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Public Action (public + action)
Selected AbstractsAccess to Land, Rural Development and Public Action: The When and the HowDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Pablo Bandeira After being marginalised in the 1980s, land-reform policies came back to national and international development agendas during the 1990s, resulting in a revival of academic research on the subject. This article reviews the empirical literature on access to land, rural development and public action for evidence on when and how the state should intervene in the allocation of rural land. The review suggests that positive impacts are obtained if, and only if, public actions on the allocation of land are carried out under certain conditions and in a certain way. The article ends by highlighting the need to elaborate empirical models that take into consideration opportunity costs and interactions, and that integrate individual responses with aggregate effects. [source] Introduction: Local Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction and Inequality: The Hybrid Character of Public ActionIDS BULLETIN, Issue 6 2009Peter K. Spink It has largely been assumed that as societies get better at being broader and more open (decentralisation, local government, participation and governance), so services tend to improve and things will get better for those in situations of poverty. In testing this assumption, the LogoLink network has drawn on studies of innovative experiences by members of its partner organisations. The emphasis of the joint project was on the local actors and the social processes involved. The results show how effective action and impact requires not only community-based organisations, social movements and NGO networks, but also public sector actors who can make links between the institutional environment, the public sector and communities. Recognising this hybrid character of public action has been a key conclusion from the studies. [source] Public Action, Agrarian Change and the Standard of Living of Agricultural Workers: A Study of a Village in KeralaJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2006R. RAMAKUMAR This article describes and analyses the ways in which public action in the State of Kerala in India helped to transform the standard of living of hired workers in agriculture. Specifically, the article analyses the extent of land and asset ownership, access to credit, access to social security schemes and food distribution systems and the conditions of housing and sanitation of households participating in agricultural wage work. The article is based as a case study of Morazha desam in the Malabar region of Kerala, which had one of the most oppressive agrarian systems in India before 1956,57. In 1955, another economist had studied Morazha desam; this study was conducted before one of the most important interventions through public action , land reform , took place in Malabar. The 1955 study had characterized the conditions of life of agricultural workers as ,wretched in the extreme'. The present article documents the significant transformation in the quality of life that took place in Morazha after 1955, through a weakening of the factors that led to ,wretched' conditions of life in the earlier period. The destruction of traditional agrarian power by the state through land reform was the most critical step in this process. [source] An analysis on the subjective perception of policy action on peripherality: A comparative assessment in accessible and peripheral areas of six countries of the EU,REGIONAL SCIENCE POLICY AND PRACTICE, Issue 2 2009Joan Noguera peripherality; regional development; policy analysis Abstract The paper presents an analysis of the subjective perception of the policy efficiency on peripherality in 12 regions of six countries of the EU. In each country two regions are selected: one peripheral but relatively dynamic and another accessible but relatively lagging. Public action conditions a range of processes and activities that continuously influence the intensity and direction of development. It can be part of the new factors of territorial development (NFTD) building up or hindering peripherality. The paper has the following aims: to identify what generic types of measures are believed to be more efficient for development; to analyse which measures (spatial or aspatial) are considered more important for development; to rank different NFTD according to preferences of interviewed experts; to identify whether there are differences between accessible and peripheral areas in policy preferences and needs; and to define which influences national contexts. A minimum of 5 experts per study area have been interviewed for this analysis. [source] Access to Land, Rural Development and Public Action: The When and the HowDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Pablo Bandeira After being marginalised in the 1980s, land-reform policies came back to national and international development agendas during the 1990s, resulting in a revival of academic research on the subject. This article reviews the empirical literature on access to land, rural development and public action for evidence on when and how the state should intervene in the allocation of rural land. The review suggests that positive impacts are obtained if, and only if, public actions on the