Development-driven forced displacement and compensation-based resettlement: experiences from the Jamuna multi-purpose bridge project

In 1998 the Jamuna Multi-Purpose Bridge (JMB), the largest infrastructure development project in Bangladesh was completed. Huge numbers of households were affected by the project and many were displaced. Only a handful of displaced people were resettled by the project. The JMB was the first development project in Bangladesh that included resettlement activities as an integral part of the project and introduced a resettlement action plan. In principle, the Revised Resettlement Action Plan endorsed the primary principle of Operational Directives 4:30 of the World Bank. The resettlement project's core objective was to improve the living standards of project-affected persons above their previous level, or at least reinstate their pre-project standard. To meet the goals, various grants and supports were given as compensation. The project has earned international admiration as an example for other projects to follow. This study investigates the extent to which Jamuna Multi-Purpose Bridge's compensation-based resettlement succeeded in reconstructing displaced households, and identifies discrepancies between policy and practice. It concludes with major findings and comparative analysis on the compensation principle, and provides opinions based on information gathered from the field.     

Social Return on Investment Analysis of Government Purchases of Social Service Projects

Whether government purchases of public services is worth？It draws great attention from the public, but the objective method has not been found to respond to this issue. Concerning the value measurement in government purchases of social service projects, this paper examines the applicability of the existing evaluation methods, reconstructs evaluation models based on the Social Return of Investment (SROI) analysis model, and makes a preliminary study of one case. The study found that SROI not only can fully describe all the stakeholders’ input, output and outcome in the project, but can quantify the cost, effect and a return on investment, which checked whether services have created a default value of efficiency, quality, effect and fairness. However, SROI still faces restrictions on calculating cost and effect, collecting assessment data and effect pricing of stakeholders. Consequently, this paper suggests to establish evaluation criterion of project value, to build information platform of public service evaluation, and to develop relevant analysis tools, thus we can construct value measurement framework of government purchases of social service projects.     

双轨动员:项目制社区自治的实践逻辑及其影响——对上海市P街道社会服务项目化运作模式的考察

项目制社区自治旨在以组织、关系和激励结构的变革,形成基层社区自下而上和自上而下的双轨动员治理,化解科层体制与基层自治的张力,实现共生式发展。围绕项目制展开的社区自治通过自治金的嵌入、自治团队的协作和自治机制的设计等治理要求,诱发了基层社区治理体系的重构并产生了强大的溢出效应。项目制自下而上的“反向发包”特征,不仅释放了基层社区的活力,还促成基层社会治理重心下移,成为基层治理精准化、精细化服务的破题之钥,对基层治理具有持续性及不断增长的影响力。项目制的社区自治,将成为贯通基层社区与党、政府和社会的一种新双轨动员治理模式。     

Generating and using evidence to guide public policy and practice: Lessons from the Campbell Test-bed Project

This paper offers lessons from a three-year Test-bed project that tested systematic review practices developed by the Campbell Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaboration. Under the Test-bed project 14 systematic reviews were completed of interventions in crime prevention, social welfare, and education. (References to the products of these test-bed reviews are included in the reference list, preceded by an asterisk). Building on this experience, the authors recommend structuring future reviews around well-defined review topics more explicitly focused on particular interventions, and constraining literature search to evaluations of relevant interventions. Reviewers should analyze and report findings from RCTs separately from non-RCT studies and report on impact estimates in natural units, instead of relying solely on effect size metrics. Further, reviewers should report intent-to-treat estimates as the causally valid outcomes from RCTs. Analyses of impacts for treated sub-groups should be reported as non-experimental findings. More attention should be given to the minimum detectable effect a study can support, as well as any information on the possible costs and benefits of the intervention. Pooling results from studies of disparate interventions, populations, and contexts is not recommended. Meta-analysis should be reserved for homogeneous clusters of interventions studies. Forest plots are helpful for presenting study findings and confidence limits. However, simple bar charts preserve important information on the base levels for the outcomes. Finally reviewers should define a priori the minimum data set or required elements that allow study inclusion, and use this information systematically in making decisions about what evidence to admit into the review.     

