Beyond Economic Instruments - Social Capital, Governance and Rural Institutional Innovation

Economic instruments, or market based instruments try to bring market advantages to social dilemma situations, where private actions do not lead to socially optimal outcomes. Economic instruments try to redress such market failure. They try to create incentives for firms and individuals to act in the public interest. Such situations can be regarded as ‘social dilemma’. An alternative mechanism to solve social dilemma is to use cooperation amongst individuals, by facilitating and utilising social capital. The use of social capital is remains largely underexplored as a policy option, although this trend is changing, most notably in European rural development. Using evidence from research conducted on agricultural and rural institutions in central and Eastern Europe, where extreme institutional change was caused by political shocks to the system, it is argued that policy is best directed at stimulating institutional innovation, through social capital formation. There are lessons applicable to problems evident in rural New Zealand.social capital, institutions, governance, central and eastern Europe, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Political Economy,

Regional Councils in the Creation of Social Capital

Regional Councils are primarily responsible for environmental management, as specified in the Resource Management Act (RMA), 1991. The Local Government Act 2002 has an integrative component, requiring consideration of social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of their communities. These two Acts are interesting, as their combination is shaping new governance structures within New Zealand. Different types of policy instruments are available to Regional Councils while carrying out their functions: regulatory, economic and voluntary. The 1990s are characterized by ‘first generation Plans’ of the RMA, which were highly rule focused. In the 2000s a marked shift occurred, mainstreaming ‘community’ and participative approaches to policy. This increased levels of trust between communities and the Regional Councils, and can be seen as building blocks in the formation of social capital. Where rules were not achieving particular policy objectives, interesting new hybrid forms of governance emerged. This paper looks at these newly-formed partnership approaches in New Zealand. The paper traces the emergence of partnerships as a collective form of action, and analyses them from an economic governance perspective. In so doing, the fundamental role of social capital is explained, as a rational economic concept. Regional Councils are centrally placed to anchor partnerships and strengthen their formation, hence strengthening social networks within the regions. The issue of riparian management is explored as a case study to inform how this could occur.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Turning people into couch potatoes is not the cure for sports concussion

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Social capital and cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe: a theoretical perspective

"The transition process in central and eastern Europe (CEE) had a profound effect on how individuals interact. Economic and social institutions have changed, requiring an adaptation process by individuals in the move toward a market economy. How each individual accesses, manipulates and uses their networks will determine the use of their social capital. Within CEE, there is a presumption of low levels of social capital. This paper was written as a conceptual framework for a research project entitled 'Integrated Development of Agricultural and Rural Institutions' (IDARI) in CEE countries. One element of the IDARI project is to understand the emergence and maintenance of cooperative behaviour in light of rural restructuring and institutional change in CEE. A link exists between social capital formation and cooperation amongst individuals, as both concepts imply social interaction and the formation of trust. This paper questions the rationale of applying the contested 'western' concept of social capital to CEE countries. It argues that although the concept was developed to understand processes within established democratic systems, it nevertheless is instrumental for analysing how trust is formed, and for understanding cooperation amongst individuals. As such, this framework reconciles literature from sociological and economic disciplines. Social networks and use of those networks (social capital) is becoming more important in light of accession to the EU, particularly when opportunities within and access to rural and regional development programmes are dependent on existing networks. Social capital is seen as a dynamic entity, a form of institutional change, which leads to innovation in the existing governance structures. Thus social capital provides a powerful explanatory tool for processes of institutional change." (author's abstract

Green Jobs: Potential in the Auckland Region

The move to a more sustainable economy requires us to rethink how our current economy and society operates within a dynamic environmental and cultural setting. The concept of 'green jobs' is a relatively new means of classifying jobs with environmentally beneficial outcomes, and a methodology was developed under a joint project o f the United Nations Environment Programme, International Labour Organisation and International Trade Union Confederate in 2008 to measure green jobs. Employment indicators show the type o f activities within an economy, they link industry and businesses to communities and individuals. Tracking employment shifts across industries and sectors reveal structural changes in an economy's composition. Tracing business and workers' practices within those industries reveal changes in behaviour - toward more sustainable practices or otherwise. This paper explores the concept of green jobs and its relevance to the Auckland labour market. It measures the number of green jobs in the Auckland region, using a regional input-output model of the Auckland economy. This is the first attempt in using this methodology to quantify green jobs

Exploring the impact of organisational and environmental factors on the behaviour of English universities

