social transformation.

Planning Theory, 2003

This article examines how citizens in authoritarian political contexts learn radical planning for... more This article examines how citizens in authoritarian political contexts learn radical planning for social transformation. After identifying a series of gaps in the radical planning literature, the article uses a longitudinal study (1994-2001) of collective action in an urban settlement in Indonesia as a heuristic device to develop a more nuanced model of radical planning. The study illustrates how cumulative participation in state-directed planning, community-based planning, and covert planning over time resulted in a sense of collective agency that served as a foundation for demanding political reform at a moment when state control was weakened.

Journal of Urban Affairs, 2005

period is necessarily more focused on description than on causal argument. The claim that Asian-A... more period is necessarily more focused on description than on causal argument. The claim that Asian-American organizations provided an avenue to broader political engagement on the individual level does not entirely counter the fact that both UPAC and ABA became far less politicized as they became more established in the larger San Diego community. Although it attempts to link individual identity politics and large-scale institutional processes, the book is strongest when Võ describes the internal strategies of the organizations she observed through her fieldwork. This book provides a valuable contribution to the understanding of pan-ethnic coalitions and suburban ethnic populations too often understudied because of their perceived quiescence. Chapter 7, on the history of San Diego’s Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District, should be of particular interest to the readers of this journal and would be a fantastic addition for courses addressing racial and ethnic politics in urban redevelopment.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2002

Public engagement in planning can be viewed as a continuum ranging from local inclusion in synopt... more Public engagement in planning can be viewed as a continuum ranging from local inclusion in synoptic planning schemes devised by the state to participation in grassroots social movements that seek broader social transformation. This continuum is incomplete because it does not elucidate how local people plan for social transformation within highly restrictive political environments where responses to social activism encompass real physical and social harm. The article draws on historical and contemporary analysis of social change in Indonesia and Malaysia together with a case study from Indonesia to demonstrate that social transformation does occur within environments where overt radical action is dangerous. In these circumstances, it takes a more subtle and nuanced form of collective action, here referred to as covert planning.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2009

The article explicates the contours of an academic discipline and builds an argument in favor of ... more The article explicates the contours of an academic discipline and builds an argument in favor of viewing planning as an evolving discipline. As part of our argument, we discuss the unique historical trajectory of the planning discipline, its emphasis on practice and public scholarship, and how this contrasts to the traditional social sciences. We argue that planning scholars need to reorient toward the discipline’s central organizing concept, Friedmann’s knowledge-action framework, and to engage in an ongoing dialectical process of refinement, revision, and extension. To illustrate this point, we provide an example of how recent scholarly work on collective action and social movement contributes to the terrain of planning thought.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2013

Transnational communities transcend national borders in order to act collectively, despite geogra... more Transnational communities transcend national borders in order to act collectively, despite geographic, economic, and political challenges. Oaxacan migrants exemplify how community organizations mobilize beyond the local scale to facilitate community-based planning in the United States and Mexico. The article brings together contributions from scholarship on collective action, governance, and citizenship to analyze community-based planning. It analyzes how Oaxacan migrants modify norms and customs about community service and indigenous governance in relation to community-based planning in both countries. The findings expand our understanding of how community-based planning is scaled up and embedded in transnational processes and relationships.

International Development Planning Review, 2007

Gender, collective action and participatory development in Indonesia This article critically exam... more Gender, collective action and participatory development in Indonesia This article critically examines women's and men's participation in community development efforts in Indonesia. Towards this end, it develops a theoretical framework based on contributions from work that addresses the social construction of gender; citizen participation in community-level planning, governance and development; and collective action, social dilemmas and social capital in Indonesia. Drawing on this framework, some hypotheses are developed and tested. Based on analyses of the third wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey, the fi ndings reveal that female-headed households are not as socially excluded as expected. However, participatory community development is found to reinforce patterns of gender exclusion, particularly among women with lower educational attainment.

Development and Change, 2007

In response to the well documented limitations of top-down, modernist and authoritarian approache... more In response to the well documented limitations of top-down, modernist and authoritarian approaches that have dominated development, practitioners and academics increasingly promote more community-based approaches. The World Bank uses the term 'community driven development' to describe projects that increase a community's control over the development process. In an analysis of a community driven poverty alleviation project in Indonesia, this article examines the vulnerability of such an approach to elite capture. The expected relationships among a community's capacity for collective action, elite control over project decisions and elite capture of project benefits were not found. In cases where the project was controlled by elites, benefits continued to be delivered to the poor, and where power was the most evenly distributed, resource allocation to the poor was restricted. Communities where both non-elites and elites participated in democratic self-governance, however, did demonstrate an ability to redress elite capture when it occurred. 1. Local elites are locally based individuals with disproportionate access to social, political or economic power. The term elite capture refers to the process by which these individuals dominate and corrupt community-level planning and governance. The following analyse various aspects of elite capture:

Asian Journal of Social Science, 1999

This paper uses panel data from two rounds of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS1 and IFLS2) ... more This paper uses panel data from two rounds of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS1 and IFLS2) to examine the correlates of shared living arrangements between adult children and older parents. We consider the question from two perspectives: that of prime-age adults (under 60) and that of elderly (60 and above). For both groups, we find that opportunities to co-reside are strong determinants of whether coresidence occurs in 1993. That is, for prime-age adults, the number of living siblings is strongly negatively associated with the presence of a parent in the household. For the elderly, the number of living children is strongly positively associated with whether a child is present in the household. Households headed by elderly respondents are also more likely to contain a child if they are in urban areas or in areas where housing costs are relatively high. We also examine the correlates of the transition to shared living arrangements by 1997. For the elderly, although socioeconomic...

International Development Planning Review, 2010

Much of the community-based planning literature focuses on the development of collaborative socia... more Much of the community-based planning literature focuses on the development of collaborative social relationships in small territorial communities. It is argued that the collective action that is foundational to such planning is based on closed social relationships, trust and the ability of participants to control or punish potential defectors. The article examines how community-based planning and the social relationships that underlie it emerge and are maintained transnationally. The research focuses on immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have relocated to Southern California and established hometown associations. The associations remit money to their pueblos of origin for community-based planning. The article examines (1) how social networks and the relationships of trust upon which they are built connect immigrants in California to their pueblo of origin, (2) how these social relationships that facilitate community-level collective action are maintained across transnational spaces and (3) the potential of such collective action for broader social and political transformation in Southern California and Oaxaca.