Public–private partnerships for e-government in developing countries: An early stage assessment framework

Although public–private partnerships (PPP) and electronic government (e-government) have proven to be fruitful mechanisms for economic development and emerging economies seem to recognize their importance, consistent methods for analyzing the early planning stages of e-government portfolios are lacking. The present work utilized a comprehensive literature review to understand the evaluation criteria for PPP projects throughout the early-stage planning process. A qualitative meta-synthesis was employed to identify critical factors for PPP and e-government, with a particular focus on developing countries, PPP, and e-government criteria. Our research presents a framework named “PPP4e-Gov” (public–private partnerships for e-government). The framework compares risk and value factors of e-government PPP projects and adopts a weighted scoring model that estimates the risks that should be considered in a project and how much value a given e-government initiative may generate if the PPP option is chosen. As an illustration of how the framework may be used, the paper interviewed ten practitioners in Costa Rica who tried out PPP4e-Gov and showcased how to plan their e-government initiatives.     

R-CMap—An open-source software for concept mapping

Planning and evaluating projects often involves input from many stakeholders. Fusing and organizing many different ideas, opinions, and interpretations into a coherent and acceptable plan or project evaluation is challenging. This is especially true when seeking contributions from a large number of participants, especially when not all can participate in group discussions, or when some prefer to contribute their perspectives anonymously. One of the major breakthroughs in the area of evaluation and program planning has been the use of graphical tools to represent the brainstorming process. This provides a quantitative framework for organizing ideas and general concepts into simple-to-interpret graphs. We developed a new, open-source concept mapping software called R-CMap, which is implemented in R. This software provides a graphical user interface to guide users through the analytical process of concept mapping. The R-CMap software allows users to generate a variety of plots, including cluster maps, point rating and cluster rating maps, as well as pattern matching and go-zone plots. Additionally, R-CMap is capable of generating detailed reports that contain useful statistical summaries of the data. The plots and reports can be embedded in Microsoft Office tools such as Word and PowerPoint, where users may manually adjust various plot and table features to achieve the best visual results in their presentations and official reports. The graphical user interface of R-CMap allows users to define cluster names, change the number of clusters, select rating variables for relevant plots, and importantly, select subsets of respondents by demographic criteria. The latter is particularly useful to project managers in order to identify different patterns of preferences by subpopulations. R-CMap is user-friendly, and does not require any programming experience. However, proficient R users can add to its functionality by directly accessing built-in functions in R and sharing new features with the concept mapping community.     

“Site Fights”: Explaining Opposition to Pipeline Projects in the Developing World1

Fifty years ago, the main challenges to large infrastructure projects were technical or scientific. Today, the greatest hurdles faced by such projects are almost always social and/or political. Whether constructing large dams in the developing world or siting liquefied natural gas terminals in the United States, the onset of these projects often triggers intense popular opposition. But not always, and therein lays the animating aim of this project. We undertake a systematic comparative case analysis of mobilization efforts against 11 oil and gas pipeline projects spanning 16 countries in the developing world. Using theories from the social movement and facility siting literatures and the technique of fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA), we examine the “causal conditions” linked to political and legal opposition to these projects. We find that both Western funding of projects and public consultation serve as necessary political opportunities encouraging mobilization. In addition, not compensating the host country for involvement in the project is linked to mobilization. Finally, some risk from the project, in the form of environmental or social impact, is associated with mobilization; however, this impact does not have to be very significant for mobilization to occur.     

Excellent research,but insufficient valorization? The case of the European Transport Research in the 7th Framework Programme

This article reports on the findings of the Europe Union (EU) project “Enhancing the capacity of EU transport projects to transform research results into innovative products and services” (TIPS) funded in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. The project was coordinated by Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH, the ICCR Foundation was in charge of the survey study. The purpose of this study was to survey project coordinators under the auspices of the European Commission. The study was not intended as an evaluation exercise, but the subjective view of the coordinators might produce a certain bias. Most coordinators are aware of the “hybrid” character of the European research programme. They usually address industrial stakeholders while claiming policy relevance for their projects. Of course, not all projects can meet both spheres: some projects have a merely technical character, and others address only politics and policies. But the overwhelming majority of the projects deal with both issues.     

