This paper examines how the creation of knowledge and the location of decision-making authority within relief organisations influence coordination. Information was collected from the headquarters of international non-governmental organisations in 2003, as well as from Darfur and Khartoum, Sudan, in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Relief organisations rely on quality information dissemination between the field and headquarters. Yet, reporting from the field often is overloaded with misplaced precision, making it difficult for managers at headquarters to grasp the key issues. A high turnover rate among international field officers and a lack of inclusion of local staff and partners prevent the development of accumulated knowledge. Furthermore, most relief organisations have a centralised decision-making system. The creation of 'collective-meaning structures', based on reliable information on all decision-making levels, opens the way to the decentralisation of decision-making to field officers engaged with inter-organisational coordination structures. In sum, more efficient and reliable coordination between organisations relies on improved decision-making systems within each organisation. 相似文献
The Covenant of Mayors has secured the commitments of over 5400 European Cities (as of December 2013) to achieving the European Union 20-20-20 climate change mitigation targets by 2020 through action at the local level. Due to the youth of the initiative, few experiences have been reported in the academic literature. We study the development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in the city of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) to analyse the opportunities and challenges this process may present in a small- to medium-sized, compact Mediterranean city. This knowledge can provide information to local authorities in similar municipalities, technical teams and decision-makers at the European level interested in enhancing the performance of such plans in the future. In this article, we explain how the SEAP was developed in Girona, the main results and proposed actions, and discuss the main setbacks. We conclude that an overarching European oversight organism is advisable to coordinate and aid local efforts. 相似文献
Local food systems and farmers' markets across the USA have experienced unprecedented growth and development in the past 20 years. While scholarship has examined participant demographics and motives for engaging in farmers' markets, few studies have considered the coupled nature of those attending the markets with institutional governance systems used for market coordination. This study examined participation in farmers' markets under the framework of high and low market governance systems, specifically considering the demographics, values for local foods, motives for attending farmers' markets, and outcomes of the experience based on the dichotomous governance classification. Governance was characterized using four attributes: market rules or policies, paid employee(s), a rule governing geography of food origin, and affiliation with an organisation or agency. Our results suggest that market governance may impact (1) which consumers attend the market, (2) motives among those who attend the market, and (3) satisfaction outcome levels among market participants. By better understanding how the emerging governance system impacts who ultimately attends the market (and the outcomes of the experience), agencies coordinating farmers' markets and market managers can ultimately improve the market's reach and experience with greater intentionality. 相似文献
The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the dynamics of knowledge production in the context of large-scale environmental projects causing local conflict. In particular, the paper analyses the discourse coalitions that formed around an artificial groundwater recharge project for the Turku Region in Finland. The material for this study consists of over 400 articles and opinion pieces which were collected from local and regional newspapers between 1999 and 2010. The articles were analysed by using Hajer's [1995. The politics of environmental discourse. Ecological modernisation and the policy process. Oxford, UK: Clarendon] discursive framework, and the analysis was complemented with the concept of knowledge coalition by Van Buuren and Edelenbos [2004. Conflicting knowledge. Why is joint knowledge production such a problem? Science and Public Policy, 31 (4), 289–299]. Results of the study indicate that knowledge coalitions were formed among the researchers, lay residents, and policy-makers, and they all utilised similar expertise-based factual arguments to support their cause. Thus, the paper participates in the academic discussion on the use and interpretation of expert knowledge in environmental policy-making by reshaping the division between experts and lay residents. 相似文献
This paper describes the frustrating reality of sustainability implementation in the USA and New Zealand (NZ), an early adopter of sustainability mandates. Local government has a key role in implementation, but has been slow to uptake sustainable practices. We surveyed senior planners in small to medium-sized local government agencies in both countries to identify which features of local government support (or hinder) sustainability in practice.
Environmentally sustainable practices are not well entrenched in either country. In the USA, the framing of sustainability and public support are significant predictors of implementation. However, sustainability is rarely a priority. In NZ, local government capacity is the main driver of implementation. We recommend that planners promote sustainability values, reconcile economic development goals with sustainability (e.g., green economy model), and translate public support for sustainability into institutional priorities. NZ localities also need increased capacity and US localities need continued Federal and State support. 相似文献
The Chinese state is squarely ‘back’ in the business of environmental governance with an increasing number of policy innovations or experiments to resolve environmental issues. These have been mostly enacted through the ‘experimentation under hierarchy’ framework, undergirded by compensation-for-performance incentive structures for local agents. Based on on-site ethnography in local China, a critical analysis is presented of low-carbon city policy experiments – one of the most prominent environmental policies introduced in the past decade. Using lessons from the agency theory, it is hypothesized that outcomes of these policy innovations are contingent on different policy dimensions. Although a number of positive outcomes have been achieved in output-oriented dimensions, the fundamental difficulty of specifying all aspects of complex, multidimensional work tasks involved in low-carbon city development has frequently led to policy unmaking. The findings raise important questions about China’s tendency to rely excessively on compensation-for-performance structures to promote environmental policies. 相似文献