Recent research: The micro-politics of deliberation: Case studies in public participation

The contemporary emphasis on public participation in policy making derives both from concerns to increase the legitimacy of public decision making and to develop more dialogic forms of governance, and from more 'bottom-up' action intended to ensure that the voices of those excluded from policy making are heard. This has resulted in diverse forms of participative practice, including forums in which social movement organizations meet officials, and forums initiated by officials to which 'the public' are invited. This article examines four case studies of participation, studied as part of research conducted in the ESRC Democracy and Participation programme. It focuses on a micro-level analysis of the dynamics of exchanges within such forums to question the capacity of such forums to generate alternative discourses within which policy problems can be defined and addressed.     

The Dilemma of the Unsatisfied Customer in a Market Model of Public Administration

The relationship between administrative service performance and citizen satisfaction has been assumed, but not demonstrated, in the application of market models to public service delivery. Although the citizen satisfaction literature cautions that the link between objective and subjective measures of service quality is tenuous at best, public‐sector professional organizations define a managerial focus on objective measures of service performance as accountability to citizens for outcomes. What if we're wrong?     

Ni Vanuatu women graduates: what happens when they go home?

Part of New Zealand's aid to Pacific Island nations is given in the form of tertiary scholarships. Students awarded scholarships study at tertiary institutions throughout the Pacific, including New Zealand. But what is it like when they return home, fitting back into their culture and family life, and finding work? The research described in this article explored this question in relation to women graduates from Vanuatu when they returned after studying overseas for three or more years. Some slipped back in easily and found work quickly; others experienced profound culture shock on re-entry and took many months to find suitable work. If Vanuatu is to make the best possible use of these women's tertiary qualifications, and if donors are to realise the goals of their scholarship scheme, necessary changes include more co-ordinated support and regular tracer studies.     

14C analyses quantify time lag between coca leaf harvest and street-level seizure of cocaine

Measurements were made on the natural abundance (14)C content (Δ(14)C) of cocaine specimens seized between 2003 and 2009. The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which Δ(14)C analyses could quantify the "age" of recent cocaine seizures. Here "age" of a seized cocaine specimen is defined as the time period between when a coca leaf was harvested in South America and its seizure as cocaine at either the international or domestic street levels. Based on Δ(14)C analyses of seizure specimens, there were no statistically significant differences in the ages of domestic cocaine HCl and cocaine base specimens seized on the streets in different locations across the United States. Between 2007 and 2009, the average age of a street-level cocaine seizure in the United States was 24.6±1.1 months. Cocaine shipment seizures that were in excess of 150 kg during this time period had an average age of 18.2±1.4 months, whereas smaller shipment seizures were significantly older with an average age of 22.3±0.6 months. Analyses of the largest cocaine shipment seizures suggested that these seizures were composed of specimens with different ages, possibly representing accumulations over as much as a 31-month period.     

Disentangling effort and performance: a renewed look at gender differences in commercializing medical school research

Recently, questions about gender gaps in science have extended to academic technology transfer. Using systematic data on US medical school faculty, we capture both behavior and performance, examining the hypothesis that women are less likely than men to commercialize their research findings. We pooled faculty invention data from ten departments in three Academic Health Centers from 1991 to 1998??a period when patenting had become prevalent and other researchers note that a gender gap was pronounced. Rather than focusing on patenting, we capture the first step in the commercialization process, as well as the subsequent successful licensing of faculty inventions to a company. We find no significant gender differences in the likelihood of reporting inventions or successfully commercializing them. We do find differences in the number of inventions reported, however, with women disclosing fewer inventions than their male counterparts. Our results demonstrate that gender effects are highly conditioned by employment context and resources. We attribute differences in our findings with regards to gender to the use of outcome measures that capture both behavior and performance, and the inclusion of a more extensive set of control variables.