Social cohesion: inclusion and a sense of belonging in Latin America and the Caribbean. Summary

Includes bibliography

Poder legislativo e educação no Pará: produção legislativa sob restrições institucionais (13ª e 14ª legislaturas)

Este é um estudo da produção legislativa em educação realizada na Assembléia Legislativa do Estado do Pará no período que corresponde as suas 13ª e 14ª legislaturas (1995-2002). O objetivo do trabalho foi identificar o tipo atividade legislativa que os parlamentares estaduais desenvolveram na área educacional na ALEPA por meio da análise do perfil da distribuição de benefícios que pretenderam fazer com esta produção e dos fatores que interviram na sua definição. A iniciativa desta pesquisa foi provoca pela consideração predominante acerca da atuação parlamentar que lhe atribui um caráter essencialmente distributivo (clientelista) na concessão de benefícios em vista de retornos políticos (eleitorais). Assim, a análise defrontou-se com dois problemas empíricos de investigação: primeiro, descobrir qual o perfil de benefícios que os parlamentares estaduais procuraram conceder em educação por meio da produção legislativa e, segundo, como explicar a sua emergência no contexto das legislaturas estudadas? Neste sentido, o trabalho foi dividido em duas partes, na primeira fez-se o levantamento e a organização dos dados das proposições legislativas apresentadas na área educacional na ALEPA no período indicado. Para a análise do perfil de benefícios empregou-se a teoria das decisões legislativas; o resultado foi confrontado, na segunda parte, com as principais abordagens explicativas do comportamento parlamentar. Concluiu-se que, ao contrário da perspectiva predominantemente, o perfil de distribuição de benefícios encontrado, não apresentou um caráter essencialmente distributivo, contudo, sua importância é secundária na constituição da legislação educacional do Estado, pois os fatores que intervem na sua definição decorrem das restrições institucionais que conformam o espaço da produção legislativa em educação na ALEPA, os quais estruturam as opções estratégicas dos parlamentares incentivando uma atuação, neste âmbito, de caráter não distributivo, porém, por outro lado, lhes retira a possibilidade de interferir na política educacional.

Políticas públicas para el fomento del asociacionismo intermunicipal : el caso de las provincias de Sevilla (España) y Mendoza (Argentina)

El presente artículo analiza las políticas públicas de fomento para la creación y fortalecimiento de organismos intermunicipales desarrolladas por niveles superiores de gobierno en Argentina y España. Dado el desarrollo incipiente de este tipo de experiencias en Iberoamérica, se propone un análisis comparado de las políticas públicas de fomento del asociativismo municipal en la Provincia de Mendaza (Argentina) y la Provincia de Sevilla (España), dos entidades gubernamentales intermedias que poseen características demográficas y económicas semejantes en el contexto de sus respectivos países y donde la creación de estas entidades locales se encuentra en plena actividad. En función de estos desarrollos, reflexionaremos en torno a las restricciones institucionales más relevantes que dificultan la ejecución de proyectos articulativos intermunicipales.

As Implicações do novo regime financeiro das autarquias locais no apuramento do endividamento do grupo municipal

Dissertação de Mestrado em Auditoria

Accountability changes in an NGO institutional and resource dependency perspectives on BRAC

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Open Access and Institutional Repositories in Bulgaria

The paper presents the current situation regarding open access, institutional repositories (IRs) and journals in Bulgaria. It focuses on e- publications and related research content available in digital format on the web. It includes development of IRs in Bulgaria and discusses their content, software and various access restrictions that apply to content. A survey is used to identify current state of open access for IR and e-journals not just those that are using OAI-PMH.

An institutional understanding of triple bottom line evaluations and the use of social and environmental metrics

Measuring social and environmental metrics of property is necessary for meaningful triple bottom line (TBL) assessments. This paper demonstrates how relevant indicators derived from environmental rating systems provide for reasonably straightforward collations of performance scores that support adjustments based on a sliding scale. It also highlights the absence of a corresponding consensus of important social metrics representing the third leg of the TBL tripod. Assessing TBL may be unavoidably imprecise, but if valuers and managers continue to ignore TBL concerns, their assessments may soon be less relevant given the emerging institutional milieu informing and reflecting business practices and society expectations.

