Mapping Urban Revitalization: Using GIS Spatial Analysis to Evaluate a New Housing Policy

This longitudinal, multimethod study uses geographical information system (GIS) software to evaluate the community-wide impact of a neighborhood revitalization project. Unsystematic visual examination and analysis of GIS maps are offered as a complementary tool to quantitative analysis and one that is much more compelling, meaningful, and effective in presentation to community and nonscientific professional audiences. The centerpiece of the intervention was the development of a new, middle-class housing subdivision in an area that was declining physically and economically. This represents three major urban/housing policy directions: (1) the emphasis on home ownership for working-class families, (2) the deconcentration of poverty through development of mixed-income neighborhoods, and (3) the clean up and redevelopment of contaminated, former industrial brownfields. Resident survey responses, objective environmental assessment observations, and building permit data were collected, geocoded at the address level, and aggregated to the block level on 60 street blocks in the older neighborhoods surrounding the new housing in two waves: during site clearing and housing construction (Time 1: 1993–95) and three years post-completion (Time 2: 1998–99). Variables mapped include (a) Time 1–2 change in self-reported home repairs and improvements, (b) change in the assessed physical condition of yards and exteriors of 925 individual residential properties, (c) change in residents' home pride, and (d) a city archive of building permits at Time 2. Physical conditions improved overall in the neighborhood, but spatial analysis of the maps suggest that the spillover effects, if any, of the new housing were geographically limited and included unintended negative psychological consequences. Results argue for greater use of GIS and the street block level in community research and of psychological and behavioral variables in planning research and decisions.     

Information systems and organizational development: Meeting the demands of information resource management in the twenty-first century

The central thesis of this article is that organizations in the twenty-first century will pursue the full benefits of information system technology by moving beyond a narrow focus on the technological dimensions to consider attendant managerial and policy issues. The challenges to establishing and implementing a coherent philosophy to guide information resource management are novel and difficult, but not unyielding. The application of organizational development techniques holds great potential to surmount these obstacles and may provide organizations with significant advantages from developments in computing technology in the twenty-first century. Evidence suggests that leading edge organizations are turning toward an integrated approach to Information Resource Management.

The benefits that advances in computer and information system technology offer to organizations in the twenty-first century seem indisputable, but whether organizations will actually achieve them, however, seems very much in question. The thesis of this article is that if organizations of the future are to garner full benefits from dramatic improvements in computing technology, they must develop a coherent philosophy for Information Resource Management (IRM). While the foundation for this philosophy rests on a strategy for integrating useful changes in computing technology into organizations, IRM must also encompass managerial and policy components. Yet, the field has been dominated by technological concerns, with only limited attention devoted to the other key dimensions.

In this article we propose a tripartite approach to information system adoption and implementation focusing on the technical, managerial, and policy dimensions. For Information System (IS) advantages to be fully realized, organizations must find ways to balance the demands of each of these components. Though these challenges should not be minimized, the article concludes that proven techniques from the field of organizational development can be brought to bear to deal with them constructively. Organizations that do so will very likely be rewarded with the substantial benefits that changes in computing and information system technology promise for the twenty-first century.     

Democracy and bureaucracy

The issue in bureaucracy and democracy is one of control. This paper calls for greater control resources for elected officials whereby they can overcome the abundant power resources of bureaucrats. A process of exchange as against a process of authority is suggested as a strategic means of democratic control over bureaucracy.

Successfully meeting the challenge of reconciling deeply cherished norms of popular control with dependence on appointed administrators requires acknowledgement not only of the rights of the controllers but also of the powers of the controlled.⁽¹⁾ It requires thinking strategically about creating and marshaling alternative resources to counteract the abundant resources bureaucrats have, to circumvent control for both selfish and public spirited reasons. Such a focus on resources suggests the fruitfulness of conceptualizing democratic control more as a process of exchange than as an exercise of authority.     