allocation of land are carried out under certain conditions and in a certain way. The article ends by highlighting the need to elaborate empirical models that take into consideration opportunity costs and interactions, and that integrate individual responses with aggregate effects. [source] The trouble with drink: why ideas matterADDICTION, Issue 5 2010Griffith Edwards ABSTRACT This paper builds upon the work of previous authors who have explored the evolution of ideas in the alcohol arena. With revisions in the relevant sections of ICD and DSM forthcoming, such matters are of considerable contemporary importance. The focus here will be upon the history of the last 200 years. The main themes to be explored include the flux of ideas on what, over time, has counted as the trouble with drink, ideas on the cause of the problem and the impact of this thinking on public action. Medical authorities of the late Enlightenment period made the revolutionary suggestion that habitual drunkenness constituted a disease, rather than a vice. The thread of that idea can be traced to the present day, but with an alternative perception of drink itself or alcohol-related problems generally, as cause for concern, also having a lineage. There are several inferences to be drawn from this history: the need for vigilance lest disease formulations become stalking-horses for moralism and social control, the need to integrate awareness of alcohol dependence as a dimensional individual-level problem, with a public health understanding of the vastly amorphous and at least equally important universe of alcohol-related problems; the dangers lurking in scientific reductionism when the problems at issue truly require a multi-disciplinary analysis; and the need for global consensus rather than cultural imposition of ideas on what counts as the problem with drink. [source] Visiting America: notes from an alcohol-focused study tour made in 1961ADDICTION, Issue 12 2008Griffith Edwards ABSTRACT Aims This paper has as its focus a study tour made by the author in 1961. Diary notes are used to capture a historical moment in the evolution of alcohol studies. The paper will argue for the continuing value today of such experiences in support of career development and the building of ,the field'. Data sources Diary notes and personal recollection. Findings The United States was at the time more active than the United Kingdom in its response to alcohol problems. There was, however, a disjunction between the elite American research world and the world of action, which was not informed greatly by research. For the most part, treatment services and prevention strategies seemed driven by opinion rather than by evidence. But at the level of serious scientific endeavour there was opportunity to meet influential figures including Seldon Bacon, Morris Chafetz, Milton Gross, Ebbe Curtis Hoff, Harris Isbell, E. M. Jellinek, Mark Keller, Benjamin Kissen, Robert Strauss, Wolf Schmidt and Abraham Wikler, who generously made their time available. Conclusions These diary notes provide a snapshot of a field of endeavour at a critical stage of transition from uninformed assumptions towards establishment of a research base which can inform public action. The visit was of tangible value to the visitor in several different identified ways. Such an experience is inevitably time-bound and personal, but there are general conclusions to be drawn as to the benefits which will be derived from early travel opportunities in a field such as alcohol studies, which is all too easily culture-bound in its horizons and assumptions. Alcohol science needs to be more reflective on its history and the mechanisms that help to make it happen. [source] Introduction: Local Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction and Inequality: The Hybrid Character of Public ActionIDS BULLETIN, Issue 6 2009Peter K. Spink It has largely been assumed that as societies get better at being broader and more open (decentralisation, local government, participation and governance), so services tend to improve and things will get better for those in situations of poverty. In testing this assumption, the LogoLink network has drawn on studies of innovative experiences by members of its partner organisations. The emphasis of the joint project was on the local actors and the social processes involved. The results show how effective action and impact requires not only community-based organisations, social movements and NGO networks, but also public sector actors who can make links between the institutional environment, the public sector and communities. Recognising this hybrid character of public action has been a key conclusion from the studies. [source] Public Action, Agrarian Change and the Standard of Living of Agricultural Workers: A Study of a Village in KeralaJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2006R. RAMAKUMAR This article describes and analyses the ways in which public action in the State of Kerala in India helped to transform the standard of living of hired workers in agriculture. Specifically, the article analyses the extent of land and asset ownership, access to credit, access to social security schemes and food distribution systems and the conditions of housing and sanitation of households participating in agricultural wage work. The article is based as a case study of Morazha desam in the Malabar region of