Participatory Development and Reconstruction: a literature review

In the past decade researchers and development experts have been preoccupied by participatory development and reconstruction. Despite criticisms of its potential, it has been at the centre of development practices. This review of both published and unpublished literature aims to assess the importance of participatory development and reconstruction, especially its positive and negative characteristics. The paper shows that, despite its potentially transformative role, its main drawback rests in the power relations between elites and non-elites and that creating comprehensible ways through which non-elites can deal with these relations is one issue that needs additional research. Other issues that need more research are related to how to sustain the participatory development and reconstruction outcomes by increasing local ownership, and how to better involve existing structures and institutions (both state and non-state actors) in development and reconstruction efforts for poverty alleviation.     

加快中心镇、重点镇建设要做好“六篇文章”——以临安市中心镇、重点镇建设为例

临安市加快中心镇、重点镇建设要实施集群化发展、梯次发展、特色发展战略,做好＂六篇文章＂：一是注重联动推进,在建立考核机制上做文章;二是注重整体布局,在强化规划引导上做文章;三是注重功能提升,在强化项目带动上做文章;四是注重集群集聚,在发展特色产业上做文章;五是注重要素保障,在增强发展动力上做文章;六是注重改革创新,在激发发展活力上做文章。     

推行土地整合实践研究——以广西崇左市为例

广西崇左市属于典型的喀斯特地貌,山多地少。为破解田地块小、田埂多、零星分散难题,崇左市近年大力推行土地整合工作,探索出了“上龙模式”、合作社模式、企业承包模式、民政企联袂模式等成功经验,取得了减少用工量和生产成本,推动机械化、规模化和专业化,增加面积产量和收益,促进农业农村科学发展等显著成效,但也存在思想观念滞后、整合成本攀升等困难和问题。要加快推进土地整合工作,必须切实解决好思想观念、整体推进、农民利益、资金缺口以及持续推进等问题。     

Globalisation before the crash: the City of London and UK economic strategy

The global financial crisis provides an opportune moment to analyse the rise of the City of London financial markets, their role in the globalisation process and an attempt by the Labour Party Left in the 1970s to challenge emerging transnational forces. The USA became the world's ‘hegemon’ after the Second World War, but London retained its power in finance; well placed to challenge the post-war Keynesian regulatory consensus in favour of globalising interests, theoretically and politically served by the rise of neo-liberal ideology. In response the Labour Party Left devised its radical ‘Programme 1973’ and subsequently the Alternative Economic Strategy, which in seeking to defend social democracy, understood the necessity to prevent the erosion of national financial controls. The 1976 International Monetary Fund crisis was a defining moment in this battle. This article includes interviews with key contemporary actors and is based in the discipline of International Political Economy.     

The dynamics of household structure in the event of the father's death

This article looks at the survival strategies used in traditional societies by households that were greatly disrupted by the death of the father, usually their principal provider. Research is based on data from two parish censuses (1716 and 1744) of the city of Québec that describe the composition of urban households. Data from the Registre de la Population du Québec Ancien (RPQA), the register of the Québec population before 1800, were also used to complement the information required. Depending on the survival of a mother after the father's death, it appears that households could maintain their nuclear structure, except for those who were dispersed among other households.     

Is Biggest Best? A Comparative Analysis of the Financial Viability of the Brisbane City Council

Structural reform through forced mergers has been a dominant feature of Australian local government for decades. Advocates of compulsory consolidation contend that larger municipalities perform better across a wide range of attributes, including financial sustainability. Although empirical scholars of local government have invested considerable effort into investigating these claims, no one has yet examined the performance of Brisbane City Council against other local authorities, despite the fact that it is by far the largest council in Australia. This paper seeks to remedy this neglect by comparing Brisbane with Sydney City Council, an average of six southeast Queensland councils and an average of 10 metropolitan New South Wales councils against four measures of financial performance over the period 2008–2011.     

府际管理视角下的长株潭城市群公共危机管理合作模式研究

长株潭(长沙、株州、湘潭)城市群在公共危机管理中的合作受到长株潭城市群观念困境、体制困境、制度困境等诸多因素制约。本文运用府际管理的基本理论,结合我国政治行政体制的特点和公共危机管理合作的原则,提出从公共危机管理合作机构系统、法律与政策合作系统、善后合作系统三方面来构建长株潭城市群公共危机管理合作模式的建议,以期促使长株潭城市群走出观念、体制和制度困境,实现更好更快的发展。     

Studying New York City’s Crime Decline: Methodological Issues

Methodological issues that must be considered in doing research on the New York City crime drop include the choice of a spatial unit of analysis, the choice of a mathematical representation of the processes responsible for the drop, and the choice of estimators. This paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of a time series analysis of data for New York alone, a panel analysis for the city’s precincts, and a panel analysis for a sample of cities, for studying the drop. The possibilities and limitations of precinct-level data are illustrated with annual precinct data for New York between 1988 and 2001. The paper considers static and dynamic fixed effects panel models estimated in various ways, including difference and systems generalized method of moments. These analyses find no evidence that misdemeanor arrests reduced levels of homicide, robbery, or aggravated assaults. Felony arrests reduced robberies, but only to a modest degree. Most of the decline in these three felonies had other causes.     

Could Innovations in Policing have Contributed to the New York City Crime Drop even in a Period of Declining Police Strength?: The Case of Stop,Question and Frisk as a Hot Spots Policing Strategy

Available data make it impossible to reach strong conclusions about the role of policing in the New York crime decline. Instead, we examine whether innovations implemented in New York fit with what is known about effective policing strategies. Our main analysis focuses on how the New York City Police Department (NYPD) could have continued to contribute to the crime drop over the last decade when the number of police declined significantly. We examine geographic data on crime and stop, question and frisks (SQFs) to show that SQFs are concentrated at crime hot spots. We also show that the NYPD increased these specific hot spots policing strategies despite declining numbers. In our discussion, we speculate on whether this “doing more with less” could be an explanation for the continued crime drop in New York, noting the limitations of drawing conclusions from existing data. We also raise concerns about possible backfire effects of SQF hot spots approaches.     

贵阳工业强市发展战略研究

“十二五”时期,贵阳市实施工业强市战略,对加快经济结构调整、转变经济发展方式、推进城镇化进程和保障民生等都具有重大意义,也是贵阳市建设生态文明市的现实选择。课题组通过实地调研,对贵阳市工业发展的现状进行了实证分析,并对贵阳市工业发展面临的问题和挑战、优势和机遇进行了分析。进而提出,贵阳工业强市战略要按照“走科学发展路、建生态文明市”的路径,坚持“加速发展、加快转型、推动跨越”主基调,加快工业发展方式转变,增强招商引资力度,重点发展和壮大特色优势产业、培育和发展战略性新兴产业、强化产业向工业园区集聚。