Rethinking network governance: new forms of analysis and the implications for IGR/MLG

Our position is that network governance can be understood as a communicative arena. Networks, then, are not defined by frequency of interactions between actors but by sharing of and contest between different clusters of ideas, theories and normative orientations (discourses) in relation to the specific context within which actors operate. A discourse comprises an ensemble of ideas, concepts and causal theories that give meaning to and reproduce ways of understanding the world (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999). Consequently, network governance can be understood as the inherently political process through which discourses are produced, reproduced and transformed. Democratic network governance thus becomes the study of the way in which the core challenges of democratic practice are addressed – how is legitimacy awarded, by what mechanisms are decisions reached, and how is accountability enabled. Three approaches to the discursive analysis of democracy in network governance are considered - argumentation analysis, inter-subjectivity, and critical discourse analysis – and their implications for the study of intergovernmental relations and multi-level governance (IGR/MLG) are discussed. Case examples are provided. We conclude that the value for the study of MLG/IGR is to complement existing forms of analysis by opening up the communicative and ideational aspects of interactions between levels of government and other actors

Beyond the Berlin Wall? Investigating joint commissioning and its various meanings using a Q methodology approach

Joint commissioning has been extensively alluded to in English health and social care policy as a way of improving services and outcomes. Yet there is a lack of specificity pertaining to what joint commissioning actually is and what success would look like. In this paper we adopt a Q methodology approach to understand the different meanings of joint commissioning that those involved in these arrangements hold. In doing so we get beyond the more orthodox interpretations of joint commissioning found in the literature although the appeal of joint commissioning as a ‘good thing’ is still prominent across these accounts

Health and social care commissioning: an exploration of processes, services and outcomes. Final report.

It is suggested that public sector organisations should work together more effectively to deliver the best services. In recent years this notion of partnership-working has been stressed in terms of the joint commissioning of services. Commissioning is the activity that decides of the services to be provided to local populations and who shall provide and pay for them. The concept of joint commissioning is used here to describe the ways in which health and social care agencies work together to determine this. There is little evidence which describes either the processes or provides clear messages about outcomes it produces. This project proposes an approach which builds on previous experience of evaluating public sector collaborative activities to investigate ways in which joint commissioning operates and the types of outcomes these processes produce for service users. The approach proposed incorporates a range of stakeholders, but in particular front-line staff members and service users within the case-study areas, a factor which has been lacking in previous evaluations. The project aims to produce practical knowledge about the types of joint commissioning activities taking place in England and the outcomes this produces - with the aim that these practical lessons may provide useful learning for other health and social care communities

GPs and paediatric oncology palliative care: a Q methodological study

Objective This mixed-methods study set in the West Midlands region of the UK demonstrates the effectiveness of Q methodology in examining general practitioners' (GPs') perception of their role in children's oncology palliative care. Methods Using data obtained from the analysis of semistructured interviews with GPs who had cared for a child receiving palliative care at home and bereaved parents, 50 statements were identified as representative of the analysis findings. 32 GPs with a non-palliative child with cancer on their caseload were asked to rank the statements according to their level of agreement/disagreement on a grid. They were then asked to reflect and comment on the statements they most and least agreed with. The data were analysed using a dedicated statistical software package for Q analysis PQMethod V.2.20 (Schmolck 2012). A centroid factor analysis was undertaken initially with 7 factors then repeated for factors 1–6. Varimax and manual flagging was then completed. Results 4 shared viewpoints were identified denoting different GP roles: the GP, the compassionate practitioner, the team player practitioner and the pragmatic practitioner. In addition consensus (time pressures, knowledge deficits, emotional toll) and disagreement (psychological support, role, experiential learning, prior relationships) between the viewpoints were identified and examined. Conclusions Q methodology, used for the first time in this arena, identified 4 novel and distinct viewpoints reflecting a diverse range of GP perspectives. Appropriately timed and targeted GP education, training, support, in conjunction with collaborative multiprofessional working, have the potential to inform their role and practice across specialities.</p

Public Managers, Media Influence, and Governance: Three Research Traditions Empirically Explored

Nowadays, media and media logic have become important and inherent elements in everyday practices of public administration and policy making. However, the logic of the media is often very different from, and conflicting with, the logic of political and administrative life. So the question of how public managers experience and deal with media attention is more relevant than ever. An analytical sketch of the literature on the relationship between public managers and media provides three main categories of literature (public relations, agenda, and mediatization tradition). These three categories are used to develop statements (so-called Q-sort statements) to capture the way public managers experience thei

Comparative Analysis of Teleost Genome Sequences Reveals an Ancient Intron Size Expansion in the Zebrafish Lineage

We have developed a bioinformatics pipeline for the comparative evolutionary analysis of Ensembl genomes and have used it to analyze the introns of the five available teleost fish genomes. We show our pipeline to be a powerful tool for revealing variation between genomes that may otherwise be overlooked with simple summary statistics. We identify that the zebrafish, Danio rerio, has an unusual distribution of intron sizes, with a greater number of larger introns in general and a notable peak in the frequency of introns of approximately 500 to 2,000 bp compared with the monotonically decreasing frequency distributions of the other fish. We determine that 47% of D. rerio introns are composed of repetitive sequences, although the remainder, over 331 Mb, is not. Because repetitive elements may be the origin of the majority of all noncoding DNA, it is likely that the remaining D. rerio intronic sequence has an ancient repetitive origin and has since accumulated so many mutations that it can no longer be recognized as such. To study such an ancient expansion of repeats in the Danio, lineage will require further comparative analysis of fish genomes incorporating a broader distribution of teleost lineages