			Home About us Contact

Local Level (local + level)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	42%
Medical Sciences	18%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	15%
Life Sciences	10%
Earth and Environmental Science	4%
Engineering	3%
4 Other Domains	8%

Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

General & Introductory Geography	19%
General & Introductory Development Studies	16%
General & Introductory Political Science	7%
15 Other Subdomains	39%

Selected Abstracts

SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATORY ARRANGEMENTS: WHY IS THERE A PARTICIPATORY MOVEMENT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL?

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2010
LAURENCE BHERER
ABSTRACT:,The objective of this article is to explore some of the reasons for the growing number of participatory arrangements at the local level. An approach in terms of governance allows us to examine the underlying patterns of logic that induce public authorities to develop new policy tools such as participatory arrangements. Our study focuses on a medium-sized French city, Bordeaux, where eight types of relatively weak participatory arrangements have been implemented since 1995. The article shows that the French government and European Union have fostered this type of arrangement through a complex series of public programs and policies with the aim of rebuilding their political legitimacy by encouraging participation at the municipal level. This approach is relevant to understanding the origin of the reforms affecting local governments over the past decade. [source]

Public Health Emergency Preparedness at the Local Level: Results of a National Survey

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5p2 2009
Elena Savoia
Objective. To study the relationship between elements of public health infrastructure and local public health emergency preparedness (PHEP). Data Sources/Study Setting. National Association of County and City Health Officials 2005 National Profile of Local Health Departments (LHDs). Study Design. Cross-sectional. Principal Findings. LHDs serving larger populations are more likely to have staff, capacities, and activities in place for an emergency. Adjusting for population size, the presence of a local board of health and the LHDs' experience in organizing PHEP coalitions were associated with better outcomes. Conclusions. The results of this study suggest that more research should be conducted to investigate the benefit of merging small health departments into coalitions to overcome the inverse relationship between preparedness and population size of the jurisdiction served by the LHD. [source]

Building and Contesting Neoliberalism at the Local Level: Reflections on the Symposium and on Recent Experience in Bolivia

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2010
MIKE GEDDES
Abstract This final article first reflects on the previous articles in the symposium, positioning the diverse trajectories of local governance which they exhibit in relation to two contrasting ideal types , the one neoliberal, the other contesting neoliberalism from a progressive, left perspective. Differences between these ideal types, and among the actually existing patterns of local governance discussed in the symposium (in relation to their economic and social objectives and governance institutions and practices) are highlighted. The second part of the article offers a consideration of local governance in Bolivia, a country which encapsulates some of the key issues at stake in the ongoing struggles to either build, or contest, neoliberalism at the local level. Here a distinction is advanced between ,expansive' and ,consolidatory' moments of neoliberal local governance, which may take the form of consecutive phases, but may have different, overlapping temporalities. In conclusion, it is suggested the challenges which the impact of the financial crisis and global recession pose both to neoliberal forms of local governance and to contestatory forces should be a primary concern for future research. Résumé Ce dernier article revient d'abord sur les articles précédents du symposium, pour replacer les diverses voies de gouvernance locale présentées par rapport à deux idéaltypes mis en opposition: l'un néolibéral, l'autre contestant le néolibéralisme d'un point de vue progressiste de gauche. Il met en évidence les différences entre ces idéaltypes, et entre les modèles actuels de gouvernance locale débattus dans le symposium (en lien avec leurs objectifs économiques et sociaux et avec les institutions et pratiques de gouvernance). La seconde partie s'intéresse à la gouvernance locale en Bolivie, un pays qui incarne certains des principaux enjeux dans les luttes en cours visant à bâtir ou à contester un néolibéralisme au niveau local. Une distinction est proposée entre les moments d',expansion' et de ,consolidation' de la gouvernance locale néolibérale, lesquels peuvent se présenter de manière consécutive, mais aussi sur des plages temporelles différentes en chevauchement. Pour conclure, les défis que les conséquences de la crise financière et la récession mondiale posent aux formes néolibérales de gouvernance locale ainsi qu'aux forces contestataires devraient constituer une priorité dans les recherches à venir. [source]

