Dimensions and models of contemporary public space management in England

This article discusses the concept of public space management and its evolution in a context of wider changes to urban governance. Public space management is taken as a sphere of urban governance in which conflicting societal demands on, and aspirations for, public space are interpreted through a set of processes and practices. Four interlinked dimensions for public space management are proposed: the co-ordination of interventions; the regulation of uses and conflicts between uses; the definition and deployment of maintenance routines; and investment in public spaces and their services. Within this conceptual framework, the paper looks at recent changes in public space management in England to suggest the emergence of alternative models of management. These are based on the roles ascribed to the state, to private agents and to user organisations, and on different approaches to dealing with the four management dimensions. Although the discussion shows that these models are more than just abstract formulations, and have been used to deal with a variety of public space problems, an important purpose for the paper is to provide an analytical framework through which to examine emergent practices in the management of public space and their potential consequences.     

基于沿江开发建设的生态安全格局研究——以九江市为例

随着长江沿江开发的不断深入,区域生态安全与开发建设的矛盾也越来越突出。以九江市沿江开发建设活动与区域生态系统空间结构、生态服务功能相互作用为理念,通过遥感、GIS技术手段,划分小流域单元。并将这些单元作为空间分析与评价的基础,选择工业集中区、城镇居民地、路网布局作为自然生态环境的影响因子或施压因子,以河流级别、湖泊数量和面积、地貌类型、坡度、植被覆盖程度、重要生态功能区类别等作为承压因子,综合叠加形成生态环境压力区划。并以此为基础,构建由5个生态源区和9条生态隔离、缓冲、生物多样性保护廊道组成的生态空间安全体系,用以减缓生态环境压力、消纳水气及土壤污染、稳定区域生态、推进沿江开发建设,实现生态保护空间与区域经济社会发展空间的有序融合,并对重要生态功能保护区提出管制的要求与措施。     

Bridging conceptual “silos”: bringing together health promotion and sustainability governance for practitioners at the landscape scale

Environmental health issues are examples of “wicked problems” that require cross-sectoral collaboration at the community level, yet health practitioners and environmental stakeholders find it challenging to see how and why they could be working together. Supportive organisations have been identified as the most vital enabler for individual professionals to participate actively in cross-sectoral initiatives. Ability to justify inter-professional cooperation makes it easier for practitioners to gain the necessary approvals within their institutional mandates. This paper introduces a new conceptual framework that bridges health promotion and sustainability governance to facilitate practical cross-sectoral collaboration that targets complex health-related environmental and social-ecological challenges. The proposed framework integrates six concrete overlapping themes linking health promotion and sustainability governance. The framework also highlights examples of areas where the fields could benefit from one another. Moreover, children's environmental health is proposed as a desirable overall outcome and an attractive venue for potential collaboration, because of its critical role in the public health and well-being of future generations. As a determinant of adult health, children's environmental health emphasises the vital interdependencies between health and the environment.     

Infrastructure in informal settlements: co-production of public services for inclusive governance

Recent studies on urban governance have advanced our understanding of how governance could become inclusive through community-based participation in urban development. However, a concrete process by which participatory public service provision in informal settlements consolidates inclusive governance has not been sufficiently evident in the context of the dynamic urban development witnessed in Africa. Drawing on a case study of the informal sanitation infrastructure known as a bio-centre, which has been introduced by a participatory upgrading programme in Nairobi, Kenya, this article proposes to pay attention to ways that informal settlers experience infrastructure, embed it into their everyday context of place-making and use it in unplanned manners. Inclusive governance that is effective in providing public services in informal settlements requires every development actor to be engaged in deliberating how to deal with such unplanned outcomes and eventually to co-produce services. This article argues that, rather than participation, communities’ capacity to enrol the state actors in the space of deliberation is crucial to make governance genuinely inclusive.     

Getting low-carbon governance right: learning from actors involved in Community Benefits

Interest in Community Benefits (CB) has increased over the past decade mainly due to the growing number of wind farms and related criticism. Because CB are a voluntary gesture by the developer, there is no standard practice or institutionalised approach for good governance of the benefits; every community has a different approach, tailored to local needs and depending on the stakeholders involved. Additionally, since CB are a rapidly emerging practice, little is known about their governance, what actors are involved and how affected communities participate in decision-making on renewable projects. Using the Farr wind farm in Scotland, one of the first to introduce CB, as a case study, this paper sheds light on the governance structures surrounding the set-up, management and allocation of funds. It also contributes to the emerging body of work regarding transparency and community participation in CB, and the extent to which these might facilitate a transition to a low-carbon future.     

