scholarly journals Nordic education policy in retreat neoliberal economic rationalization and the rural school

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 695-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agneta Knutas

The Nordic educational welfare model was implemented to support social justice and equal opportunities for all. After the fall of the Berlin wall the welfare model is weakened due to influences from international and global trends. It is found that with the introduction of new public management steering of public welfare and the decentralization of responsibilities from state to municipalities, local authorities are left to their own devices to solve disparities between, for example, a decreasing population and a shrinking economy. The article looks closer at the disparities between the structure of new public management steering and context-related variables of diversity. Arguing for diversity as cultural variation, the article draws on empirical data based on focus-group interviews with teachers of three multi-grade schools in rural Norway. To support the analysis, Bourdieu’s theories on structure and agency (habitus and field) as well as cultural, social and symbolic capital are utilized. The results give examples of the cultural socialization of individuals/groups – and how they pursue their valued resources and pursue their interest in practice. In reference to new public management and the steering of education, the findings indicate resistance and complexity concerning contingent social and cultural influences, and dispositions in the educational field investigated.

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Leszek Zelek

The aim of the article is to present the social assistance model in Poland in the light of new concepts of public management in this area. As a result of the review of the available literature on the subject, the genesis, evolution and directions of development of social assistance in Poland are shown. New directions of management in the context of social policy were discussed. The description of the social welfare model presented in the article is systematising knowledge in the scope of the discussed problem and by comparing new management concepts, assessing the possibilities of their implementation on the ground of social assistance. The first part of the article describes the genesis and evolution of social welfare in Poland and discusses its structure. In the second part, through comparative analysis, an attempt was made to characterize new management concepts, New Public Management and governance, in the light of the social welfare model in Poland


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque ◽  
Patamawadee Jongruck

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies of civil service reforms in Hong Kong and Thailand. It seeks to identify the drivers of reforms in the two cases and explain the divergence in processes that were intended to achieve similar ends.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a case study approach along with a thorough review of the literature. It is based on secondary materials, including academic studies, government publications and websites, and media reports. It compares approaches, strategies and outcomes of civil service reforms in Hong Kong and Thailand.FindingsCivil service reforms in Hong Kong focused on improving management through the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) principles, while governance values were prominent in civil service reforms in Thailand.Originality/valueThis paper compares civil service reforms in two dissimilar Asian cases. It highlights the impact of global trends on traditional bureaucratic organizations and reform strategies, and recognizes the impacts of traditions, culture and capacity on civil service reforms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Monika Bumbalová

AbstractProvision of services by public sector is a concept, which has been implemented for many decades in various forms of economic arrangement. Public sector policies and public services have significant impact on almost all spheres of life including agriculture. Throughout the history, there were times with smaller and bigger importance of public sector within the economy. The conditions of public sector always depend on the actual trend applied in the sphere of public administration and public management. After the period of New Public Management accompanied by leaning away from the “public” concept, a return to stronger statehood and more intensive public sector can be seen. There are several reasons for such development, which are also called megatrends. Urbanization, demography and social changes, climate changes and development of technology belong to the most intensive ones. The presented review paper deals with the description of the mentioned trends and provides a reflexion on their influence on the public sector and provision of public services in particular.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (148) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Ariadne Sondermann ◽  
Olaf Behrend

The recent reform of the Bundesagentur fijr Arbeit, Germany's Public Employment Service (PES), has introduced elements of New Public Management, including internal controlling and attempts at standardizing assessments ('profiling' of unemployed people) and procedures. Based on qualitative interviews with PES staff, we show that standardization and controlling are perceived as contradicting the 'case-oriented approach' used by PES staff in dealing with unemployed people. It is therefore not surprising that staff members use considerable discretion when (re-)assigning unemployed people to one of the categories pre-defined by PES headquarters. All in all, the new procedures lead to numerous contradictions, which often result in bewilderment and puzzlement on the part of the unemployed.


2001 ◽  
Vol 152 (11) ◽  
pp. 453-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Iselin ◽  
Albin Schmidhauser

During the past ten years most cantonal forest services have undergone re-organisations. Lucerne's cantonal forest administration initiated a fundamentally new way of providing forestry services by differentiating between sovereign tasks and management tasks. By examining the individual steps of the process we demonstrate how starting with the mandate,goals were developed and implemented over several years. Product managers assumed responsibility for products, as defined in the New Public Management Project, on a cantonal-wide basis. Work within a matrix organisation has led to significant changes. Territorial responsibilities are increasingly assumed by district foresters, who have modern infrastructures at their disposal in the new forestry centres. The re-organisation has led to forest districts being re-drawn and to a reduction in the number of forest regions. To provide greater efficiency,state forest management has been consolidated into a single management unit. The new forest reserve plan removes almost half of the state forest from regular forest management,resulting in a reduction in the volume of work and in the work force. We show how effective the differentiation of sovereignty tasks and management tasks has been in coping with the effects of hurricane Lothar.


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