Comparing the influence of structural funds programmes on regional development approaches in Western Scotland and Silesia : adaptation or assimilation?

The implementation of EU Structural Funds (SF) programmes is credited with influencing the focus and content of domestic regional development activities, enhancing coordination of national and sub-national levels tasked with regional development and strengthening partnerships between public, private and voluntary actors. However, the influence of programmes is uneven. Analyses, based on the Europeanization literature, present a complex relationship between EU and domestic factors. A range of variables has been identified to explain this differential influence. The paper contends that, when considering New Member States (NMS) from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), this approach requires reorientation. In the face of strategically weak and under-resourced domestic approaches, programmes are driving, rather than attempting to adjust, the domestic regional development agendas. To support this, the paper takes a comparative approach, assessing the influence of programmes in cases from opposite ends of the SF implementation spectrum: the UK (Western Scotland) and Poland (Silesia)

South-South cooperation in health professional education : a literature review

In the literature on the evolution of funding approaches there is criticism of traditional funding strategies and the promotion of inclusive models, such as South-South Cooperation (SSC) and triangular models. The latter are felt to have a number of advantages. This article has four broad objectives: (i) to present a literature review on the evolution of Southern approaches to development co-operation; (ii) to indicate examples of current co-operative programmes in health and health professional education in Africa; (iii) to assess the advantages and disadvantages of these models; and (iv) to mention some emerging issues in monitoring and evaluation. The Boolean logic approach was used to search for applicable literature within three topic layers. Searches were conducted using PubMed, PLoS and other accessible databases. An initial draft of the article was presented to a group of academics and researchers at the Flemish Inter-University Council (VLIR-UOS) Primafamed annual workshop held in August 2010 in Swaziland. Comments and suggestions from the group were included in later versions of the article. It is important to note that the existence of various funding models implemented by a variety of actors makes it difficult to measure their effects. In health and health professional education, however, SSC and triangular models of aid provide conditions for more effective programming through their focus on participation and long-term involvement. With an eye towards evaluating programmes, a number of salient issues are emerging. The importance of context is highlighted

Reflections on the triple-helix as a vehicle to stimulate innovation in technology and security : a Belgian case study

In this contribution the main argument is that a triple helix collaboration between industry, government and knowledge institutes can be a vehicle to stimulate innovation and technology in the field of safety and security. To underpin this argument the significance of the evolution from a state model to a triple-helix model is described as well as the paradigm of open innovation that is a necessary condition for the triple-helix model. Relying on experiences since 2014 with the Belgian Innovation Centre for Security reflections are made on the dynamics of the triple-helix collaboration taking into account its creation, objectives, ambition, methodology, partners and funding. Some of the (perceived) barriers encountered and logics used by government, as one of the ‘hesitating’ participants in the triple-helix collaboration, are further discussed

The Evolution[s] of WLU Press: Towards Library–University Press Integration

In March 2015, Wilfrid Laurier University administration announced that WLU Press would be integrating with the Laurier Library. Media coverage of this announcement has been mixed, and is an indication of the ambivalent response to library-press collaborations or integrations, in both the university press and library communities. This article considers the WLU case at its current early stage of development, discussing this transformation not necessarily as “progress” but as one response to a rapidly shifting scholarly environment. By examining the pressure points of the negotiations to merge the press and the library at WLU, this article considers the question of how to maximize opportunities and minimize the potential negative impacts of such integration. In order for such a partnership to be successful, both must be willing to evaluate their business models, their core missions within the scholarly ecosystem and the marketplace, as well as how they measure professionalization and success

Training of Social Workers in the Innovative Educational Environment of a University: Conceptual Ideas and Innovation Mechanisms

The study presents a reflection of the problem of innovation training of future social workers in Ukraine in the context of forming the innovative educational environment of higher educational institutions. Changes in the system of social workers training are characterized, frames of adding and widening their realization by conceptual ideas and mechanisms as to education in the field of social work are outlined. There is presented the multi-vector type of educational evolution in the field of social education that provides co-existence, development and interaction of conceptions, statements and views, different by their ideas as to the theoretical-methodological base of social workers training. Solving the problem of functioning of the innovative educational environment of social workers training provides a purpose-oriented preparation to elaboration and implementation of social work innovations, based on ideas of pedagogical innovation, competence-oriented and project teaching, social partnership. This process is specially organized, purpose-oriented, dynamic, which socio-pedagogical conditions are realized in the common activity of teaching subjects due to integration of innovative possibilities of the educational environment and personal potential of a specialist, support of students\u27 ideas and initiatives, introduction of the method of situational modeling of social situations, provision of teaching subjects\u27 interaction as a special type of social partnership of state institutions and public organizations. Such social workers training provides orientation on general scientific principles (system, open, variation, complex ones), concrete-scientific principles of organizing the educational environment (subjective activity, innovation, reflection, integration of the content of educational and other types of activity, principle of social partnership as realization of interaction between social institutions, organization of studio training). It has been proved, that renovation of social workers training as a process of purpose-oriented support of the innovative content of environment possibilities corresponds to the characteristics (practice-orientation, polyfunctionality, openness, innovativeness) and may be provided by organization-managerial, scientific-methodological, activity-practical mechanisms

Implementing CSR through partnerships: Understanding the selection, design and institutionalisation of nonprofit-business partnerships

Partnerships between businesses and nonprofit organisations are an increasingly prominent element of corporate social responsibility implementation. The paper is based on two in depth partnership case studies (Earthwatch-Rio Tinto and Prince’s Trust-Royal Bank of Scotland) that move beyond a simple stage model to reveal the deeper level micro-processes in the selection, design and institutionalisation of business-NGO partnerships. The suggested practice-tested model is followed by a discussion that highlights management issues within partnership implementation and a practical Partnership Test to assist managers in testing both the accountability and level of institutionalisation of the relationship in order to address any possible skill gaps. Understanding how CSR partnerships are implemented in practice contributes to the broader CSR and partnership literatures a context specific level of detail in a systematic way that allows for transferable learning in both theory and practice

City strategy : final evaluation

The City Strategy (CS) concept was first announced in the 2006 Welfare Reform Green Paper – A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work. CS was designed at a time of growth in the national economy to combat enduring pockets of entrenched worklessness and poverty in urban areas by empowering local institutions to come together in partnerships to develop locally sensitive solutions. It was premised on the idea that developing a better understanding of the local welfare to work arena would allow partnerships to align and pool funding and resources to reduce duplication of services and fill gaps in provision. The ‘theory of change’ underlying CS suggested that such an approach would result in more coordinated services which would be able to generate extra positive outcomes in terms of getting people into jobs and sustaining them in employment over and above existing provision. CS was initially set to run for two years from April 2007 to March 2009 in 15 CS Pathfinder (CSP) areas, varying in size from five wards in one town through single local authority areas to subregional groupings of multiple local authority areas, across Great Britain. In July 2008, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced an extension for a further two years to March 2011. In April 2009, two local areas in Wales, which were in receipt of monies from the Deprived Areas Fund (DAF), were invited by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to form local partnerships with a similar remit to the CSPs, albeit more limited in scope – to develop locally sensitive solutions to economic inactivity, to the CSPs. During the period that the CS initiative was operational, economic conditions changed markedly with a severe recession, followed by fragile recovery. The CSPs had to cope with ongoing changes in policy throughout the lifetime of the CS initiative, including a General Election and a new Coalition Government at Westminster early in the fourth year. While policy changes are a fact of life for local practitioners operating in the welfare to work arena, the global recession in 2008/09 marked a fundamental change in the context in which local partnerships operated