Les échevins et la formulation des politiques: Note méthodologique

Sommaire. Cet article examine la question du rǒle des échevins dans la formulation des politiques municipales, tout particulièrement les aspects méthodolo-giques de la question. Dans une première section, nous démontrons que la plupart des études qui ont analysé le rǒle des échevins n'ont pas réussi à ex-pliquer l'output municipal. L'échec s'explique par le fait que ces études privi-légient à peu près exclusivement les attitudes des échevins et n'accordent que peu de place aux comportements et au contexte objectif et concret dans lequel les échevins travaillent. Dans une deuxième section nous démontrons, à partir du cas de Hull, comment une étude des conditions concrètes de travail des échevins peut nous éclairer sur la formation des politiques municipales. Cette etude des ‘ faits matériels » du monde des échevins souligne l'importance des administrateurs municipaux. Les décisions du Conseil municipal ne relevent que très peu de considérations abstraites et ces décisions sont prises dans un cadre donné, un cadre en bonne partie façonné par les administrateurs municipaux. En somme, la principale conclusion qui nous semble émerger de l'étude, c'est l'importance, pour bien saisir le rǒle de l'échevin dans la formulation des politiques, de situer ce rǒle dans sa pratique quotidienne. Abstract. This article examines the question of the role of municipal councillors in the formulation of public policy, with particular emphasis on the methodological dimension of this question. In a first section the authors show that most of the studies that have examined the role of municipal councillors have not succeeded in explaining the municipality's policy output. This failure can be explained by the fact that these studies look principally at the attitudes of the councillors and give very little attention to behaviour or to the real environment in which the councillors work. In a second section we attempt to show, based on the example of Hull, how a study of the concrete working conditions of municipal councillors can illuminate the process of policy formulation. This study of the councillors' ‘real world’ illustrates the importance of the municipal administrators. Council decisions are not taken in the abstract, they emerge from a specific context or framework and this framework is largely structured by the municipal administrators. The major conclusion that emerges from the study is the importance, in order to understand the role of municipal councillors in policy-making, of situating this role in the context of the day-to-day work of the councillors.     

Aging Out of Foster Care: Homelessness,Post-Secondary Education,and Employment

Research has shown that youth aging out of the foster care system experience an increased risk for several adverse adult outcomes (e.g., homelessness, unemployment, low educational attainment). Yet, fewer studies have examined the impact of homelessness on adult outcomes. The current study uses National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) to examine the associations between homelessness and two outcomes, post-secondary education and employment status, for transition-aged foster youth (N = 4,235). This study found that youth who experienced homelessness between 19 and 21 years were less likely to have post-secondary education or full-time employment, controlling for individual and foster care characteristics.     

Divergent Expectations and Experience: An Empirical Study of the Use Children's Contact Services in Australia

In this article, an overview of the key findings from the Children'sContact Services Project is presented. Children's Contact Services(CCSs) assist separated parents to manage contact arrangementswith their children through the provision of supervised visitationand changeover services. The aims of this project were to investigatethe use of CCSs in Australia by referring agencies (eg. courtsand legal practitioners), and clients of contact services (parentsand children), and to consider the views and expectations ofthese key stakeholders regarding those usages. This approachwas based on the assumption that there are currently conflictingusages and expectations of contact services, and that this situationcould compromise children's well-being. The findings were derivedfrom two studies. The first study involved conducting 142 in-depthinterviews with representatives from the Australian Government,the courts and legal practitioners who referred families toCCSs, CCS staff and management, as well as parents and childrenwho used CCSs. The second study comprised a quantitative analysisof client data collected by CCS staff from 396 families whohad used a government funded CCS in August 2003. The findingsdemonstrated that in Australia, CCSs provided an invaluableservice that was viewed positively by government, referral agents,CCS staff and management, and by the parents and children whoused them. Despite this generally positive view, there wereconflicting expectations of CCSs that, under certain circumstances,compromised children's well-being and that of their parents,particularly their residence mothers.     

Health Pluralism: A More Appropriate Alternative to Western Models of Therapy in the Context of the Civil Conflict and Natural Disaster in Sri Lanka?

This paper considers some dilemmas relating to developing effectiveassistance with and to people who have lived through extremeevents in a civil war and ‘post-conflict’ contextwithin Sri Lanka. The tsunami which devastated many coastalareas of Sri Lanka in December 2004 and left many people withno homes or livelihood has further affected the country. A majorissue is how far the concepts and methods of western psychologyand psychiatry are appropriate to radically different culturesand contexts: in particular, how post-conflict and post-disasterpsychosocial rehabilitation may depend in complex ways on localspecifics and interact or not with biomedical notions of PTSDdiagnosis and individual therapy. The relationship between aculture and its healing rituals is a complex one. Cultural,socio-political, existential and personal meanings, expressionsand responses to civil war or traumatic events and their aftermathare likely to be mediated by each individual and the contextin which they occur. This paper details our findings and offerssome suggestions for future practice.     

Judicial economy and moving bars in international investment arbitration

The Review of International Organizations - Historically, international investment law has centered on protecting foreign investors from direct expropriation, but much of modern law includes legal...     

Are Your Disputants Insecure and Does It Matter? Attachment and Disputants' Speech during Mediation

An exploratory qualitative study explored the effect of attachment styles on disputants' speech during real‐life mediations. Drawing on attachment theory, we classified disputants as secure or insecure individuals using a self‐report attachment‐style questionnaire. Subsequently, they entered their mediation sessions, where their entire speech was recorded. Qualitative analysis of their speech yielded consistent and sometimes striking differences that portrayed secure speech as remarkably more useful and enhancing toward resolution compared with insecure speech. The findings, presented with many examples, strongly indicate the relevance of attachment to the research of communication during mediation sessions. In this report, we also consider the practical implications of the association between attachment and disputants' behavior, emphasizing the role of mediators.