Negotiating Umbrella Agreements

Experienced negotiators know that it is often impossible to define all terms of a complex agreement. By negotiating umbrella agreements, the negotiating parties try to balance the need for certainty and calculability of give-and-take processes with the need to remain sufficiently flexible to embrace new or emerging business opportunities. Umbrella agreements describe a joint consent that explicitly articulates a framework of rules and principles that guides future agreements. It is argued that negotiators are better able to maximize their joint gains if they differentiate between agreements and the framework in which agreements are made.     

Breaking boundaries,defying borders: transnational networks of gender and race in South Africa and the United States

Abstract

This special issue examines transnational connections and collaborations among women and People of Color from South Africa and the United States, from the late nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century: it considers how connections were fostered and how ideologies travelled. Key figures include Emily Hobhouse, Charlotte Maxeke, Cecilia Lilian Tshabalala, Maude White Katz, Madie Hall-Xuma, Elizabeth Mafeking, Miriam Makeba, Gloria Steinem, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Actively and symbolically, each of these non-state actors approached the relationship between the two nations differently, through political and religious affiliations, and as individuals and through organizations. Many challenged and transcended the restrictions imposed upon them officially, through state-sanctioned segregation and apartheid, but also socially, on account of their gender. These women fostered intellectual and social connections with each other, as well as for their nations, through interpersonal relationships and in print, but also simply – and perhaps most problematically – through abstracted ideas about humanitarianism, motherhood, apartheid, and nation. Such travels and intellectual journeys could prove both mutually beneficial and hierarchically imbalanced, but nonetheless reiterate the continued transnational relevance and resonances between South Africa and the United States.     

Mobile entrepreneurs in post-Soviet Central Asia

In this paper I present an analysis of a mobile entrepreneur and his transnational economic activities in post-Soviet space. I argue that the space of informal economic activities of mobile entrepreneurs are structured by trust-networks in the sense Tilly (2005) uses it. In this context the concept of tirikchilik (an Uzbek term for ‘muddling through’ or survival) which defines the space of informal economic activities is important to decipher. Tirikchilik unifies various economic activities which vary from trade, service delivery, middleman services, administration and any kind of activity that generates some cash.     

A Cartography of a Global Civil Society Advocacy Alliance: The Case of the Global Call to Action against Poverty

The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of global civil society advocacy networks as major players in global governance. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is one of the recent phenomena in this arena and epitomizes high-level involvement of a multiplicity of actors in GCAP, with various multilateral governance institutions, as well as states. This article analyses the origins of GCAP, motivations for its formation, evolution, and operations, with specific references to its structures and architecture. It argues that alliances are very different from ‘normal’ forms of organizations because they are made up of diverse forms of organizations, coming together voluntarily to achieve a specific purpose and therefore are by their very nature complex, unstable, and difficult to co-ordinate. The result of such, within GCAP, is an organization that is somewhat amorphous and exhibits both aspects of anti-systemic protest (in Polanyian terms) as well as a pacifying force (part of the hegemonic historic block in Gramcsian terms). I argue that the loose nature of global civil society alliances is a positive contributor to mass mobilization but causes frustrations in decision-making and actions. This, in effect, calls for a more bureaucratized and institutionalized architecture, albeit with a potential to alienate some constituencies. A key lesson from GCAP's evolution, structures, and strategies, I posit, is that it is not possible to push through individual positions without compromising so as to accommodate others.     

完善规划 注重实效 加快建成云南通往印度洋陆上国际大通道

该文对目前云南省公路路网现状及存在问题进行了分析，提出了加快实施桥头堡战略国际大通道建设的建议。     

Formal and informal governance networks: Diabetes care in Australia and India

The concept of networks has gained interest in public administration and management. They address concerns such as the coordination of multiple actors within the policy process. Networks take both formal and informal forms. As the integration of formal and informal networks in public service delivery is gaining traction, this paper uses the example of diabetes care in Australia and India to provide an analytical framework to examine one of the ways such integration of networks take place. Diabetes, a chronic long‐term disease, poses to be a global problem with a high rate of diagnosis with implications for public health expenditure. A multi‐disciplinary team, which comprises both formal and informal categories, is required to manage diabetes. This paper highlights the integration of networks in diabetes care in different institutional and cultural settings. For such form of integration of networks to work, collaboration among the various actors is important. Lessons learnt from diabetes care will be relevant for other long‐term chronic conditions to help reduce the human resource and financial burden. The analytical framework developed based on the example of diabetes care will provide useful lessons for examining the mechanics and dynamics of the integration between formal and informal networks in the field of public administration and management.     