Estimating the economic impacts of a hub airline serving a tourist destination: the case of america west airlines and las vegas,nevada

Airlines are an important component of regional economies. The economic impact of an airline goes beyond the usual impacts of their payroll and expenditures. Airlines also may affect business productivity and the critical economic base of a regional economy. This article estimates the economic impact of America West Airlines on Las Vegas, Nevada. Key aspects of the study were measurement of the direct impacts, estimation of the associated impact on tourism allowing for the possibility of competing travel alternatives, and the use of a regional economic impact model to derive the total economic impact.     

Citizens’ Initiatives: How Local Governments Fill their Facilitative Role

In the context of drastic cutbacks many Dutch municipalities consider citizens’ initiatives (CIs) as an attractive alternative for municipal policies aimed at improving the livability and safety in neighbourhoods, simultaneously building responsible citizenship. In this paper we combine different theoretical perspectives to analyse the institutional settings in which CIs are being realised, and how municipalities try to facilitate such initiatives. Municipalities can do this by either trying to structure the relevant networks or by various forms of process management. This analysis sheds light on how municipalities use a variety of instruments to mobilise citizens to participate in CIs. In using such instruments they can influence various factors (like motivations, personal resources, social capital and expected responsiveness; cf. Lowndes et al.’s CLEAR model) that increase the likelihood of civic engagement.     

Private administration of a public function: The news election service

The United States government has no elections office and does not attempt to administer congressional and presidential elections. The responsibility for the administration of elections and certification of winners in the United States national elections rests with the states. The states divide election administration responsibilities between state and local election officials, whose objective is an efficiently administered honest election, with the ballots correctly tabulated. The formal structure of election administration in the United States is not capable of providing tirely results of the presidential and congressional election. Similar structural difficulties in other policy areas often result in ad hoc operating agreements or informal cooperation among agencies at different levels of the federal system. In the case of election administration, however, the public officials have abdicated responsibility for election night aqgregation of the national Vote totals to a private organization, News Election Service, which is owned by five major news organizations. This private organization performs without a contract, without public compensation, and without supervision by public officials. It makes decisions concerning its duties according to its own criteria. The questions of responsibility and accountability have not arisen in part because of the private organization's performance record and in part because the responsibility was assumed gradually over a lengthy period without ever being evaluated as an item on the public agenda.     

The OECD and “The Rest”: Analyzing the Limits of Policy Transfer

Abstract

Prompted by the rise of the emerging economies and the growing importance of the G20, the OECD has formally announced its intention of establishing itself as a key actor in global policy coordination. As part of this ambition, it has embarked on cultivating closer relations with five G20 countries it designated as key partners through the so-called “Enhanced Engagement” programme: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. This article mobilizes concepts from the policy transfer literature to explain why the OECD’s attempts to increasingly involve all five countries in its policy have fallen short of its original ambitions, and also why the transfer of its policy work has been uneven across policy and country issue.     

Failure of auditors: The lack of compliance for business combinations in China

This empirical study investigates the compliance of 344 Chinese listed companies with the Accounting Standard for Enterprises No. 20‐Business Combination, a mandatory reporting standard applicable to companies involved in business combinations. China has recently reformed its auditing sector, enabling private firms to provide auditing services. The results of the study show a low level of compliance by Chinese listed companies. While companies audited by Chinese domestic auditors have significantly lower compliance than companies audited by Big Four auditors on supplementary disclosure that is mandatory under the Chinese accounting standards, compliance remains low even after companies receive unqualified reports from these international auditors. There appears to be a lack of commitment, and possibly expertise, among Big Four auditors, in fully applying the reporting requirements of the business combination standard in a Chinese setting. This raises concerns about the independence of Chinese auditing in disclosing reliable information about business combinations. Broader theoretical contributions of the paper go beyond the Chinese context by problematizing whether well‐resourced international auditors uphold internationally expected standards or succumb to local non‐compliant practices.