How to share and utilise expertise in a police forensic department through externalisation and mutualisation

The technique of fire investigation is a forensic domain in which expertise and analogies play a central role. To learn how fire investigators use these analogies to support their work, we conducted an ethnographic study in a Swiss forensic police department. To propose a suitable knowledge-management strategy, we also evaluated the knowledge conservation and sharing within the department. Our results highlighted that actionable knowledge is registered mainly in the investigators’ memories of a few, very experienced, individuals. Without experience with fire-incident investigations, an agent generally requires help from a more experienced colleague, who will then use his memory to find a similar case, which can contribute to the solution of the ongoing one. The research also established that knowledge is exchanged orally during on-site investigations and that knowledge receivers are generally those who are present on the scene. Using these findings, we suggest building a case library to support the externalisation and sharing of knowledge.     

我国近代以前是否存在过判例法传统

近年来,有关司法改革的讨论非常热烈,学者和法律实务部门人士呼吁借此机会建立我国的判例法制度。虽然,当前学理上有关判例法的研究日渐深入,但是有关学术方面的探讨却存在很多问题。从历史和文化的意义上来说,我国近代以前不存在判例法传统。     

Public Services after Austerity: Zombies,Suez or Collaboration?

Public services—in the UK and elsewhere—are under considerable pressure, not just from austerity, but also from a variety of social, demographic and technological changes (in effect ‘austerity plus’). In this context, three broad options are open to policy‐makers: continue with tried‐and‐tested approaches while spending less money, which in the UK means a reliance on ‘New Public Management’ (NPM); withdraw completely from certain public services; or develop new approaches to public administration. We argue that all of these approaches have been attempted in recent years, but it is the final option that is most interesting and potentially the most beneficial. In this article, we examine experiments with these new approaches in responding to ‘austerity plus’. In particular, we examine various attempts at ‘collaboration’ in public services and discuss the risks associated with them. We conclude by setting out the extent to which policy‐makers have moved beyond NPM and suggesting some of the benefits that this could bring.     

冲突管理的东盟方式

如何有效预防和解决国家间冲突,维护地区及全球的和平与稳定,这一直是战后国际社会和区域主义实施冲突管理的基点与诉求。东盟根据联合国宪章、万隆会议精神和其他国际法基本准则,结合东南亚国家的冲突管理实践,制定和实施了一套被誉为能够体现东盟方式基本特性的冲突管理模式。本文主要考察了国际冲突管理的理论分析框架,东盟冲突管理的基本原则、冲突类型及其管理方法以及后冷战时代东盟冲突管理所面临的挑战。     

Productivity,craftwork and flexibility: the Mobil agreements

ABSTRACT

Using original documents, this paper describes and analyses the case study of one of the productivity bargaining agreements from a leading exponent of productivity bargaining, Mobil’s Coryton Refinery. As well as being important in the UK oil industry these agreements spread throughout the economy. They resulted in major concessions by the unions to relax inter-craft and craft-production trade boundaries and to changes in work methods. These are illustrated in detail and placed in context. Such changes were heralded as ‘new look industrial relations’ and as such were based on a conception of joint regulation. However, other interpretations are possible, and these are then explored and discussed.     

New Public Management and Administrative Reforms in Nigeria

This study examines the Nigerian attempts to implement the New Public Management (NPM) reform. The paper aims at identifying the strand, the extent of progress made and the reason(s) for success/failure recorded. The author finds that the poor success story of the reform is as a result of the preference of the more attractive cost-saving neoliberal economic aspect to the more involving and demanding bureaucratic aspect, the inconsistencies in program implementation, and lack of strong political will common to adopting reform in developing countries. The article recommends that reforms require dealing with the critical challenges of institutionalization, inconsistency and legitimization.     

Public Administration Reform and Its Implications for Foreign Petroleum Companies in Kazakhstan

Since 2000, Kazakhstan has followed the New Public Management reform trajectory in modernizing its public sector and public service delivery. This article employs an actor-centered perspective to examine the effects of the public administration reform and its implications for foreign petroleum companies in Kazakhstan. The study builds on primary sources in the form of 81 semi-structured interviews with public servants, representatives of foreign petroleum companies and experts. The main conclusion is that the reform effects are ambiguous. Despite some success in greater efficiency of public services, many weaknesses remain, with highly varying implications for foreign petroleum companies.     

Urban Regeneration Policy from the Integrated Urban Development Model in the European Union: an Analytical Approach Based on the Study of Spanish Cities

For several years, local governments have been tackling new challenges related to the regeneration of their cities within the physical sphere, as well as in their economic and social aspects. This task is developed in accordance with what has been called the Integrated Urban Development Model, understanding the integrated nature of this approach not only in terms of the spheres of public policy involved, but also in relation to their management. In this paper, this management is analysed in terms of the development of mechanisms for New Local Governance and New Public Management (NPM). Using Spanish municipalities as a case study, this paper develops an analytical tool for the analysis of this model of urban intervention within the European context, paying close attention to the development of mechanisms for New Local Governance from a multilevel perspective, as well as the development of mechanisms for NPM.     

Senkt New Public Management die Verwaltungsausgaben in den Schweizer Kantonen? Eine empirische Analyse über zwei Dekaden

In light of the growing public spending in many regions of the world, this study scrutinizes relevant determinants of core public administration expenditure at the cantonal level in Switzerland, focusing particularly on New Public Management (NPM) reforms. The empirical study comprises all 26 cantons in the period from 1993 through 2014 and uses both cross‐sectional and longitudinal analytical methods. In addition to NPM, we control for various variables related to political parties, institutions, socioeconomics and culture. The results show no clear relationship between NPM reforms and expenditure, although such reforms were often intended to cut costs. Our explanation for this finding is that NPM as a concept is rather inconsistent. Various control variables are either positively or negatively related with expenditure. All in all, our findings suggest that public expenditure is still mostly determined by politics and can only be influenced by administrative reforms within certain narrow limits.     

公共政策网络管理：机制、模式与绩效测度

政策网络管理应重点研究七个基本问题和应注意十个重大问题,政策网络管理存在工具、互动和制度三种观点和个人权威控制、专制控制、结果控制、文化或集团控制、声誉控制五种控制机制,具体管理模式可以从行动者、认知和制度三个维度和政策管理、过程管理和网络宪政三个层面进行架构,并可根据不同的网络环境选择不同的网络管理行为.网络行动者的数量、管理能力与技巧、网络的开放性、利益冲突、网络管理成本是影响政策网络管理有效性的重要因素,网络管理的绩效也可根据不同的网络结构选择不同的评价指标进行定量到定性的评价.