Under Construction: Making Homeland Security at the Local Level by Kerry Fosher

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2009
ROBERTO J. GONZALEZ
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Role of mechanical factors in governing muscle blood flow

ACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 4 2010
D. D. Sheriff
Overview This study evaluates how mechanical factors impact cardiac output at the systemic level, and how mechanical factors influence muscle blood flow at the local level. Importantly, the two are intertwined; events that work locally in the periphery to augment muscle blood flow can also act centrally to contribute to the development of a high cardiac output. [source]

HARMONIZING REGULATIONS FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE US AND VENEZUELAN SYSTEMS

DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 3 2008
DANNIE DI TILLIO-GONZALEZ
ABSTRACT This article aims to compare the national legal systems that regulate biomedical research in an industrialized country (United States) and a developing country (Venezuela). A new international order is emerging in which Europe, Japan and the United States (US) are revising common guidelines and harmonizing standards. In this article, we analyze , as an example , the US system. This system is controlled by a federal agency structured to regulate research funded by the federal government uniformly, either in the US or abroad. In contrast, in Venezuela, a developing country, the creation of a centralized system is a slow process. Different types of ethical committees review research projects using non-uniform criteria. Consequently, various parallel organizations that conduct biomedical research, such as universities, research institutes and private hospitals have diverse regulations operating at a local level. Thus, the most relevant difference between the Venezuelan and the US systems is the degree of standardization. In the US, the review process is performed by institutional review boards (IRBs), which have a similar organization and maintain relationships with a centralized agency, following standard regulations. Although new proposals for establishing national regulations are currently being considered in Venezuela, the success of these initiatives will depend on promoting governmental efforts to create a more structured centralized system supported by a national regulatory framework. This system will need governmental financial support at all levels. This article proposes an integrated system to regulate research with human participants in Venezuela and other developing countries. [source]

Unintended Consequences of Land Rights Reform: The Case of the 1998 Uganda Land Act

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2004
Diana Hunt
Empirical studies of land rights privatisation have tended to underemphasise the unintended impacts of land rights reform relative to establishing whether the predicted impacts have occurred. This article, in reviewing some of the unintended consequences of the 1998 Uganda Land Act, draws attention to ways in which intended impacts may be undercut by lack of both consultation and foresight in anticipating responses to new legal provisions and by lack of adequate resourcing of the reform process. It also recognises that unintended outcomes may sometimes reflect appropriate adaptations of legal provisions at the local level, and briefly considers what light the Ugandan experience can throw on recent proposals for Normalisation of informal property rights in the Third World. [source]

Uncovering Local Perspectives on Humanitarian Assistance and Its Outcomes

DISASTERS, Issue 2 2000
Oliver Bakewell
This paper draws on a study of Angolan refugees in Zambia to suggest ways that the perspectives and interests of the local population can be included in the assessment of relief interventions. Taking an actor-oriented approach, the paper suggests stepping back from the categorisation of the situation as an emergency and particular groups of people as the beneficiaries. Such categories are imposed from outside and may not reflect local people's outlook on the situation. In the case of Angolans in Zambia, the category of refugees had dissolved in the border villages to the extent that it was practically impossible to distinguish between refugees and hosts. This was in contrast to the official settlements where people were marked out as refugees and the label was maintained and reproduced over many years. Investigating outcomes in the border villagers in terms of refugees and the refugee problem would have been futile. The paper calls for evaluations of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies to look beyond the ,beneficiaries' and to investigate the wider context of ,normality'. Neglecting the life and world of local people will make it impossible to understand the process by which external interventions are mediated at the local level to give particular outcomes, and valuable lessons which could help alleviate suffering will be lost. [source]

SCALES: a large-scale assessment model of soil erosion hazard in Basse-Normandie (northern-western France)

