scholarly journals A local government authority leading action research: Impacts and replicability

2010 ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Neranjana Gunetilleke
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Implementation Stages ◽  
Institutional Model ◽  
Government Authority

The paper explores whether the institutional model of the IDRC Colombo Focus City Project has had an impact on overcoming challenges associated with research based learning designed to influence policy and implementation processes of local government. Through an outline of the conduct of the Colombo Focus City action research project, initiated and led by the Colombo Municipal Council, a model and strategies are presented that can provide insight into how action research might influence policy and practice at the local level. The model studied is one where the policy makers - or more accurately, policy advisors and interpreters - lead the research team and are part of the implementation stages and learning processes. The paper considers the nature of the particular LGA studied in influencing the possibility for policy change. Finally, the article draws out elements that can be considered critical in replication of this model of research influencing policy

scholarly journals Local Action with Global Impact: The Case of the GROW Observatory and the Sustainable Development Goals

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10518
Author(s):  
Raquel Ajates ◽  
Gerid Hager ◽  
Pavlos Georgiadis ◽  
Saskia Coulson ◽  
Mel Woods ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

This article reports on Citizen Observatories’ (COs) potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reflecting on the experience of the GROW Observatory (GROW). The research aims to take the first steps in closing the gap in the literature on COs’ potential contributions to the SDG framework, beyond quantitative data contributions for indicator monitoring. Following an analysis of project activities and outcomes mapped against the SDG framework, the findings reveal GROW’s potential contributions across two dimensions: (i) Actions to advance the implementation of goals and targets through awareness raising and training; participatory methods; multi-stakeholder connections; and supporting citizens to move from data to action and (ii) Data contributions to SDG indicator monitoring through citizen-generated datasets. While earlier research has focused mostly on the latter (dimension ii), CO activities can impact numerous goals and targets, highlighting their potential to relate global SDGs to local level action, and vice versa. These findings align with the growing literature on COs’ ability to bring together policy makers, scientists and citizens, and support changes to environmental policy and practice. Furthermore, this research suggests groundwork activities that address the goal and target level can also enhance sustained data collection to contribute to indicator level monitoring. We conclude with future trends and recommendations for COs wishing to contribute to the SDGs.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING ON LEARNERS� WRITING SKILLS

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Luz Elena Madera Gonzalez ◽  
Margarita Maria Lopez Pinzon
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Writing Strategies ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
National Education ◽  
Evaluation Stage ◽  
The Impact

This article gives an account of an action research project aimed at determining the effect of Task-Based Language Teaching and various writing strategies on public school learners� writing skills. The study implicated a diagnostic stage, an action stage and an evaluation stage within an Action Research methodology. Initially, at the diagnostic stage, it was detected that the participants had to improve their writing production and reach the levels of competence established by the Common European Framework (CEFR) and The Ministry of National Education (MEN) guidelines. In the following developed phase, six workshops were designed within the framework for Task-Based Learning (Willis & Willis, 2007), including pre-task, task, planning, report, and language focus. Along with this, various writing strategies were used, including brainstorming, listing, questioning, reading pictures, and classifying words. Finally, the evaluation stage revealed that students achieved better results in written production; they increased their vocabulary, reduced the amount of grammar errors, improved the syntax of the language, and became more autonomous and responsible. Basides, students� confidence in the writing processes also improved. Findings reported that the use of TBLT improved the students� writing skills. Conclusions and pedagogical implications are presented for teachers, schools and policy makers to incorporate TBLT and writing strategies in the future curriculum development as a means to contribute to the English language methodology.

scholarly journals Exploring the ‘Shadows’ in the Implementation Processes for National Anti-fraud Strategies at the Local Level: Aims, Ownership, and Impact

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Levi ◽  
Alan Doig
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Strategy Implementation ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article studies the development and implementation of a nationally drafted strategy for fraud in local government in England. The purpose, relevant to other countries which also face (or evade) problems of policy outreach, is to consider what is required to achieve effective implementation through three broad aspects: aims, ownership, and impact. There is a particular focus on the assessment of the strategy implementation process and what mechanisms translate strategies into effective delivery or what other factors may subvert that delivery. The empirical research draws on the UK government’s 2006 policy review on fraud and the consequential changes between then and 2019, including a number of fraud strategies initiated by the United Kingdom central government. To review implementation in practice, it focuses on the 2011 local government strategy and uses a local-level case study to assess issues concerning aims, ownership, and impact, as well as the effect of other nationally determined policies and agendas. It concludes that without an ‘owned’ strategy implementation process as a whole, national strategies concerning the prevention and policing of fraud in England in the twenty-first century have had—and continue to have—modest impact on practice on the ground at the local level. We find it plausible that this is true elsewhere in the world, not only for crime control but also for other ‘change’ strategies in the public sector. However, testing that proposition is for researchers in other countries. Our aim here is to use this superficially parochial study to raise more universal questions about how policy designers (and academic researchers) need to take better account of circumstances on the ground, the management of strategy implementation and legitimacy, if their strategies are to be more than merely symbolic rhetoric.

scholarly journals Resilience and Engagement: some thoughts on the magnetic impact of small change

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelique Edmonds
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Local Participation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
The World ◽  
Small Change

This paper considers the gap between knowing and mobilised action and investigates local urban examples where action is mobilised. The purpose of this is to consider what such examples can tell us about the conditions required to mobilise action and hence how to foster those conditions. Making cities sustainable is now a major aim and claim of most cities in the world. A myriad of definitions of sustainable development have been proposed but it has not been easy to find one that simultaneously satisfies economists, ecologists, sociologists, philosophers and policy makers. The problem in part relates to uncertainty about the object of sustainability, rather than the idea itself. What is it that ought to be sustained? It is increasingly internationally recognised that many effective solutions for environmental sustainability have their roots in local action and co-ordination. For that reason capacity within local government and the mobilisation of participation at the local level is a pivotal enabler for change. In the context of the discussion raised by the Cities, Nature Justice Conference and project, this paper focuses on discussion of urban local contexts and discusses the importance of local participation and engagement as critical enablers for mobilised action. Of particular interest in these local contexts, is the movement from a state of awareness of social and environmental issues of sustainability, to an active, constructive awareness that informs changes in behaviour and action that lead to sustainable practices of living.