Kerala, which had one of the most oppressive agrarian systems in India before 1956,57. In 1955, another economist had studied Morazha desam; this study was conducted before one of the most important interventions through public action , land reform , took place in Malabar. The 1955 study had characterized the conditions of life of agricultural workers as ,wretched in the extreme'. The present article documents the significant transformation in the quality of life that took place in Morazha after 1955, through a weakening of the factors that led to ,wretched' conditions of life in the earlier period. The destruction of traditional agrarian power by the state through land reform was the most critical step in this process. [source] When does a referent public problem affect financial and political support for public action?JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 2 2008Nicolao Bonini Abstract In three studies we examined the willingness to support action to remedy a public problem. In Study 1 and Study 2, people were asked whether they would financially contribute to solution of a public problem. In Study 3, people were asked whether they would sign a petition to support a public action. The aim was to test whether the willingness to support solution of a public problem is affected by the type of problem that is used as the referent. We hypothesized that the willingness to support a public action is lower when evaluated in the context of a high- as opposed to a low-importance referent problem (importance contrast effect). We also hypothesized that the importance contrast effect is tied to the perceived relatedness between the target and referent problems. The importance contrast effect should be found only when the two problems relate to different category domains. The findings bear out this prediction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] From social networks to public action in urban governance: where does benefit accrue?JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2001Jo Beall The key question addressed in this paper is in what ways strategies at the community level make a difference to urban governance and for whom? The research on which it draws was concerned with two issues of relevance. The first was what poor people and communities do for themselves when city governments are unable or unwilling to extend resources to them. The second was to understand the institutional relationships, both formal and informal, between people in poverty and the organizations of city governance. In addition to local government, business and NGOs, these are understood to include associations of mutuality and community level organizations, particularly households, social networks, and political and developmental CBOs (see also Beall and Kanji, 1999). Drawing on research conducted in the nine case study cities, evidence of local level networks and associational life is examined to assess where benefits accrue when they are harnessed in the interests of city governance. These are very different cities and livelihood strategies and patterns of public action and urban governance are undoubtedly context-specific. However, patterns emerge that are comparable and worthy of comment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Who Cares About Disabled Victims of Crime?JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 3 2007Barriers, Facilitators for Redress Abstract, The author identified and discusses barriers and facilitators for public action after the occurrence of abuse against an adult with an intellectual disability (ID). Data were collected via a postal survey sent to guardians in one Swedish region with questions about suspected abuse against their wards (n = 978), of whom 392 had an ID (the remaining were affected by dementia or had another physical or mental disability). The rate of abuse was 4.8% (n = 19) among those wards with an ID. A range of abuses were reported, but there were no significant statistical differences attributed by sex of the wards. Facilitating examples for redress in the statutory framework were identified, but it was observed that implementation of redress was often flawed. Three alternative public actions were discussed: (1) victims' refusal to contact the public sector; (2) internal handling by the social services; and (3) reporting to police (but case closed). Findings showed that there were difficulties in understanding that passive respect for integrity and autonomy is not in line with the public ethos that demands actively caring for dependent wards, that offences in residential settings were sometimes handled internally and not reported in accord with the statutory framework, and that the ability of the criminal justice system to compensate for communicative disabilities seemed deficient. [source] Auctions Versus Beauty Contests: The Allocation of UMTS Licences in EuropeANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2003L. Cartelier The deployment of the so-called UMTS 3rd generation mobile networks is a step of vital importance for the promotion of competition in the telecommunications sector. The provision of high-traffic services presupposes that operators have access to the hertzian spectrum. The hertzian spectrum is a natural resource whose scarcity derives from the fact that only part of it is usable, for both technical and economic reasons. While the resource