Steering across scales: applying Strategic-Relational Approach to a study of land mobilisation for road widening in Kochi

This paper argues for the relevance of paying attention to structuring participation processes across scales as one of the ways in which participation of multi-organisational partnerships that involve conflicting interests might be managed. Issue wise the paper deals with problems in connection with land mobilisation for road widening in complex and concentrated high value urban settings. It discusses a case study of plan implementation involving individual landowners, the land development market, the local government, other governmental and non-governmental organisations and the state government, which together achieved objectives that seemed impossible at first sight. In theoretical terms, the paper engages with Jessop's (2001) Strategic-Relational Approach (SRA), arguing for its potential for informing action in a way that is capable of achieving steering outputs. The claim for SRA is demonstrated by re-examining the case study. The factors that come through as SRA is applied are drawn out and it is suggested that the theory though non-deterministic, helps guide action by highlighting certain dynamics of systems that can be used for institutional intervention. These dynamics point to the importance of paying attention to scale and the way in which participation and negotiation processes are structured so as to favour certain outcomes rather than others

Land administration in a micro-state: the role of land use planning

Land policy in micro-states and the land administration that underpins it is often devised within a legacy framework inherited from a colonial past. Independence has allowed self-determination of the future political direction yet the range, legal framework, institutional structure and administration systems tend to mirror those of ex-colonial powers. Do land policies, administration systems and processes developed to serve large heavily populated countries scale down to serve the requirements of micro-states? The evidence suggests not: many land administration systems in the Caribbean face difficulties due to poor records, unclear title, exploitation of state lands, incomplete or ongoing land reform programmes, irregular or illegal settlement and non-enforced planning regulations. Land matters are typically the responsibility of several government departments and agencies responsible for land titling and registration, cadastral surveying of property interests, physical planning, taxation and financial regulation. Although planning is regarded as a land administration function, organisational responsibility usually rests with local rather than central government in large countries, but in microstates local government may be politically weak, under-resourced or even non-existent. Using a case study approach this paper explores how planning functions are organised in the Caribbean state of St Vincent & the Grenadines in relation to land administration as a whole and compares the arrangement with other independent micro-states in the region.

Ideology, centralisation and urban planning in Britain and Sweden

This paper outlines the main elements of the Thatcherist ideology focusing on the process of centralisation. The implications of this process for British local government and planning are explored. Attention then turns to Sweden with a discussion of the consensus culture and decentralisation policy. Again the implications for planning are pursued with an emphasis on the 'negotiation' style of planning which has emerged in recent years. The concluding section compares the two experiences and notes many similarities notwithstanding the different ideological contexts.

Public leisure provision under Compulsory Competitive Tendering: the maintenance of ideological dominance?

Although much has been written about the effect on services of public sector restructuring, little is yet available on public leisure provision. This omission is addressed by considering how the delivery of public leisure services in Britain has been affected by the imposition of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). In particular, it focuses on the changing relationship between the central and local levels of government recognising, on the part of local government, a continuum of structural responses to central initiatives which have, in some cases, conspired to reduce the impact of CCT on public leisure provision. The paper concludes that although attempts have been made to protect local services, the outcome of the CCT process has been the regeneration of public leisure provision away from its service roots, but within an enduring ideological paradigm of conservative professionalism.

Keeping Hertfordshire green: the implementation of strategic environmental policy 1983-1993

This paper evaluates the implementation of environmental policy in the County of Hertfordshire during the 1980's and early 1990's. It emphasises that the recent growth of interest in environmental policy and sustainable planning initiatives should not cause researchers and practitioners to ignore the long history and experience of environmental policy implementation in local government. By looking at the experience of strategic environmental policy in Hertfordshire, the paper identifies the successes and failures of a range of implementation tools utilised by the County and district planning authorities to progress policies concerned with the conservation and improvement of urban and rural environments. It concludes that the planning authorities of Hertfordshire have stabilised the deterioration in the County's environment and have established some programmes which provide good examples of coordinated action in environmental policy implementation. These types of mechanism will need to be built upon in the new policy epoch where environmental sustainability and capacity planning take centre stage.