Conceptual problems of the monitoring and evaluation of qualitative objectives of rural development

Monitoring and evaluation are crucial aspects of all rural development projects in terms of ensuring that objectives are being met and assessing the impact of various interventions. Thus, monitoring and evaluation should be built into a project's organizational and implementation structure and constitute a continuous, systematic project activity. In need of further refinement, however, are techniques for monitoring and evaluating the nonmaterial, nonobjective dimensions of development projects such as community participation. Needed is an approach that is not based exclusively on the measurement of material impact, but is also able to explain what happens in a rural development project that seeks to promote participation. In dealing with participation, there is a concern not only with quantitative results, but also qualitative processes. Toward this end, project beneficiaries should have a role in describing the processes involved, analyzing the results, and making a judgment as to the outcome of project activities. The unmet need in this area is to devise indicators of economic, political, cultural, and vulnerable-group participation in rural development projects and to identify ways such indicators could be used to collect relevant data.     

Quality self-control and co-supervision mechanism of construction agent in public investment project in China

Public investment project (PIP) plays an important role in the China economy. In order to improve the project management performance of public projects, the government is searching for a scientific system to build a construction management supervision mode. This paper introduces the policy background and connotation of Agent Construction System (ACS). As a public investment construction management model, ACS, is gradually being incorporated into the legal framework, it is necessary to improve the construction agent supervision mechanism. This article analyzes the supervision mechanism of construction agent quality management under the principle of two-stage agent mode and establishes an agent quality self-control system and a government co-supervision system. These systems take the contract management as the core and the project quality objective as the guidance. These systems also consist of a two-dimensional framework of vertical self-control and horizontal supervision, which form a quality supervision mechanism. Based on Rough Set theory, the article proposes the idea of building an agent quality self-control and government co-supervision model, and illustrates it with a flow chart for building the model, which paves the way of quantitative research for the future.     

Quality and quantity: Reconstructing feminist methodology

Many feminist sociologists have rejected quantitative in favor of qualitative methods, a position which might seem justified by feminist critiques of positivism. This paper examines both quantitative and qualitative methods in light of two major themes in radical feminist epistemology, the critique of objectivity and the politics of the research process, and finds both classes of methods vulnerable. We argue that underlying the argument against quantitative methods is a rejection of abstraction and a dichotomization of methodologies, both of which are inconsistent with feminist insights. We call for a reconstruction of methodology that transforms both quantitative and qualitative techniques in ways informed by feminist epistemology and builds research agendas that integrate both approaches. Her main research interests are in the development of social measures of gender and in the study of the impact of gender and class on consciousness. Her research concerns medical knowledge, social organization, and the health and well-being of women.     

Rethinking integration in mixed methods research using data from different eras: lessons from a project about teenage vocational behaviour

Mixed methods research requires integration of qualitative and quantitative data. However, there is debate about how to define integration and what is required for integration to occur. This paper describes a mixed methods research project which revisits datasets from different eras, which were originally instigated for different purposes and had different theoretical frameworks. Using selected results about the relationship between teenagers’ vocational aspirations and adult occupations we show how the research topic and question integrated the projects within a constructivist theoretical position. We argue that reanalysing and comparing historical datasets can provide new insights into a topic even with minimal integration of the data. We recommend a broad definition of integration and reflexive research practice to encourage innovation and diversity in mixed methods research, particularly with regard to reanalysis of datasets from different eras.     

How Activity Systems Evolve: Making │ Saving Salmon in British Columbia

The purpose of this article is to describe the history of a state-sponsored salmon enhancement project in British Columbia and to explicate the development of the former using cultural historical activity theory. We make thematic the notion of inner contradictions, which express themselves outwardly as a function of both quantitative and qualitative changes. We propose also that the Marxian notion of change of quality from quantity can fruitfully unpack how these dialectical units push activity systems forward.     

