Volume 10, Issue 2 -

Informality in the global south thought to matter because it is a threat, or a stage on the road, to (or embedded in) formality; or because it is a permanent condition acceptable on its own terms and has the potential to keep formal bureaucratic organizations running and in touch with citizens. These understandings of informality also share an assertion: that the quality of informality is different – almost genetically so – from formality. The purpose of my remarks here is to point this discussion in another direction. I argue that the difference between informality and formality is only conceptual. The supposition that there exists in fact an informal-formal dichotomy, dualism or dialectic, and its use as an analytical lens, produces apparent features which it cannot easily account for. I illustrate these features and then go on to sketch out another approach and its implications.

Power struggles for resources are playing an increasingly crucial role behind the scenes, often covered by diplomacy or goodwill rhetoric. The question after the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of December 2015 is: Will new global civil society movements play a post-traditional and mediating role between the classical resource-securing strategies of the great powers and thus pave the way towards more connected, integrated and sustainable futures in the resource sector? What role will in particular – as a potential forerunner of others – play the global “Keep it in the Ground” Initiative, which aims at leaving the resources in the ground instead of using them? This essay gives an overview of the current situation and offers an alternative way forward.

NGS Reviews Editor Benjamin Sacks talks with the former president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.

A longtime observer of global climate change negotiations surveys the recent Paris Agreement as of April 2016.