Observed adaptation to climate change as initiated transition

This paper investigates whether and to what extent a wide range of actors in the UK are adapting to climate change, and whether this is evidence of a social transition. We document evidence of over 300 examples of early adopters of adaptation practice to climate change in the UK. These examples span a range of activities from small adjustments (or coping), to building adaptive capacity, to implementing actions and to creating deeper systemic change in public and private organisations in a range of sectors. We find that adaptation in the UK has been dominated by government initiatives and has principally occurred in the form of research into climate change impacts. These government initiatives have stimulated a further set of actions at other scales in public agencies, regulatory agencies and regional government (and the devolved administrations), though with little real evidence of climate change adaptation initiatives trickling down to local government level. The sectors requiring significant investment in large scale infrastructure have invested more heavily than those that do not in identifying potential impacts and adaptations. Thus we find a higher level of adaptation activity by the water supply and flood defence sectors. Sectors that are not dependent on large scale infrastructure appear to be investing far less effort and resources in preparing for climate change. We conclude that the UK government-driven top-down targeted adaptation approach has generated anticipatory action at low cost in some areas. We also conclude that these actions may have created enough niche activities to allow for diffusion of new adaptation practices in response to real or perceived climate change. These results have significant implications for how climate policy can be developed to support autonomous adaptors in the UK and other countries.

Understanding eParticipation : Contemporary PhD eParticipation Research in Europe

This book presents contemporary European research on eParticipation by means of a 13 chapters each describing a PhD research project as well as analyses of this research. The book both reflects the field and contributes to shaping it by discussing both long-standing and emerging issues. Contributions include three chapters on issues of DEVELOPMENT, including communities of practice, user-centred development, and safety & privacy issues, four chapters on IMPLEMENTATION, including spatial planning, participatory budgeting, and transformation processes, and five chapters on issues of USE, focusing on local government, developing countries, EU, civil society and NGO.

Essays on firm dynamics in the Swedish wholesale trade sector

This thesis consists of a summary and five self-contained papers addressing dynamics of firms in the Swedish wholesale trade sector. Paper [1] focuses upon determinants of new firm formation in the Swedish wholesale trade sector, using two definitions of firms’ relevant markets, markets defined as administrative areas, and markets based on a cost minimizing behavior of retailers. The paper shows that new entering firms tend to avoid regions with already high concentration of other firms in the same branch of wholesaling, while right-of-the-center local government and quality of the infrastructure have positive impacts upon entry of new firms. The signs of the estimated coefficients remain the same regardless which definition of relevant market is used, while the size of the coefficients is generally higher once relevant markets delineated on the cost-minimizing assumption of retailers are used. Paper [2] analyses determinant of firm relocation, distinguishing between the role of the factors in in-migration municipalities and out-migration municipalities. The results of the analysis indicate that firm-specific factors, such as profits, age and size of the firm are negatively related to the firm’s decision to relocate. Furthermore, firms seems to be avoiding municipalities with already high concentration of firms operating in the same industrial branch of wholesaling and also to be more reluctant to leave municipalities governed by right-of-the- center parties. Lastly, firms seem to avoid moving to municipalities characterized with high population density. Paper [3] addresses determinants of firm growth, adopting OLS and a quantile regression technique. The results of this paper indicate that very little of the firm growth can be explained by the firm-, industry- and region-specific factors, controlled for in the estimated models. Instead, the firm growth seems to be driven by internal characteristics of firms, factors difficult to capture in conventional statistics. This result supports Penrose’s (1959) suggestion that internal resources such as firm culture, brand loyalty, entrepreneurial skills, and so on, are important determinants of firm growth rates. Paper [4] formulates a forecasting model for firm entry into local markets and tests this model using data from the Swedish wholesale industry. The empirical analysis is based on directly estimating the profit function of wholesale firms and identification of low- and high-return local markets. The results indicate that 19 of 30 estimated models have more net entry in high-return municipalities, but the estimated parameters is only statistically significant at conventional level in one of our estimated models, and then with unexpected negative sign. Paper [5] studies effects of firm relocation on firm profits of relocating firms, employing a difference-in-difference propensity score matching. Using propensity score matching, the pre-relocalization differences between relocating and non-relocating firms are balanced, while the difference-in-difference estimator controls for all time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity among firms. The results suggest that firms that relocate increase their profits significantly, in comparison to what the profits would be had the firms not relocated. This effect is estimated to vary between 3 to 11 percentage points, depending on the length of the analyzed period. 