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 8 2010
P. Le Gouée
Abstract The cartography of erosion risk is mainly based on the development of models, which evaluate in a qualitative and quantitative manner the physical reproduction of the erosion processes (CORINE, EHU, INRA). These models are mainly semi-quantitative but can be physically based and spatially distributed (the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment, PESERA). They are characterized by their simplicity and their applicability potential at large temporal and spatial scales. In developing our model SCALES (Spatialisation d'éChelle fine de l'ALéa Erosion des Sols/large-scale assessment and mapping model of soil erosion hazard), we had in mind several objectives: (1) to map soil erosion at a regional scale with the guarantee of a large accuracy on the local level, (2) to envisage an applicability of the model in European oceanic areas, (3) to focus the erosion hazard estimation on the level of source areas (on-site erosion), which are the agricultural parcels, (4) to take into account the weight of the temporality of agricultural practices (land-use concept). Because of these objectives, the nature of variables, which characterize the erosion factors and because of its structure, SCALES differs from other models. Tested in Basse-Normandie (Calvados 5500,km2) SCALES reveals a strong predisposition of the study area to the soil erosion which should require to be expressed in a wet year. Apart from an internal validation, we tried an intermediate one by comparing our results with those from INRA and PESERA. It appeared that these models under estimate medium erosion levels and differ in the spatial localization of areas with the highest erosion risks. SCALES underlines here the limitations in the use of pedo-transfer functions and the interpolation of input data with a low resolution. One must not forget however that these models are mainly focused on an interregional comparative approach. Therefore the comparison of SCALES data with those of the INRA and PESERA models cannot result on a convincing validation of our model. For the moment the validation is based on the opinion of local experts, who agree with the qualitative indications delivered by our cartography. An external validation of SCALES is foreseen, which will be based on a thorough inventory of erosion signals in areas with different hazard levels. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Pseudo-dynamic seismic response of reinforced concrete frames infilled with non-structural brick masonry

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 10 2005
F. Colangelo
Abstract This paper presents pseudo-dynamic test results on the in-plane seismic behaviour of infilled frames. Thirteen single-storey, single-bay, half-size-scale, reinforced concrete-frame specimens, most of which infilled with non-structural masonry made of perforated bricks and cement mortar are tested. The infills are in contact with frames, without any connector; openings are not covered. The frames are different in their strength and details, reinforcement grade, and aspect ratio. Seismic input is the 1976 Tolmezzo (Friuli, Italy) ground acceleration, to which specimens are subjected two times: virgin and damaged by the previous test. The global seismic response of initially virgin infilled specimens considerably differs from that of bare specimens. This follows a dramatic change of properties: compared to a bare frame, the initial stiffness increases by one order of magnitude, and the peak strength more than doubles. The peak drift lessens; however, the displacement ductility demand does not. The energy demand is greater. Nevertheless, the influence of infill decreases as damage proceeds. Displacement time histories of damaged specimens are quite similar. At the local level, infill causes asymmetry and concentration of the frame deformation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Does habitat use explain large scale species richness patterns of aquatic beetles in Europe?

ECOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2003
Ignacio Ribera
Regularities in species richness are widely observed but controversy continues over its mechanistic explanation. Because richness patterns are usually a compound measure derived from taxonomically diverse species with different ecological requirements, these analyses may confound diverse causes of species numbers. Here we investigate species richness in the aquatic beetle fauna of Europe, separating major taxonomic groups and two major ecological types, species occurring in standing and running water bodies. We collated species distributions for 800+ species of water beetles in 15 regions across western Europe. Species number in any of these regions was related to three variables: total area size, geographic connectedness of the area, and latitude. Pooled species numbers were accurately predicted, but correlations were different for species associated with either running or standing water. The former were mostly correlated with latitude, while the latter were only correlated with the measure of connectedness or with area size. These differences were generally also observed in each of the four phylogenetically independent lineages of aquatic Coleoptera when analysed separately. We propose that effects of habitat, in this case possibly mediated by different long term persistence of running and standing water bodies, impose constraints at the population or local level which, if effective over larger temporal and spatial scales, determine global patterns of species richness. [source]

