The architecture of school governance: Rebuilding democratic legitimacy within an academized system

Successive governments, in embracing a neoliberalist ideology of decentralization and privatization, have radically reformed the nature of community-based, comprehensive state education. The transition from ‘government to governance’ (Rhodes, 1997) combined with the ideology of academization (DfE, 2010a) has created a democratic deficit 1 (Corbett, 1977). Academies are placed outside of local elected scrutiny or community-based accountability systems and governance legitimacy is in crisis (Glatter, 2013). This article explores the problematization of academized governance (Allen and Gann, 2017) with respect to the democratic deficit and the consequential lack of stakeholder engagement – argued as unethical within a democratic society and a system that frequently leads to failings of accountability (Wilkins, 2016). Utilizing the conceptual lens of Empowered Participatory Governance (EPG) (Fung and Wright, 2003), the authors seek to present a new architecture of governance that seeks to restore democratic legitimacy. Democratic governance innovations, the micro-governance network (Allen, 2017) and a refreshed local education board (Gann, 2021) provide a new architecture for a post new governance environment and, in so doing, a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of academization.

‘You can’t Google everything’: the voluntary sector and the leadership of communities of place

Responding directly to the themes of the Special Issue, this paper addresses a surprising absence to date of the voluntary sector’s important role in the constitution of place leadership. Drawing on an empirical study of locally rooted voluntary sector organisations in a district of the Midlands of England, we aim to untangle the complex relationship between leadership, place and the voluntary sector, building on recent advances in the collective and critical approaches to leadership studies. A thematic analysis of a rich qualitative dataset highlighted three core themes of the voluntary sector contribution to collective place leadership: their ability to draw on and mobilise local knowledge, their positioning in a web of dense local relationships, and the notion that their intrinsic characteristics are a key source of their distinctiveness and value to the local governance network that constitutes the district’s place leadership. In addition to contributing to a nuanced understanding of the voluntary sector’s place in both the leadership and place leadership studies corpus, our findings shed light on the multiplexity and tensions of leading in the collective, as well as the extent to which the voluntary sector is constrained by wider structures and macro-dynamics.

Codifying and Commodifying Nature: Narratives on Forest Property Rights and the Implementation of Tenure Regularization Policies in Northwestern Argentina

Environmental resource management requires negotiation among state and non-state actors with conflicting goals and different levels of influence. In northwestern Argentina, forest policy implementation is described as weak, due to governance structure and ambiguities in the law. We studied how policy actors’ attitudes and their positions in the forest governance network relate to the implementation of land tenure regularization in a context where land tenure regularization is at the core of struggles over environmental policies. We focused on the Chaco Salteño part of the Gran Chaco ecosystem, one of the world’s major deforestation frontiers. We argue that the presence of weak advocacy coalitions requires an analysis of agency to understand this policy process. Our policy network analysis revealed a lack of clear contrasting factions, due to a core–periphery structure. The core of the network brings together all core beliefs but not all of the most influential actors. Assessing network centrality and reputational influence enabled us to identify actors with exceptional agency. We contribute to the debates on advocacy coalitions and on land tenure by distinguishing between attitudes toward tenure regularization policies and their actual implementation in a context where actors have diverging interests and objectives.

Business Networking and Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Benue State, Nigeria

The impact of business networking on the performance of SMEs in Benue State, Nigeria is investigated in this study. The study focuses on the impact of network governance, network content, and network structure on SMEs in Benue State, Nigeria. The study employs a survey design, with a questionnaire serving as the data gathering tool. The study's population consists of 650 licenced SMEs in Benue State, with a sample size of 242 obtained via stratified sampling. The KMO and Bartlett's tests show that variables are highly significant, and principal component analysis was appropriate at 0.631. The reliability test-retest result revealed a reliability index of (0.702). Regression analysis was used to examine and present the data received from the businesses surveyed. Network governance (42.2 percent), network content (30.2 percent), and network structure (46.2 percent) all have a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Benue State, Nigeria, according to the results of tested hypotheses. According to the study's findings, business networking in a business environment is concerned with characteristics such as network governance, network content, and network structure, which create the foundation upon which SMEs connect with their surroundings. The research also revealed that business networking has a significant impact on SMEs' performance. SMEs working in any business environment should build up a formation structure that allows them to engage freely within the environment, according to the report.

