From design to operations: a process management life-cycle performance measurement system for Public-Private Partnerships

Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become a critical vehicle for delivering infrastructure worldwide. Yet, the use of such a procurement strategy has received considerable criticism, as they have been prone to experiencing time/cost overruns and during their operation poorly managed. A key issue contributing to the poor performance of PPPs is the paucity of an effective and comprehensive performance measurement system. There has been a tendency for the performance of PPPs to be measured based on their ex-post criteria of time, cost and quality. Such criteria do not accommodate the complexities and lifecycle of an asset. In addressing this problem, the methodology of sequential triangulation is used to develop and examine the effectiveness of a ‘Process Management Life Cycle Performance Measurement System’. The research provides public authorities and private-sector entities embarking on PPPs with a robust mechanism to effectively measure, control and manage their projects’ life cycle performances, ensuring the assets are ‘future proofed’.     

The demand for social interaction

In this paper social interaction is modeled as a consumer good. A model of household production is employed to derive the demand for social interaction. The model shows that the demand for social interaction is a function of its price, the price of other goods and income. The theory is tested with data from the General Social Survey and the results show that social interaction can be explained as the consequence of utility maximizing behavior by individuals. These results are in contrast to social capital theorists who have attributed these changes to factors such as increased community heterogeneity.     

全球化世界中的农村生计:重回阶级视角审视

文章认为，在现代全球化商品生产环境下，构建生产和再生产的社会关系从普遍意义上讲就是阶级关系，提出应重回阶级视角审视和分析农村贫困及其产生原因。在这一视角下对现代农地变迁进行探讨，并在提出当代农耕变化七个命题的基础上，识别了不同阶层关系下的动力机制和不同发展政策议题下隐含的阶级动力，并指出，现有关于改善农业生产、农村生计和福利的政策忽略了阶级不平等性，因此它们也忽略了贫困的根本社会基础以及不同干预对此带来的重要影响。