(Gendered) War

Kurzman (2004) Kurzman, C. 2004. “Conclusion: Social movement theory and Islamic studies”. In Islamic activism: A social movement theory approach, Edited by: Wiktorowicz, Q. 289–303. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  [Google Scholar] argued that social movements research and Islamic studies “followed parallel trajectories, with few glances across the chasm that have separated them.” This article will illuminate one influential process that has relevance to both these areas, the use of small groups for the purpose or radical mobilization. Specifically, it examines the impact of the use of small Islamic study groups (usroh and halaqa) for fundamental and radical Islamic movements. Although small-group mobilization is not unique to Islam, the strategic use of these study groups empowered by the Islamic belief system has yielded significant returns in capacity building for high-risk activism.     

Examining the Role of Religion in Radicalization to Violent Islamist Extremism

In this article, the authors apply the four-phase radicalization model proposed by Silber and Bhatt ¹ 1. M. Silber and A. Bhatt, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (New York: New York City Police Department, 2007). Available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf (accessed 19 December 2011). to a case study of Australia's first convicted terrorist, Jack Roche, based on communication with Roche after his incarceration and on a qualitative analysis of his trial. In doing so, they examine the validity of the four-phase model to a case of “home grown” terrorism and dissect the role of religion in the radicalization process. To conclude, the authors find that religion plays a far lesser role in radicalization toward violent extremism than the policy response contends and this has implications for counterterrorism programs that aim to address the drivers of violent extremism.     

In the Name of the Cause: Women's Work in Secular and Religious Terrorism

The article begins by providing a brief history of the involvement of females in the conduct of modern terrorism and discusses the different ideological mindsets that account for their becoming more involved in terrorism associated with ethno-separatist rather than religious concerns, with an eye to the fact that the trend shows unmistakable signs of changing. Secondly, it considers the structure of logic, or systems of contention, that secular and religious groups employ in attempting to legitimize women and girls offering themselves up as martyrs, and discusses what mechanisms they share for doing so. The thesis of this paper is that secular and religious terrorism, though seeking to create significantly different worlds, one modern, the other traditional, fall back upon many of the same rhetorical strategies to justify females engaging in political violence, especially the rhetoric of martyrdom. The Sri Lankan nationalist-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is highlighted as the secular example and Hamas and Islamic Jihad as the religious ones.     

Images of terrorism in the media: 1966–1985

Abstract

This paper examines the classification of terrorism articles in two newspaper indexes, the New York Times Index and the London Times Index, and two periodical indexes, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and the British Humanities Index, from 1966 to 1985. The indexes are compared in several ways: by the year in which the category terrorism first appeared; by the changing nature and number of headings and related headings; by the changing number of articles under each heading; and by the different tactics, regions, targets, and other themes emphasized in these articles for each year. The changing patterns in these quantitative and qualitative parameters over the 20‐year period are analyzed in terms of regional differences (United States versus United Kingdom) and index differences (newspapers versus periodicals). The results are also compared with other research on media and terrorism that shows that images of terrorism in the media do not represent an accurate picture of the nature and extent of terrorism in the real world.     

Sonic diaspora,vibrations, and rhythm: thinking through the sounding of the Jamaican dancehall session

Abstract

The propagation of vibrations may provide a better way of understanding the spread of diasporas than the conventional focus on the circulation of products (Hall 1980 Hall, S. 1980. “Encoding/decoding”. In Culture, media, language, Edited by: Hall, S., Hanson, D., Lowe, A. and Willis, P. 122–127. London: Unwin Hyman in association with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.  [Google Scholar], Appadurai 1986 Appadurai , A. 1986 . The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1996 Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar], Gilroy 1993a Gilroy, P. 1993a. The black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar], Brah 1996 Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of diaspora: contesting identities, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]). Jamaican sound systems operate as a broadcast medium and a source of CDs, DVDs, and other commercial products (Henriques 2007a Henriques, J. 2007a. “The Jamaican dancehall sound system as a commercial and social apparatus”. In Sonic synergies: music, identity, technology and community, Edited by: Bloustein, G., Peters, M. and Luckman, S. 133–146. London: Ashgate.  [Google Scholar]). But the dancehall sound system session also propagates a broad spectrum of frequencies diffused through a range of media and activities – described as ‘sounding’ (following Small's 1998 concept of ‘musicking’). These include the material vibrations of the signature low-pitched auditory frequencies of Reggae as a bass culture (Johnson 1980 Johnson, L.K. 1980. Bass culture, [LP] London: Island Records.  [Google Scholar]), at the loudness of ‘sonic dominance’ (Henriques 2003 Henriques, J. 2003. “Sonic dominance and the reggae sound system”. In Auditory culture, Edited by: Bull, M. and Back, L. 451–480. Oxford: Berg.  [Google Scholar]). Secondly a session propagates the corporeal vibrations of rituals, dance routines, and bass-line ‘riddims’ (Veal 2007 Veal, M. 2007. Dub: songscapes and shattered Songs in Jamaican reggae, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Thirdly it propagates the ethereal vibrations (Henriques 2007b Henriques, J. 2007b. “Situating sound: the space and time of the dancehall session”. In Thamyris/intersecting: place, sex and race, Edited by: Marijke, J. and Mieskowski, S. 287–309. Sonic interventions.  [Google Scholar]), ‘vibes’ or atmosphere of the sexually charged popular subculture by which the crowd (audience) appreciate each dancehall session as part of the Dancehall scene (Cooper 2004 Cooper, C. 2004. Sound clash: Jamaican dancehall culture at large, New York: Palgrave. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The paper concludes that thinking though vibrating frequencies makes it easier to appreciate how audiences with no direct or inherited connection with a particular music genre can be energetically infected and affected – to form a sonic diaspora.     