Lessons From Developing Food Policy Through A Multistakeholder Governance Network: A Case Study Of The Canadian Food Strategy

Globally, we are facing a food system in crisis. Now more than ever, food policies are crucial to the future of food. In Canada, there has never been a national food policy that looked at the food sector holistically. It has traditionally centred on food safety and agriculture, sidestepping many other vital issues. However, between 2010 and 2014, four non-state actors developed national food policy documents. In response to these developments, this study asks: What are some unique characteristics of multistakeholder networks in the policymaking process? To answer this question, the Canadian Food Strategy (CFS) created in 2014 by the Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) was used as a case study. This strategy was unique because it involved a range of food policy issues, food policy actors, and had financial support from several key food industry players. Participants in this policy development experiment did not deem this strategy a success regardless of its abundant financial resources, its topic comprehensiveness, and widespread buy-in from food industry, government, and other non-governmental organizations. Semi-structured and elite interviews were used to shed light on why this case was not successful, to extract lessons from this initiative for future food policymaking efforts in Canada. This dissertation integrated wicked policy, governance, policy network, and multistakeholder literature to understand how food policy may be developed and governed in Canada. The study resulted in three key findings. First, food policy in Canada is very complex, exhibiting both tame and wicked qualities. Second, the state must have a significant position in a multistakeholder food governance network (MFGN). Lastly, while the structure of the MFGN and the actors involved in it are important to a network’s successful policy outcome, the CFS initiative revealed that process was fundamental to the outcome.

Lessons From Developing Food Policy Through A Multistakeholder Governance Network: A Case Study Of The Canadian Food Strategy

Globally, we are facing a food system in crisis. Now more than ever, food policies are crucial to the future of food. In Canada, there has never been a national food policy that looked at the food sector holistically. It has traditionally centred on food safety and agriculture, sidestepping many other vital issues. However, between 2010 and 2014, four non-state actors developed national food policy documents. In response to these developments, this study asks: What are some unique characteristics of multistakeholder networks in the policymaking process? To answer this question, the Canadian Food Strategy (CFS) created in 2014 by the Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) was used as a case study. This strategy was unique because it involved a range of food policy issues, food policy actors, and had financial support from several key food industry players. Participants in this policy development experiment did not deem this strategy a success regardless of its abundant financial resources, its topic comprehensiveness, and widespread buy-in from food industry, government, and other non-governmental organizations. Semi-structured and elite interviews were used to shed light on why this case was not successful, to extract lessons from this initiative for future food policymaking efforts in Canada. This dissertation integrated wicked policy, governance, policy network, and multistakeholder literature to understand how food policy may be developed and governed in Canada. The study resulted in three key findings. First, food policy in Canada is very complex, exhibiting both tame and wicked qualities. Second, the state must have a significant position in a multistakeholder food governance network (MFGN). Lastly, while the structure of the MFGN and the actors involved in it are important to a network’s successful policy outcome, the CFS initiative revealed that process was fundamental to the outcome.

POWER AND THE CITY. CAIRO AN ARENA FOR PROFIT, CLASSES DISPUTE OR POLITICAL PROPAGANDA?

The city can be seen as the end-product of human civilisation, imposing various meninges, it can be an arena for political, economic, sociocultural and classes disputes, imbedding authoritarian power, control and discipline. This study investigates the architectural and urban traces of authoritarian power, control, and classes disputes in Cairo from around the end of the 18th Century until the first two decades of the 21st Century. The study adopts a descriptive and synthesis research method and approach by relating significant authoritarian urban projects in Cairo to political, economic, and sociocultural forces in action. The traces of authoritarian power shifted from the celebrative authoritarian architecture level before 1800 to medium-scale urban monumental interventions after the second half of the 19th Century. After 1960 Cairo witnessed several shifts in authoritarian power representation, leading to massive urbanisation and new spectacular capital. Cairo presented various power players shifting nodes along with its urban governance network. The power shift was accompanied by authoritarian control, discipline, and political propaganda while adopting a colonial topdown autocratic urban process

Network Governance and the Evolving Urban Regeneration Policymaking in China: A Case Study of Insurgent Practices in Enninglu Redevelopment Project

The network governance approach has been adopted by many researchers and practitioners with respect to policy analysis and modern state governance. This study utilizes a broadly defined network-based framework to trace the evolution of urban regeneration policymaking in Guangzhou, China. Drawing upon the notions of “network” and previous scholars’ work on participatory planning, this study focuses on the changing relational networks among the various actors that are engaged in the urban regeneration process and the factors motivating these changes. In so doing, this study uses the ongoing Enninglu redevelopment project (2006–) as an illustrative case study. By examining the insurgent practices in the Enninglu redevelopment process, this study argues that urban redevelopment policymaking in China has changed twofold. First, the planning regime has transited from state-dominant practices to one that is primarily driven by the local government, the enhanced role of higher education institutions and experts as a “professional interest group”, and the increased participation of non-state actors in the policymaking process. Second, the decision-making mechanism has transformed from an interventionism-oriented system to a polyarchy-oriented system in which both the advocacy coalition and opposition coalition are embedded in the governance network. Additionally, the emergence of insurgent practices in Enninglu suggests an emerging shift toward substantive participatory governance in the Chinese context. From a network perspective, this study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the evolving urban regeneration policymaking in China and broader governance networks in urban regeneration practices.