Exchanges

正Spanish PM Visits China Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy paid an offi cial visit to China from September 24to 27.During their meeting,Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China highly values its relations with Spain,and is ready to maintain high-level engagement on international and regional affairs.He urged the two sides to expand bilateral trade and investment,and promote balanced and sustained trade growth.He also promised to strengthen bilateral cooperation in a range of fields     

Organizational Learning Facilitators in the Canadian Public Sector

An implicit patriarchal bargain between Emirati fathers and daughters is examined from a social constructionist perspective. Using qualitative methodology we found that fathers explicitly encourage their daughters to pursue tertiary education and careers, but hedge this break from tradition with implicit understandings that daughters will observe norms that can only realistically be followed in public sector employment. The persistent public-private imbalance in female employment patterns can thus be construed, as a ‘wicked problem” that cannot be addressed through market incentive-based policies such as Emiratization but rather through behavioral changes on the part of both UAE businesses and Emirati families.     

Supporting Effective Citizenship in Local Government: Engaging,Educating and Empowering Local Citizens

Civic-republican theories suggest that an active citizenry is associated with community cohesion, better political institutions and inclusive democratic decision making. The influence of these arguments on the UK Labour government has led policy makers to focus attention on strategies to promote citizenship at a local level. In particular, English local authorities are expected to provide ‘support for citizenship’ as part of their wider duty to promote ‘effective community engagement’. The ways in which they can do this are various, ranging from the simple provision of information to direct support for community networks and groups. This article reports the findings of an extensive study of English councils' efforts to engage, educate and empower local citizens. The paper concludes that although local authorities have made significant progress in recent years in widening the structures for communicating with, and engaging citizens, there remains considerable scope for improving activities that address the learning implications of effective citizenship.     

One size does not fit all: an analysis of the corruption preventative approach of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the global citizens’ engagement movement against corruption does not always succeed in developing countries, such as Bangladesh. Drawing on the case of the preventative strategies of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Bangladesh, this paper shows that government-driven citizens’ engagement processes through community-based organisations (CBOs) are a ceremonial adaptation in response to isomorphic pressure from the donors. The outcomes from isomorphic pressure suggest that such donor-funded actions produce ‘isomorphic mimicry’ of successful corruption prevention programmes from other countries that do not succeed in the recipient country. A micro-level analysis based on interviews with stakeholders in Bangladesh demonstrates why isomorphic mimicry has failed to produce a robust anti-corruption prevention approach in Bangladesh.     

Being Strategic in Partnership – Interpreting Local Knowledge of Modern Local Government

Broad and international literature exists on networked governance which has both described and informed recent transformations in local government. Reforms in the UK have led to the development of strategic partnerships to join up services and solve wicked issues. In Scotland, these are referred to as Community Planning Partnerships. Evidence from numerous studies has highlighted the partial nature of this transformation, particularly around community engagement, with some of the pioneers of this work now questioning earlier assumptions. This article presents an interpretive policy analysis of strategic partnership in Scotland to add three themes to this literature. First, to demonstrate the historical contingency of ‘joined-up government’; second, to explore the practices and meanings used by policy actors to understand ‘strategic’ and ‘partnerships’. Finally, the article problematises strategic partnership working, suggesting that in and of itself it creates effective barriers to community empowerment and even engagement.     

The Role of Competition in Best Value: How Far Does it Differ from CCT?

This article investigates the role of ‘competition’ within Best Value (BV) and compares it with that of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). Utilising results of a survey of BV lead officers, the article reveals that ‘competition’ is not being used as widely as may have been expected. However, in terms of outcomes, services subject to BV seem to be at least as likely to be provided externally as would have been the case under CCT. Further analysis also considers the impact that party political control and service type have on the use and outcomes of competition.     

CREATING “REAL LEARNING” FOR CHINA’S SURVIVAL: LIANG QICHAO AND THE MA BROTHERS, 1896–1898

Abstract

Liang Qichao used the Taoist term zhenzhi to express his admiration for the Ma brothers who he felt personified his ideal of seamlessly blending together Chinese and Western knowledge. This article considers Liang’s interaction with the Ma brothers as the vantage point from which to trace the formation and development of his concept of “real learning” and to show the Ma brothers’ influence on his understanding of the West and Western learning prior to the 1898 Reform. It further analyzes Liang’s thought by examining the rationale and logic behind his great appreciation for The Ma Grammar and his dialogue with Ma Jianzhong on how to train qualified translators. The final section employs the reflections of Liang Qichao and Ma Xiangbo in the aftermath of the 1898 Reform to examine the differences as well as their shared views on the synthesis of Chinese and Western learning, and the relationship between language and scholarship.     

Chinese Strategy for De-radicalization

ABSTRACT

China is fighting a tough battle against separatist terrorism perpetrated by militant Muslim Uyghurs in the far-western region of Xinjiang. De-radicalization is one of the policies the authorities in Xinjiang have recently taken to address the upsurge in terrorist violence. This paper consists of five parts. The first part deals with the background against which the de-radicalization strategy was conceived and developed. The second part discusses several major approaches to the strategy such as “five keys,” “four prongs,” “three contingents,” “two hands,” and “one rule.” The third part presents custodial, post-imprisonment, and social programs for targeting three groups of people: imprisoned radicals, released radicals, as well as those who are radicalized but not prosecuted. The fourth part describes programs for engaging communities in order to win over politically reliable people from civil society for support in de-radicalization. The last part draws a conclusion regarding the characteristics of, effectiveness of, controversies over, and future of the Chinese de-radicalization campaign.     

Explaining institutional Europeanisation in security and defence: the German administration under Schröder and Merkel

Abstract

Participating in EU crisis management operations has affected institutional actors on various levels. As the main deliverers of civilian and military resources to EU operations, national ministries and agencies have been particularly confronted with the need for administrative adaptation. A big member state like Germany is expected to make substantial contributions, but it also faces a rigid administration. This article uses a combined hypothesis of historical institutionalism and organisational learning to explain administrative Europeanisation in German government institutions involved in civilian and military crisis management deployments. The empirical data on the German administrative trajectories under Schröder and Merkel show an explanatory link between political learning and overcoming institutional path dependency.     

Suggestibility and children with mild learning disabilities: The use of the cognitive interview

Abstract

The aims of this paper were firstly to identify any differences in the level of suggestibility between 20 7–9-year-old children with mild learning disabilities and 20 children with average academic ability using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS2) and, secondly, to note the impact of the cognitive interview on the response patterns of children with mild learning disabilities.

On the GSS2, average academic ability children recalled significantly more correct details than children with mild learning disabilities. There was no significant difference between the two groups of children on distortions, fabrications, total confabulations or on any of the four measures of suggestibility.

In the second part of the study, 38 children with mild learning disabilities watched a filmed event and then were interviewed using either a standard or a modified version of the cognitive interview. Following this, all participants were asked specific questions, some of which incorporated misleading information. One week later each participant was re-questioned. This time critical questions were included about the truth of the presuppositions introduced in the initial interview session. It was found that the cognitive interview elicited significantly more correct and incorrect details than a standard interview with no significant difference in fabrications. Use of the cognitive interview did not significantly affect susceptibility to subsequent misleading suggestions.