Local government and coastal damage: confusion, potential and dreams

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Andrew H. Kelly ◽  
Jasper Brown ◽  
Aaron Strickland
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
New South ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Coastal Damage

Purpose This paper aims to not only disentangle the recently altered law and policy on coastal management in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, but also raise opportunities for fresh ideas to develop when dealing with both existing and future coastal damage. The focus is on the role of local government which is not only closer to concerned citizens but also faces costal damage on its own doorstep. Design/methodology/approach The paper explores the topic from the beginnings of relevant statutory law to the current situation, supported by a case study. It is transdisciplinary in nature, encompassing land use and coastal legislation. Findings The narrative encourages further attention to the key issues at the local level. This is underpinned by the need for planners to move beyond zoning and other restrictive mechanisms to more strategic approaches. All levels of government must recognise that regulatory planning on its own is insufficient. This leads to the need for champions to consider opportunities beyond the ordinary. Originality/value While this paper will add to a growing literature on coastal damage and action at the local level, its emphasis on the benefits and limitations of the changing statutory system will assist not only policy makers but professional officers at the local forefront.

Redrawing Local Government Boundaries: An International Study of Politics, Procedures, and Decisions

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-712
Author(s):  
Tom Urbaniak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
International Study ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
University Of British Columbia

Redrawing Local Government Boundaries: An International Study of Politics, Procedures, and Decisions, John Meligrana, ed., Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004, pp. 246.Canadian readers will appreciate this book because it shows us that we are not alone. Our perennial obsession with adjusting, sometimes completely redrawing, local-government boundaries has its counterparts near and far. There is a trajectory and a pattern: Senior levels of government generally want to see local governments with larger territories. However, the decision-making and implementation processes, and the results of those processes, have scarcely been examined or compared from an international perspective. Even policy makers often have been in the dark about others' best (or worst) practices. This book is therefore very useful.

Action Research between Large-Scale Socioeconomic Changes and Workplace-Level Developmental Activities

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Antti Kasvio ◽  
Maarit Lahtonen
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Economic Competition ◽  
Socioeconomic Changes ◽  
Internationalization Strategies ◽  
The City

Global economic competition is currently placing modern welfare states under increasing pressure to change. New kinds of solutions must be sought in all spheres and at all levels of the state's functioning. But it is very difficult to mediate the macro- and micro-level approaches in a sensible manner and to utilize the innovatory potentials of social science in actual research practice. This article describes a current ongoing action research project within the City of Helsinki for the development of work in a number of the City's workplaces. The local developmental activities are closely connected to broader discussions about the development of the city's internationalization strategies and of the role of high-quality welfare services in their realization. The project assumes that it is possible to build a fruitful interaction between the development of new practices at local level and the broader strategic discussions that are going on in other echelons of the City's organization.

scholarly journals Bottom-Up Initiatives Undertaken by Local Governments to Support Entrepreneurship

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6328
Author(s):  
Niki Derlukiewicz ◽  
Anna Mempel-Śnieżyk ◽  
Tomasz Pilewicz ◽  
Małgorzata Godlewska
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Final Energy Consumption ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The Relationship

The present paper deals with issues related to activities undertaken by local government. The article focuses on the identification and assessment of the significance of local government’s different bottom-up initiatives that support development of local entrepreneurship. The article also indirectly discusses the importance of activities referring to energy efficiency. Through the digitization process and by using digital tools, LGs realize projects, improve local actors’ awareness, and finally achieve new challenges such as a higher proportion of gross final energy consumption being from renewable sources. The aim of the paper is to present the relationship between the LGs’ entrepreneurial activities, which we call bottom-up initiatives, and the local entrepreneurship level, understood as the number of entrepreneurs active on the territory of a LG. This paper presents the results of research carried out on the bottom-up initiatives undertaken by Polish local governments to support entrepreneurship. The research was based on survey and statistical tools and stepwise regression analysis. In the paper, bottom-up initiatives undertaken by local governments (such as organizing events at the national or regional scale that enable networking among entrepreneurs or establishing departments for supporting local entrepreneurship that offer cooperation with local entrepreneurs) were found to influence the number of entrepreneurs active in local government territories. The paper concludes that local governments and their bottom-up activities are an important factor influencing local entrepreneurship development. The presented research results have implications for policy makers and may be useful for local governments in Poland and in other countries in the context of supporting entrepreneurship by undertaking bottom-up initiatives at the local level.

Communicative space and working locally: A report of a participatory action research project in a remote rural school in Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-152
Author(s):  
Safayet Alam
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Models Of Teaching ◽  
Teachers Professional Development ◽  
Communicative Space

Teachers’ professional development is a top priority in education of Bangladesh, but the literature reports existing models of teaching are unsatisfactory. This article reports a participatory action research project in a remote rural secondary school in Bangladesh, and discusses how a locally focused process enabled teachers to create a communicative space in which they could explore their understandings of teaching and evolve as a learning community. It argues that improvement in teaching can occur at local level, despite constraints of poverty and lack of resources, when local teachers are enabled to challenge themselves and each other to better meet the needs of students within their community.

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