Comments on the Research Report on the Town & Country Planning Bill

This is a critique of the structure and contents of the research report concerning the Bhutan Town & Country Planning Bill

Reflections on Foucauldian Discource Analysis in Planning and Environmental Research

YesDiscourse analysis is becoming an increasingly common approach in planning and environmental policy research. This paper asserts that the generic treatment of discourse analysis obscures distinct approaches where `discourses¿ can combine different elements of text, systems of thought, and action. Textually-oriented approaches have been more prevalent over the 1990s but this paper explores a different approach, grounded in the theory of Michel Foucault, which broadens discourse to embrace social action. Comparing and contrasting two studies which have utilised this approach, the paper suggests that there is considerable room for variation concerning the subjects of study, the institutional scale of analyses, the methods of investigation, and process of analysis. Nevertheless, this paper identifies certain core elements of a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach. The paper concludes that this emerging approach to discourse analysis promises considerable insights if applied more widely in planning and environmental research

Why Mass Media Matter to Planning Research: The Case of Megaprojects

This article asks how planning scholarship may effectively gain impact in planning practice through media exposure. In liberal democracies the public sphere is dominated by mass media. Therefore, working with such media is a prerequisite for effective public impact of planning research. Using the example of megaproject planning, it is illustrated how so-called "phronetic planning research," which explicitly incorporates in its methodology active and strategic collaboration with media, may be helpful in generating change in planning practice via the public sphere. Main lessons learned are: (1) Working with mass media is an extremely cost-effective way to increase the impact of planning scholarship on practice; (2) Recent developments in information technology and social media have made impact via mass media even more effective; (3) Research on "tension points," i.e., points of potential conflict, are particularly interesting to media and the public, and are especially likely to generate change in practice; and (4) Tension points bite back; planning researchers should be prepared for, but not afraid of, this

How are Companies Engaging Employees in the Succession Planning Process, and What are the Potential Benefits or Concerns Related to Increased Transparency?

[Excerpt] With today’s movement for a more transparent employee experience in the workplace, it is important that companies engage in succession planning whereby employees are more involved. Employers must be willing to both express an employee’s potential and also work with them to achieve it. The advantages, disadvantages, and consequences of transparency in succession planning are examined. (Note: General research on this topic is limited; strong, explicit international research on succession planning is not available and therefore not provided.

Community-based financing of family planning in developing countries: A systematic review

In this systematic review, we gather evidence on community financing schemes and insurance programs for family planning in developing countries, and we assess the impact of these programs on primary outcomes related to contraceptive use. To identify and evaluate the research findings, we adopt a four‐stage review process that employs a weight‐of‐evidence and risk‐of‐bias analytic approach. Out of 19,138 references that were identified, only four studies were included in our final analysis, and only one study was determined to be of high quality. In the four studies, the evidence on the impact of community‐based financing on family planning and fertility outcomes is inconclusive. These limited and mixed findings suggest that either: 1) more high‐quality evidence on community‐based financing for family planning is needed before any conclusions can be made; or 2) community‐based financing for family planning may, in fact, have little or no effect on family planning outcomes.Funding from the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), a cosponsored program executed by the World Health Organization, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank members of the WHO technical working group on financing family planning for their valuable comments. In addition, the authors thank Iqbal Shah for his support throughout the review process and for his technical guidance on this manuscript. (UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP); World Health Organization)Published versio

Facilitating professional engagement with planning research

The context for this project is the limited connectivity between applied planning research and professional planning practice. The planning profession, by its very nature, is continually developing plans, policies and strategies to guide place-based management and development. An assumption guiding the research is that sound evidence is useful if not essential to inform good planning practice. This assumption does not hold for all planning practice - statutory planning and other policy implementation activities are, for example, largely informed by existing policy frameworks. However, in most strategic planning or policy development contexts (including statutory reform), an argument for the relevance of an evidence base can be made. While not all research aims to directly inform practice – such as research of a conceptual or theoretical nature – there is a significant amount of applied urban research produced that has discernible implications for policy and practice. Unfortunately, much of the research base that could inform and improve professional planning practice is difficult to access. There are also other barriers to knowledge exchange, including limited professional engagement with research outputs; and limited or poorly tailored research outputs for a professional audience. This project aims to provide recommendations on how to better connect Australian urban planning practice to the evidence base within urban planning research outputs. To do so the project explores barriers to, and opportunities for, better connecting professional planning practice with applied planning research

PDDL2.1: An extension of PDDL for expressing temporal planning domains

In recent years research in the planning community has moved increasingly towards application of planners to realistic problems involving both time and many types of resources. For example, interest in planning demonstrated by the space research community has inspired work in observation scheduling, planetary rover ex ploration and spacecraft control domains. Other temporal and resource-intensive domains including logistics planning, plant control and manufacturing have also helped to focus the community on the modelling and reasoning issues that must be confronted to make planning technology meet the challenges of application. The International Planning Competitions have acted as an important motivating force behind the progress that has been made in planning since 1998. The third competition (held in 2002) set the planning community the challenge of handling time and numeric resources. This necessitated the development of a modelling language capable of expressing temporal and numeric properties of planning domains. In this paper we describe the language, PDDL2.1, that was used in the competition. We describe the syntax of the language, its formal semantics and the validation of concurrent plans. We observe that PDDL2.1 has considerable modelling power --- exceeding the capabilities of current planning technology --- and presents a number of important challenges to the research community

National Culture\u27s Impact on Effectiveness of Supply Chain Disruption Management

The purpose of this research is to understand the national cultural antecedents that may help explain differences in supply chain disruptions mitigation abilities of companies from different countries. An analysis of survey data on disruption planning and response collected from various organizations worldwide was performed using weighted least square regression and factor analysis. We find that culture influences disruption planning and response. Statistical findings suggest that differences in disruption planning and response abilities between companies from different countries could be partly attributed to national culture. All five Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture, i.e., Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation were shown to have a significant positive effect on disruption planning and response. National cultural dimensions and economic status of a country could be effectively used to predict disruption planning and response abilities of companies in various countries. Managers could benefit from our research as it could help them assess disruptions mitigation abilities of their partners located in other countries. Increasing international trade and globalization of supply chains accentuate the importance of our research

Evaluation of strategic information systems planning (SISP) techniques: Driver perspective

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) literature reviews with a focus on the global dimension are considered in this research. The paper counters the evaluation of SISP techniques through information system (IS) strategic drivers. These techniques can be vital contributors in the IS strategy (ISS) designing process. Therefore, categorisation of the techniques of ISS planning will be developed. Keeping in mind the global dimension, the planning team needs to identify how it can cluster an organization’s ISS drivers. This may be achieved by analysing the drivers that can have an effect on IS for the organization, which may support categorisation of drivers against techniques being classified to understand which are needed to fit specific drivers. The contribution of this research is the taxonomy of SISP techniques, with a case study for X international airlines. This classification can benefit evaluation of the ISS planning processes to support decision-makers through the planning process