Networks Within Cities and Among Cities: A Paradigm for Urban Development and Governance

Networks and networking have become fashionable concepts and terms in regional science, and in particular in regional and urban geography in the last decade: we speak about network firms, network society, network economy but also network cities, city-networks, reti urbane, reseaux de villes. Only catch-words for somebody; a true new scientific paradigm according to others. Our opinion is that in fact we are confronted with a new paradigm in spatial sciences, under some precise conditions: - that its exact meaning is thoroughly defined, - that its theoretical economic rationale is justified, - that the novelty of its empirical content is clearly pointed out, with respect to more traditional spatial facts and processes that can easily be interpreted through existing spatial paradigms. The relevant theoretical building block on which the network concept or paradigm may be constructed are: - a new view of the economy as a system or web of links between individuals, firms and institutions, where links depend on experience and evolve through learning processes; the existing endowment of knowledge and other production factors is put into value through a relational capability addressed towards the exchange and collection of information, building reputation and trust, creating synergies, cutting down uncertainty, boosting learning processes; - the acknowledgement of cooperation as a new organisational and behavioural form, intermediate between hierarchy (internal development and merging of external activities through direct control) and market resort; cooperation networks among firms collaborating with each other on technological advances and innovation projects were the earlier phenomena that were abundantly explored in the past. In a spatial perspective, two phenomena in particular are worth exploring today through the network concept: - networking as cooperation among individuals, firms and institutions taking place inside the cities concerning collective action, public/private partnerships on large urban projects and the supply of public goods, and giving rise to new forms of urban governance; - networking as inter-urban cooperation, assuming the cities as economic actors, competing but also cooperating in the global arena where locations of internationally mobile factors (professionals, corporations, institutions) are decided and negotiated. The paper is organised in the following way: - a major section is devoted to the interpretation of the micro-economic efficiency of local networking (local urban networks), in terms of the usual criteria of optimal allocation of resources and collective welfare, viewing the network as an organisational alternative between market failure and state failure; - a transition section deals with the interpretation of cities, a collective actor at best, as individual/unitary economic actors, given the case for collective action among interest groups, the possibility of defining in broad terms a function of collective preference referring to non-mobile local actors, the engagement of public and private actors in processes of strategic planning and definition of shared visions for the future of the city vis-a-vis mobile actors; - another main section interprets competition and cooperation among cities (inter-city-networks) underlining advantages, risks and conditions for maximising overall comprehensive well-being. JEL classification: D70, H77, R58

Strategy for Collaboration: An Operational Framework for Local Strategic Partnerships

Within the field of strategy for organisations, local strategic partnerships (LSPs) have emerged as important forms of collaborative arrangement that enables strategic decisions to be taken and implemented. The principal aim of this paper is to contribute to this subject area through the framework of collaborative strategy. The framework is used as an interpretative concept for understanding the operation of local strategic partnerships in urban regeneration, in particular their organisational structure. The research on this paper draws on information from empirical investigation on LSPs in Leicester, East Midlands. Using a mixture of interviews, observation, and documentary data, the research shows that the concept of collaborative strategy provides a useful tool for understanding partnership working. In this respect it constitutes an example of management research education and – why not – organisational success despite evidence of some dysfunctional aspects that were identified through the research

Paradise Lost Revisited: GM and the UAW in Historical Perspective

Purpose Analysis of historic relationship between GM and Union of Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1936 through the moment of bankruptcy of GM in 2009. How can this historic relationship be explained from the viewpoint of evolving labor and industrial relations in the US? Design/methodology/approach Historical and comparative analyses. Secondary analysis. Findings Over time the relationship has been a dynamic and flexible one. In the first decades the most important objective of the UAW was the recognition of the union by GM. From the second half of the 1940s until the 1970s the main attention of both parties shifted towards a dynamic wage policy. Finally, from the 1970s onwards the safeguarding of job security became the main objective of the UAW, whereas GM tried to maximize its room of maneuver to transform its Fordist production system into a more flexible one. Research limitations/implications The present study provides a starting point for further in-depth research towards the historic relationship between GM & the UAW. Originality/value Longitudinal approach of development of labor-management relationship between two opposite parties in differing economic and technological contexts

Deriving Information Requirements from Responsibility Models

This paper describes research in understanding the requirements for complex information systems that are constructed from one or more generic COTS systems. We argue that, in these cases, behavioural requirements are largely defined by the underlying system and that the goal of the requirements engineering process is to understand the information requirements of system stakeholders. We discuss this notion of information requirements and propose that an understanding of how a socio-technical system is structured in terms of responsibilities is an effective way of discovering this type of requirement. We introduce the idea of responsibility modelling and show, using an example drawn from the domain of emergency planning, how a responsibility model can be used to derive information requirements for a system that coordinates the multiple agencies dealing with an emergency