Demobilization of Paramilitaries in Colombia: Transformation or Transition?

Historically, Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reinsertion (DDR) has provided a useful means to terminate conflicts. Since being catapulted to office in August 2002 with 53 percent of the vote of 46.45 percent of the voters, ¹ 1. IFES Election Guide, available at (http://www.electionguide.org/results.php?ID=1011). Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has vigorously pursued a demobilization program, both individual and collective. However, despite the fact that over 40,000 combatants have demobilized under these programs, evidence is growing that this latest round of Colombian DDR is merely transitioning, rather than terminating, violence in that Andean country.     

Terrorism and Terrorist Leaders: Insights from Developmental and Ecological Psychology

A recent increase in terrorist actions where the terrorist's death is planned and intentional has raised interest in the psychological functioning, motivation, and reasoning of those who engage in terrorism and those who support it. No consensus exists among Western ¹ 1. That is, American or European. psychologists regarding terrorists who plan to die in their attack, and no Western psychological perspective has thus far contributed substantively to explaining or predicting it. Although most agree that groups engaging in such actions typically have a wider network of support, the psychology of supporters is also unexplained. This article proposes a developmental psychological model of the conditions that favor focused terrorist actions that have publicly discernible goals ascribed to a political or religious cause. The article describes a common pattern of cognitive complexity among terrorist leaders, using Osama bin Laden as a model, where entrenched cognitive simplicity in one key ideological domain (religious or political) is coupled with behavior reflecting the capacity for far greater complexity in other domains (organizational skills, planning, problem-solving.) This pattern, in specifiable historical and ecological context, makes terrorist tactics, including those in which the attacker intentionally dies, more likely, and increases the challenges associated with attempts at diplomacy or negotiated peace.     

Caught Between Agendas: GPRA,Devolution, and Politics

Abstract

Despite the optimism that has surrounded the performance movement, there are signals that these expectations are not easy to achieve. This paper focuses on performance activities within the federal government and the accountability concerns that have been attached to the federal‐level Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). It highlights the special problems that are raised in an environment in which federal programs are devolved to state and local government. It reviews the context from which this reform effort has emerged, the constraints surrounding it, highlights several problems in federal performance activities, and suggests an alternative approach to performance instead of GPRA.1–3 Radin, B. A. 2000. The Government performance and results act (GPRA) and the tradition of federal management reform: square pegs in round holes?. J. Publ. Adm. Res. Theor., 1: 111–135. Radin, B. A. 2000. Intergovernmental relationships and the federal performance movement, PUBLIUS. The Journal of Federalism, 30 Radin, B. A. 1998. The Government performance and results act (GPRA): hydra‐headed monster or effective policy tool?. Public Admin. Rev., 58(4): 1–10.       

Poverty,Ideology and Terrorism: The STAM Bond

This article focuses on the role of ideology in the decision of people who are not from societies’ worst-off socioeconomic groups to join a left-wing terrorist organization. Taking up the sociological perspective of Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, and Raymond Boudon, the author introduces the concept of the “terrorist of the first hour” and considers ideology as a type of social bond. The concept of ideology is here broken down into four dimensions: Social, Temporal, Affective, and Moral (STAM bond). This article also presents data on the ages, sex, educational level, and occupation of the Italian people arrested (2,730) or convicted (528) for crimes of terrorism from 1970 to 2011. Data on Italian terrorists were provided by the General Department of Prisoners of the Ministry of Justice. ¹ 1. The research was conducted between February and July 2011. The author wishes to sincerely thank Sebastiano Ardita—the Director of the General Department of Prisoners of the Ministry of Justice—who gave authorization to collect data on Italian people arrested or convicted of terrorism of which only the Ministry of Justice is in possession. This article considered only data regarding terrorists working to subvert internal order. The articles of the Italian Penal Code regarding “internal” terrorism are articles 270, 270 bis, and 306, and since 2001 further articles have been introduced in order to combat international terrorism.      

