Conceptualizing new forms of volunteering in urban governance

This article argues that developments in the spheres of the state, the market, and the community have changed their boundaries, affecting volunteering in urban governance. Shifts in the division of tasks between the state and community have led to a new form of manufactured volunteering, while technological developments have made it easier to bridge trust gaps, resulting in platform volunteering. Moreover, business organizations pursuing public goals and using public resources have created a new form of economic volunteering. Thus, three illustrative cases are used to explore these new forms of volunteering and their main strengths and weaknesses. These new forms challenge traditional conceptions of volunteering work and the ideal-typical role model of “the volunteer.”</p

Creating change in government to address the social determinants of health: how can efforts be improved?

Background - The evidence base for the impact of social determinants of health has been strengthened considerably in the last decade. Increasingly, the public health field is using this as a foundation for arguments and actions to change government policies. The Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach, alongside recommendations from the 2010 Marmot Review into health inequalities in the UK (which we refer to as the ‘Fairness Agenda’), go beyond advocating for the redesign of individual policies, to shaping the government structures and processes that facilitate the implementation of these policies. In doing so, public health is drawing on recent trends in public policy towards ‘joined up government’, where greater integration is sought between government departments, agencies and actors outside of government. Methods - In this paper we provide a meta-synthesis of the empirical public policy research into joined up government, drawing out characteristics associated with successful joined up initiatives. - We use this thematic synthesis as a basis for comparing and contrasting emerging public health interventions concerned with joined-up action across government. Results - We find that HiAP and the Fairness Agenda exhibit some of the characteristics associated with successful joined up initiatives, however they also utilise ‘change instruments’ that have been found to be ineffective. Moreover, we find that – like many joined up initiatives – there is room for improvement in the alignment between the goals of the interventions and their design. Conclusion - Drawing on public policy studies, we recommend a number of strategies to increase the efficacy of current interventions. More broadly, we argue that up-stream interventions need to be ‘fit-for-purpose’, and cannot be easily replicated from one context to the next

Stability by change – the changing public-private mix in social welfare provision in China and the Netherlands

The topic of social welfare provision is currently drawing a lot of attention in both the Netherlands and China. Both governments are considering a new division between the responsibilities of the state, the individual citizen and the market. Both countries find themselves having to develop new socially and financially sustainable systems of social welfare provision. From the angle of the public-private mix, this article seeks to discuss the institutional evolution of systems of social welfare provision in the Netherlands and China, with a focus on health care, social housing and pension provision/elderly care. The public-private mix refers to four distinguishable ‘levels’ which can be identified in the public-private dimension: systems, organizations, partnerships and values. Despite the cultural differences, the long history of a mixed public – private tradition in the Netherlands could prove a source of inspiration in the Chinese context in several different ways. Firstly, the combination of an active government and an active private sector (civil society and private companies). Secondly, a welfare system that is highly regulated by the government. And thirdly a bottom-up approach, which favours negotiations and puts more emphasis on the processes, and in which projects take longer to plan and execute but that also creates support and legitimacy

Influência das configurações organizacionais sobre valores no trabalho e preferências por recompensa

O artigo tem como objetivo identificar as similaridades e diferenças nos valores relacionados ao trabalho e preferências por recompensa entre diferentes configurações organizacionais, especificamente organizações privadas, públicas e de contextos mistos ou híbridos. Tendo como base pesquisa realizada no Brasil por Tamayo e Gondim (1996) sobre os valores e nos Estados Unidos por Wittmer (1991) sobre preferências por recompensa, as variáveis de interesse relacionaram-se a quatro categorias de valores associados ao trabalho: i) eficácia/eficiência, ii) sistema de gestão organizacional, iii) respeito ao empregado e iv) preferências por recompensa. O procedimento analítico adotado foi o da comparação das distribuições para os grupos, em cada categoria de análise, usando a análise da variância e confirmação pelo teste não paramétrico de Kruskal-Wallis. Foram encontradas diferenças significativas no nível de 5% apenas para dois itens relacionados à categoria sistema de gestão organizacional (respeito aos níveis de autoridade e à hierarquia, e cumprimento das tarefas dentro dos padrões da organização) para as respostas dos três grupos. Em relação à categoria preferências por recompensa, os resultados contrariam aqueles obtidos por Wittmer (1991) no contexto americano