101 things to do: unravelling and interpreting community policing

There is a lively and long-running debate in the literature about what community policing is and how it works in everyday practice. We contribute to this expanding body of knowledge by minutely sifting and classifying the things neighbourhood coordinators (a kind of community officers) do in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Our endeavours have resulted in a list of 101 tasks they perform. A ranking of tasks was printed on small plasticized cards, enabling neighbourhood coordinators and their managers to identify core and peripheral tasks. Core tasks include keeping contact with citizens, local safety issues (supervising the neighbourhood, signalling small problems, handling accidents and incidents, and conflict mediation), administrative duties and providing the police team with information. Peripheral tasks mostly take the shape of supportive (managerial) work. In addition, we interviewed neighbourhood coordinators and police ward managers to gain their views on community policing

Wales and The Netherlands: Exploring similarity and difference

Recent decades have seen a growing ‘pluralisation’ of policing providers and authorisers in liberal democracies (Crawford 2003, Johnston and Shearing 2003). Some have interpreted this as part of a major transformation of policing in western liberal democracies that reflects fundamental shifts in the nature of governance (Bayley and Shearing 1996, 2001). Others have stressed continuities with the recent history of policing and the persistence of significant national and local differences in policing structures (Jones and Newburn 2002, Ferret 2004). These discussions have some parallels with wider debates about convergence and divergence in penality and the ways in which structural and cultural shifts influence policy developments across different societies (Garland 2001). We here examine recent changes in policing within two EU countries � Britain and the Netherlands. This paper discusses areas of similarity and difference in plural policing developments, and speculates about what factors might explain these. There is evidence of structural and cultural shifts working to shape policing in similar ways, but also of the mediating influence of distinctive national and local political institutions and cultures. These particular contexts provide possibilities for the resistance and re-shaping of global forces, as well as provide a framework for the emergence of distinct policy innovations

The “hidden strength” of active citizenship: the involvement of local residents in public safety projects

The past two decades or so have seen a growing interest in 'active' (or 'responsible') citizenship within local public safety projects and programmes, but little is known about how such projects function in practice. Besides presenting theoretical debates on community safety projects, this article reports empirical insights into the wealth and variety of informal, citizen-based contributions, specifically to handling communal crime and disorder in Amsterdam, capital city of the Netherlands. Subsequently, it assesses the kind of lessons empirical studies provide about the importance of 'social capital' for public participation, the perils of social exclusion and the nature of relationships between citizens and professionals. It is argued that enthusiastic efforts of individual citizens are equally important, if not more so, than strong social ties. Moreover, in overall terms, active participation tends to have a significant bias in favour of the white, middle-aged, middle-class population. Finally, benevolent citizens regularly encounter professional barriers and bureaucratic ceilings that inhibit their desire to participate. All rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, promoting genuine active citizenship is easier said than done. © The Author(s) 2011

Performance improvement in pharmaceutical R&D through new outsourcing models

The stimulation of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry through outsourcing of research and development (R&D) activities within the drug discovery and development process is analysed. The empirical data were collected through interviews with experts of pharmaceutical companies and service providers between 2002 and 2005. Additionally, in 2008, the outsourcing behaviour of the already interviewed and additional companies was analysed through desk research. The results show that the outsourcing behaviour of traditional and emerging pharmaceutical companies is completely different. Whereas the make-or-buy decisions of traditional companies are mainly competency or know-how driven, that of emerging companies are primarily capacity or cost driven. Nevertheless, for both types of companies the cooperation model of “strategic partnership” offers access to high-level expertise while reducing fixed costs and complexity. Within this model, external providers are temporarily integrated into internal R&D teams and thus able to support R&D projects flexibly and more timely