Charting a Course for the Coming Years

SHORTLY after the Spring Festival,China be-gins its annualpolitical seasonwith the con-vening of the Two Sessions,the session of the National People's Congress(NPC)and that of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC).This year both of these events have a very special significance.First,it will be the start of a new Five-Year Plan period,and secondly,this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Commu-nist Party of China.This will be the source of a great deal of celebration throughout the year.     

Our African Territories

This article represents the second half of a speech made ata combined meeting with the Royal Empire Society, on the 27thFebruary. Mr. Creech Jones was deputising, at short notice,for his chief, Mr. George Hall, with Lord Harlech in the chair.The first part of the address was devoted to a general statementof British Colonial principles.     

THE ROLE OF BOUNDARY‐SPANNING MANAGERS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC‐PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

This article presents the findings of a study examining the roles and behaviours of boundary‐spanning managers during the establishment of voluntary public‐private partnerships (PPPs). It responds to recent calls in the literature to pursue research that incorporates the pivotal contribution of individual actors in the collaborative process, and to set this research within the stage specific context of partnerships. The analysis is located within the theoretical framework of organizational sensemaking. Using a grounded methodology of data collection, coding and analysis within ten Australian and UK PPPs, the study demarcates a four‐stage evolutionary establishment process of PPPs. Within each stage there exists a specific managerial focus in conjunction with one or two main managerial challenges. Boundary‐spanning managers employ various strategies to overcome such challenges within each specific stage, thus ensuring the progressive evolution of the PPP. These foci, challenges and strategies are identified and analysed in the article.     

Municipal Bond New Issue Transaction Costs

As with any market, there are transaction costs associated with the sale of municipal bonds. Only a small number of studies have examined this topic, and therefore we have only a limited understanding of the magnitude and determinants of new issue municipal bond transaction costs. We use data on California municipal bond transaction costs from 2007 to 2009 to test whether scale economies exist. We find that there are considerable transaction cost scale economies for California municipal bonds and that pooling bond sales would likely save substantial amounts of money.     

IN AND OUT OF HARM'S WAY: VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION AND THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF FICTIVE STREET FAMILIES*

Homeless youth establish a variety of relationships with people they meet on the street. These associations generate different levels of the intangible resources of trust, commitment, and reciprocity that contribute to a person's social capital. We argue that the relationships homeless youth describe as “street families” resemble the fictive kin common among people who have limited resources, and that these relationships are a greater source of social capital than are other associations. Social capital may improve access to many valued outcomes, including protections. Regression analyses of violent victimization support our argument, demonstrating that fictive street families keep youth out of harm's way more than do other street associations.