Governance networks: Interlocking directorships of corporate and nonprofit boards

This study describes the interlocking networks of corporate directors serving on publicly listed corporate boards and those on the boards of nonprofit organizations in Western Australia in 2006. When this study was undertaken, the state was the beneficiary of a booming economy in resource development prior to the global financial crisis, yielding a substantial number of resource companies with their headquarters in Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. Through social network analysis using NetDraw, we trace the extent of interpersonal connections of prominent individuals who serve on these boards in this relatively isolated state in Australia. The network figures demonstrate the inner circle of companies and nonprofits with their interlocking directorships that suggest the growing interpenetration among the state, the market, and civil society. As a result of reduced government funding during the last two decades in Western Australia, nonprofit organizations have had to use market strategies to increase their revenues, which is one factor that has led to this greater interdependence between previously separate groups. Thus, market forces have blurred the boundaries that once separated private companies from nonprofit organizations, increasing the interlocking nature of their board directors

Navigating global-local tensions in accountability/autonomy policies: Comparative case studies in 'Asian' universities

The twin policy domains of accountability and autonomy have featured in recent education reforms in many countries, signalling new relationships between governments and educational institutions. Despite different national and localised contexts, a number of common 'global' trends have been identified. However, simultaneously context-specific differences are also evident. For us, the concept of 'globalisation', when it implies policy homogenisation, is too blunt an instrument to critically analyse these major reforms. We would argue that there are still too few studies on globalisation processes grounded in detailed examinations of particular historical times and geographical spaces. Our research is located within the tensions between global commonalities and localised differences. This paper reports research on changing accountability and autonomy in higher education in three 'Asian' countries. Empirical data has been collected in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Singapore in an attempt to begin to redress a 'Western' hegemony in such research. Within each national context two different types of universities became case study sites for the analysis of both commonalities and differences in accountability and autonomy policies and practices. The current paper focuses in particular on the conceptual and methodological framings of the research and presents some preliminary findings

Book Review: How to run a city like Amazon and other fables edited by Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin, Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw

In How to Run a City like Amazon and Other Fables – available to download here – editors Mark Graham et al offer 38 stories written by academics that utilise speculative fiction to explore how cities might look, feel and function, and the effects on society, economics and politics, if different business models and technologies were applied to the running of cities. The contributors conjure evocative visions of these imagined cities, allowing readers to drop into complex futures that seemingly involve more struggles than improvements, writes Lorenzo De Vidovich

Emotion Work at Work: The Effects of Race and Employment Status on Emotion Management in Women

This study explores the impact of race and employment status on the degree of women’s emotion management. Drawing on Hochschild’s theory of emotional labor and feeling rules as well as Kanter’s theory of tokenism, I hypothesize that nonwhite women as well as employed women will report higher levels of emotion management than white women or unemployed women. I utilize data from the 1996 General Social Survey, due to their special module on emotions from that year. After creating a female-only subset and an Emotion Management Scale, which includes data from several questions from the emotion module, I run a regression analysis controlling for respondents’ age and years of education. Unlike previous qualitative studies, my bivariate and multivariate findings suggest that neither the respondent’s race nor their employment status are significant factors in how they score on the Emotion Management Scale. Even though the hypothesis is not supported, the findings do indicate that the theories still hold validity and that it is possible for emotion management to be measured quantitatively

Social perspectives of urban regeneration on neighbourhood-scale: the case of Spanish Quarters in Naples

