Regenerating the City: People,Politics, Power and the Public Sphere

Abstract

The transformative potential that has come to be associated with networking in all areas of social, economic and political life, not least initiatives designed to tackle urban deprivation, is premised upon the idea that better outcomes prevail when state, market and civil society actors work together in partnership to agree and implement change. Such a perspective is informed by two underlying and related assumptions; first, an understanding of democracy as being essentially deliberative in nature; second, an understanding of social and political change as being essentially consensus based. An agonistic model and alternative explanation questioning these assumptions and the ‘transformative’ claims made on behalf of partnership is presented in this article. In contrast to what is termed a ‘neo-liberal orthodox’ approach an alternative interpretation of regeneration located within a radical conceptualisation of civil society is proposed. Regeneration, it is argued, is better conceptualised in terms of contestation between state, market and third-sector interests with better outcomes for communities prevailing when third-sector actors develop the legitimacy and power to engage politically within the context of a contested public sphere.     

欧洲的新认同政治与欧洲认同的形成

肇始于战后的欧洲一体化进程,发展到今天已经进入经济政治的全方位联盟。然而,欧洲联盟不仅仅是一个利益和目标共同体,它还应该是一个文化和理念共同体,是一个为所有欧洲公民创造情感归属的“精神家园”。而欧洲认同的建构是实现这一目标的唯一途径。本文试图从欧洲认同感产生、新欧洲认同政治,以及欧洲认同的逐步形成三个方面,对欧洲认同这一历史现象进行考察。     

Probation Officer Training, Promotional Culture and the Public Sphere

Recent writing on the professions has given little consideration to the state's potential for threatening a professional formation. This paper argues that the reorganization of probation officer training in England and Wales is an instance of stateled de-professionalization. The process of problematizing the issue and the steps taken to try and mobilize public endorsement for radical policy change are traced, as are the counter-moves of groups attempting to maintain the existing training arrangements. This illuminates two aspects of contemporary public debate in the UK. First, it demonstrates the impact of the requirement that public sector organizations and occupations show 'enterprise' by successful self-promotion. Second, the episode is located within Habermas's concept of the public sphere, in which participation itself – let alone any possibility of achieving the desired outcome – now appears to depend upon relative resources and on attracting the attention of influential news media     

The Croatian Diaspora in North America: Identity, Ethnic Solidarity, and the Formation of a “Transnational National Community”

As I attempt to reveal in this article, Croatian Diaspora's press in North America plays a crucial role in ethnic mobilization and formation of attitudes among members of Croatian Diaspora community toward their home society—Croatia and construction of transnational national community. Discourse analysis employed when examining writings published between 1980–1995 in the most influential Croatian Diaspora's journal—the Fraternalist—builds on the idea that not only news from both the host and home countries are provided, but they are also used to constantly reproduce elements of group identity among Diaspora's community. This study explores the main trends in different stages of ethnic homogenization and mobilization of Croatian Diaspora in North America, which progressed in response to political changes in the home country, reaching its peak with the commencement of the war in Croatia in 1991.     

The Struggle to Be Seen: Social Movements and the Public Sphere in Brazil

This paper analyzes how community movement activity in three popular neighborhoods in Belém, Brazil, shaped the dynamics of contention in the public sphere. Popular social forces, elite actors, and the state mutually influence each other across three moments of public interaction: it clarifying popular discourse, it the struggle to be seen, and routine politics. The article reverses the usual picture in movement research, which emphasizes movements as organizational outcomes to be explained, and instead builds on a body of research that explores how movements can contribute to broader processes of political change.     

Evaluating the 'New Public Management' Reforms in the UK: A Constitutional Possibility

Far-reaching managerial changes to the public sector in the UK have been occurring in the last few years. Broadly described as the 'new public management' (Hood 1991, 1995) these changes have reached new levels of intensity ever since the Conservative Government came to power in 1979. The article argues that the government should be accountable for these changes but not in a way which simply justifies its actions to the body politic but rather by going beyond this to a complete critical evaluation to assess their merit and worth. It is this exposure which will provide its real accountability. This article addresses the contextual factors surrounding the possibility of conducting such a wide-ranging evaluation. It traces a range of different examples which highlight the resistance of the previous government to an open-ended evaluation tracing the sizeable investment in implementation rather than careful policy experimentation and evaluation that has occurred. Finally, and most importantly the article explores the constitutional position of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and the National Audit Office (NAO) who could conduct the wide-ranging evaluation which is deemed necessary. The conclusion of the article is that there is a need for an evaluation and any resistance of the government could be overcome if the C&AG and NAO exercised their constitutional right to conduct an evaluation of the reforms.     

Identity,Ideology, and Information: The Sources of Iraqi Public Support for the Islamic State

ABSTRACT

This article explores the amount and sources of support for the Islamic State among Iraqis. We argue that, in addition to shared identity and ideology, a neglected factor in debates about support for Islamist militancy is the messaging and information that individuals receive about a given group. We test these arguments using regression analysis on public opinion data collected in Iraq in April 2015. The analyses largely support our contentions, showing that exposure to news coverage of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant substantially reduces support for the group, even among alienated Sunnis or ideological Islamists.     

Strengthening Friendship and Fraternal Solidarity: Soviet Youth Tourism to Eastern Europe under Khrushchev and Brezhnev

Abstract

The three decades following Stalin’s death in 1953 witnessed a dramatic expansion in Soviet tourism to the other countries of the European socialist bloc. Youth tourism in particular was an important feature of efforts to build friendlier and more durable links with the satellite states at the grassroots level. However, the prospects for long-term success in this endeavour were continually hampered by Soviet concerns about the dangers of interaction, and as the years passed, the economic benefits of tourist travel rather than the initial goal of building solidarity were accorded priority.     