Varieties of Asian capitalism : toward an institutional theory of Asian enterprise

In this paper we respond to calls for an institution-based perspective on strategy. With its emphasis upon mimetic, coercive, and normative isomorphism, institutional theory has earned a deterministic reputation and seems an unlikely foundation on which to construct a theory of strategy. However, a second movement in institutional theory is emerging that gives greater emphasis to creativity and agency. We develop this approach by highlighting co-evolutionary processes that are shaping the varieties of capitalism (VoC) in Asia. To do so, we examine the extent to which the VoC model can be fruitfully applied in the Asian context. In the spirit of the second movement of institutional theory, we describe three processes in which firm strategy collectively and intentionally feeds back to shape institutions: (1) filling institutional voids, (2) retarding institutional innovation, and (3) deploying institutional escape. We outline the key contributions contained in the articles of this Special Issue and discuss a research agenda generated by the VoC perspective.

Institutional problems of the emerging scientific community in Iran

This article attempts to explore the concept of scientific community at the macro-national level in the context of Iran. Institutionalisation of science and its professional growth has been constrained by several factors. The article first conceptualises the notion of science community as found in the literature in the context of Iran, and attempts to map through some indicators. The main focus, however, lies in mapping some institutional problems through empirical research. This was undertaken in 2002–04 in order to analyse the structure of the scientific community in Iran in the ‘exact sciences’ (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and earth sciences). The empirical work was done in two complementary perspectives: through a questionnaire and statistical analysis of it, and through semistructured interviews with the researchers. There are number of problems confronting scientists in Iran. Facilities provided by institutions is one of the major problems of research. Another is the tenuous cooperation among scientists. This is reported by most of the researchers, who deplore the lack of cooperation among their group. Relationships are mostly with the Ph.D. students and only marginally with colleagues. Our research shows that the more brilliant the scientists, the more frustrated they are from scientific institutions in Iran. Medium-range researchers seem to be much happier about the scientific institution to which they belong than the brighter scholars. The scientific institutions in Iran seem to be built for the needs of the former rather than the latter. These institutions seem not to play a positive role in the case of the best scientists. On the whole, many ingredients of the scientific community, at least at its inception, are present among Iranian scientists: the strong desire for scientific achievement in spite of personal, institutional and economic problems.

Towards a model of the institutional logics of climate change

The proliferation of innovative schemes to address climate change at international, national and local levels signals a fundamental shift in the priority and role of the natural environment to society, organizations and individuals. This shift in shared priorities invites academics and practitioners to consider the role of institutions in shaping and constraining responses to climate change at multiple levels of organisations and society. Institutional theory provides an approach to conceptualising and addressing climate change challenges by focusing on the central logics that guide society, organizations and individuals and their material and symbolic relationship to the environment. For example, framing a response to climate change in the form of an emission trading scheme evidences a practice informed by a capitalist market logic (Friedland and Alford 1991). However, not all responses need necessarily align with a market logic. Indeed, Thornton (2004) identifies six broad societal sectors each with its own logic (markets, corporations, professions, states, families, religions). Hence, understanding the logics that underpin successful –and unsuccessful– climate change initiatives contributes to revealing how institutions shape and constrain practices, and provides valuable insights for policy makers and organizations. This paper develops models and propositions to consider the construction of, and challenges to, climate change initiatives based on institutional logics (Thornton and Ocasio 2008). We propose that the challenge of understanding and explaining how climate change initiatives are successfully adopted be examined in terms of their institutional logics, and how these logics evolve over time. To achieve this, a multi-level framework of analysis that encompasses society, organizations and individuals is necessary (Friedland and Alford 1991). However, to date most extant studies of institutional logics have tended to emphasize one level over the others (Thornton and Ocasio 2008: 104). In addition, existing studies related to climate change initiatives have largely been descriptive (e.g. Braun 2008) or prescriptive (e.g. Boiral 2006) in terms of the suitability of particular practices. This paper contributes to the literature on logics by examining multiple levels: the proliferation of the climate change agenda provides a site in which to study how institutional logics are played out across multiple, yet embedded levels within society through institutional forums in which change takes place. Secondly, the paper specifically examines how institutional logics provide society with organising principles –material practices and symbolic constructions– which enable and constrain their actions and help define their motives and identity. Based on this model, we develop a series of propositions of the conditions required for the successful introduction of climate change initiatives. The paper proceeds as follows. We present a review of literature related to institutional logics and develop a generic model of the process of the operation of institutional logics. We then consider how this is applied to key initiatives related to climate change. Finally, we develop a series of propositions which might guide insights into the successful implementation of climate change practices.