Government,Effectiveness, Performance,and Local Property Values

Abstract

We offer a practical measure of local government effectiveness in the provision of public services relating service expenditures to aggregate property value. Building on the work of Brueckner (1979 Brueckner, J. K. 1979. Property values, local public expenditure, and economic efficiency. Journal of Public Economics, 11: 223–246.  [Google Scholar], 1982 Brueckner, J. K. 1982. A test for allocative efficiency in the local public sector. Journal of Public Economics, 19: 311–331. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1983 Brueckner, J. K. 1983. Property value maximization and public sector efficiency. Journal of Urban Economics., 14: 1–16.  [Google Scholar]) and Henderson (1990, 1995) we present an aggregate property value maximization model where levels of local public services are capitalized into aggregate property values. Using data for Wisconsin municipalities we demonstrate that service expenditure levels, and simultaneously corresponding taxation levels, are suboptimal and should be increased. The aggregate property value maximization test suggests that local public services in Wisconsin are consistently under-provided. By monitoring local property values officials can objectively measure if public services are being provided in an optimal manner.     

The New Public Management Theory and the Reform of European Health Care Systems: An International Comparative Perspective

The New Public Management (NPM) Theory is a rhetorical construction with diverse intellectual roots. That diversity means that it is open to reinterpretation and shifts in implementation across countries (Sahlin-Andersson, 2001 Sahlin-Andersson, K. 2001. “National, international and transnational constructions of New Public Management”. In New Public Management—The transformation of ideas and practice, Edited by: Christensen, T. and ægreid, P. L. 43–72. Aldershot, , UK: Ashgate.  [Google Scholar]; Smullen, 2007 Smullen, A. 2007. Translating agency reform: Rhetoric and culture in comparative perspective, Rotterdam, , The Netherlands: PhD Dissertation, Erasmus University.  [Google Scholar]). This overview article critically investigates NPM application in various EU health care systems. NPM led to a greater focus on market forces and competition and improved information sharing and cooperation among health care networks, and changed the way care is delivered. This article also identifies significant misfits between policy announcements and NPM implementation. NPM has taken root much more substantially in the United Kingdom (UK) than in France and Germany. The variety of capitalism and institutional systems provides an explanation for divergences in NPM implementation.     

The Identity of Turkey: Muslim and secular

Abstract

This article analyses the rise of political Islam in Turkey in the context of the akp's tenure in power with reference to complex social, economic, historical and ideational factors. It aims to answer one of the key questions, which has wider implications for the West and Islamic world: ‘having experienced the bad and good of the West in secularism and democracy’, as claimed by Samuel Huntington's ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis, is Turkey in transition from a secular to an Islamic state? The article first questions Turkey's ‘bridge’ or ‘torn-country’ status and then explains the akp's ambivalent policies towards religious and identity issues in relation to the increased public visibility of Islam and a ‘performative reflexivity’ of ‘Muslim-selves’. It concludes that the real issue at stake is not the assumed clash of secular and Muslim identities but the complex of interdependence between Islam, secularism and democratisation in Turkey.     

Is it Better to be a Boy? A Disaggregated Outlay Equivalent Analysis of Gender Bias in Papua New Guinea

The demographic evidence of gender bias in many countries has provided an impetus for finding ways to study the status of women in developing countries. Because of the lack of accurate intra-household data, Deaton [1989 Deaton, A. 1989. Looking for Boy–Girl Discrimination in Household Expenditure Data. World Bank Economic Review, Vol.3, No.1: pp.1–15 [Google Scholar]] introduced a method for using household expenditure data to infer discrimination in the allocation of goods between boys and girls. Few studies of discrimination using the method, however, have detected bias even though alternative indicators suggest it is a serious problem. In this paper, we study the case of Papua New Guinea, a country in which there are many indicators of severe gender bias. Discrimination in the allocation of goods between boys and girls within households in Papua New Guinea is examined using Deaton's outlay-equivalent ratio method. Adding a boy to the household reduces expenditure on adult goods by as much as would a nine-tenths reduction in total outlay per member, but girls have no effect on adult goods expenditure. The hypothesis of Haddad and Reardon [1993 Haddad, L and Reardon, T. 1993. Gender Bias in the Allocation of Resource within Households in Burkina Faso: a Disaggregated Outlay Equivalent Analysis. Journal of Development Studies, Vol.29, No.2: pp.260–76 [Google Scholar]] that gender bias is inversely related to the importance of female labour in agricultural production is not supported. Sensitivity analysis shows that bias in rural areas occurs equally regardless of the age of the household head, while bias against girls may be less in regions of the country that have ethnic groups which practice matrilineal descent.     