Utilizing Hyperlink Network Analysis to Examine Climate Change Supporters and Opponents

Hyperlink network analysis, which utilizes the links between websites to map online communication structures, offers an emerging methodology for studying the networks of supporters and opponents of public policies. Reasons for the methodology's appeal include the ability to utilize web crawlers to collect large amounts of data and the ability to apply quantitative and qualitative methods to examine network interactions. While the methodology has been utilized by diverse disciplines it is relatively new to the fields of political science and public policy. Utilizing a mixed‐methods research design, this article examines the applicability of using hyperlink networks to study opposing groups in the Colorado climate and energy policy subsystem while drawing increased attention to the methodology's strengths and weaknesses. The results demonstrate the methodology's considerable potential, but highlight the need for greater adoption of a collection of best practices designed to increase the validity, reliability, and generalizability of hyperlink research.     

Political discourse networks and the conflict over software patents in Europe

In 2005, the European Parliament rejected the directive ‘on the patentability of computer‐implemented inventions’, which had been drafted and supported by the European Commission, the Council and well‐organised industrial interests, with an overwhelming majority. In this unusual case, a coalition of opponents of software patents prevailed over a strong industry‐led coalition. In this article, an explanation is developed based on political discourse showing that two stable and distinct discourse coalitions can be identified and measured over time. The apparently weak coalition of software patent opponents shows typical properties of a hegemonic discourse coalition. It presents itself as being more coherent, employs a better‐integrated set of frames and dominates key economic arguments, while the proponents of software patents are not as well‐organised. This configuration of the discourse gave leeway for an alternative course of political action by the European Parliament. The notion of discourse coalitions and related structural features of the discourse are operationalised by drawing on social network analysis. More specifically, discourse network analysis is introduced as a new methodology for the study of policy debates. The approach is capable of measuring empirical discourses both statically and in a longitudinal way, and is compatible with the policy network approach.     

The return of public investment in telecommunications: Assessing the early challenges of the national broadband network policy in Australia

Against a current trend of investing in the next generation networks (NGNs) by using public funds, the Australian government has initiated a so-called National Broadband Network (NBN) project to invest up to AUD$36 billion tax payer's money on building a national wide fibre broadband network aiming to cover 93 per cent Australian by 2020. As being the most costly infrastructure-building project in Australian history, the NBN project promises to deliver super-fast broadband services, create jobs and promote the country's economy at large. This article will critically analyse the NBN project in Australia and highlight the challenges that are coming alone at this early stage of the deployment, so the Australia's experience of pubic investment in broadband networks can be shared and lessons can be learnt.     

Beyond public administration? HIV/AIDS policy networks and the transformation of public administration in Botswana

What impact has HIV/AIDS had on the structure of public administration and what further lessons do these changes hold for other policy sectors in Botswana? For long, Botswana has had the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS, bringing many developmental challenges. An under‐researched facet of HIV/AIDS is the effect it had on the public administration in Botswana. Whereas classical approaches to public administration suggest that it is ‘civil’ service organisations that lead in health administration, HIV/AIDS spawned a particular type of organisation, the policy network. In mitigating HIV/AIDS, the policy environment became more fragmented with networks for treatment, prevention, advocacy and research emerging. These networks are made up of entities from the public, private for‐profit and not for‐profit sectors. They participate in the agenda setting, formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS policy. Traditional public administration theories cease to hold sway; private actors become engaged in ‘public policy’ and the other way round. Policy is carried out in horizontal arrangements; linking government, business and non‐governmental organisations in mutual inter‐dependences. Health care professionals share policy spaces with the media, social scientists and politicians. New challenges face public policy‐making including co‐ordination problems, fragmented accountability and shared policy spaces. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.