Local Housing Markets and Segregation in England

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 1 2005
Article first published online: 2 FEB 200
In this article, Geoff Meen discusses patterns of economic segregation in England. Despite the emphasis that the government places on reducing segregation, patterns have, in fact, remained remarkably constant over, at least, the last twenty years. Dynamic changes in housing markets and migration over time help to explain these patterns, and evidence is presented on the extent to which house prices in certain local authorities have been under- or over-valued. The analysis also shows that, at the local level, housing markets exhibit non-linear behaviour, which hinders the effectiveness of housing policy in the most deprived areas and adds to economic segregation. [source]

The political economy of direct legislation: direct democracy and local decision,making

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 33 2001
Lars P Feld
Local and regional governments account for an important share of total government spending and, given the decentralization trend in OECD nations, this is likely to increase. How should this spending be governed? This article argues that direct democracy is best suited to organize decision,making at the state and local level. To support this, we present the main theoretical arguments on why and how referenda and initiatives affect fiscal policy outcomes. The basic argument concerns voter control. Under representative democracy, citizens only have direct control at election time. With referenda and initiatives, citizens can selectively control their representatives on specific policies whenever they deviate sufficiently from citizens' preferences. As a result, fiscal policy outcomes are likely to more closely reflect voter preferences. We empirically test this on Swiss data since Switzerland provides a ,natural laboratory' for local governance. The governance structures of Swiss cantons and localities with respect to fiscal issues range from classic parliamentary democracy to pure direct democracy, and an important part of spending and taxation is controlled at these levels. Specifically, we estimate an econometric model of fiscal behaviour using data from 1986 to 1997 for the 26 Swiss cantons, and 1990 data on 134 local communities. It is shown that mandatory referenda on fiscal issues at both levels have a dampening effect on expenditure and revenue, and at the local level also on public debt. Combining this with existing empirical evidence leads to a relatively uncontested result, namely that elements of direct democracy are associated with sounder public finances, better economic performance and higher satisfaction of citizens. [source]

Comparative population genetic structures of the fruit fly Urophora cardui and its primary parasitoid Eurytoma robusta

ENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA, Issue 3 2003
Jes Johannesen
Abstract The interaction between two species may depend on geographic scale and this in turn can affect co-evolution among them. The present study comparatively examines population genetic structures of the tephritid gall fly Urophora cardui and its primary ectoparasitoid Eurytoma robusta for inference of relative dispersal patterns and host-parasitoid specificity. Genetic differentiation patterns indicated two levels of hierarchical structure in both species: locally similar distance-dependencies but globally differences. Locally, both species showed isolation by distance and a high correlation between host and parasitoid FST for the same population-pairs was found. At the local level, E. robusta populations were most structured. These findings suggest that locally E. robusta is tracking behind its host, U. cardui, and that colonisation of new patches by both species underlie a stepping-stone dispersal process. The investigation as a whole showed that U. cardui populations were hierarchically structured across a genetic-geographical cline. There was no sign of a comparable cline in E. robusta where populations globally became independent of one another and of the host. The different degree of hierarchical genetic structure of the two species suggests that dispersal processes or interactions differ relative to geographical scale and population history. [source]

