John Devlin | University of Guelph (original) (raw)
Papers by John Devlin
A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s so... more A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s social and its business mission. This paper argues that cooperatives avoid this tension because organizational decisions are made by the social beneficiaries – the cooperative members. This is demonstrated with the experience of Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC) in the Philippines. SIDC started in 1969 with 59 small farmers each contributing US$ 10. SIDC now offers a range of social and economic services to nearly 18,000 members with assets reaching US$ 36 million in 2012. However SIDC currently faces very important challenges, the most formidable of which is the increasingly globalised production and consumption system. SIDC has adjusted to market pressures not by internationalising its markets, investment, management and resources but through vertical integration of its domestic supply chain, adoption of technological innovations and by tapping migrant workers’ savings. Howev...
Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, 2015
This study investigates incentives and disincentives regarding adoption of controlled tile draina... more This study investigates incentives and disincentives regarding adoption of controlled tile drainage (CTD) in a region of eastern Ontario, Canada, where CTD could be used prolifically from a biophysical standpoint, but is not. Irrespective of documented environmental and agronomic benefits of CTD, adoption remains low. Surveys and semi-structured interviews with producers and drainage contractors/experts were used to evaluate awareness of CTD and identify producer adoption impediments. Surveys indicated nearly 70% of producer respondents had heard about CTD. Top ranked incentives identified by producers (who adopted) and drainage contractors/experts combined were: soil water retention benefits, increased crop yields, and gratification improving the environment. Top ranked disincentives combined by target groups were: increased farm labor, perceived lack of extension services, and costs. Many producer adopters emphasized motivators grounded in personal or community bearing, such as pe...
Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the process by which byproducts are revalorized and exchanged among ... more Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the process by which byproducts are revalorized and exchanged among distinct business entities. The literature suggests that IS can bring financial, social and environmental benefits to firms and to society. Analytical tools have been developed for uncovering industrial symbiosis arrangements and guidelines suggested for designing them where they do not yet exist. Despite these suggested benefits and these tools, few planned industrial symbiosis arrangements have successfully materialized except in East Asia. Understanding why IS networks emerge and expand or falter requires both macro and micro level analysis. Some explanatory factors have been extensively covered in the IS literature such as the importance of coordinating organizations. But the analysis of enterprise level actions and strategies as well as the conditions in the external environment that act on the enterprises and the network are not as well examined. The paper outlines an analytical fra...
A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s so... more A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s social and its business mission. This paper argues that cooperatives avoid this tension because organizational decisions are made by the social beneficiaries – the cooperative members. This is demonstrated with the experience of Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC) in the Philippines. SIDC started in 1969 with 59 small farmers each contributing US$ 10. SIDC now offers a range of social and economic services to nearly 18,000 members with assets reaching US$ 36 million in 2012. However SIDC currently faces very important challenges, the most formidable of which is the increasingly globalised production and consumption system. SIDC has adjusted to market pressures not by internationalising its markets, investment, management and resources but through vertical integration of its domestic supply chain, adoption of technological innovations and by tapping migrant workers’ savin...
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02255189 2005 9669069, Feb 14, 2011
Sustainability Science Practice Policy, 2012
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 01436599408420363, Nov 15, 2007
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 09644019308414102, Nov 8, 2007
One of the striking areas of agreement at the 1992 United Nations Conference in Environment and D... more One of the striking areas of agreement at the 1992 United Nations Conference in Environment and Development (UNCED) was over the importance of economic efficiency as a means to environmental ends. The language of economic efficiency and structural ...
Development in Practice, 2015
The pastoralism of the Turkana has persisted in the challenging environment of northwestern Kenya... more The pastoralism of the Turkana has persisted in the challenging environment of northwestern Kenya for some 200 years. Yet many pastoralists find that they increasingly rely on food relief during droughts and famines. This article contextualises emergency responses to famine among Turkana pastoralists by considering their encounters with colonialism, development, and humanitarian interventions. It uses key informant interviews, participant observation, and content analysis, to analyse the benefits and challenges of a small-scale food relief programme. The article argues that such programmes can weaken the viability of pastoralism, and concludes with considerations for future policy and programming.
In the 1970s, the assets of the four largest federal financial crown corporations were the fastes... more In the 1970s, the assets of the four largest federal financial crown corporations were the fastest growing of the federal crown—owned sector.1 In the 1980s, asset growth rates have reduced in the wake of increased political scrutiny of the banking crowns. At no time, however, have these state-owned banks been anything other than a small part of the total banking and finance sector. In the late 1980s, financial crowns constituted just over 10 percent of the assets of the financial sector with federal crowns accounting for less than half of this figure. This modest role perhaps helps explain why the banking crowns have received little sustained scholarly analysis. They have nonetheless been politically controversial at key points in Canadian history. This chapter fills part of the research gap by analyzing the origins, evolution and operations of two of the four federal banking crowns, the Farm Credit Corporation (FCC) and the Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB) and their predece...
This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling fou... more This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling foundation for the analysis of community development (CD) processes and cases. Through a review of the international theoretical and empirical literature in CD the paper demonstrates that CD scholars work with concepts such as social solidarity, agency, self-help and mutual help, social capital, and reciprocity, that can be effectively understood in Polanyian terms. CD scholars explain the emergence of CD as a response to “modernization” where communities seek to mitigate the impacts of modernization while also taking advantage of its promises to improve communities and livelihoods. Also CD normative actions are explained in terms of building and rebuilding social capital in response to the erosion of communities caused by modern forces such as the nation state and industrial capitalism. CD scholars borrow from social analysts such as Jurgen Habermas, Paulo Freire, and Anthony Giddens to st...