HRM: Performance Relationship: Need for Further Development?

The last decade of empirical research on the HRM value additions, also known as the “HRM and performance” debate, demonstrates evidence that HRM does matter (Huselid, 1995 Huselid, M. 1995. The impact of human resource management on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38(3): 635–672. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Guest et al., 2003 Guest, D.E., Michie, J., Conway, N. and Sheehan, M. 2003. Human resource management and corporate performance in the UK. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(2): 291–314. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wright et al., 2003 Wright, P., Gardner, M. and Moynihan, L. 2003. The impact of HR practices on the performance of business units. Human Resources Management Journal, 13(4): 21–36.  [Google Scholar]; Rehman et al., 2010). Unfortunately, the relationships are often statistically weak and the results ambiguous. This article reviews and attempts to extend the theoretical and methodological issues in this debate. Its aim is to build an agenda for future research in this area. A brief overview of achievements to date is followed by the theoretical and methodological issues related to what constitutes HRM, what is meant by the concept of performance, and the nature of the link between these two. In the final section, it is argued that research designs should start from a multi-dimensional concept of performance, including the perceptions of employees, and build on the premise of HR systems as an enabling device for a whole range of strategic options. This implies a reversal of the strategy-HRM linkage.     

Child Welfare's Iron Cage: Managing Performance in New Zealand's Child Welfare Agency

The purpose of this article is to explain the performance management practice in use within one of New Zealand's public service agencies—Child, Youth and Family Services. These practices are described with reference to New Zealand's formal model of public sector management and the professional social work model understood by the majority of the agency's staff. The article draws on recent research into performance management practices in nine of New Zealand's public service agencies that included Child, Youth and Family Services. This involved a number of semi-structured interviews with managers and staff from the national, regional, and local levels of each agency together with a review of relevant documentation.

It is argued that performance management practices exist on a continuum representing the “rationality of control” which extends from a regulative control model of rules and fixed targets to one that is more reliant on shared understandings, learning, and flexible targets. It is further suggested that the institutional structures underlying this continuum determines the extent to which performance management practices within individual agencies are loosely coupled with those used for purposes of external accountability.

The article highlights the tension that exists in an organization that encompasses the substantive logic of “a values-based profession” (Ronnau, 2001 Ronnau, J. P. 2001. “Values and ethics for family-centered practice”. In Balancing family-centered services and child well-being: Exploring issues in policy, practice theory, and research, Edited by: Walton, E., Sandau-Beckler, P. and Mannes, M. 34–54. New York: Columbia University Press.  [Google Scholar]) but which is bound by the formal, instrumental rationality implicit in its system of external accountability that, it has been claimed, “reduces a complex reality to something simplistic and one dimensional” (Tilbury, 2004 Tilbury, C. 2004. The influence of performance measurement on child welfare policy and practice. British Journal of Social Work, 34: 225–241. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). It, therefore, argues that the formal model of performance measurement and management of the public service should encompass the broader information and rationality used by managers within public service agencies.     

From Witchcraft to Proposed Twenty-First Century Reforms: The Ongoing Saga of Training and Development in Canadian Government

[In the federal government of Canada] … up to ten or fifteen years ago, the use of the title personnel officer or training officer would have been sufficient to have one tried for witchcraft.1 Cloutier, S. 1972. “The personnel revolution: an interim report, 1965”. In The Biography of an Institution: The Civil Service Commission of Canada, 1908–1967 Edited by: Hodgetts, J.E., McCloskey, W., Whittaker, Reginald and Wilson, V. Seymour. 457 ppLondon and Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.  [Google Scholar] a ^aNote: (a) In Canada the terms, “Civil Service” and “Public Service,” are used synonymously. (b) Values are defined in this article as enduring beliefs that influence the choices we make from available means and ends.