Profile of the climate change in the Kingdom of Bahrain

ENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 8 2003
W. E. Alnaser
Abstract Long-term meteorological data from the Kingdom of Bahrain (1902 to 2001), along with other data from the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were used to study the profile and the characteristics of the climate changes in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This article illustrates the possible effects of several factors, such as greenhouse gases (GHG), sunspot number, cosmic ray flux, planet conjunctions, the Earth's magnetic field, as well as volcanic eruption, on the profile of the climate change. In general, we found that the temperature variations, to a certain extent, are associated with the cyclic variations in sunspot number (the 11-year cycle), which in turn affect the pattern of the cosmic ray flux due to the distortion of the interplanetary magnetic field. The latter is believed to influence cloud formation. In addition, the discrepancy in the climate change pattern in Bahrain was also attributed to the combined effect of the high local level of CO2 emissions as well as that of other cooling gases in the region. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Tax Sensitivity in Electronic Commerce,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2007
Mark A. Scanlan
Empirical research into the impact of taxation on e-commerce has concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between local sales tax rates and the likelihood that a person will shop online. This paper finds that the tax sensitivity for online purchases at the local level is much lower than previously estimated and is not significant under previous general models. However, by using a splined tax-rate function, this paper finds that consumers living in counties with high sales tax rates are still sensitive to tax rates when deciding whether to shop online, while those in counties with low tax rates exhibit no significant sensitivity. [source]

Growth and mortality of the catfish, Hemisynodontis membranaceus (Geoffroy St. Hilaire), in the northern arm of Lake Volta, Ghana

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2001
P. K. Ofori-Danson
Estimates of growth and mortality of the catfish, Hemisynodontis membranaceus (Geoffroy St. Hilaire), in Lake Volta were obtained from length composition data compiled in 1995 and 1996. The von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) estimates were: L,=44.5 cm standard length; K=0.62 year,1; and t0=,0.23 years. Natural mortality rate, M, was 1.20 year,1. Total mortality rate, Z, was computed as 4.39 year,1 and the exploitation ratio (E=F/Z) was 0.72. Although the fish is estimated to have longevity of about 5 years, those exploited are normally less than 2 years of age, which is indicative of growth over-fishing. In order to arrest over-exploitation of the species, there is a need to establish ,lake reserves'. In addition, the fisheries management should be devolved from the state to the local level to compel fishermen to take greater responsibility for the sustainability and conservation of the fisheries. [source]

,Land Moves and Behaves': Indigenous Discourse on Sustainable Land Management in Pichataro, Patzcuaro Basin, Mexico

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES A: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3-4 2003
Narciso Barrera-Bassols
ABSTRACT An ethnoecological study was carried out in the Purhepecha community of San Francisco Pichataro, west central Mexico, with the purpose of investigating how land degradation, in terms of soil erosion and fertility depletion, was (and still is) handled by indigenous farmers so that traditional agriculture could remain sustainable over centuries. After briefly reviewing opposite views on the land degradation issue in the regional context of the Patzcuaro lake basin, the paper focuses on land management at local level. The indigenous concept of land is discussed as an integrated whole, including water cycle, climate, relief and soils. Indigenous people venerate land as the mother of all living beings, including humans. Therefore, people's health and survival require good land care and management. Local knowledge on land management is organized around four basic principles: land position, land behaviour, land resilience and land quality. Fanners recognize land as a dynamic subject, a concept reflected in the expression ,land moves and behaves'. Soil erosion and fertility depletion are perceived as ,normal' processes the farmers control by means of integrated management practices. Farmers recognize several land classes, primarily controlled by landscape position, which require different land care. The example of San Francisco Pichataro demonstrates that traditional agriculture does not necessarily lead to land degradation. But the collective knowledge, or social theory, on land management is increasingly exposed to be fragmented as the community undergoes structural changes and loses its social cohesion under the pressure of externalities such as off-farm activities, out-migrations and governmental intervention, among others. [source]

Clubs, Spades, Diamonds and Disadvantage: the Geography of Electronic Gaming Machines in Melbourne