The thesis explores how environmental and organisational factors impact the organisational behaviour of English universities. Drawing on post-war higher education literature the organisational characteristics of universities and the environmental pressures they have been subject to over the last fifty years are described. A case study of an English university covering the same period was undertaken to illustrate how the organisational and environmental changes faced by the sector affected a particular organisation and how the way it responded to external pressures changed during that time. The case study was analysed according to a theoretical framework, drawn from Neo-Institutionalism and Resource Dependency theory, which seeks to understand how the internal and external contexts of organisations interact and influence the way in which they respond to pressure to change.The results of the literature review and case study demonstrated that, as institutional-organisations, universities are primarily concerned with achieving legitimacy (rather than maximising resources) and that for cultural and structural reasons they are inherently resistant to changing their strategies and behaviours. The case study results indicated that traditional universities are likely to be prompted to change when compelled to respond to external/environmental pressures. When faced with significant environmental pressure they may begin to adopt behaviours associated with production-organisations which challenge and erode academic autonomy and the traditional university model of ‘academic self-government’, but can result in improved performance in terms of revenue generation and institutional outcomes in Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) reviews and research selectivity exercises.The results of the case study informed the development of a model that can be used to plot the organisational-type/level of environmental dependence of organisations and predict the behavioral traits that they are likely to adopt

Creative movement and the learning disabled child

The purpose of this paper was to answer the researcher\u27s questions related to creative movement. These included: 1) Can creative movement be justified as a useful tool in the curriculum for children with learning disabilities? 2) What research has been done regarding the use of creative movement in the classroom? 3) How can creative movement be used to develop various curriculum areas? 4) What are some possible suggestions or creative movement activities that can be applied by the teacher of children with learning disabilities? This purpose was achieved through reading books, portions of books, and research articles selected in accordance with the preceding questions. Research materials were reviewed and summarized, and the writer was able to draw resulting conclusions

Genetic and Biochemical Analyses of the Flaviviridae Capsid Proteins

The small, enveloped viruses of the family Flaviviridae are etiological agents of numerous important human and agricultural diseases including hepatitis C, yellow fever, and bovine viral diarrhea. Efficient dissemination of these viruses is dependent on the production of infectious particles, thought to arise by budding of the capsid protein and associated genomic RNA through a host cell-derived lipid membrane outfitted with envelope glycoproteins. The process of virion morphogenesis is not well understood, but the presumed involvement of numerous viral and cellular components makes it an attractive target for novel therapeutic drug design. To investigate the early events of Flaviviridae particle assembly, we examined the properties of a major virion structural component, the viral capsid proteins. Biochemical analysis of the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) capsid protein revealed a remarkably flexible molecule, capable of binding RNA with low affinity and low specificity in vitro. The ability of BVDV capsid to functionally replace a nonspecific RNA condensing sequence in vivo suggests a mechanism for its role in virion assembly. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) propagation in tissue culture has very recently become possible, allowing the role of the capsid (core) protein in the authentic viral life cycle to be studied for the first time. We performed a comprehensive deletion and mutational analysis of the HCV core protein, confirming its importance for infectious virus production and identifying numerous residues essential for this activity. Interestingly, investigation of the virion building blocks converged on a group of nonstructural proteins that may engineer the assembly process. The infectivity of several defective HCV core mutants could be rescued by compensatory mutations in p7, NS2, and NS3, adding to accumulating evidence that these nonstructural proteins are important for virion morphogenesis. The functional determinants of an analogous BVDV protein, uncleaved NS2-3, in infectious virus production were examined. These studies of the Flaviviridae capsid proteins provide insights into the mechanisms of viral genome packaging and highlight the importance of nonstructural accessory factors in the initial steps of infectious particle assembly

Balancing financial growth and social aims in a third sector mental health charity

The charitable sector in the UK has grown significantly the last 20 years it is now worth billions of pounds per annum. Those charities that are funded by public sector finance are those that have seen the biggest growth. Public sector funders, such as local authorities and the National Health Service have increasingly seen the financial benefits of sub-contracting key elements of their services. They are able to sub-contract to specialist providers, measure and manage the impact of these organisations and control costs. Mental Health Care and Support is worth an estimated £7 Billion per year and 80% of this funding is sub-contracted to specialist providers, many of whom are charities or third sector organisations. Inevitably as funding opportunities became available, entrepreneurial third sector organisations grew and developed to maximise their chances of securing funding. These charities, also known as not-for-profit organisations have increasingly been expected to become more professional, applying traditional business techniques in order to be accepted as a sub-contractor. They have had to adapt and change their services to secure business in a competitive environment. This study examines how this need to grow, to come professional, creates new and innovative services is balanced with the desire to stay organisations that have a set of core social aims at their heart. It will consider how possible it is to grow into a multi-million pound organisation while still staying true to the desire to offer care and support. The study focuses on mental health charity Making Space

Evaluating Large Language Model Creativity from a Literary Perspective

This paper assesses the potential for large language models (LLMs) to serve as assistive tools in the creative writing process, by means of a single, in-depth case study. In the course of the study, we develop interactive and multi-voice prompting strategies that interleave background descriptions (scene setting, plot elements), instructions that guide composition, samples of text in the target style, and critical discussion of the given samples. We qualitatively evaluate the results from a literary critical perspective, as well as from the standpoint of computational creativity (a sub-field of artificial intelligence). Our findings lend support to the view that the sophistication of the results that can be achieved with an LLM mirrors the sophistication of the prompting