New community governance in small rural towns: the Australian experience

State and federal governments in Australia have developed a range of policy instruments for rural areas in Australia that are infused with a new sense of ‘community’, employing leading concepts like social capital, social enterprise, community development, partnerships and community building. This has encouraged local people and organisations to play a greater role in the provision of their local services and has led to the development of a variety of ‘community’ organisations aimed at stemming social and economic decline. In Victoria, local decision-making, before municipal amalgamations, gave small towns some sense of autonomy and some discretion over their affairs. However, following municipal amalgamations these small towns lost many of the resources—legal, financial, political, informational and organisational—associated with their former municipal status. This left a vacuum in these communities and the outcome was the emergence of local development groups. Some of these groups are new but many of them are organisations that have been reconstituted as groups with a broader community focus. The outcomes have varied from place to place but overall there has been a significant shift in governance processes at community level. This paper looks at the processes of ‘community governance’ and how it applies in a number of case studies in Victoria.     

Challenges of local government capacity building initiatives: experiences of an UNDP nationally executed programme in Thailand

In 1996 the Government of Thailand, with technical and financial assistance from the UNDP, designed a package of strategies and policies to help sustain the development of the urban centres in the various regions of the country. The package, which focused on strengthening capacity at the local level came to be known as the Regional Urban Development Program (RUDP). This article is an analysis of the process of implementing this capacity building initiative. It summarizes the achievements of and constraints faced by the programme and suggests recommendations that implementing agencies may consider with a view to improve conditions at the local level.     

Between argument and coercion: Social coordination in rural environmental governance

Increasingly, partnerships and other cooperative forms of governance are common-place in addressing problems of environmental management in rural landscapes. These forms of governance are multi-dimensional in the policy instruments employed; the make-up of actors; and, the types of rationalities that actors use to debate the problem and proposed solutions. This paper pursues the question of how different modes of social action, represented in argumentative claims of participants, influence social coordination in these governance arenas. An empirical study is presented of agri-environmental governance in Australia where actors debate planning and policy initiatives to reduce diffuse water quality impacts from farms on the adjacent Great Barrier Reef. Forester’s conceptualisation of practical social action which locates communicative action in the ‘real world’ of interest-based planning contexts, is used as an analytical frame to identify: (i) the type of claims made by governments, farmer groups and other actors in argumentation; (ii) the claims association with communicative, strategic and instrumental modes of action; and, (iii) their consequence for social coordination in formation and maintenance of inclusive, legitimate and viable forms of governing. The study finds that the interconnected character of claims made by actors, and the ready switching between modes of action observed, point to a situated and dynamic expression of rationality within these contested and prolonged debates on how to legitimately and effectively govern rural environments.     

伊朗政治合法性与宗教合法性之构建

伊朗政治合法性和宗教合法性的构建一直受到重视,因为这有利于社会的长治久安。其政治合法性和宗教合法性的构建需要深厚坚实的基础,但处理好两者关系需要漫长的实践过程。本文以伊朗历史上具有代表性的政治制度和宗教为例,说明伊朗政治合法性和宗教合法性构建的意义、基础、途径、两者间关系及其过程。面对全球范围内的物质和精神的冲击,伊朗面临的问题是在当今国内外新形势下,如何重新构建和巩固政权的政治合法性和宗教合法性。     

Local government training capacity in Romania: an institutional perspective

The article deals with the problems and prospects of local government training in Romania. Training for local government is seen as a rather new service that has to be developed, produced and delivered, like all public services. In the Romanian case, this service is delivered in a semi-public manner. Firstly, the paper will take an institutional view of the capacity of local government training and highlight that conditions in the general environment produce almost insurmountable problems for the small local government training sector to strengthen its capacity. Secondly, the capacity of the local government training will be considered from a market perspective. It will be highlighted that the market for local government training is still very imperfect.     

The restructuring of local government in rural regions: A rural development perspective

Rural development is a multidimensional phenomenon. The political dimension, relating as it does to power, resources, accountability, priorities and choice, is a pivotal aspect of rural development. Local government is often the centrepiece of rural political systems. Interventions to reconfigure local government are therefore quintessentially rural development initiatives. They serve to supplement, neutralize or detract from other development initiatives. One way to critically examine local government restructuring policies and programmes is to determine the extent to which they accord with commonly held principles of rural development, both in terms of outcomes and process. This research critically examines a particular public policy intervention in rural Ontario, Canada. Through the application of rural development principles and criteria, it concludes that the process was antithetical to rural development, and in terms of outcomes, of dubious value. It poses several questions and challenges for rural development theory, including governance, and practice.     