A framework for ICT-based knowledge sharing in sustainable rural development : the case of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Some 50% of the people in the world live in rural areas, often under harsh conditions and in poverty. The need for knowledge of how to improve living conditions is well documented. In response to this need, new knowledge of how to improve living conditions in rural areas and elsewhere is continuously being developed by researchers and practitioners around the world. People in rural areas, in particular, would certainly benefit from being able to share relevant knowledge with each other, as well as with stakeholders (e.g. researchers) and other organizations (e.g. NGOs). Central to knowledge management is the idea of knowledge sharing. This study is based on the assumption that knowledge management can support sustainable development in rural and remote regions. It aims to present a framework for knowledge management in sustainable rural development, and an inventory of existing frameworks for that. The study is interpretive, with interviews as the primary source for the inventory of stakeholders, knowledge categories and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. For the inventory of frameworks, a literature study was carried out. The result is a categorization of the stakeholders who act as producers and beneficiaries of explicit and indigenous development knowledge. Stakeholders are local government, local population, academia, NGOs, civil society and donor agencies. Furthermore, the study presents a categorization of the development knowledge produced by the stakeholders together with specifications for the existing ICT infrastructure. Rural development categories found are research, funding, agriculture, ICT, gender, institutional development, local infrastructure development, and marketing & enterprise. Finally, a compiled framework is presented, and it is based on ten existing frameworks for rural development that were found in the literature study, and the empirical findings of the Gilgit-Baltistan case. Our proposed framework is divided in four levels where level one consists of the identified stakeholders, level two consists of rural development categories, level three of the knowledge management system and level four of sustainable rural development based on the levels below. In the proposed framework we claim that the sustainability of rural development can be achieved through a knowledge society in which knowledge of the rural development process is shared among all relevant stakeholders.

Continuidade e descontinuidade administrativa: uma análise de fatores que contribuem para a manutenção de programas, projetos e atividades públicas de êxito em governos locais brasileiro

Descontinuidade administrativa, ou o rompimento de atividades e programas na troca de governos e autoridades federais, estaduais e municipais, tem sido tópico constante de comentário e elemento central da imagem da área pública Brasileira presente na conversa quotidiana. Curiosamente, são poucos os estudos empíricos sobre a questão como também são poucas as reflexões sobre os fatores que podem contribuir para a continuidade. O estudo busca contribuir nos dois eixos a partir da análise de ações governamentais em 89 prefeituras no período de 1995 a 1997.

