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This article addresses the relevance of the moral economy concept in light of unequal socioeconomic relations between a European agribusiness and rural residents in Zambia. It argues that the moral economy concept offers a helpful heuristic device for analyzing how relationships are constituted, negotiated, and contested among interdependent actors with “opposing” socioeconomic interests. To explain the dynamics of their relationships, however, the moral economy concept has to extend beyond its usual, spatially restricted (i.e., local) focus. Instead, “external,” distant, non-local actors, such as foreign critics concerned about “land grabbing,” also influence the local character of moral-economic exchanges between the agribusiness and rural residents. Hence, the article proposes a multiscalar perspective to account for the influence of a wider array of actors.

Huntington's third wave of democracy was no such thing. It neither ushered in a democratic era nor was it a wave in any acceptable historical sense. What it did do was to highlight a contrast and competition among norms and values, so that what we automatically regard as undemocratic practice that is norm-free is no such thing. They might perhaps, and with a freight of contingencies, be bad norms—but they are still norms.

In the Human Development Report of 2010, 135 countries representing 92% of the world population had a higher Human Development Index than in the 1970s. Three countries were an exception to the rule: Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As it celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence, the DRC rates itself 168th out of a total of 169 countries on the Human Development Index scale.

This article addresses a long-standing conundrum in the anthropology of religion concerning the ambiguous status of religious leaders: they are subjects of power in that they are able to exert power over others, yet they are objects of power in that they rely on empowerment through others. Taking African-initiated Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity in Zambia as my example, I argue that church leaders' strategies to stabilize their authority have unintended consequences since these strategies can contribute to the precariousness of their positions. By drawing fundamental distinctions between themselves and members of the laity as regards their own extraordinariness, church leaders raise high expectations about their own capacities that may turn out to be impossible to fulfill. Yet even the opposite strategy of strengthening one's authority by embedding oneself in socio-religious networks can eventually lead to a destabilization of church leaders' authority because it increases their dependence on factors that are beyond their control.

The article deals with two competing explanations advanced by local people in a Zambian village to make sense of the presence of man-eating crocodiles in the area. One faction explains the events in rational terms, while the other sees them as the work of witches, as a result of which they demand the return of a witchfinder, whose activities a decade ago had left 16 people dead. The article shows how the competing explanations are reflections of political rivalry between the local chieftainess and her detractors, who perceive her attempts to modernize the area as a way to line her own pocket. The rationalized versus enchanted definitions of events form the point of departure for examining some of the underlying premises of the extended-case method, namely, those of perceiving social phenomena as constituting an interrelated whole, and for determining when to close the flow of events for analysis.

English abstract: Health governance has become multi-layered as the combined result of decentralization, regional integration and the emergence of new actors nationally and internationally. Whereas this has enhanced the installed capacity for health response worldwide, this complexity also poses serious challenges for health governance, health diplomacy and health policy-making. This article focuses on one of these challenges, namely the organization of statistical information flows at and between governance levels, and the emerging role that regional organizations play therein. Regional to national-level data flows are analyzed with the use of two case studies focusing on UNASUR (Bolivia and Paraguay) and SADC (Swaziland and Zambia). The results of the analysis lead to several policy recommendations at the regional and national levels.

Spanish abstract: La gobernanza de la salud se ha convertido en una gobernanza multi-nivel, resultado de la descentralización, integración regional y aparición de nuevos actores nacionales e internacionales. Aunque esto ha mejorado la capacidad de respuesta en materia de salud mundialmente, esta complejidad plantea desafíos para la gobernanza de la salud, diplomacia en salud y elaboración de políticas. Este artículo se centra en uno de estos retos: la organización de flujos de información estadística en y entre los niveles de gobernanza, y el papel emergente de las organizaciones regionales en este ámbito. Se analizan los flujos de datos entre regiones y países mediante dos estudios de casos en UNASUR (Bolivia y Paraguay) y SADC (Suazilandia y Zambia). Los resultados del análisis arrojan recomendaciones de política regional y nacional.

French abstract: La gouvernance en matière de santé est devenue multi-niveaux comme résultat combiné de la décentralisation, de l’intégration régionale et de l’émergence de nouveaux acteurs nationaux et internationaux. Bien que cela ait renforcé la capacité d’intervention sanitaire dans le monde entier, cette complexité pose également de sérieux défi s pour la gouvernance de la santé, la diplomatie et l’élaboration des politiques. L’article se concentre sur l’un de ces défi s, à savoir l’organisation des flux d’informations statistiques à l’intérieur et entre les niveaux de gouvernance, et sur le rôle émergent des organisations régionales. Les flux de données régionales et nationales sont analysés à l’aide de deux études de cas portant sur l’UNASUR (Bolivie et Paraguay) et la SADC (Swaziland et Zambie). Les résultats de l’analyse ont conduit à plusieurs recommandations de politiques.