“I’m not a greenie but…”: Environmentality,eco-populism and governance in New Zealand Experiences from the Southland whitebait fishery

The experiences of nascent local institutions in regional resource management issues in New Zealand can help to inform the important analytical projects of considering the impacts of neoliberalism on environmental management as well as the meanings of governance as the new order in rural and natural resource management. This study considers how devolved governance shapes individual subject positions relative to the environment in a neoliberal context, deploying Agrawal's optics of “environmentality” to analyze a case study of the political ecology of the whitebait fishery in Southland, New Zealand. This research demonstrates that the devolution of resource governance in New Zealand has cultivated empowered, ‘accidental environmentalists’ and related environmental subjectivities. The extent and quality of individual involvement in governance influences whitebaiters’ perceptions of environmental change and resource management priorities. At the same time, a strong ‘eco-populist’ conceptualization of resource management infuses the fishers’ environmental subjectivities and potentially constrains the depth and degree of fishers’ opposition to environmental degradation.     

摩洛哥阿拉维君主制统治合法性分析

本文从历史与传统、现代与理性、宗教以及国王个人魅力等四个方面分析了1956年独立后摩洛哥阿拉维君主制统治合法性的基础和来源.作者指出,摩洛哥阿拉维君主制的统治反映了韦伯关于合法统治的三种类型,即合理型、传统型和魅力型,其中,传统型占主导地位并与伊斯兰教紧密相连.迄今,宗教神圣的合法性体现了阿拉维君主制所有统治合法性学说的本质,然而其神圣性也遭到了质疑和挑战.     

摩洛哥阿拉维君主制统治合法性分析

本文从历史与传统、现代与理性、宗教以及国王个人魅力等四个方面分析了1956年独立后摩洛哥阿拉维君主制统治合法性的基础和来源。作者指出，摩洛哥阿拉维君主制的统治反映了韦伯关于合法统治的三种类型，即合理型、传统型和魅力型，其中，传统型占主导地位并与伊斯兰教紧密相连。迄今，宗教神圣的合法性体现了阿拉维君主制所有统治合法性学说的本质，然而其神圣性也遭到了质疑和挑战。     

The limits of participatory democracy and the inclusion of social movements in local government

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the decentralisation of decision-making processes in local government. Empirically, I analyse how Brazilian housing movements are included in participatory processes by examining the ways in which participatory models integrate social movements in spaces of decision-making. I argue that the rules and focus on incremental policy-making limits the participation of social movements. Findings suggests that unequal power structures at local councils, barriers to the participation of citizens, and the lack of transparency of government decisions all prevent social movements from having a more influential voice in decision-making. Although previous studies in Brazil examined the integration of citizens in government institutions, this paper contributes to the literature in two ways: firstly, it provides new evidence on the impact of decentralisation in local government. Secondly, by examining the attitudes of housing council members towards popular political participation, it provides new insights into the limits of decentralisation and participatory governance in contemporary Brazil.     

Reconfiguring rural development in the UK: Objective 5b and the new rural governance

A new form of rural governance is emerging in more peripheral parts of the UK. As European Structural Fund monies come to play a greater role in financing development projects, so new ways of making decisions about rural development are being initiated. The rural development component of the Structural Funds (Objective 5b) requires that development objectives be prioritized by means of a ‘programming approach’ which brings together a wide range of actors in new institutional arrangements. This reconfiguration of rural development is examined in this paper using case study material from the Northern Uplands — the largest Objective 5b area in England. The paper concludes by drawing out a set of further research questions the Objective 5b programme raises regarding the tensions between centralization and localization, the role of rural communities in their own governance, and the new techniques and technologies of rural governance.     

Improvement of financial management by local government: Computer model implementation

Abstract

We develop a computerized optimization model and present its implementation for improvement of financial management at the local government (LG) level. An example of the real-life long-term budget planning and analysis, helped by the model, is presented. The analysis exemplifies good governance practice and observation of standards of efficient management in the area of long-term financial, investment and safe debt planning. These analyses also demonstrate ways of accessing maximum, feasible level of investment expenditure and maximum capacity of a municipality to borrow with all safety measures provided. The model supports informed decision-making process by LG managers, decreases the level of risk and enhances quality and transparency of governance.     

The politics of marginality in Wallowa County,Oregon: Contesting the production of landscapes of consumption

The state of Oregon’s (USA) land use planning framework has long been characterized by tensions between state and local authority, between traditionally-defined “urban” and “rural” concerns, and between the competing interests of various landowners. An examination of Wallowa County, Oregon’s implementation of House Bill 3326, a 2001 law giving counties the power to define certain agricultural lands as “marginal,” and therefore exempt from restrictions on subdivision and development, illustrates the ways in which these tensions become magnified as rural communities attempt to govern private land use in the context of rural restructuring. Implementation of HB3326 highlighted the tensions between landowners interested in capitalizing on development opportunities afforded by HB3326, neighboring producers concerned about interference from future amenity migrants, and existing amenity migrants with interests in protecting their rural idyll. Contestations over nonfarm development took place in the context of a strong agricultural community identity, concerns about the effects of economic restructuring on producers, and local resistance to the rural gentrification process. The process of defining marginality came to encompass not only technical issues of land productivity, but also broader community contestations over the continuation of traditional land uses and the legitimacy of various actors to govern private land.     