Adolescent Career Development in Urban‐Residing Aboriginal Families in Canada

The purpose of this study was to understand how urban‐residing Aboriginal adolescent–parent dyads (n = 11) jointly constructed and acted on goals and strategies with their social supports (n = 17) to facilitate the adolescents' career development. A modified protocol following the qualitative action‐project method was used. A discrete joint project was identified for each family. These joint projects can be clustered into 3 joint career development projects: (a) navigating toward a safe future, (b) negotiating school continuance, and (c) intergenerational continuity through tradition of care. A 4th project emerging from the data was family survival. Family survival projects supplanted participants' efforts to engage in career development projects.     

Comparing ‘deep’ insider knowledge: developing analytical strategies for cross-national qualitative studies

ABSTRACT

One overarching question in scholarly methodological discussions on qualitative comparative approaches concerns how it is possible to compare and generalise deep insider knowledge across (nationally) specific contexts. The aim of this article is to propose a research strategy that both facilitates the comparison and theorisation of such knowledge across nations and limits the risks of reproducing naturalised national ‘truths’. The strategy is developed within a feminist, cross-national, qualitative comparative analysis of how European countries addressed military deaths in connection with the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The article underlines the importance of collective analytical work and of strategies that allow continuous movement between insider and outsider positions throughout the research process. A number of analytical strategies are presented: collective project design, alternating between analytical closeness and distance, and de-familiarising writing practices.     

Evaluating the iterative development of VR/AR human factors tools for manual work

This paper outlines the approach taken to iteratively evaluate a set of VR/AR (virtual reality / augmented reality) applications for five different manual-work applications - terrestrial spacecraft assembly, assembly-line design, remote maintenance of trains, maintenance of nuclear reactors, and large-machine assembly process design - and examines the evaluation data for evidence of the effectiveness of the evaluation framework as well as the benefits to the development process of feedback from iterative evaluation. ManuVAR is an EU-funded research project that is working to develop an innovative technology platform and a framework to support high-value, high-knowledge manual work throughout the product lifecycle. The results of this study demonstrate the iterative improvements reached throughout the design cycles, observable through the trending of the quantitative results from three successive trials of the applications and the investigation of the qualitative interview findings. The paper discusses the limitations of evaluation in complex, multi-disciplinary development projects and finds evidence of the effectiveness of the use of the particular set of complementary evaluation methods incorporating a common inquiry structure used for the evaluation - particularly in facilitating triangulation of the data.     

Using logic model and visualization to conduct portfolio evaluation

Portfolio evaluation is the evaluation of multiple projects with a common purpose. While logic models have been used in many ways to support evaluation, and data visualization has been used widely to present and communicate evaluation findings, adopting logic models for portfolio evaluation and using data visualization to share findings simultaneously is surprisingly limited in the literature. With the data from a sample portfolio of 209 projects which aims to improve the system of early care and education (ECE), this study illustrated how to use logic model and data visualization techniques to conduct a portfolio evaluation by answering two evaluation questions: “To what extent are the elements of a logic model (strategies, sub-strategies, activities, outcomes, and impacts) reflected in the sample portfolio?” and “Which dominant paths through the logic model were illuminated by the data visualization technique?” For the first question, the visualization technique illuminated several dominant strategies, sub-strategies, activities, and outcomes. For the second question, our visualization techniques made it convenient to identify critical paths through the logic model. Implications for both program evaluation and program planning were discussed.     

Strategy-proofness versus efficiency on the Cobb-Douglas domain of exchange economies

We study the optimal design of an organization in which a team of fallible individuals with heterogeneous abilities collectively decides whether to accept or reject projects. Conventional wisdom tells us that the opinion of those individuals with better decision-making abilities should be given a “larger” weight in the decision. We formalize this intuition in a sequential evaluation process and provide specific ways to characterize the optimal decision weights, as well as demonstrate that the magnitude of the weights depends on the relative abilities of the decision-makers, as well as where the decision-makers are placed in the project evaluation sequence.     

