Model (my) neighbourhood – a bottom-up collective approach for crime-prevention in Portugal and Lithuania

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Saraiva ◽  
Irina Matijosaitiene ◽  
Mónica Diniz ◽  
Vilius Velicka

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodologies for implementing Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) at the local level, particularly in peripheral Europe where CP-UDP’s top-down standards have poor dissemination and acceptance. This paper debates how local partnerships can help reduce crime and how a CP-UDP-based model can be introduced into municipal planning. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses the challenge of CP-UDP in the framework of a post-crisis Europe and Europe 2020. Because there is a large gap between theory and practice, lack of a shared holistic approach, and scepticism, or lack of knowledge, of public authorities, at local-level planning professionals and the police have devised bottom-up initiatives based on interdisciplinary partnerships with the community. The paper describes, discusses and compares the implementation of such approaches in Lisbon (Portugal) and Vilnius (Lithuania). Findings The paper addresses the processes and challenges of establishing synergies and working relationships between police officers, public officials and the community, and it discusses six main causes for its (un)success. When these conditions were met, crime and social constraints reduced. Practical implications Lessons learned are deemed crucial to disseminate knowledge and best practices, paving the way for proper top-down policies and planning legislations in these and other countries. Originality/value This paper analyses the potentialities and shortcomings of local-level implementation of CP-UDP strategies as an alternative to failed top-down strategies in two realities mostly unknown of the international scientific community. The case study material is previously unpublished internationally.

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1059-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Christopher Banks ◽  
Jeffrey M. Pollack ◽  
Anson Seers

Purpose – Conceptualizations of work coordination historically assumed that work systems are put into place and that these systems shape the ability of workers to accomplish tasks. Formalization has thus long been invoked as an explanatory mechanism for work coordination. Recent studies have extended interest in emergent implicit and relational coordination, yet their underlying mechanisms of bottom-up coordination have yet to be explicated such that formal top-down coordination can be approached as a complementary mechanism rather than an alternative substitute. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the literatures related to coordination and routines, and extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations. Implications of this work, for both theory and practice, are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual review was conducted. Findings – By integrating the literatures related to coordination and routines, the authors extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations. Research limitations/implications – From a theory-based point of view, in the present work, the authors integrated the literatures related to coordination and routines and arrived at the conclusion that bottom-up coordination can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations. Practical implications – The authors suggest that there is a need in the contemporary workplace for implicit, relational processes to enable individuals to continuously assess what changes are needed and adapt coordinated routines to accomplish the task at hand. This propensity will continue to increase as technology facilitates even more seamless communication among employees, organizations, and external partners. Originality/value – For the first time the authors integrate the literatures related to coordination and routines, in order to extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Stephen Denning

Purpose The purpose of this article is to show how companies that embraced the Agile management mindset succeeded at continuous innovation. Design/methodology/approach The article describes the processes and mindsets of companies that successfully and unsuccessfully adopted post-bureaucratic management models. Findings Pioneering companies that have adopted a post-bureaucratic mindset are obsessed with adding more value for customers and end-users. Practical implications A case example of the model in practice is included. Originality/value The article recounts the problems and advantages of both top-down and bottom-up adoption of Agile management concepts and practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C.K. Cheng

Purpose This study aims to explore the principles and practices for managing records with the lens of functional analysis and knowledge management by using a case study that focuses on the experience of implementing records management at a public high school in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach A single case study is chosen as the research method for this paper. A series of qualitative interviews and documentary analysis were used to collect and triangulate the qualitative data. Findings The results show that the case school adopted a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to record management, facilitate decision-making and manage knowledge. The school adopted the taxonomy provided by the quality assurance framework as the functional classification in a digital archive in the records management system. Practical implications This study provides a set of taxonomy and a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to schools for ensuring that accurate information of all school activities is kept and can facilitate an effective and evidence-based, decision-making process. Social implications Identifying taxonomy and management practices for effective documentation in public schools can support planning, assist with organising the continuity of improvement plans and increase reporting and accountability to society. Originality/value This study offers a taxonomy and management approach to the literature of records management and the practices for promoting and improving records management in school.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narcís Bassols ◽  
Thomas Leicht

