COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY AND STRATEGIES IN AREA‐BASED INITIATIVES

Despite considerable evaluator investment in examining partnership activity in UK public policy initiatives, little attention has been paid to the role of strategy in supporting the generation and harnessing of the resources necessary to collaborate effectively. This paper focuses on one of the first New Labour initiatives – Health Action Zones (HAZ) – and draws on national evaluation findings to delineate local strategies, assess their application in practice and reflect on their contribution to collaborative action. The paper argues that even within nationally constrained policy initiatives there is sufficient flexibility for local actors to select strategies to steer collaborative effort, but these strategies are informed by their operating context and are liable to change in response to experience and changes in context. In addition, the evaluation findings suggest that effective strategies are those which harness collaborative capacity across a range of dimensions. The paper concludes by identifying implications for theory, policy and evaluation.     

CAN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS BE INFLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY? THE OPERATIONAL STRATEGY REVISITED

Recent failures of government information systems to achieve their objectives have highlighted the risk involved in large-scale information technology projects. This article looks at one example, the computerization of the UK social security system, in the light of recent discussions of large-scale technologies and the particular problem of inflexible technologies as defined by Collingridge. It is argued that large-scale government computing projects can fit the criteria of inflexible technologies, although this is not an inherent feature of information technology. There are always more flexible alternatives available: this is illustrated using examples from both private and public organizations.     

IS Success and Failure—The Problem of Scale

In the midst of Implementing Electronic Government (IEG), the almost knee-jerk reaction of our political elite seems to be to embrace hugely ambitious Information Systems (IS) solutions to public-sector operations. Problem after problem has been viewed as solvable by throwing some big IT at it. However hindsight and a wealth of evidence and examples shows that overly large-scale public-sector IT projects do not work and persistently end in failure and costly waste. In this article we consider IT projects 'failures' and the combination of social and technical factors that contribute. We illustrate our argument with more detailed reference to the Connecting for Health agenda, part of the NHS National Programme for IT. We suggest 'think local, think modular' to build on good practice and advocate use of the government's own 2004 eGovernment Interoperability Framework (eGIF) to learn lessons from past IT project catastrophes.     

THE COMPUTERIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY: THE WAY FORWARD OR A STEP BACKWARDS?

The Department of Social Security is one of the largest government departments, consuming 30 percent of public spending and employing around 10 per cent of central government StJ. Before 1980 there were no computers in its local administrative centres. The Operational Strategy was a plan to change this, involving the construction of largescale computer systems and the installation of 40,000 terminals in 1,000 local offices and unemployment offices. It is the largest programme of computerization ever undertaken in Europe. Full national coverage is expected in 1991. But the project has been plagued with problems: costs have soared from £700m. to £2, CCXh-n. and rising, planned savings have fallen, expected benefits seem unlikely to be achieved and implementation errors have caught the public eye. What caused these problems and are they as serious as reports in the press might lead the public to believe? Computerization has the potential to make possible many far reaching changes to administrative functions and working practices. It is important to study the decisional implications of these changes before the computers themselves become embedded in the structure of the organization.     

Old and New Labour Narratives of Whitehall: Radicals,Reactionaries and Defenders of the Westminster Model

This article argues that throughout its history, the leadership of the Labour Party has chosen to embrace a benign view of the Civil Service, as part of a wider acceptance of the constitutional status quo reflected in the Westminster model. There has nevertheless been a long tradition in the wider Labour movement that has questioned whether Whitehall is capable of working for a government with radical aspirations. This article examines Labour's historical approach towards Whitehall, before reflecting on the extent to which the present Administration, while appealing to radical and reforming rhetoric has, like its predecessors, continued to embrace the status quo. It concludes by arguing that a contemporary and credible narrative capable of challenging the Westminster model has yet to emerge from the broader movement.     

Regulating Science and Technology: The Case of the UK Biotechnology Industry*

This paper considers the current performance and future prospects of the UK biotech industry, particularly the biomedical sector. The central argument is that the performance of the UK biotech industry cannot be understood in isolation from the European system of regulation and, increasingly, the international regulatory environment, and from what is happening elsewhere in the regulation of science – particularly in the U.S. To develop this argument, it adopts as its conceptual framework Kim and von Tunzelmann's network alignment approach following Radosevic. It explores the link between regulatory policies and the biotechnology production system – networks between academic research, biotech firms, and large pharmaceutical companies.     

Back Home? Refugees' Experiences of their First Visit back to their Country of Origin

This paper argues that the first visit ‘back home’is important for refugees because it acts as a catalyst forrenewed engagements with host country and country of origin.The study shows that conditions in both countries impact ondecision-making and ultimately that integration and return cancoexist. The first re-connection with ‘home’ isdescribed as a memorable event in and of itself. Marked by anawareness of the passing of time, it provides both an end towaiting and worrying and a measure of one's progress (or lackof) in life, thus enabling participants to move on. Establishmentof safety nets in both host and home countries as a conditionfor permanent return distinguishes the predicament of theserefugees from that of other migrants. As the meeting betweenimagination and reality, the first visit contributes to there-examination of the refugee cycle, the myth of return andthe meaning of home in a context where return encompasses onediscrete experience, the visit, and subsequent events. Overall,the paper provides a link between the literature on return asimagined while in exile and accounts of the reality of post-return.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS IN THE ROAD TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM PUBLIC SECTOR PROCUREMENT

This article provides a conceptual framework for understanding key psychological barriers to implementing sustainable development in procurement process by local government and health care authorities. This task is an important one as a comprehension of psychological barriers is a prerequisite for understanding how individuals engage with the often more visible technical, budgetary or regulatory barriers in sustainable procurement. The article highlights how progress towards sustainable procurement is hampered by a combination of (1) individual factors; (2) organizational factors; (3) small group adaptation processes; (4) adaptation processes within the organization; and (5) external adaptation processes between organizations. The framework thus contributes to filling the conceptual space between human agent and organizational structure by pointing to the importance of cognitive filters and ideational resources that interact at various levels within an organization and in the complex network of formal or informal partners that surround it.     

Tradition and Change: Four People A Response to the Politics of Paradox

Helen Goodman, the Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland has responded to the Blue Labour Publication The Politics of Paradox, with Tradition and Change: Four People. Blue Labour's thesis is that a return to the ideas and practices prevalent at the foundation of the Labour Party—solidarity and reciprocity, can form the basis of significant social change. Helen views the thesis from the perspective of two communities—first the hill farmers of Teesdale, a paradigmatic community whose rights and way of life on the Commons have existed for over 600 years. Then she looks at the Durham Miners’ Gala and the needs of the former coalfields. Helen argues that in both cases, only government can take the national and international action they need. Secondly she looks at the stories of a mother and a priest. The importance of the welfare state in providing security and opportunities becomes clear. Helen confronts Blue Labour's criticism of women's independence and prays in aid the Archbishop of Canterbury on the need for a feminist analysis. She accuses Blue Labour of ‘drum and trumpet jingoism’.