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001
D.C. Marshall
Opportunities to gamble, particularly on electronic gaming machines (EGMs) have been rapidly increasing in Australia during the 1990s. The increase in expenditure on gambling and the related problems have subsequently become a growing concern, particularly in relation to disadvantaged sectors of the population. Given this, the development of a geography of gambling is an important step in understanding the implications of this rapidly expanding industry. This paper addresses this issue at two distinct geographical scales in metropolitan Melbourne and considers the distribution of EGMs in relation to levels of economic well-being. Findings suggest that patterns evident at the wider Melbourne scale of greater concentration of EGMs in less advantaged regions are also reflected at a local level. These findings are related to the wider issues of accessibility to gambling facilities and problem gambling. [source]

How ABN AMRO and other international banks are succeeding in Romania

GLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 1 2007
Roxana Wright
The dynamic financial environment of Central and Eastern Europe allows for a clear determination of "best practices" in the banking industry through analysis of common patterns in banking and finance. We explain the specific practices that have led to successful adaptation on the part of international banks like ABN AMRO in Romania and to Romanian financial markets. In general, we have found, through a series of case studies designed to assess best practices, that the best performing strategies are those which are based upon "distributed decision making," allowing for decisive action and rapid organizational learning at the local level. In order for rapid organizational learning to take place, efficient business relationships are critical to the firm's functioning. In addition, the firm must develop a substantial diversity in both its internal and external networks. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

The multiplicity of citizenship: transnational and local practices and identifications of middle-class migrants

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 3 2010
MARIANNE VAN BOCHOVE
Abstract In this article we focus on local and transnational forms of active citizenship, understood as the sum of all political practices and processes of identification. Our study, conducted among middle-class immigrants in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, indicates that the importance of active transnational citizenship should not be overstated. Among these immigrants, political practices are primarily focused on the local level; political practices directed to the home country appear to be quite rare. However, although transnational activities in the public sphere are rather exceptional, many immigrants do participate in homeland-directed activities in the private sphere. If we look at processes of identification, we see that a majority of the middle-class immigrants have a strong local identity. Many of them combine this local identification with feelings of belonging to people in their home country. [source]

REALISE-ing their potential?: implementing local library projects to support evidence-based health care

HEALTH INFORMATION & LIBRARIES JOURNAL, Issue 2 2001
Louise Falzon
Librarian involvement in Evidence-based Health Care provides many opportunities at a local level. Unfortunately, the potential for innovative projects to inform future developments is generally lost by a failure to ,pass the baton',to identify lessons learnt and transferable principles. The ,Library Support for Evidence-based Health Care' Project, funded by the NHS Executive Northern and Yorkshire, resulted in the implementation of locally responsive packages of hardware and software in six of the Region's libraries. The opportunity to evaluate the collective experience of these sites, and to synthesize principles of good practice, was provided by a separately funded post-hoc evaluation, the Research Evaluation to Audit Library and Information Support for EBHC (REALISE). This paper reports on how this evaluation was conducted, documents the strengths and weaknesses of the Project itself, and attempts to provide a checklist for use in similar projects. The paper concludes by outlining the relevance of the findings to the introduction of planned organizational approaches to quality (clinical governance) and the development of local implementation strategies across the UK, required by the NHS Information Strategy, Information for Health. [source]

The German Democratic Republic: State Power and Everyday Life

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007
Gregory Witkowski
Scholars continue to debate the relationship of state and society in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) over fifteen years after the demise of that communist state. After briefly tracing the western historiography during the Cold War, this article concentrates its analysis on conceptual frameworks employed after the fall of the East German regime. Historians who emphasize the totalitarian power of the state argue that no independent society existed as the regime played an important role in all sectors of society, while those who focus on everyday life declare there was more individual agency in the former GDR. I argue that a more useful paradigm than state and society may be a breakdown between center and periphery as at the local level, state representatives often had more in common with their neighbors than with leaders in Berlin. [source]

Beyond the Anglo-Saxon and North European models: social partnership in a Greek textiles company