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the case of Cartagena, Colombia, as a case of a failed destination branding. It also broadens the findings by connecting them to the extant literature about place branding, thus making this paper more explanatory. It tries to fit the fieldwork’s findings into the two main streams of branding research (bottom-up vs top-down). This paper also gives practical insights into the destination’s network of stakeholders and discusses ways to improve the destination’s management and branding. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a mixed methodology approach. Field work consisted of online questionnaire to hospitality employees in the city plus semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 “expert” stakeholders in the destination. This paper is of empirical nature. Findings The main cause of the destination’s brand failure is found to be the top-down approach to the place brand strategy. The literature shows that cases such as this one are more common than assumed, and a possible way out of the problem is the application of bottom-up or “mixed” approaches, as these may circumvent the problems found. Research limitations/implications Cases like this one illustrate very well a local context but might be difficult to transfer to other contexts, so the generalization power of this paper is limited to similar places in the sociopolitical sense of the term. Practical implications For place branding practitioners and destination management organizations , this paper is a call for participative approaches which include all of the stakeholders of a place. Originality/value This paper offers an in-depth study of a branding case in Latin America, a part of the world relatively unexplored in the branding literature. On the basis of the presented case, this paper pitches top-down versus bottom-up approaches. Finally, it explains the findings by connecting the place to its broad geographical context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1429-1450
Author(s):  
Gisele Mazon ◽  
João Marcelo Pereira Ribeiro ◽  
Carlos Rogerio Montenegro de Lima ◽  
Brenda Caroline Geraldo Castro ◽  
José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the sustainability approach within higher education institutions. Universities, as institutions of knowledge, play an important and strategic role in maximizing social and economic benefits in a hands-on way. However, some studies on sustainable development and HEIs reveal a distancing between students and the application of sustainable initiatives in universities. This fact differs from the premises of the Talloires Declaration, which points to students as a community and as global leaders and ambassadors for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach This paper mapped the approaches, present in the literature, used to develop sustainable campuses and in particular the apparent dichotomy between the changes indicated as top-down or bottom-up in HEIs. To that end, scientific articles focused on sustainable actions in HEIs were analyzed to identify implementation approaches for sustainable development and student involvement in the process. Findings Results have shown that sustainability promotion models in universities generally occur in a top-down manner, where students are receptors and not sources of development for sustainable policies in universities. Thus, the authors highlight the importance of students becoming central players in sustainable initiatives. Originality/value The article becomes original when it identifies the dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up approaches. It does so through multidimensional scaling and exploratory factorial analysis in scientific articles on the topic Sustainability Funding in Higher Education. These findings show that, unlike what is discussed in the literature, sustainability promotion in universities generally occurs in a top-down manner, where students are receptors and not active agents in promoting sustainability. In response to this, the authors discussed the importance of the bottom-up approach, where they are key players.


Author(s):  
Rick Cummings ◽  
Rob Phillips ◽  
Rhondda Tilbrook ◽  
Kate Lowe

<P>In recent years, Australian universities have been driven by a diversity of external forces, including funding cuts, massification of higher education, and changing student demographics, to reform their relationship with students and improve teaching and learning, particularly for those studying off-campus or part-time. Many universities have responded to these forces either through formal strategic plans developed top-down by executive staff or through organic developments arising from staff in a bottom-up approach. By contrast, much of Murdoch University's response has been led by a small number of staff who have middle management responsibilities and who have championed the reform of key university functions, largely in spite of current policy or accepted practice. This paper argues that the "middle-out" strategy has both a basis in change management theory and practice, and a number of strengths, including low risk, low cost, and high sustainability. Three linked examples of middle-out change management in teaching and learning at Murdoch University are described and the outcomes analyzed to demonstrate the benefits and pitfalls of this approach.</P>