Gênero e políticas públicas: iniciativas de governos subnacionais no Brasil

Este relatório apresenta os resultados de pesquisa sobre a incorporação da perspectiva de gênero por políticas públicas e programas governamentais desenvolvidos por governos municipais e estaduais no período recente no Brasil. O trabalho dá continuidade a pesquisa anterior sobre este mesmo tema (FARAH, 1998a), considerando um novo conjunto de programas e políticas. Analisam-se tanto iniciativas que têm como foco a mulher, como iniciativas de diversas áreas e setores, em que a questão de gênero é integrada a políticas e programas governamentais. Utilizou-se como base empírica banco de dados do Programa Gestão Pública e Cidadania, programa de premiação e disseminação de inovações em governos subnacionais, desenvolvido pela Fundação Getulio Vargas de São Paulo e pela Fundação Ford, com apoio do BNDES, considerando iniciativas governamentais inscritas no Ciclo de 1997. O trabalho analisa 41 programas, dos quais sete têm foco na mulher e 34 consistem em programas de diversos setores que incorporam a questão de gênero. A principal referência para a análise consiste em agenda formulada por movimentos e entidades ligadas à questão de gênero, agenda esta reconstituída no âmbito da presente pesquisa e da que a antecedeu. A análise sugere que, tanto nos programas com foco na mulher, como nas demais iniciativas governamentais, ao lado de uma abordagem que tende a reforçar os papéis tradicionais da mulher ou que apenas a considera como um grupo de risco sobretudo nos programas de saúde materno-infantil emerge uma nova perspectiva que incorpora reivindicações de movimentos e entidades ligadas à questão de gênero, as quais destacam a existência na sociedade brasileira de desigualdades de gênero. Neste segundo caso, os programas governamentais desenvolvem mecanismos e estratégias orientados para a redução das desigualdades de gênero, nos campos específicos de sua atuação.

Avaliação de desempenho da gestão pública municipal

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar um modelo de avaliação de desempenho da gestão pública municipal que leve em consideração aspectos qualitativos e quantitativos da gestão e que permita comparar entre si os diversos Municípios existentes no Brasil. Para possibilitar a identificação e a análise, o meio utilizado foi a pesquisa bibliográfica. O levantamento bibliográfico permitiu concluir que não há modelos desenvolvidos que mensurem adequadamente o desempenho da gestão municipal. Além disso, o levantamento bibliográfico forneceu informações sobre a origem dos Municípios e sua evolução no Brasil, as principais características do sistema municipal brasileiro e a função do Município na nossa sociedade, bem como as principais práticas e formas utilizadas na avaliação de políticas públicas. Identificaram-se também nesta etapa do trabalho os tipos de indicadores possíveis de serem utilizados na avaliação da gestão pública e suas características. A seleção de diversos indicadores encontrados na base de dados de órgãos governamentais permitiu a construção de dez índices que sustentaram a construção de um indicador composto que avaliasse a gestão municipal sob diversos aspectos de importância para o cidadão usuário dos serviços públicos. Nem todas as áreas do serviço público municipal puderam ser avaliadas em razão da ausência de dados desagregados por Município. Os resultados demonstraram as potencialidades e as limitações do modelo desenvolvido e confirmaram que o uso do modelo favorece a identificação de governos municipais de acordo com o nível de eficácia e de eficiência.

Democratização da gestão pública: a municipalização da saúde nos municípios brasileiros de pequeno e médio porte

The present study analyses the relationship between Democracy and Local Government concerning Public Health Policy of small and medium Brazilian municipalities (with less than 50 thousand inhabitants). The management of the Department of Health in these municipalities was analysed to observe the democratization of public health through the main innovations on the way of management and on the health assistance. A comparison between the answers of the Health Department Managers of municipalities with less than 50 thousand inhabitants and the ones with more than 50 thousand inhabitants (collected in another research) was made as well as the elaboration of a factorial analysis model which verifies the relationship between Manage Profile, Innovating Management and Municipality Demographic Size. Innovating features are found in the small and medium municipalities although in a weaker degree than in the big ones. The relationship observed between the Demographic Extent and Innovating Management as well as the first and Manager Profile are not as strong as the Manager Profile and Innovating Management, concluding that the small dimension of a municipality is not an impediment to a more democratic health management.

Microcrédito como ferramenta de geração de renda e emprego: uma análise de experiências públicas municipais

The goal of this work is to study microcredit public policy as a mechanism of improving wage and decreasing unemployment rates. This study is contextualized by analysis of up-to-date macroeconomic national situation, Brazilian intergovernamental constitutional relationship, Brazilian job market and local development perspectives, trying to show that public microcredit driven by local government is a natural and useful way. Two cases have been chosen for analysis: Banco do Povo de Juiz de For a and São Paulo Confia.