Changing Local Governance Changing Citizens

This work explains what debates about local governance mean for local people. The book explores governance and citizenship in relation to multiculturalism, economic migration, housing markets, neighbourhoods, and e-democracy in order to establish a contemporary view of the ways that citizens are constituted at the local level.

Mixing policy discussion and empirical work by leading researchers in the field, Changing local governance, changing citizens aims to explain what debates about local governance mean for local people.

This book addresses and explores recent trends in the field of local and urban governance. It focuses on three domains: institutional reforms in local government; inter-municipal cooperation; and citizen participation in local governance. In the last decades, in different regions of the world, there is ample evidence that sub-national government, in particular the field of local governance, is in a permanent state of change and reflux, although with differences that reflect national particularities. Since these institutional changes have an impact in the local policy process, in the delivery of public services, in the local democracy, and in the quality of life, it is mandatory to monitor these continued institutional changes, to learn and develop with these changes, if possible before these experiences are transferred and replicated in other countries. The editor and contributors address issues of interest for a wide audience, comprising of students and researchers in various disciplines, and policy makers at both national and sub-national tiers of government.

New forms of local governance require new ways of working, and in this important new book, Sue Goss assesses the nature of the challenge and how individuals and organizations have responded. Drawing on a wide range of political and management theory and research and her own extensive experience, she provides the clearest picture yet of the emergence of new "relationship organizations" and of their engagement with the new roles of citizens, public managers, and local politicians.

Citizenship studies is at a crucial moment of globalizing as a field. What used to be mainly a European, North American, and Australian field has now expanded to major contributions featuring scholarship from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies takes into account this globalizing moment. At the same time, it considers how the global perspective exposes the strains and discords in the concept of ‘citizenship’ as it is understood today. With over fifty contributions from international, interdisciplinary experts, the Handbook features state-of-the-art analyses of the practices and enactments of citizenship across broad continental regions (Africas, Americas, Asias and Europes) as well as deterritorialized forms of citizenship (Diasporicity and Indigeneity). Through these analyses, the Handbook provides a deeper understanding of citizenship in both empirical and theoretical terms. This volume sets a new agenda for scholarly investigations of citizenship. Its wide-ranging contributions and clear, accessible style make it essential reading for students and scholars working on citizenship issues across the humanities and social sciences.

The quality of local governance matters more than ever before. To many citizens, their local government is the most tangible form of government, and it is also the layer of government with which they have most contact in their everyday life. The power of the local administration is that it represents ordinary citizens. People eat, drink, work, play and socialise with others in towns and cities. To be fully effective, local government management and service delivery capacity needs to be strong, and resources need to be adequate. Civil society and businesses are essential actors in ensuring local governments have the capacity to meet the needs of its citizens. There are a host of challenges that confront local government in the 21st century: delivering quality services; lack of finance and local fiscal autonomy; engaging citizens and communities in meaningful and authentic ways; forming effective partnerships which incentivize local actors to find solutions to the many complex and intractable issues facing communities; generating inclusive and sustainable development; implementing strategies for disaster risk reduction; managing transparent communications; and, rapidly evolving technologies and socio-economic demographics. The Governance of Local Communities: Global Perspectives and Challenges is about the role that ideas, institutions, and actors play in structuring how people govern local communities and, more specifically, the types of adaptations necessary in local government roles and responsibilities, structures, and processes to effectively respond to a changing local government environment. Global changes require that we rethink local governance. A wide net of international experts on local governance was assembled for this volume to stimulate frank conversations around the many contemporary challenges facing local government.

From the 'Third Way' reforms of the 1990s to today's prospect of a post-bureaucracy era, the management of the UK's public services has been radically overhauled in recent decades. This important new text provides a complete introduction to the key themes and developments in public management and the changing relationship between governments, public service providers and the public. June Burnham and Sylvia Horton examine the key components of public management in the UK, including strategic management and the introduction of new performance management techniques as well as financial and human resources management. The book assesses how wider forces such as Europeanization, globalization and the global economic crisis have affected both the structure and role of the state and the way public services are managed. It also looks back to examine the transition from public administration to public management and considers how different ideologies have influenced and driven reform. Distinctively, the authors provide a full assessment of how devolution has affected public services across all parts of the UK. Providing an insightful and accessibly written introduction, this book will be ideal reading for all students of public management.

The Citizenship and Governance Toolkit draws on the lessons generated from learning projects and case studies supported under the Citizens and Governance Program of the Commonwealth Foundation. It offers practical guidance on how to promote the participation of citizens in governance. The contents of this Toolkit (print and CD-ROM media) include: _ the meaning of inclusive governance _ ways for citizens to organize and engage in governance _ strategies for multi-sectoral partnerships _ key themes that emerge in governance, such as conflict, gender, and power _ suggestions for participatory methods in governance, including learning circles, popular theatre, and role play _ methods of building capacities--of citizens, intermediaries and government officials--for inclusive governance. A training manual is also in preparation, which will include role plays, exercises and other training materials. The Toolkit is a fantastic resource bank for policymakers, practitioners, facilitators in government departments and agencies, and other change agents working in local communities.