Is regional government-governance nexus delivering on social sustainability promises? Empirical evidence from Moranbah in Australia

Social sustainability, in theory, should result in responsiveness to change, a durable sense of community trust and interdependent institutional structures. However, recent studies indicate that current sustainability efforts of regional local government are not yielding anticipated outcomes. Drawing on two social theories of Henri Lefebvre, this paper offers an empirical analysis of the ability of the government–governance nexus to deliver on social sustainability promises in Moranbah in regional Australia. Study findings revealed that the Moranbah government–governance nexus suffers from adversarial relationships between key actors that result in a distrust of politics and power, the absence of a defined governance system, community alienation, and State Government dominance and intervention. These experiences of the government–governance nexus have rendered social sustainability a distant hope for Moranbah’s residents. This paper suggests a reform in sustainability policies to improve the current situation in the case region, and theoretical propositions for future research.     

Fiscal Rules and the Composition of Government Expenditures in OECD Countries

Since the 1990s many OECD countries have adopted fiscal rules. After the adoption of these rules, the ratio of social transfers to government consumption substantially declined, and it recovered following the global economic crisis. Using a sample of 22 OECD countries, we found a negative effect of fiscal rules on the ratio of social transfers to government consumption. This finding implies that fiscal rules are effective, but not necessarily binding. Our examination reveals that the negative effect of fiscal rules on the social transfers to government consumption ratio is particularly evident in countries with relatively weak legal protection to social rights.     

A comparison of the feeding behaviour in teneral and post-teneral Glossina morsitans (Diptera, Glossinidae) using an artificial membrane

Post-teneral flies are much more reluctant to feed through an artificial membrane than are inexperienced, teneral flies. It is possible to separate those stimuli which are important to flies of all ages, regardless of experience, from those which become important with feeding experience. ATP is necessary at all ages if flies, following successful probing, are to suck up a blood meal. Factors such as host odour, blood factors other than ATP, skin texture and skin movements probably influence this aspect of feeding behaviour only after the fly, through experience, has come to associate them with feeding.

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Résumé Cette étude expérimentale utilise avec quelque modification la technique d'alimentation sur membrane artificielle décrite par Langley & Maly (1969). Le stimulant alimentaire est une solution d'ATP dont la concentration optimale est 10⁻³ M pour les jeunes adultes, cependant que cette concentration doit être augmentée pour les adultes agés. Sans doute ces derniers insectes sont-ils sensibles à d'autres stimuli alimentaires, per?us dans les conditions d'alimentation préalable sur un h?te normal, tels que l'odeur de l'h?te, la texture et le mouvement de la peau, les constituants chimiques du sang autres que l'ATP.

     

Planning Ahead? An Exploratory Study of South Korean Investigators’ Beliefs About Their Planning for Investigative Interviews of Suspects

Preparation and planning has been argued to be vitally important as to how effectively investigators undertake their interviews with suspects. Yet, it has also been found in previous research that investigators admit that they plan only occasionally, often attributing insufficient time as a reason for not undertaking the task. Employing a novel research paradigm that utilised theoretical foundations concerning planning, the present study explored empirically 95 South Korean financial crime investigators’ views, using a self-administered questionnaire. With the use of second-generation statistical modelling, an understanding was developed of the relative relationships between various concepts (which had themselves emerged from an established theoretical framework of planning that had been further extended to accommodate the context of the present study). The study found that perceived time pressures actually showed a very low association with interview planning. Rather, investigators’ self-belief as to their own capability alongside workplace culture was each found to have stronger associations with investigators’ intentions to plan for their interviews. As such, we argue that there should be more focus on improving occupational culture relating to interview planning, while developing training programs that identify, evaluate, and enhance investigators’ planning skills. Implications for practice are therefore discussed.     

Drug counselling behind the prison wall: staff responses to collaborative challenges

In the last decade, 13 Drug Counselling Units (DCUs) have been established in Norwegian prisons. These units are to offer prisoners with substance use problems coordinated treatment and rehabilitation so they can better cope with their problems during imprisonment and after release. Key means in achieving these goals are to establish inter-agency collaboration between the prison service and the specialist health services. Psychologists, social workers and prison officers from these institutions are to form an inter-professional team in the collaborative process. This study explores the challenges these occupational groups face when they collaborate within this organizational frame. The results show that the occupational groups experience two of the same types of challenges, but that they respond differently to them. The pattern of responses impacts collaboration, both in positive and negative ways. However, all occupational groups endeavour to maintain a high standard within the institutional framework provided by the Norwegian prison system. This article discusses how the responses of the occupational groups in the collaborative processes in the DCUs are influenced by their affiliation to the DCUs, as well as the system of management and professional logic.     

Feeling Gender. A Generational and Psychosocial Approach

The article focuses on female same-sex intimacy, specifically so-called “mummy–baby” relationships among schoolgirls in contemporary South Africa. The underlying negotiations with colonial but also post-colonial discourses of sexuality, identity, and gender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) rights, and the problem of naming, are examined here. While post-apartheid South Africa was the first country in the world to explicitly incorporate lesbian and gay rights within the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, the surrounding countries chose to exclude lesbians and gay men from citizenship rights by proclaiming, in a populist way, the idea of homosexuality as un-African, a discourse also forming within South Africa itself. The term “homosexuality”, as defined through more than three decades of feminism and gay liberation, however, does not describe the complexities of same-sex practices throughout history. “Mummy–baby” relationships as a culturally specific form of female same-sex intimacy, especially in relation to homosociality as a form of gender intimacy and the sexuality apparatus, are analysed here. The article looks at girls' relationships as spaces in which homosociality, same-sex intimacy, and erotic practices can join together; however, the latter is increasingly joined by homophobia. I argue that the “closet” violently jars with some same-sex relationships, such as “mummy–baby” relationships, because they have never been closeted as such.     

The contested nature of political leadership in the European Union: conceptual and methodological cross-fertilisation

Abstract

European leaders have struggled to find common responses to the polycrisis the EU is facing. This crisis of leadership makes it urgent that scholars provide a better understanding of the role and impact of leadership in EU politics and policy making. This article prepares the ground for a collection of contributions that addresses this need by strengthening old and building new bridges between the academic domains of European studies and leadership studies. It opens with a discussion of the contested concept of leadership in the context of the European polity and politics, challenging the conventional view that leadership is necessarily a matter of hierarchy. Moreover, it argues that rather than leaderless, the EU is an intensely ‘leaderful’ polity. Subsequently, this introduction identifies four key debates in contemporary EU leadership research and discusses the value and insights the contributions in this special issue bring to these debates.