Urban regeneration processes can be defined not only by urban design and planning but also considering an approach more focused on the social issues. In a deprived urban area due to marginality, vulnerability, poverty and social exclusion is used to cope with its urban regeneration looking at the local welfare system that can be developed in order to generate well-being towards new forms of policy. This approach – based on local welfare – implies a new conceptualization of city: from a top-down viewpoint of the policy-making processes, where the priority is a purely architectural requalification, to an interpretation of the city as an active and dynamic space where to build local welfare systems oriented to social inclusion, citizens’ participation and inter-institutional relationships, working on the neighbourhood-scale of urban regeneration. This perspective is focused on taking care of the citizens’ needs, understanding and identifying the most critical problems that afflict a specific urban area, starting from the voice of its inhabitants. According to this perspective, the local welfare approach gives a fundamental role to the territory, seen as the best field to enhance the inhabitants’ capabilities in the regeneration processes and projects. The development of a local welfare system provides a deep understanding of the main problems of an urban area, looking for the possible resources that can be activated for its urban renewal within a combined empowerment of places and people. The paper aims to discuss the main strengths of this perspective analysing the peculiarities of a European Programme developed during the ‘90s in a deprived urban area of Naples: Quartieri Spagnoli. The case takes into account the implementation of URBAN Programme (1st edition, 1996-2000) for the urban renewal of Quartieri Spagnoli, showing with an ex-post qualitative analysis, how the Programme did not generate the expected results, related to social inclusion and social cohesion. The only urban regeneration process that took place was the one of Objective n. 1, aimed to the renewal of the typical handcraft activities of the area (such as carpentry, leather shops, hairdressing…). The other fourth Objectives, even the one dedicated to the architectural renewal of two open spaces, have proved ineffective. Only one out of five Objectives worked, thanks to the important role of a non-profit organisation in the governance of the 1st Objective. This association, called Associazione Quartieri Spagnoli (QSA), provides street-level welfare services to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood since the ‘70s, with a particular attention to the NEET. During the URBAN implementation, QSA had an important role in the 1st Objective, working for the inclusion of artisans and citizens’ voices in the policy-making dedicated to the renovation of their activities. The approach of QSA was strongly based on the capability-building (Sen, 1992) processes, and it shows how the urban regeneration of a neighbourhood can take place if related to the possible development of its local welfare system. This process can be inscribed in the territorialisation of social policies perspective, that is a key concept of the local welfare approach. The paper grounds its reflection in the social aspects of urban regeneration with a case study that underlines the importance of the local scale of urban regeneration, for the well-being of a deprived urban area

Australian Teacher Education Policy in Action: The Case of Pre-service Internships.

Studies on internships within initial teacher education have existed in literature since the early 1900s, they have espoused the benefits of experiential learning or critiqued the variance available in terms of structure, length of time and purpose. However, little research on teacher internships has been reported within a policy context. This study employs a modified ‘policy trajectory’ framework to capture the impact of teacher internship models emerging from policy reform in Australia driven by the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Teacher Quality Program (NPTQ). It highlights how policy contexts and practices are inextricably interconnected and influenced by key policy ‘threads’ related to people, philosophy, place, processes and power (5Ps). Significant benefits of internships are revealed. Variations in resourcing, influence and local conditions evidence enactment of NPTQ resulted in uneven and potentially inequitable outcomes. The authors call for more research, transparency and enhanced accountability for government investment for internships

Adenosine-induced atrial fibrillation during fractional flow reserve measurement

We present the case of a 44 year-old man referred for coronary angiography with a history of coronary artery disease. Following administration of intra-coronary adenosine for fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment, the patient developed atrial fibrillation (AF). While well described during non-invasive stress testing, this is the first description in the literature of AF following adenosine administration for FFR. The growing usage of FFR during diagnostic coronary angiography makes this an important side effect to consider. Our subsequent management and follow-up is presented

How Can We Frame Energy Communities’ Organisational Models? Insights from the Research ‘Community Energy Map’ in the Italian Context

According to the early transposition of the EU directives by the Italian government, this paper presents some of the outcomes of the qualitative-led applied research titled Community Energy Map, aimed at identifying the main operational models and organisational frameworks put in place for the development of renewable energy communities (RECs). In this respect, the article discusses a threefold subdivision of organisational models to implement RECs: public lead, pluralist, and community energy builders’ model. Furthermore, the paper illustrates in detail three of the nine case studies dedicated to recently launched RECs, conducted through qualitative fieldworks, to investigate the social and local implications generated by these community-led initiatives. The article stresses the relevance of both the local scale and community-led initiatives in the pathway towards a fair and just energy transition, by discussing how RECs define new organisational models of distributed energy systems