Multi-agency training and the artist (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/032)

The Multi-Agency Team Project approached issues of multi-agency training indirectly by using an artist as a catalyst in a group exercise examining movement and sound in relation to early childhood. The aim of the research was to run an experiential non-traditional training programme based on using an artist as a catalyst to promote inter-agency dialogue in one setting, Woodlands Park Nursery and Children’s Centre, and to analyse the findings. Eleven participants used this common experiential focus to frame collective research both as a focus group and as individual fieldworkers. The research demonstrated shared professional discourse but also collected judgements relevant to policy issues based on collaborative professional reflection triggered by the exercise. The findings are presented theoretically in terms of critical discourse analysis using the interpretation-supporting software ATLASti. We next take a further look at the role play exercise in which the group constituted itself as a ‘House of Commons Select Committee’ before summarizing what theoretical insights might be brought to bear and attempting to draw some provisional conclusions. Some evidence is presented suggesting there is a degree of tension and ambiguity between alterative models of multi-agency working

Building bridges between doctors and patients: the design and pilot evaluation of a training session in argumentation for chronic pain experts

Shared decision-making requires doctors to be competent in exchanging views with patients to identify the appropriate course of action. In this paper we focus on the potential of a course in argumentation as a promising way to empower doctors in presenting their viewpoints and addressing those of patients. Argumentation is the communication process in which the speaker, through the use of reasons, aims to convince the interlocutor of the acceptability of a viewpoint. The value of argumentation skills for doctors has been addressed in the literature. Yet, there is no research on what a course on argumentation might look like. In this paper, we present the content and format of a training session in argumentation for doctors and discuss some insights gained from a pilot study that examined doctors' perceived strengths and limitations vis-à-vis this training

Pest activity prognosis in rice fields using fuzzy expert system approach

Logik kabur merupakan satu bentuk perwakilan pengetahuan bagi konsep yang tak dapat ditakrifkan secara tepat tetapi bergantung kepada konteks penggunaannya. Sistem Pakar adalah program komputer yang menggunakan pengetahuan manusia untuk menyelesaikan masalah khusus yang memerlukan kepintaran manusia. Oleh kerana pengetahuan yang terlibat dalam pengurusan serangga adalah tidak lengkap dan kabur, maka logik kabur diintegrasikan ke dalam sistem pakar untuk mengendalikan penaksiran anggaran. Sistem Pakar dan Logik Kabur mempunyai kelebihannya tersendiri dan gabungan kedua-dua teknologi yang membentuk sistem pakar-kabur dapat meningkatkan keupayaan sistem (Herrmann, 1996). Berdasarkan keupayaan logik kabur dan sistem pakar, peramalan aktiviti serangga di sawah padi menggunakan pendekatan pakar-kabur telah dibangunkan untuk menyediakan maklumat kepada petani dan penyelidik melalui Internet. Oleh kerana beras merupakan makanan ruji rakyat Malaysia dan Kedah merupakan kawasan utama penanaman padi di Malaysia, kajian ini memfokuskan kepada aktiviti serangga di sawah padi. Dalam MyPEST, jenis serangga yang mengakibatkan kerosakan pada tanaman padi ditentukan oleh sistem pakar, manakala Logik Kabur digunakan untuk meramalkan tahap aktiviti serangga. Ixii penting supaya rawatan awal dapat dilakukan sebelum kerosakan bertambah buruk. Sistem MyPEST membantu pengguna dengan mengendalikan rundingan pakar yang dikawalselia oleh sistem pakar dan logik kabur untuk peramalan dan menguruskan ketidakpastian data menggunakan pembolehubah lingistik. Sistem berasaskan web ini juga membantu petani dan institusi pertanian untuk menguruskan ladang dengan cekap dan dapat meningkatkan kualiti serta kuantiti beras yang dihasilkan. Dalam kajian ini, proses peramalan menggunakan lebih daripada satu attribut telah dikaji. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan sekiranya lebih daripada satu atribut terlibat, graf keputusan 3-dimensi yang kurang tegar dihasilkan. Penentuan jenis serangga adalah dalam fasa pertama MyPEST dan diikuti oleh peramalan aktiviti serangga yang dikenalpasti. Sistem ini telah disemak oleh pakar serangga di MARDi dan disahkan membawa manfaat kepada penyelidik di MARDI, MADA dan DOA khususnya dan petani secara keseluruhan