Roll-out neoliberalism and hybrid practices of regulation in Australian agri-environmental governance

In the last 15 years, agri-environmental programmes in Australia have been underpinned by a neoliberal regime of governing which seeks to foster participation and ‘bottom-up’ change at the regional level at the same time as encouraging farmers to become entrepreneurial and improve their productivity and environmental performance without government interference. However, while experiencing a degree of success in terms of farmer involvement, considerable tensions are evident in such programmes. Drawing on an ‘analytics of governmentality’, this paper argues that while current agri-environmental programmes enable authorities to combine often competing and contradictory imperatives under the rubric of single political problems—what has been termed hybrid forms of governing—it also contributes to the continuing failure of these programmes to achieve their desired effects. As a consequence, neoliberal forms of governing tend to be characterised by experimentation with a range of governmental technologies in order to make programmes workable in practice. We explore two different types of technologies—standards schemes and direct government regulation—that have emerged in recent years, and how these have sought to address the limitations evident in ‘participatory’ programmes. The paper concludes by arguing that while these initiatives seek to encourage farmer compliance in seemingly divergent ways, their capacity to be workable, and have broader effects, in practice will depend upon their capacity to manage the competing imperatives of environmental degradation, capital accumulation and private property rights.     

Differentiating countryside: Social representations and governance patterns in rural areas with high social density: The case of Chianti,Italy

One of the key factors for the success of development strategies in rural areas is the setting up of appropriate governance patterns, whose main outcome is a fluid communication between public and private organisations and an effective integration of objectives and policies.     

The new squirearchy and emergent cultures of the new middle classes in rural areas

In part prompted by a recent spate of media reports this paper explores the emergence of a ‘new squirearchy’ in the English countryside. In doing so, it aims to both illuminate a particular facet of rural social life and help reignite interest in the cultures of rural class. Whilst relationships between rural class and culture were a source of excitement during the 1990s, much of this interest has apparently spluttered if not died, despite class itself remaining very much a live issue for rural dwellers. The paper draws on the findings of an in-depth ethnographic study to highlight the significance of performance and symbolic boundary-marking in the construction and reproduction of social identity. The focus is the activities and sites of ‘the pub’, ‘the hunt’ and ‘the shoot’, which have been key in the emergence of the new squirearchy in the study area. The paper shows the importance of lay classifications based on evaluations of cultural (in)competence and morality, and suggests that the performance and boundary-marking of the new squirearchy in tandem with other identities is evidence of a more extensive, complex and ambiguous ‘culture of middle-classness’ in rural areas.     

Local resident composition in the community and local identity among rural migrants in Guangzhou,China

In China, how does the proportion of local-born residents in a community shape the local identity of rural migrants who do not have the local hukou that would allow them to enjoy the local benefits and welfare provided by the government? Our findings show that despite their socially marginalized status, the migrants' level of local identity is strongly related to community composition. Our study is based on data collected recently in Guangzhou, a major city in southern China that has been a popular destination for rural migrants. We found that living in a community with a high percentage of local residents significantly improves the local identity of rural migrants. However, frequent social interaction with local residents mediates this relationship in a community where about half of the residents are local. We also found that the migrants' subjective perception of socioeconomic status positively mediates the relationship between the proportion of local residents in the community and the local identity of rural migrants.     

Seeking good governance in participatory-GIS: a review of processes and governance dimensions in applying GIS to participatory spatial planning

The adoption of participatory spatial planning (PSP) approaches has been partially supported by developments in participatory-GIS (P-GIS), as seen in applications both in local resource management in developing South countries, and in community neighbourhood planning in the urban North. Such applications provide a basis for examining the relationship between the use of geo-information and governance, as many P-GIS initiatives claim to foster accountability, transparency, legitimacy and other dimensions of governance. Examples from recent literature illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of utilising P-GIS, and in particular, the implications for greater participation, empowerment, and ownership of and access to spatial information, and for governance in general. Some new developments in GIS technology, like ‘mobile-GIS’, have the potential to strengthen these impacts. While P-GIS is not an essential component of PSP, if used with an adequate regard and sensitivity for issues of ownership, legitimacy and local knowledge, it can contribute to the empowerment of communities in solving spatial planning problems.     

Changing symbolic and geographical boundaries between penal zones and rural communities in the Russian Federation

The article examines the processes involved in the integration of the USSR's secret places into mainstream rural society in the Russian Federation. Taking the example of one rural district in the Volga-Ural region that has been the site of a large prison complex over a period of ninety years, the article examines how economic changes and local government and penal reforms have eroded the boundary that marked off the penal region from the rural district in which it was located. Using interviews and social surveys conducted among the local population, the article examines the extent to which the opening of the penal sub-region has led to changes in the symbolic boundary between the communities in the rural raion. The article concludes that although new spaces of active government are being produced in rural Russia, these are not necessarily the basis for the emergence of new common identities among the people living in them.