Suchergebnisse

Central and local governments and their creditors are increasingly interested in cost recovery for public services. These strategies have two aims: increasing revenues and making a better connection between benefits received and consumer bills. This paper estimates a hedonic model for household-level data in a rare contrast of slums in two Asian mega-cities to provide comparative information about how the poor value environmental amenities and basic infrastructure access. The results suggest that slum housing prices do reflect differentials in public service access and that rough estimates of the value of access can be cheaply and usefully obtained for planning purposes.

This paper considers the case of Bangkok where, as in many Asian cities, the expansion of urban areas has outpaced the ability of public entities to manage and provide basic services. One potential way to improve the capacity of neighborhoods to assist in provision or improvement in environmental services is to enhance the positive contributions provided by local social networks and social capital. A conceptual framework is presented to explore the role of social networks in environmental management in polluted urban environments. This is followed by a brief description of the methodology and survey instrument used to collect information from a sample of community households in Bangkok and an analysis of the results from this survey regarding environmental practices, community action, and social networks. Some of the results suggest that increasing the number of social interactions that residents of a community experience is associated with increased community participation as, apparently, is increasing knowledge about what happens to waste or waste water after it leaves the community. Local public education efforts that focus on useful knowledge about environmental impacts may well be an effective way to encourage community participation.

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of social capital and environmental management in two rapidly growing regions in south-east Asia, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. Theoretical and empirical triangulation are used to clarify the nature of social capital and the ways that gender, in particular, affects trust and co-operation. Theoretical triangulation is accomplished by drawing on conceptual arguments made in economics, geography and urban planning to develop a theoretical framework explaining social capital and environmental management in south-east Asia. Empirical triangulation is accomplished through a multimethod analytical approach, including survey methods and experimental games conducted with the same populations. The results of the comparative analysis among squatter residents in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City are presented with a focus on gender differences in trust and co-operation and the paper concludes with a summary of the results and recommendations for policy and future research.