Professional Associations, Power and the Building of Electronic Prescription Systems

In this paper we pull together an analysis of power with an analysis of the agency of a Professional Association of Pharmacists in the building of an electronic prescription (EP) system. We frame our analysis of the building process of an EP system in terms of power from the perspective of the pharmacists collective, and particularly, from the perspective of the Catalan Professional Association of Pharmacists (CPAP). What concerns us in this paper is the role of the CPAP in structuring the field of other’s action –namely, community pharmacies which are members of the CPAP and the Catalan Health Service– during the building process. From this perspective, we study power not only in the CPAP’s capacity to influence others through the control of resources that others need, but also in the field of relations that characterize a power arena and in the effect of the ordering work performed by the CPAP. By examining the case from the lens of the circuits of power we identify two kinds of interventions from the CPAP –conservative and transformative–, and distinguish them based on the circuit of power they active and the use of IT they make

Empowerment of School Committees and Parents in Tanzania: Delineating Existence of Opportunity, Its Use and Impact on School Decisions

Since the end of the twentieth century, public administration systems in developing countries have undergone significant transformation. This comes as a result of the global shift from centralized to decentralized political, fiscal and administrative systems. Through such transformation, governments seek to empower people at the grassroots level and to improve service delivery in all sectors. This dissertation examines the empowerment of school committees and parents in school governance, focusing on the sub-sector of primary education in Tanzania. In particular, it accomplishes three key goals: First, it delineates the empowerment of school committees and parents using Alsop and Heinsohn’s (2005) and Alsop et al.s’ (2006) three-level framework for measuring empowerment. The three levels are the Degree of Existence of Opportunity (DEO) for people at the grassroots level to participate in decision making, the Degree of Use of the Opportunity (DUO) and the Degree Of Impact (DOI) that the use of opportunity has on the decisions made by a school. Second, the dissertation determines factors affecting the empowerment of school committees in Tanzania. As for the third goal, the dissertation suggests important policy issues to be addressed for increasing the empowerment of people at the grassroots level in school governance. The study from which this work is written was carried out in 2012 and 2013 in seven purposefully selected districts/municipalities in Tanzania. The study employed a mixed methods approach. 214 members of school committees and 96 non-members from 101 schools answered a survey questionnaire. Additionally, 17 in-depth interviews with education officials, teachers and parents were conducted. As a follow-up to the emerging issues from the survey, the study also involved two focus-group discussions (one each) with parents and members of school committees. The survey data were analysed quantitatively through the comparison of means, independent sample t-tests, correlation analysis and multiple-linear regression analysis, all of which are presented in the dissertation mainly through tabulation. The data from interviews and focus groups were analysed through content analysis and are presented here in narrative form