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006
Elias Galinos
ABSTRACT Much of the literature examining social partnership focuses on either Anglo-Saxon or North European countries, differentiating between liberal market economies (LMEs) and coordinated market economies (CMEs). These studies argue, quite correctly, that the institutional forces shaping partnership in the two types of economy differ markedly, with the consequence that partnership takes somewhat different forms at the workplace. By contrast, there is only limited research on social partnership in Mediterranean economies,such as Greece,even though there are strong reasons to suggest it may be quite different from both LMEs and CMEs because of relatively recent military influence at state level and less well-developed systems of industrial relations at organisational level. This article examines the forces operating both at national and at local level that facilitate or hinder the development of social partnership. It is based on the results of interviews with government, industry and union officials and a case study of partnership in a textiles company in northern Greece. It concludes that institutional forces provided workers with more protection than they would have achieved in an LME but that ultimately competitive pressures and a lack of effective workplace representation limited the degree to which the state can influence the processes and outcomes of social partnership at local level. [source]

The impact of the national minimum wage on the apparel industry

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2002
Roger Undy
This analysis of the NMW's initial impact in the apparel industry focuses on organisational and institutional factors in explaining the effects on pay and related issues. The NMW had a marked effect on national terms and conditions, in particular raising the minimum earnings level. At the local level, it impacted directly on the pay of a small number of employees in almost half the 42 organisations surveyed in the East Midlands and Northern Ireland. These tended to be the larger employing units facing foreign competition and selling into the domestic market. Also, in some workplaces, the NMW adversely affected the piecework system. The reaction of local management to these changes is discussed. [source]

Community engagement for counterterrorism: lessons from the United Kingdom

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2010
RACHEL BRIGGS
This article explores the development of community engagement within the UK's strategy to tackle international terrorism linked to and inspired by Al-Qaeda, commonly known as CONTEST. It focuses mostly on the ,Prevent' strand of the strategy which seeks to prevent radicalization towards violence, reduce tacit support for violence, and increase the resilience of communities to tackle radicalization and extremist messages themselves. Community engagement for counterterrorism also relates to certain aspects of the ,Pursue' strand of CONTEST, and these are highlighted. The article outlines the case for a community-based approach to counterterrorism and outlines a number of the key developments in its emergence from 2005 onwards. It analyses the performance of this aspect of the counterterrorism strategy, pointing to a number of shortcomings in relation to the establishment of partnerships, the integration of the approach, capacity shortfalls at the local level, and the wider challenges of a hostile political and media environment. Written as the new UK coalition government announces a review of the ,Prevent' strategy, it offers a number of recommendations for the future direction of this area of policy. It calls for an overhaul in working styles, a focus on people rather than projects, and the need to draw a much clearer line between downstream and targeted ,Prevent' work and the broader and longer-term community development work, with the latter encapsulated within the government's Big Society Programme and aimed at all fragile communities, not just Muslims. [source]

Implicit integration of a chemo-plastic constitutive model for partially saturated soils

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 14 2008
H. W. Zhang
Abstract A chemo-plastic constitutive model for partially saturated soils is proposed in this paper based on the existing models developed in Hueckel (Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 1997; 21:43,72) and Gallipoli et al. (Geotechnique 2003; 53:123,135). The chemical softening effects due to the increase in contaminant mass concentration are considered based on Hueckel's chemo-plastic model. Gallipoli's model is used to simulate the effects of suction and degree of saturation on mechanical behavior of partially saturated porous materials. In order to implement the proposed model in a finite element code, a fully implicit backward-Euler integration algorithm is put forward. Numerical solutions for the tests at local level and the application of the algorithm to the real boundary value problem demonstrate the accuracy and convergence properties of the proposed integration scheme. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Building and Contesting Neoliberalism at the Local Level: Reflections on the Symposium and on Recent Experience in Bolivia