was sufficient to meet users' needs, the hertzian spectrum was allocated for little or no charge, on the principle of ,first come, first served'. However, with the explosion of technical progress in transmission technologies, new applications and new forms of use appeared, leading to a drastic increase in potential demand. It is in this context that the idea of charging for use of the spectrum arose, so as to discourage uneconomical use of the resource (e.g. stockpiling, wastage), to ensure a fair allocation between competing users and to forestall congestion. The purpose of this paper is first to examine the procedures for the allocation of hertzian spectrum operating licences, from the points of view of efficiency, transparency and sharing of the surplus. We shall then compare the results from the two approaches that were actually used in Europe: the open ascending auction and the beauty contest, before turning our attention to new forms of public action that result from the process of liberalization. [source] Access to Land, Rural Development and Public Action: The When and the HowDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Pablo Bandeira After being marginalised in the 1980s, land-reform policies came back to national and international development agendas during the 1990s, resulting in a revival of academic research on the subject. This article reviews the empirical literature on access to land, rural development and public action for evidence on when and how the state should intervene in the allocation of rural land. The review suggests that positive impacts are obtained if, and only if, public actions on the allocation of land are carried out under certain conditions and in a certain way. The article ends by highlighting the need to elaborate empirical models that take into consideration opportunity costs and interactions, and that integrate individual responses with aggregate effects. [source] Who Cares About Disabled Victims of Crime?JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 3 2007Barriers, Facilitators for Redress Abstract, The author identified and discusses barriers and facilitators for public action after the occurrence of abuse against an adult with an intellectual disability (ID). Data were collected via a postal survey sent to guardians in one Swedish region with questions about suspected abuse against their wards (n = 978), of whom 392 had an ID (the remaining were affected by dementia or had another physical or mental disability). The rate of abuse was 4.8% (n = 19) among those wards with an ID. A range of abuses were reported, but there were no significant statistical differences attributed by sex of the wards. Facilitating examples for redress in the statutory framework were identified, but it was observed that implementation of redress was often flawed. Three alternative public actions were discussed: (1) victims' refusal to contact the public sector; (2) internal handling by the social services; and (3) reporting to police (but case closed). Findings showed that there were difficulties in understanding that passive respect for integrity and autonomy is not in line with the public ethos that demands actively caring for dependent wards, that offences in residential settings were sometimes handled internally and not reported in accord with the statutory framework, and that the ability of the criminal justice system to compensate for communicative disabilities seemed deficient. [source] Flâneurie on bicycles: acquiescence to women in public in the 1890sTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 1 2006Phillip Gordon Mackintosh Although scholars have established the publicity of all types of nineteenth-century women, their public actions are still regarded as morally constrained. We offer one group of public women, bourgeois cyclists, who after encountering public skepticism only briefly were given free rein of the streets and country roads. This propensity of women and men to ride the thoroughfares ,a-wheel' we refer to as flâneurie on bicycles, a technology-mediated form of the pedestrian variety. Similarities and differences necessarily abound because of the requirements of safe cycling and the long-distance rambling capacity of cyclists. We argue, however, that flâneurie of the bicycle kind is largely faithful to the original in that cycling promoted peripatetic individualism, for female as well as male riders. Bien que des chercheurs aient établi la présence en publique de toutes formes de femmes de la dix-neuvième siècle, leurs activités en publique sont toujours considérées moralement contraint. Nous identifions un groupe de femmes en publique, les cyclistes bourgeois qui, après avoir rencontré brièvement le scepticisme du public, a été donné libre cours aux rues et aux chemins. Cette propension de femmes et d'hommes à faire la bicyclette dans la rue nous avons décrit ,flâneurie sur bicyclette', qui est une forme de flâneurie, mais mediaté par technologie. Similarités et différences entre ces deux formes de flâneurie abondent nécessairement, à cause des exigances de cyclisme sain et sauf, et la capacité a faire des randonnées long-lointain de cyclistes. Nous proposons, cependant, ce flâneurie du genre de bicyclette est en grande mésure fidèle à l'original dans qu'allant à vélo a promu l'individualisme itinérant, pour la femelle de même que cavaliers mâles. [source] | ||||||||||||||||