The Role of Interest Groups in Fostering Citizen Engagement: The Determinants of Outside Lobbying

Author(s):  
Christine Mahoney
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2878
Author(s):  
Soniya Billore

Cultural heritage is an invaluable asset of any city, region, or community and is an important component in the sustainable development of societies and economies. However, the role of cultural heritage has been understudied in terms of its social embeddedness and impact on social cohesion. This has led to a demand for more insights on how cultural heritage is conserved globally and more significantly via the role of societal stakeholders. Inclusive strategies allow diverse sections of a community to engage and enrich not only the anthropological interpretations of society but also support social stability and foster positive social change. This paper exemplifies how an inclusive approach was used to engage citizen engagement for the sustainable development of the built heritage in the city of Indore in central India. Best practices are presented through secondary data through various print and online sources relevant to the context. Open coding of secondary data has helped to identify strategic approaches and relationships that emerge as crucial to citizen engagement as presented in this study. The paper discusses strategies that, based on diversity and inclusivity, contribute to the enrichment of community knowledge, increased synergistic participation, and the enhancement of the sense of collective responsibility in cultural consumption.


Author(s):  
Brian Lund

This chapter explores political conflicts over the land issue. It examines the role of land value in house prices over time, the thinking underlying Henry George’s land tax proposal, the fate of the various attempts to tax betterment value and Lloyd George’s challenge to the landed aristocracy. The politics of planning controls are reviewed with particular reference to the influence of interest groups such as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. The fortunes of Green Belts, New Towns, Eco-towns, Regional Development Agencies and the local use and national responses to development control are investigated. The connections between planning control and the containment of urban Britain are examined as are the electoral politics of land release in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 877-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Conker

Turkey is fully engaged in its “hydraulic mission,” very extensively and rapidly “developing” water resources throughout its territory. The extensive hydraulic development attempts conducted by the Turkish government create local, national, inter-state, and transnational contestations among the different interest groups. A great deal of scholarly literature has analyzed the rationale behind Turkey's massive-scale hydraulic development. While some studies link Turkey's hydraulic mission to its energy and food security, others highlight the importance of domestic conflicts, as in the case of the Kurdish issue in the southeast. However, few works examine the relationship between hydraulic development and state- and nation-making processes in the early period of the republic. This paper seeks to analyze the role of hydraulic development in state- and nation-making in the context of Turkey by looking at the institutional documents published by official authorities and speeches made by key politicians. Drawing mainly upon the theory of water nationalism and its related conceptual frameworks, this study argues that hydraulic development has formed one of the important components of the modernization process in Turkey, thereby playing a significant role in its state- and nation-making processes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christy Smith ◽  
Jessica Terman

Scholars and practitioners have come to understand the important role of local governments in the causes and effects of climate change. The literature has examined both the substantive and symbolic determinants of urban sustainability policies in addition to the implementation issues associated with those policies. At the heart of these policies is the idea that local governments have the desire and ability to engage in socially and environmentally responsible practices to mitigate climate change. While important, these studies are missing a key component in the investigation of local government involvement in sustainability policies: government purchasing power. This study examines the effect of administrative professionalism and interest group presence on the determinants of green procurement in the understudied context of counties in the United States.


Author(s):  
Charlie E. Cabotaje ◽  
Erwin A. Alampay

Increased access and the convenience of participation to and through the internet encourage connectivity among citizens. These new and enhanced connections are no longer dependent on real-life, face-to-face interactions, and are less restricted by the boundaries of time and space (Frissen, 2005). In this chapter, two cases from the Philippines are documented and assessed in order to look at online citizen engagement. The first case looks at how people participate in promoting tourism in the Philippines through social media. The second case involves their use of social media for disaster response. Previous studies on ICTs and participation in the Philippines have looked at the role of intermediaries (see Alampay, 2002). Since then, the role of social media, in particular that of Facebook and Twitter, has grown dramatically and at times completely circumvents traditional notions of intermediation. The role of Facebook, in particular, will be highlighted in this chapter, and the authors will analyze its effectiveness, vis-à-vis traditional government channels for communication and delivery of similar services. By looking at these two cases and assessing the abovementioned aspects, it is hoped that the use of social media can be seen as an integral part of e-governance especially in engaging citizens to participate in local and national governance.


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