The Electoral Impact of Direct-Democratic Practices

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008
EVA ANDUIZA
Abstract In recent years there has been a growing interest in the integration of mechanisms of direct citizen participation in the institutional structure of representative democracy, particularly at the local level. This essay examines the electoral impact of mechanisms of direct citizen participation. Although it is often considered that participatory schemes can be a means to achieve electoral success in the hands of politicians seeking re-election, quantitative analyses of 65 Spanish municipalities demonstrate that electoral success is far from being an immediate consequence of direct democratic practices (DDPs). The qualitative analysis of four cases shows that electoral consequences directly attributable to participatory devices depend on their design and on how they fit into the whole political process. Participatory processes that are too rigid and those, especially, that generate expectations that cannot be translated into real policies may end up having a negative effect. On the other hand, DDPs may account for network-building and improved information among citizens that, in turn, may have electoral consequences. DDPs are thus neither a blessing nor a cure per se in their electoral effects. Instead, as with representative democracy, their consequences and success will ultimately depend upon their procedural dimension. Résumé Ces dernières années ont connu un intérêt croissant pour l'intégration de mécanismes de participation directe des citoyens dans le cadre institutionnel de la démocratie participative, notamment au niveau local. Cet article examine l'impact électoral des mécanismes de participation directe. Même si on estime souvent que les systèmes participatifs peuvent permettre la victoire d'hommes politiques en quête de réélection, des analyses quantitatives sur 65 municipalités espagnoles montrent que le succès électoral est loin de résulter automatiquement des pratiques de démocratie directe (PDD). L'analyse qualitative de quatre cas révèle que les incidences électorales imputables directement aux dispositifs participatifs dépendent du concept utilisé et de la manière dont ceux-ci s'intègrent dans le processus politique global. Si les démarches participatives sont trop rigides, et notamment si elles suscitent des attentes qui ne peuvent se traduire dans des politiques publiques concrètes, elles sont susceptibles d'avoir, en fin de compte, un effet négatif. En revanche, les PDD peuvent expliquer la construction de réseaux et l'amélioration de l'information entre les citoyens, ce qui peut influer sur des élections. Les PDD ne sont donc ni une bénédiction ni une malédiction en termes d'incidences électorales. A l'instar de celles de la démocratie représentative, leurs conséquences et leur réussite vont finalement dépendre de leur dimension procédurale. [source]

New trends in urban development and public policy in eastern Germany: dealing with the vacant housing problem at the local level

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2004
Birgit Glock
Supported by federal funds, many eastern German cities have started to address their acute vacant housing problem, and the new strategies attempt to pursue revitalization in especially consistent and comprehensive forms. This article offers evidence that current policies are not meeting their main objectives. Very little is being done in the older, inner-city neighbourhoods, although these have been given a top political priority in the planning process since they are perceived as one of the greatest economic and cultural assets of eastern Germany. Rather, the policies have been effective only in the large-scale housing estates, where local administrations and city governments meet ,big partners' with resources for action. Further, it is argued that present policy strategies focus too tightly on housing market issues alone. Many housing problems cannot be solved using housing market policy tools alone as vacancy is caused by the general trends of depopulation and deindustrialization in the region. Avec l'aide de financements fédéraux, de nombreuses grandes villes est-allemandes se sont attaquées à leur grave problème de logements inoccupés, et les nouvelles stratégies tentent une relance par des formules particulièrement vastes et cohérentes. Cet article démontre que les politiques actuelles n'atteignent pas leurs objectifs principaux. Très peu est fait dans les quartiers anciens déshérités, même si on leur a donné une priorité politique élevée dans le processus d'aménagement puisqu'ils sont en bonne place, dit-on, dans le patrimoine économique et culturel de l'Allemagne de l'Est. En revanche, les politiques publiques n'ont été efficaces que dans les projets de logements à grande échelle lorsque les administrations locales et autorités de la ville rencontrent des ,partenaires de poids' ayant des ressources pour agir. De plus, les stratégies politiques présentes s'attachent trop aux seuls aspects liés au marché du logement. Bien des problèmes d'habitat ne peuvent être résolus à l'aide d'outils de politique de marché puisque la vacance tient aux tendances générales à la dépopulation et à la désindustrialisation de la région. [source]