—Commissioner Sylvain Cloutier of the federal Civil Service Commission, June 19, 1965. (Comment attributed to CH Bland, Chairman of the Public Service Commission of Canada)     

The Road to Good Governance: Via the Path Less Accountable? The Effectiveness of Fiscal Accountability in Liberia

Accountability mechanisms are touted as a path to “good governance.” But are accountability mechanisms a sure route to achieving the objectives of “good governance”? Limited case studies have offered inconsistent evidence (Blair, 2000 Blair, H. 2000. Participation and accountability at the periphery: Democratic local governance in sex countries. World Development, 28(1): 21–29. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Charlick, 2001 Charlick, R.B. 2001. Popular participation and local government reform.. Public Administration and Development, 21: 149–157. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Devas &; Grant, 2003 Devas, N. and Grant, U. 2003. Local government decision-making-citizen participation and local accountability: Some evidence from Kenya and Uganda. Public Administration and Development, 23: 307–316. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). But empirical evidence of the relationships among principles of good governance—high citizen participation, low levels of corruption, high-quality service delivery—and accountability mechanisms is lacking. We examine the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms in Liberia and find relationships between measures of county level fiscal accountability and measures of good governance do not always produce expected results, making fiscal accountability mechanisms no guarantee for achieving goals of good governance.     

Modernising local government: The impact of new political arrangements on chief officers for leisure and recreation in Wales

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the effects of new forms of executive government on local authority chief officers for leisure and recreation in Wales. Based on a new institutionalist approach to research (Lowndes, 2002 Lowndes, V. 2002. “Institutionalism”. In Theories and Methods in Political Science, 2nd edition, Edited by: Marsh, D. and Stoker, G. Basingstoke: Palgrave.  [Google Scholar]), survey and interview data were gathered during 2004–05. There are four principal findings: (i) effects of changes to the officer structure; (ii) changing emphasis between the centre and services; (iii) changing roles for chief officers; and (iv) impact and changes as a result of the new arrangements. Political modernisation of local government and the narratives of elite actors are highlighted and theoretical implications are advanced in conceptual models.     

PUBLIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP: RHETORIC,REALITY, AND CONTEXT

ABSTRACT

Public Entrepreneurship: Rhetoric, Reality, and Context

The concept of entrepreneurship has entered the discourse of public management amongst practitioners and scholars across a range of different public service organisations in different countries. It has been recognised, for example, in the UK,[1] 1999. Modernising Government: White Paper London: HMSO. Cabinet Office [Google Scholar]the USA[2] Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. 1992. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector Reading MA: Addison Wesley. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]and Australia[3] Wanna, J., Forster, J. and Graham, P., eds. 1996. Entrepreneurial Management in the Public Sector Brisbane, , Australia: Centre for Australian Public Sector Management.  [Google Scholar]and variously interpreted by its promoters as:

• An integral part of a transformational political philosophy, affecting not just the delivery of public services but also community life (e.g., the ‘Third Way’ in the UK).

• More modestly, a response to the ‘dead hand’ of bureaucracy which inhibits public organisations becoming more responsive to their customers, clients and communities,

• A way of allowing public service managers the ‘freedom to manage’, deploying skills and approaches identified with private sector management.

Entrepreneurship is used primarily to make normative judgements. The form that entrepreneurship takes in a public service management context and the extent to which it exists, are undeveloped empirical questions. This paper examines three main sets of questions:

• Why there has been a call for entrepreneurial government–the rhetorical dimension.

• What practising managers perceive the term to mean to the services they are responsible for–the reality dimension.

• Whether public entrepreneurship has any meaning outside of the particular political, economic and social context found in western, industrialised democracies–the context dimension.

The paper explores the nature of the discourse within which notions of public entrepreneurship are located and given legitimacy by different groups of stakeholders. It also seeks to uncover some variables that have an impact upon the practice of public entrepreneurship in different countries, organisations and social, economic and political cultures and organisations.

Although organisations such as the OECD identify universal themes and trends in the delivery of public services, there is little empirical evidence of convergence or universality.[4] Pollitt, C. 2001. ‘Clarifying Convergence: Striking Similarities and Durable Differences in Public Management Reform’. Public Management Review, 3(4): 471–492. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]This paper notes that although the concept of entrepreneurship is not unique to one or two contexts, there is limited convergence on what it means and whether and how it is ‘practised’.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Since the Grabiner Report in 2000 Grabiner, Lord. 2000. The Informal Economy: A Report by Lord Grabiner QC, London: HM Treasury/The Stationery Office Ltd..  [Google Scholar] there has been growing concern on the part of government over the scale of the informal economy. Most of the proposals to address this growth have focused on ways to deter such activity. But there have also been efforts to assist those who wish to legitimise their activities. This paper argues that a social enterprise approach to formalisation would be of benefit to tackling joblessness and social exclusion as well as generating further social economic activity in deprived neighbourhoods. The paper draws upon review research and original research work currently being conducted into formalisation strategies.