新时代爱国主义的时代主题、基本内涵和践行路径——学习习近平总书记关于爱国主义的重要论述

习近平总书记在纪念五四运动100周年大会上的讲话中指出,五四运动以全民族的力量高举起爱国主义的伟大旗帜,五四精神的核心就是爱国主义。在几千年绵延发展的历史长河中,中华民族虽历经磨难,但在以爱国主义为核心的中华民族精神的支撑下,形成了各民族团结奋斗、自强不息的爱国基因。进入新时代,爱国主义不仅是弘扬中华民族精神的核心力量,是实现中华民族伟大复兴中国梦的精神动力,也是实现世界和平和化解新时代社会主要矛盾的硬核力量。在坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的伟大事业中,正确认识新时代爱国主义的时代主题和基本内涵,对增强国家意识和民族认同,维护社会价值共识和行为准则具有重要的理论和实践意义。     

Organizational Identity,Image, and Reputation: Examining the Influence on Perceptions of Employer Attractiveness in Public Sector Organizations

The active management of an organization’s image, identity and overall reputation can result in a range of benefits including attracting larger and higher quality job applicant pools, fostering an improved overall impression of the firm in potential employees’ minds and retaining and engendering loyalty amongst current employees. How these concepts apply in the public sector remains nascent. This paper reviews the extant literature on identity, image, and reputation and identifies how and why these concepts are salient for exploring current and potential employees’ perceptions of the public sector as an employer. A conceptual model is developed through reviewing organizational characteristics of public sector entities and proposing how these may influence employees’ image, identity and reputation perceptions of the employer attractiveness of the sector.     

Research and Development,Competitiveness and European Integration of South Eastern Europe

This article explores the relationship between research and development (R&D) and competitiveness of South East European (SEE) economies from the perspective of European Union (EU) integration. Specifically, the article addresses the question of whether South East Europe is a potential asset or liability to the enlarged EU. SEE countries are quite diverse in terms of levels of competitiveness, with visible effects on the role of R&D, which is confirmed by analysis of R&D demand and supply factors. Improvements in the national innovation systems of SEE countries have largely taken place through vertical linkages on the supply and demand sides. However, a wider role for R&D will depend increasingly on the strength of horizontal linkages within national systems of innovation and their key agent—the local innovative business enterprise sector. This calls for a rethinking of science and technology policy, traditionally defined as a sectoral activity.     

Theory and Practice of Public Administration in the Philippines: Concerns for an Identity Crisis

Abstract

The discipline of public administration in the Philippines has been undergoing its version of an ‘identity crisis’ over the past decade. This crisis has been manifested in four areas: (1) the inordinate influence of mostly American public administration theories and concepts upon Philippines public administration has led Filipino academics in the early to mid-1980s to ask the question ‘is there a Philippine public administration?’; (2) the perceived disconnect between theories of public administration as taught in schools and the realities in the outside world has raised questions of the relevance of the discipline to real world challenges; (3) the continued frustration over the perception that in spite of many public administration and governance reforms, the Philippines continues to be among the more corrupt nations in the region; and (4) the recent fascination of academics in other disciplines, especially economists, that ‘institutions matter’, has led some public administration scholars to argue that their discipline has been arguing precisely the same point since the 1950s.     

欧美民众对政党的冷漠情绪及其原因分析

对政党的冷漠情绪是指在肯定政党对于民主的基本作用的前提下,当代欧美社会普遍存在的对政党及其政治家的不信任感和冷漠情绪.产生这种情绪的直接原因是人们普遍感到自己缺乏有效的政治参与,政党追逐私利,更进一步还可以追溯到政治体制和政党发展所引发的矛盾冲突,包括对政党和政治变迁的不同看法和对政党的过高要求等,尤其是政治个人化、职业化和政党内部的民主争端等,都可能导致人们产生对政党的矛盾情绪.     

Weberian Public Administration Versus New Public Management in Eastern Europe: The Case of Romania

As a recent member of the European Union (EU), Romania aligned its public policies to Westernized models of civil service reform. This article critically analyzes the impact of Human Resource Management (HRM) models as compared to a Weberian Easternized public administration culture, which continues to display strong hierarchical relationships, rather than the “networked” governance favored by some Western European countries.

The focus will be on the development of HRM policies and practices, taking as a set of case studies Romanian central government organizations. The key problem to be addressed is to understand why such organizations remain locked in ineffective systems of personnel administration. Yet, Romania, along with other Eastern European states, has been exposed to international reform movements in public management through policy transfer. The article will look for evidence of New Public Management (NPM)-type practices, in addition to HRM.

Moreover, the countries of Eastern Europe are far from homogeneous, and so an understanding of both the institutional and cultural context is crucial to ascertain the acceptability of NPM. In the case of Romania, this article considers HRM developments in a multi-culturally influenced state, which has also experienced Socialist regimes. However, policy innovations have started to appear, not only as a consequence of the international diffusion of “good practice” and “policy learning, ” but also stemming from the demands of European directives. Thus, the aim of this article will be to assess the role of policy learning in relation to HR reform in the public service.     

Leadership Styles,Workplace Politics and Moral Identity of Ugandan Public Procurement Staff

The study predicts the moral identity of Ugandan public procurement staff using situational factors like leadership styles, social interactions, organizational politics and personal isomorphism, largely ignored in documented empirical literature. This study builds upon previous studies which assert that much remains to be learned about moral identity. Data were collected from staff handling the public procurement function in 105 randomly selected procuring and disposing entities (PDEs). Data relating to the study constructs were collected using self-administered questionnaires and an interview guide. The study established that workplace factors singularly and/or interactively predict moral identity of procurement staff in PDEs in Uganda. These findings have both policy and managerial implications which we discuss and present in this article.