Getting The Right Mix: Unpacking Integration Meanings and Strategies

Integration has emerged as having an increasingly significant role in public policy discourse and practice in many jurisdictions across the globe. In providing a different framework for establishing relationships between service providers and citizens and government, horizontal integration arrangements offer the prospect of delivering new ways of working and providing solutions to seemingly insolvable social problems. Ways of achieving horizontal integration have been variously described by linkage terms such as cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. These terms have been typically used interchangeably to describe the coming together of individuals to work in concerted effort to achieve common goals.We argue that each of these terms, expressed as the “3Cs,” are different and consequently achieve different objectives. This paper explores the use of the “3Cs” and examines the differences highlighted by practitioners in the human services arena to extend the understanding of constructs relating to integration mechanisms. It is contended that in focusing on the experiences of integration and unpacking the use and expectations of the related “3Cs,” public administrators and practitioners will gain an enhanced understanding of each of the processes of integration as a coherent framework. As a consequence, there will be improved ability to match appropriate integration mechanisms with contexts and strategies.     

Remembering the family home: emotions,belonging, and migrant men in multicultural Australia

Abstract

The article opens a space in which to discuss migrant men's emotions and their engagement with family life. It focuses on Australia's Goan community to explore the fluidity of ethnic identity and its relation to remembered family and childhood. The article suggests a “family” that is not only a domestic home but is constituted across both time and space. The men's memories of their childhood and family life prior to arrival in Australia are central to their constitution of self within Australia. These memories provide the men with the emotional means to contest their positioning in Australia's multicultural framework. The men's memories of childhood are experienced beyond domestic and multicultural spaces, making remembered families an important part of their work lives and sense of success in Australia.     

Implementing IFRS in Local Government: Institutional Isomorphism as NPM Goes Mad?

Abstract

The impact the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has on business has been considered by various authors, such as Jones and Higgins (2006 Jones, S. H. and Higgins, A. D. 2006. Australia's switch to international financial reporting standards: a perspective from account preparers'. Accounting and Finance, 46: 629–652. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, there has not been the same research conducted with respect to local government. As Australia and New Zealand are leading the world by being the first to introduce IFRS into local government financial reporting, this study is timely in order todetermine the impact of compliance on local government. With the New Public Management (NPM) introduced in the late 1970s, accrual accounting and the desire to enhance transparency became embedded in financial reporting across the world. The paper adds to the growing literature on institutional theory with results of the study suggesting that a form of coercive isomorphism is present in regards to local government compliance with IFRS. It also suggests that the philosophy behind NPM – especially that espousing the benefits of public sector reporting in a private sector vein–may not be as relevant to Australian local government as the policy makers would have us believe. The thrust to implement IFRS may have finally pushed local government into a world they struggle to cope with. For example, findings indicate that there is now, more than ever, a perception in the community that the bottom line is an important indicator of a council's performance. Results reported here determined that the implementation process was time-consuming and costly with, in general, very little perceived benefit. Councils are conforming to the coercive pressure from legislative bodies, but they are not converging as part of the ‘transaction-neutral’ reporting regime.     

Nanotechnology,Nanomaterials, and the Potential for Regulatory Action by USEPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has recently taken steps toward directly regulating the potential environmental, health, and safety risks associated with the manufacture and use of nanomaterials, and indications are that it is considering additional regulatory action. More particularly, the agency appears ready to start relying more on the exercise of its existing statutory authorities—including the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act—than on voluntary industry efforts to address these potential risks. As a result, companies that work with nanomaterials should pay close attention to USEPA's activities in this arena.     

Policy Forum: Studying Eyewitness Investigations in the Field

This article considers methodological issues arising from recent efforts to provide field tests of eyewitness identification procedures. We focus in particular on a field study (Mecklenburg 2006) that examined the “double blind, sequential” technique, and consider the implications of an acknowledged methodological confound in the study. We explain why the confound has severe consequences for assessing the real-world implications of this study.     

Alaska public health law reform

The Turning Point Model State Public Health Act (Turning Point Act), published in September 2003, provides a comprehensive template for states seeking public health law modernization. This case study examines the political and policy efforts undertaken in Alaska following the development of the Turning Point Act. It is the first in a series of case studies to assess states' consideration of the Turning Point Act for the purpose of public health law reform. Through a comparative analysis of these case studies and ongoing legislative tracking in all fifty states, researchers can assess (1) how states codify the Turning Point Act into state law and (2) how these modernized state laws influence or change public health practice, leading to improved health outcomes.     

Not Our Kind of Hate Crime

Law and Critique - Implicit in hate crime is the premise that certain types of violence can be usefully articulated through the concept of hate. This article seeks to raise some questions about...     

STATUS OF COURT-CONNECTED PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS ARE SEPARATING OR DIVORCING

This article reports on programs for children whose parents are divorcing or separating. Data were obtained from 67 courts and 81 program providers across the United States. Most court systems with children's programs used community providers and encouraged rather than required children's attendance. The average program consisted of one or two sessions, with a length of 4 to 5 1/2 hours. A partial list of commercially available curricula is provided in the appendix.