A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s so... more A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s social and its business mission. This paper argues that cooperatives avoid this tension because organizational decisions are made by the social beneficiaries – the cooperative members. This is demonstrated with the experience of Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC) in the Philippines. SIDC started in 1969 with 59 small farmers each contributing US$ 10. SIDC now offers a range of social and economic services to nearly 18,000 members with assets reaching US$ 36 million in 2012. However SIDC currently faces very important challenges, the most formidable of which is the increasingly globalised production and consumption system. SIDC has adjusted to market pressures not by internationalising its markets, investment, management and resources but through vertical integration of its domestic supply chain, adoption of technological innovations and by tapping migrant workers’ savings. Howev...
Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, 2015
This study investigates incentives and disincentives regarding adoption of controlled tile draina... more This study investigates incentives and disincentives regarding adoption of controlled tile drainage (CTD) in a region of eastern Ontario, Canada, where CTD could be used prolifically from a biophysical standpoint, but is not. Irrespective of documented environmental and agronomic benefits of CTD, adoption remains low. Surveys and semi-structured interviews with producers and drainage contractors/experts were used to evaluate awareness of CTD and identify producer adoption impediments. Surveys indicated nearly 70% of producer respondents had heard about CTD. Top ranked incentives identified by producers (who adopted) and drainage contractors/experts combined were: soil water retention benefits, increased crop yields, and gratification improving the environment. Top ranked disincentives combined by target groups were: increased farm labor, perceived lack of extension services, and costs. Many producer adopters emphasized motivators grounded in personal or community bearing, such as pe...
Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the process by which byproducts are revalorized and exchanged among ... more Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the process by which byproducts are revalorized and exchanged among distinct business entities. The literature suggests that IS can bring financial, social and environmental benefits to firms and to society. Analytical tools have been developed for uncovering industrial symbiosis arrangements and guidelines suggested for designing them where they do not yet exist. Despite these suggested benefits and these tools, few planned industrial symbiosis arrangements have successfully materialized except in East Asia. Understanding why IS networks emerge and expand or falter requires both macro and micro level analysis. Some explanatory factors have been extensively covered in the IS literature such as the importance of coordinating organizations. But the analysis of enterprise level actions and strategies as well as the conditions in the external environment that act on the enterprises and the network are not as well examined. The paper outlines an analytical fra...
A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s so... more A central concern of the social enterprise literature is the tension between an organization’s social and its business mission. This paper argues that cooperatives avoid this tension because organizational decisions are made by the social beneficiaries – the cooperative members. This is demonstrated with the experience of Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC) in the Philippines. SIDC started in 1969 with 59 small farmers each contributing US$ 10. SIDC now offers a range of social and economic services to nearly 18,000 members with assets reaching US$ 36 million in 2012. However SIDC currently faces very important challenges, the most formidable of which is the increasingly globalised production and consumption system. SIDC has adjusted to market pressures not by internationalising its markets, investment, management and resources but through vertical integration of its domestic supply chain, adoption of technological innovations and by tapping migrant workers’ savin...
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2008
Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely critic... more Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02255189 2005 9669069, Feb 14, 2011
Sustainability Science Practice Policy, 2012
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 01436599408420363, Nov 15, 2007
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 09644019308414102, Nov 8, 2007
One of the striking areas of agreement at the 1992 United Nations Conference in Environment and D... more One of the striking areas of agreement at the 1992 United Nations Conference in Environment and Development (UNCED) was over the importance of economic efficiency as a means to environmental ends. The language of economic efficiency and structural ...
Development in Practice, 2015
The pastoralism of the Turkana has persisted in the challenging environment of northwestern Kenya... more The pastoralism of the Turkana has persisted in the challenging environment of northwestern Kenya for some 200 years. Yet many pastoralists find that they increasingly rely on food relief during droughts and famines. This article contextualises emergency responses to famine among Turkana pastoralists by considering their encounters with colonialism, development, and humanitarian interventions. It uses key informant interviews, participant observation, and content analysis, to analyse the benefits and challenges of a small-scale food relief programme. The article argues that such programmes can weaken the viability of pastoralism, and concludes with considerations for future policy and programming.
In the 1970s, the assets of the four largest federal financial crown corporations were the fastes... more In the 1970s, the assets of the four largest federal financial crown corporations were the fastest growing of the federal crown—owned sector.1 In the 1980s, asset growth rates have reduced in the wake of increased political scrutiny of the banking crowns. At no time, however, have these state-owned banks been anything other than a small part of the total banking and finance sector. In the late 1980s, financial crowns constituted just over 10 percent of the assets of the financial sector with federal crowns accounting for less than half of this figure. This modest role perhaps helps explain why the banking crowns have received little sustained scholarly analysis. They have nonetheless been politically controversial at key points in Canadian history. This chapter fills part of the research gap by analyzing the origins, evolution and operations of two of the four federal banking crowns, the Farm Credit Corporation (FCC) and the Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB) and their predece...
This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling fou... more This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling foundation for the analysis of community development (CD) processes and cases. Through a review of the international theoretical and empirical literature in CD the paper demonstrates that CD scholars work with concepts such as social solidarity, agency, self-help and mutual help, social capital, and reciprocity, that can be effectively understood in Polanyian terms. CD scholars explain the emergence of CD as a response to “modernization” where communities seek to mitigate the impacts of modernization while also taking advantage of its promises to improve communities and livelihoods. Also CD normative actions are explained in terms of building and rebuilding social capital in response to the erosion of communities caused by modern forces such as the nation state and industrial capitalism. CD scholars borrow from social analysts such as Jurgen Habermas, Paulo Freire, and Anthony Giddens to st...