2015 ◽  
Vol 81 (9) ◽  
pp. 3268-3276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan M. Steffen ◽  
B. Shafer Belisle ◽  
Sue B. Watson ◽  
Gregory L. Boyer ◽  
Richard A. Bourbonniere ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLittle is known about the molecular and physiological function of co-occurring microbes within freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs). To address this, community metatranscriptomes collected from the western basin of Lake Erie during August 2012 were examined. Using sequence data, we tested the hypothesis that the activity of the microbial community members is independent of community structure. Predicted metabolic and physiological functional profiles from spatially distinct metatranscriptomes were determined to be ≥90% similar between sites. Targeted analysis ofMicrocystis aeruginosa, the historical causative agent of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms over the past ∼20 years, as well as analysis ofPlanktothrix agardhiiandAnabaena cylindrica, revealed ongoing transcription of genes involved in microcystin toxin synthesis as well as the acquisition of both nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients often implicated as independent bottom-up drivers of eutrophication in aquatic systems. Transcription of genes involved in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and metabolism also provided support for the alternate hypothesis that high-pH conditions and dense algal biomass result in CO2-limiting conditions that further favor cyanobacterial dominance. Additionally, the presence ofMicrocystis-specific cyanophage sequences provided preliminary evidence of possible top-down virus-mediated control of cHAB populations. Overall, these data provide insight into the complex series of constraints associated withMicrocystisblooms that dominate the western basin of Lake Erie during summer months, demonstrating that multiple environmental factors work to shape the microbial community.


Subject Salafism impact on Muslim societies. Significance Salafism (‘ancestralism’) is an ultra-conservative ideology adopted by a variety of Muslim individuals and organisations. It claims to reveal the authentic Islam of the first three generations of ‘pious forefathers’ (Arabic: al-salaf al-salih) from the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Salafis seek to 'purify' and thereby change other Muslims’ behaviour. These aims can be pursued by ‘top-down’ methods of engaging the state via activist struggle (jihad), or by ‘bottom-up’ strategies of engaging society via quietist proselytisation (da‘wa): that is, with or without violence. Impacts The core salafi doctrine of (‘loyalty [to Muslims] and disavowal [of non-Muslims]’) encourages its followers’ isolation from wider society. Competition for authenticity will further divide Muslim communities by ‘condemning the other’. Salafi-inspired organisations will seek to dominate public discourse and definitions of Islam.


2009 ◽  
pp. 107-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Christmas ◽  
Jaap De Visser

The chairperson of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on local government recently described local government in South Africa as “a chicken whose legs have been tied for too long”. In other words, even when the fetters that bind the chicken’s legs are loosed, it remains at a loss for what to do with its newfound freedom (Tsenoli 2007). This descriptive analogy ostensibly refers to the failure of local government to harness its newfound power in post-apartheid South Africa and to claim its rightful position as the driver of development at the local level, and instigator of bottom-up growth and progress, which is meant to shape and transform society in the new South Africa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-690
Author(s):  
Osama Mah'd

PurposeEducational institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are striving for better resource management and finance. The bottom-up budgeting approach plays an important role in motivating executives' performance. The main aim of this paper is to discover whether there is a significant difference between bottom-up and a top-down approaches to budgeting in terms of managers' performance.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were distributed to 453 university executives in 21 MENA educational institutions. The Kruskal–Wallis test was utilized to test the difference between the three groups (bottom-up, top-down and consultative approaches). Further analysis was conducted to test the difference between the two groups using the Mann–Whitney test.FindingsThe results show that there is a significant difference between a bottom-up and top-down approach in terms of managerial performance. The study's findings indicate that the bottom-up approach to budgeting leads to higher performance indicators than a top-down approach to budgeting.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to the research as it increases awareness of budgeting approaches that are used in higher education institutions, specifically in terms of the effect of these differences on executives' performance.


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