Governance: public governance to social innovation?

ArticleThis paper reviews governance and public governance related to an emerging area of policy interest – social innovation. The European Commission’s White Paper on European Governance (2001) focused on openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence in public policy as characteristics of good governance. The EC has prioritised social innovation to address policy problems. Yet, the extant literature and research on social innovation is sparse. The paper questions whether it is a new mode of governance which contributes to good governance or a continuum of neoliberal reforms of the state which alters the relationship between the state, market and civil society

An Iterative Approach to Building Sustainable Repository Services on Fedora

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-05-19 10:00 AM – 11:30 AMNorthwestern University Library is engaged in a multiyear project to implement a robust digital repository on Fedora. Building a system that accommodates richly heterogeneous collections, empowers professional staff engaged in a variety of production workflows, and provides access commensurate with the richness materials afford is not achieved all at once. In order to support specific near-term project commitments while building broadly applicable content models and services for the long term, we devised a cyclic three-phase strategy. It is cyclic in that feedback and demand from users will result in revision and expansion of core models, services and associated end-user tools.Institute for Museum and Library Service

Co-governance or meta-bureaucracy? Perspectives of local governance 'partnership' in England and Scotland

This article assesses the nature of partnerships through the research site of local governance in England and Scotland, engaging a range of debates and literature around governance and meta-governance. The research used secondary data of local authority partnership working in England and Scotland as well as primary qualitative data from participant observation and interviews with senior officials of local authorities and partner organisations. There is little to suggest that English and Scottish practices are significantly at variance and the article advances an argument of meta-bureaucracy to describe partnerships' activities: that is to say, partnerships do not represent a growth of autonomous networks and governance arrangements but rather an extension of bureaucratic controls. State actors remain pre-eminent within increasingly formalised systems of 'partnership'

Provider Choice of Quality and Surplus

We study the quality choices of institutional health-care providers, such as hospitals, assuming that the utility function of the key organizational decision-maker includes both quality of care and financial surplus. An increase in the decision-maker’s rate of surplus retention leads to a decrease (increase) in quality if his coefficient of relative risk aversion is less than (greater than) 1, as is likely when the decision-maker faces prosperous (difficult) financial conditions. Such behavior is consistent with "target income behavior," where the target income is surplus sufficient to break even. An increase in productive efficiency always leads the provider to increase quality.

Evaluating Your Progress: A Handbook for End of Award Reporting

This handbook aims to support non-profit organisations in carrying out a self-evaluation process. It describes the areas that should be covered and includes tips and techniques useful in collecting the information required for an end-of-award report. Additional resources are included

A 10-year Study of Factors Associated with Alcohol Treatment Use and Non-use in a U.S. Population Sample

Background This study seeks to identify changes in perceived barriers to alcohol treatment and predictors of treatment use between 1991–92 and 2001–02, to potentially help understand reported reductions in treatment use at this time. Social, economic, and health trends during these 10 years provide a context for the study. Methods Subjects were Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. The data were from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES) and the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). We conducted two analyses that compared the surveys on: 1) perceived treatment barriers for subjects who thought they should get help for their drinking, and 2) variables predicting past-year treatment use in an alcohol use disorder subsample using a multi-group multivariate regression model. Results In the first analysis, those barriers that reflected negative beliefs and fears about seeking treatment as well as perceptions about the lack of need for treatment were more prevalent in 2001–02. The second analysis showed that survey year moderated the relationship between public insurance coverage and treatment use. This relationship was not statistically significant in 1991–92 but was significant and positive in 2001–02, although the effect of this change on treatment use was small. Conclusions Use of alcohol treatment in the U.S. may be affected by a number of factors, such as trends in public knowledge about treatment, social pressures to reduce drinking, and changes in the public financing of treatment

The Effects on Soccer Dribbling Skills When Training With Two Different Sized Soccer Balls

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects, if any, on soccer dribbling skills in children, ages, 8-10, after practicing with different sized soccer balls during the season. The Kansas Youth Soccer Association (KYSA, 2008) and the United States Soccer Association (US Soccer, 2011) recommended that children use smaller sized soccer balls than regulation adult sized soccer balls. As indicated by the associations, the size three ball is recommended for children under 8 (U-8), the size four ball is recommended for children under 12 (U-12), and the size five ball is recommended for children older than 12. Twenty-four recreational soccer players from Kansas participated in the study. The participants were from two different teams. The children were randomly placed on the teams by the league officials, unless parents specifically requested a coach. The Mor-Christian General Soccer Ability Skill Test Battery was used to test soccer dribbling skills (Collins & Hodges, 2001 p. 208). Both teams were timed in a pretest for soccer dribbling skills. Team one, the experimental group, was tested using the size five ball, and team two, the control group, was tested using the size four ball. The pretest was followed by six weeks of practice using their assigned size balls. Practice consisted of 1 hour practices twice a week. At the end of the six weeks program, a posttest was administered to both teams. Data were collected and a t-test was used to analyze the data. The results of this study indicated that there was not a significant difference in dribbling skills between the children in the control group as compared to the children in the experimental group. While the size four ball revealed quicker time results, these numbers were not significant enough to rule out the effect of what would be expected by chance. Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made: 1) ball size does not offset dribbling skills in young soccer players; 2) soccer players 8 to 10 years old should continue to play with the smaller size four ball; and 3) the weight and size of the larger ball may be too cumbersome for young players to control and develop dribbling skills

Music reading activities using pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments and their effect on the general reading comprehension of third-grade students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different music activities on reading comprehension. Ninety-six third-graders (N=96) from an urban primary school were divided into three groups: a pitched group which played l½ octave metallophones reading pitched notation; a rhythm group which played non-pitched classroom percussion instruments reading non-pitched notation; and a control group which sang and reviewed familiar songs. The 24 treatment/control sessions were given by the music specialist/researcher during the first ten minutes of the regular music classes over a three month term. All groups underwent a pretest and posttest using the reading comprehension portion of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests (3rd ed.) (1989), Forms K and L. Statistical analysis was conducted at p\u3c.05. Results indicated that reading comprehension in the control and pitched treatment groups improved significantly in some of the comparisons and not in others. Pitch and gross motor cross-over activities were identified as possible influencing factors. Questions arose concerning how these results would compare with a longer study with more students or with other types of treatments such as a non-music treatment. More study was recommended