Understanding the use of rural space: the need for multi-methods

Although the late 1990s saw increasing use of qualitative data in rural studies and a turn towards issues such as identities and the construction of rurality, many rural researchers still rely on a range of different methods and use both qualitative and quantitative data. However, the challenge of combining quantitative and qualitative data and using different methods is a theme not often dealt with in rural studies, at least not explicitly. This paper (re-)turns the attention to implications of using various methods and combining different types of data for studying a subject matter called ‘the use of rural space’. It concerns both physical land use and the practice and values of individual actors influencing the land use. We emphasise interplay between methodology and philosophy throughout the research process and argue for using multi-methods without compromising the integrity of the different methods. The methodological approach is a combined study of practice and values of individual actors. Two examples—one concerning Senegalese pastoralists’ livelihoods and their use of mobility and one concerning landowners’ location of field afforestation in Denmark—illustrate how the approach facilitates quite different studies of both practice and values and how quantitative and qualitative data can be combined in a non-eclectic way.     

“Hired hand research” revisited

This article reconsiders the arguments of Roth (1966) concerning “hired band research.” Problems associated with different types of employees, research tasks, and research organizations are distinguished. It is argued that researchers who hire assistants can minimize the hired hand mentality by: 1) hiring persons who are able to stay on the job long enough to develop commitment to the project; 2) involving both hired hand workers and researchers in the research process to the fullest extent possible; 3) designing a flexible research project; 4) justifying theoretically each variable, interview question, observation, etc.; 5) collecting qualitative as well as quantitative data; and 6) remaining highly involved in the research project. Her recent writings include “The Consequences of Professionalization and Formalization in the Pro-Choice Movement” (American Sociological Review 1988) and “Organizational and Environmental Influences on the Development of the Pro-Choice Movement” (Social Forces, forthcoming).     

Are curriculum decisions based on the evidence? How social work faculty members make choices in curriculum decisions

An important step in translating evidence-based practice and empirically supported interventions into large-scale service improvements is to develop an understanding of practitioners' education and training in these practices. This understanding begins with discovering the factors that influence the decision-making process by social work faculty regarding curriculum content for master's level social work programs. This exploratory study uses quantitative and qualitative survey data to examine the decision-making process used by 42 master's level social work programs to select the models of direct practice taught in their master's level social work programs, and whether evidence-based practice and research evidence influences those decisions. We investigate faculty perceptions of curriculum effectiveness and discuss implications of our findings for social work educators making content and organization decisions regarding master's level social work curriculum.     

A new work–life balance: gender and employment in young people’s perceptions in Chile

The paper explores perceptions regarding family and paid employment expressed by university students in Chile, based on the analysis of quantitative data from the Maule region (southern Chile). We argue that the increasing unpredictability of labor markets has eroded the role paid employment historically has had as the lynchpin of individual’s – particularly men’s – life project, altering the expectations about both work and family life. Likewise, changes in gender roles have shaped youngsters’ ideals about family life. This seems to be the case especially for women, who strongly affirm their economic independence and personal projects, departing from traditional family views. We conclude that young people are demanding a new balance between life (understood mainly as personal and family time) and work. There is also a strong affirmation of the individual project, including a demand for greater gender equality. Although still at the level of projected visions of the future, these findings signal changes in the way the relation work–family is traditionally organized, bringing new challenges for public policy.     

基于层次关联矩阵的风电工程招标研究

针对风电工程招标中常见的招标方案评价问题,提出了基于层次分析法和关联矩阵的招标方案评价模型,通过该模型很好地将招标方案评价过程中的一些定性的指标,转化为定量的数据,并用于招标方案的评价,很好地克服了招标方案评价中一些定性指标的计算问题,同时将层次分析法与关联矩阵相结合,结合了这两种方法的优点,从而保证能更为准确地确定最终的招标方案。