政府行政成本畸高的成因及对策

政府作为社会公共权力的执掌者在为社会提供公共服务的过程中,发生一定的成本支出是必须的,但如果通过权利"缺位"与"越位"进行寻租,偏离为社会服务的轨道,异化为集追求公共利益和自身利益为一身的混合体,则必然导致平庸、无效率和腐败,从而产生严重的社会问题。因此,规范政府运作方式、决策行为,强化外在约束,改革预算管理制度、财经制度,建立严格的审批责任追究制度、违规惩戒制度成为当前行政改革的一项紧迫课题。     

建筑工程质量司法鉴定实践过程中若干问题探讨

建筑工程质量司法鉴定是司法鉴定行业的一个重要专业分支。由于该类司法鉴定相关法律法规尚不完善,整个行业还处于探索发展阶段,因此存在着诸多问题。根据司法鉴定行业相关规范,结合近年来司法鉴定从业经验,对目前建筑工程质量司法鉴定实践过程中存在的问题进行探讨并提出了一些建议。     

中国古代的罪疑惟轻

“罪疑惟轻”是中国古代疑罪处理的代表性观点。它主张当犯罪事实不能确定时，对嫌疑人从轻处罚。“罪疑惟轻”的观点是对司法实践中疑罪从轻的认可，与传统法律文化中的中庸思维、有罪必罚等观念有着密不可分的关系，对古代疑罪处理的模式和司法官员的疑罪处理观念产生了深远的影响。     

论国家科技计划项目合同的私法属性及制度构建

国家科技计划项目合同是国家科技管理部门与科研机构或科研人员之间,为实现国家科技计划、完成特定科研项目,确立双方权利义务关系而订立的合同。它是一种特殊的科研合同,属于私法契约范畴。目前我国国家科技计划项目合同制度存在着计划项目任务书与合同相混淆、合同性质不清、合同主体不清晰、权利义务不对等、具体合同条款内容设计不科学、责任性质不明确、纠纷救济机制和途径不清晰等缺陷和问题。在明确该合同为民事合同的前提下,有必要对其进行相应的制度重构。     

Education for Child Labour: Evaluating the National Child Labour Policy in West Bengal,India

Transitioning child labourers from work to education is a key component of global efforts to eliminate child labour. In India, the National Child Labour Project is the central programme aimed at achieving this goal. This paper examines the operation of the project in the state of West Bengal using original survey data collected in 2008. The survey reveals a number of promising findings, including high rates of provision of both midday meals and free learning materials to students, as well as evidence of adequate schooling quality and availability. However, areas of concern were also identified, including irregularities in stipend payments to parents of child labourers who send their children to school and inadequate provision of free health services to children who attend school rather than work. These operational short-comings revealed by the survey reduce the incentive and ability parents have to send their children to school rather than work and, accordingly, undermine the effectiveness of the project.     

Exploring construction project design as multimodal social semiotic practice

ABSTRACT

The semiotic nature of design and engineering communications has often evaded direct interrogation; specifically the representation of requirements using multiple semiotic modes. This paper explores the semiotic character of requirement representation in the construction project design and engineering process by mobilising a social semiotic analytic framework to reveal how project artefacts (e.g. drawings; digital imagery; physical objects) are multimodal resources that critically affect stakeholder engagement and interpretation. The focused empirical study from a hospital construction project reveals the motivations and effects of multimodal and semiotic communicative choices of different parties (e.g. client; architect; engineer; design consultant) engaged on the same project; the representation (or not) of requirements via various semiotic modes being a social and political process. The contribution of the paper is in revealing the semiotic character of requirement representation and the relevance of semiotic-informed enquiry for an industry continuing to develop new technologies (e.g. virtual reality; BIM – building information modelling) for design and construction work.