The Role of Faith-based Organizations in Environmental Governance: the Case of Forestry in Solomon Islands

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have played a significant role in environment-related forms of development and governance in Melanesia, including the Solomon Islands. Yet despite their centrality, there remain significant gaps in understandings of processes and outcomes associated with FBO engagement in environment-related development interventions. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the place of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), an indigenous FBO active in plantation forestry (and other activities) in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands. We find that the CFC possesses impressive income-generating potential and political networks; however this does not always translate into positive social, economic or environmental outcomes at the village level. While FBOs such as CFC are often championed as playing an important role in environmental governance in an under-resourced nation state, the reality is that they can fall well short in delivering appropriate outcomes for poor communities or the environment despite, and because of, their close ties to target communities.     

Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive in Norway: Bridging the Gap Between Water Management Networks and Elected Councils?

To handle the challenge of complex cross-sector and multilevel coordination in the implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive, Norway has established multilevel governance networks. Observers have pointed to a risk of such governance arrangements being dominated by experts. This article studies the highly complex multilevel governance networks of water management in Norway, and unveils the importance of political anchorage of such governance networks at local and regional levels. The study finds evidence that political anchorage matters for further network achievements. Because the water governance networks are subordinated to the hierarchy of government, they need to ‘talk to' the system of hierarchical government in order to be effective. In this regard, it seems crucial that networks are politically anchored. Furthermore, the study unveils the important role of political leadership and network managers in ensuring political anchorage.     

大气污染治理的“兰州经验”——基于环境保护与国家治理现代化的考察

近年来,我国大气污染防治工作取得了一定成效,但大气环境整体形势仍然十分严峻,如何防治大气污染成为政府和人民高度重视的问题。兰州市在大气污染治理工作取得了瞩目的效果并在治理活动中形成了丰富的经验,大气污染治理的"兰州经验"为环境治理以及国家治理现代化树立了一个可资借鉴的样板。针对生态文明建设过程中的难题,兰州市在大气污染治理过程中较好地了协调经济发展和环境保护之间的关系,抓住了完善能源结构和产业结构调整这一核心环节。更为重要的是,"兰州经验"体现了国家治理现代化的公共性、共治性以及有效性的核心价值理念,突显了国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要价值。在切实有效的权力运行机制保障下,兰州市在环境治理工作中运用了法治思维和法治方法,以坚强的执行力确保工作实效,同时还实现了广泛的社会参与,使得治理模式更为科学与民主。     

劳动力外流与农村公共事务治理

新世纪以来,伴随着劳动力的大规模外流,农村公共事务治理呈现出集体经济困难、人居环境恶化和农田水利废弛等各个方面全面衰败的景象。灌溉作为农村典型的公共事务,对于从微观层面揭示劳动力大规模外流与农村公共事务治理衰败之间的因果关系具有代表性意义。关于劳动力流动对农村公共事务治理的影响,在已有的实证研究文献中鲜有讨论。本文基于2014年清华大学中国农村研究院对全国21个省份的调查数据,建立二元logistic回归模型,对1 507个农户的灌溉行为进行计量分析,发现农户家庭劳动力外流对农户参与集体灌溉具有显著的负面影响。这表明,在快速城镇化的过程中,劳动力外流为经济增长做出贡献的同时,也弱化了农村集体行动能力,对农村公共事务治理产生了显著负面影响。同时,计量结果表明:平原地区、水资源自然条件一般的村庄、耕地位于灌渠的中游、农户的承包地经营面积较大、农户的承包地块数较多、灌溉对农户家庭收入的重要性较大以及村庄对私自挖渠取水有惩罚措施等变量对农户参与集体灌溉有显著的正面影响;村庄位于城市郊区、地区经济发展水平较高和灌溉缺水历史等变量对农户参与集体灌溉有显著的负面影响;用水户协会的有无对农户是否参与集体灌溉没有显著的影响,原因是中国农村大多数用水户协会是行政力量推动下的产物,实际作用并不明显。上述结果表明:近20年来的大规模劳动力流动为中国经济高速增长做出贡献的同时,给农村公共事务的治理带来显著的不利影响。研究大规模劳动力流动背景下的农村公共事务挑战及其应对,具有重要的理论价值和实践意义,应作为未来重要的学术方向。由于农村劳动力外流是难以逆转的发展趋势,如何培育新的历史条件下的合作资源,实现农村社会有效的集体行动机制,是未来扭转农村公共事务治理衰败的关键。     

Complementing institutional with localised strategies for climate change adaptation: a South-North comparison

Climate change and disasters pose a serious risk to sustainable development. In the South, local coping strategies are an important element of adaptation to climate and disaster risk. Such strategies have emerged because of the limited assistance provided by urban actors and associated social security and governance systems. In the North, in contrast, local coping strategies are comparatively poorly developed. However, the extent of the changing climatic conditions is also reducing the capacity of Northern institutions to deal with climatic extremes and variability, which emphasises the need for more local-level engagement in the North. This paper analyses the differences in local and institutional responses to climate change and disasters in a Southern and a Northern city (San Salvador, El Salvador, and Manchester, United Kingdom, respectively), and highlights how the lessons learned might be translated into an improved distributed governance system; that is, an 'integrated engagement model', where local and institutionalised responses support rather than hinder each other, as is currently the case.