Ordering Networks: Motorways and the Work of Managing Disruption

This thesis contributes to a new understanding of the motorway network and its traffic movements as a problem of practical accomplishment. It is based on a detailed ethnomethodological study of incident management in the Highways Agency’s motorway control room, which observes the methods operators use to detect, diagnose and clear incidents to accomplish safe and reliable traffic. Its main concern is how millions of vehicles can depend on the motorway network to fulfil obligations for travel when it is constantly compromised by disruption from congestion, road accidents and vehicle breakdowns. It argues that transport geography and new mobilities research have overlooked questions of practical accomplishment; they tend to treat movement as an inevitable demand, producing fixed technical solutions to optimise it, or a self-evident phenomenon, made meaningful only through the intensely human experience of mobility. In response, the frame of practical accomplishment is developed to analyse the ways in which traffic is ongoingly organised through the situated and contingent practices that take place in the control room. The point is that traffic does not move by magic; it has to be planned for, produced and persistently worked at. This is coupled with an understanding of network topology that reconsiders the motorway network as always in process by virtue of the materially heterogeneous relations it keeps, drawing attention to the intensely collaborative nature of work between operators and technology that permits the management of disruption at-a-distance and in real time. This work is by no means straightforward – the actions of monitoring, detecting, diagnosing and classifying incidents and managing traffic are revealed to be complexly situated and prone to uncertainty, requiring constant ordering work to accomplish them. In conclusion, this thesis argues for the frame of practical accomplishment to be taken seriously, rendering the work of transport networks available for sustained analysis

The influence of intelligence-led policing models on investigative policy and practice in mainstream policing 1993-2007: division, resistance and investigative orthodoxy

This research addressed the question ‘What is the National Intelligence Model (NIM), why did it emerge and how has it influenced police organisational structures and investigative practice’? The NIM embodied the apotheosis of intelligence-led policing (ILP) policy in Britain. Allied to the pre-existing ‘intelligence cycle’, it represented an eclectic ‘pick n’ mix’ of strategies that aimed to deliver effectiveness and ‘best value’ in policing. Sir David Phillips, sponsor of the model and President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), during a key period in its development, wanted it to overhaul intelligence work, and revolutionise investigative practice in the mainstream. Through archival, secondary and primary research, the thesis examined the NIM’s policy content in the context of Kingdon’s ‘Agenda Setting’ approach to policymaking. It evaluated the roll-out of the NIM through the lens of Sabatier’s policy implementation model, drawing on primary research in the form of case studies that included observations and interviews with senior police commanders, officers and other officials. Ultimately, Phillips’ plans were confused by commanders’ orthodoxy and frustrated both by competing agendas within ACPO and the paucity of evidence that the NIM could deliver what he had promised. Phillips’ policy entrepreneurship was the key factor in the model gaining support in ACPO and the Home Office. However, beyond that policymaking arena, few commanders were willing to effect the structural changes that the Home Office-codified model demanded. Instead, they seemed to adopt ‘compliance’ tactics that disguised resistance and forestalled sanction. Orthodoxy, resistance and tradition played significant parts in the resulting ‘NIM-compliant’ activity in forces as, with few complaints, officers and staff dutifully applied the model in a myriad of inefficient ways. Ultimately, the NIM added to the burden of bureaucracy but the end result was that British policing ended up looking very much the way it had before the NIM narrative began

Comparison of Approaches to Management of Large Marine Areas

In order to learn more about the different approaches to managing large-scale marine areas, their comparative merits, and the synergies and overlaps between them, Conservation International (CI) commissioned this independent analysis of several widely applied models. Since 2004, CI, together with a multitude of partners, has been developing the Seascapes model to manage large, multiple-use marine areas in which government authorities, private organizations, and other stakeholders cooperate to conserve the diversity and abundance of marine life and to promote human well-being. The definition of the Seascapes approach and the identification of the essential elements of a functioning Seascape were built from the ground up, informed by the extensive field experience of numerous marine management practitioners. Although the report was commissioned by CI, the views expressed in this report are those of the authors; they were charged with providing a critical examination of all the assessed approaches, including the Seascapes approach. This analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. This will help us -- and, we hope, other readers -- to identify ways to work together to achieve even greater results through synergistic efforts

Soldiers and Civil Power: Supporting or Substituting Civil Authorities in Modern Peace Operations

Peace operations became the core focus of many Western armed forces after the Cold War. The wish amongst political and military leaders during the 1990s to hold on to the classical identity of the armed forces as an instrument of force made them pursue a strict separation between military operations and the civilian aspects of peacekeeping, such as policing, administrative functions, and political and societal reconstruction. In his book Soldiers and Civil Power, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg argues that this policy failed to match up to reality. Supporting civil authorities, and at times even substituting them (de facto military governance), became the key to reaching any level of success in Cambodia, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. As a result of the false segregation between the civilian and the military domain, this was accomplished mostly by improvisation and creativity of commanders who probed for the limiting boundaries of their original mandate by reaching ever further into the civilian sphere

Exploring the contribution of complexity theory to the system of political negotiations – a case study of the intractable conflict in Cyprus

The thesis explores the nature of political negotiations that has been in place in Cyprus since 1968 under UN Good Offices Mission auspices, with special attention to the period 2008 and 2014 when the process of full-fledged negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General was revived through the establishment of six main chapters on substantive issues with the intention to reach an agreement based on bizonal, bicommunal federation with both communities enjoying political equality. Cyprus has experienced a long-standing intractable conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since before 1974 when the government of Turkey exercised unilateral intervention based on the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, ultimately leading to UN engagement to stabilise the conflict. The major outcome of the intervention was the division of the island into two sections, the South and North, with the ceasefire line (1974) to become the United Nations Buffer Zone (green line) persisting through time. Since then the conflict may be described as a stalemate with neither side gaining ground over the other and effectively no binding progress made. Through a series of intensive interviews with Greek and Turkish Cypriot political leaders and United Nations experts together with a number of other well-informed academics on both sides of the island, as well as more general research, the thesis explores their experiences and views on the nature of political negotiations in the 2008-2014 period. Part of the research concentrates on obtaining their perceptions on the nature of the stalemate as a prominent feature of political negotiations. The other part pays attention to an exploration of the readiness of the parties to accept an alternative to the conventional wisdom of political negotiation methodology, through selected ideas drawn from complexity theory. These mainly include ideas from systems thinking notably the concept of leverage points, supported by several other aspects of complexity. The evidence-base for the thesis leads to the core argument that the elements of reductionism, linearity and sequential approach to political negotiations between 2008 and 2014 period, together with strong psychological dimension embedded in the psyche of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on both sides of the island, penetrated the system of political negotiations and is a major obstacle preventing the sides reaching settlement. Further, employment of a political elitist formula into the system of negotiations produced additional obstacles to negotiations, as it became clear from the interviews that both the Greek and Turkish civil society on Cyprus were not involved in the process of negotiations which led to a lack of momentum being achieved. In terms of original knowledge, the contribution of the research identifies reductionism and linearity in the system of the political negotiations as a likely cause of stalemate. The thesis introduces ideas from complexity theory, notably fractal and systems thinking theories that offer an alternative interpretation and approach, which appeared to attract the interest of practitioners as a feasible and innovative way of facilitating political negotiations. A major awareness while undertaking the research was the unknown elements, which may be termed ‘political will’ that run beneath the surface of the conflict in Cyprus.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation & Innovation Centre (ECIC), 201