Mike Rowe

Abusive partnerships: New forms of governance, new forms of abuse?

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to critically consider the role of partnerships in regeneration. There has been a proliferation of partnerships at local, sub‐regional and regional levels, that has brought new people together around a shared agenda, and has sought to challenge and change the ways in which mainstream public services are delivered. Design/methodology/approach – This article uses a qualitative approach drawing on previous research work and using narrative to construct a series of metaphors to provide greater levels of explanation and understanding of partnerships. Findings – The current approach to partnership working arises principally from analysis of the weaknesses of fragmented services, it is also attractive to those who seek to open up the cosy, inefficient and, at times, corrupt worlds of local government. This is shown through an innovative typology of partnerships. Research limitations/implications – While there are sound policy reasons for engaging in the game of partnerships, there are dangers in underestimating the capacity of public agencies to adopt and adapt the language of partnership, without genuinely engaging with the intent behind the policy. Practical implications – The implications from this article have practical relevance for those working in public policy and for those involved in partnerships. Originality/value – By drawing upon examples of the abuse of partnership arrangements, this article provides an original perspective on those phenomena that might be an indication of trouble.

Going Back to the Street: Revisiting Lipsky’s Street-level Bureaucracy:

This article reviews Lipskys Street-level Bureaucracy, a classic work of central importance to the discipline and teaching of public administration. The paper argues that Lipskys portrayal of the dilemmas faced by front line workers challenges us to focus on the ethical, professional and personal development of student-practitioners.

Evaluation of student feedback

The processes by which feedback is gathered from students and courses evaluated provide challenges and difficulties. How much feedback is needed? Which instruments should be used? When should the feedback be gathered? From whom should the feedback be gathered? What does the feedback tell us? Does the process really improve the learning experience? These are all questions that concern tutors who wish to understand the educational experience of their students. This paper aims to offer some support and encouragement for tutors who are thinking about the evaluation process at course or module level. An action research model is adopted. A module leader (the practitioner) seeks improvement in feedback gathering and evaluation processes. Experiences with a new first year undergraduate module are described and the various ways in which feedback was obtained are evaluated. It is not the intention to evaluate the module in question but to evaluate the forms of student feedback. Feedback that occurs naturally as part of the teaching/learning process is set alongside structured feedback instruments. Implications for tutors involved in feedback and evaluation are considered and suggestions offered.

Editorial for the Journal of Organizational Ethnography

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the new journal, its history, scope and ambitions.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the current growth in interest in ethnographic research in organizational and management studies, reflected not least in the success of the Liverpool‐Keele Ethnography Symposium.Findings – Surveying the state of the field, this paper has identified a need for a natural home for organizational ethnographers. The continuing growth and development of the Symposium is also a reflection of the shared experience among would‐be ethnographers who find that, when presenting ethnographic work at other conferences, their choice of methodology is more often subject to contrarian rather than constructive discussion. It is only by debating the merits of the empirical and theoretical themes and perspectives that inform the subject in a constructive way with others, who are genuinely appreciative of the tradition, that it will develop.Originality/value – Th...

Joined-up Accountability: bringing the citizen back in

Accountability in complex organisational networks has been identified as particularly problematic, and an issue to be addressed, both in academic and in official documents. Indeed, in launching its new public service reform agenda, the Labour government has undertaken to address accountability at a later date rather than as an integral part of its approach to reform. This article seeks to address these questions of accountability, suggesting the need to reformulate our understanding of the concept itself, placing a citizen-focused accountability at the heart of the way in which services are understood and evaluated.

The Roles of Commissions of Inquiry in the Policy Process

In their heyday, Royal Commissions played an important part in the policy-making process. By today, Royal Commissions have declined almost to the point of extinction. Nevertheless, a range of other commissions, committees and inquiries are still established. They have different status and take various forms but, in common with Royal Commissions, seek to broaden the basis of public policy-making beyond government, Parliament and interest groups, through engaging a wider range of participants in a more public arena to generate new ideas, develop consensus or to confer legitimacy upon controversial government policy plans. Commissions are thus important to both policy process and policy outcome. The existing literature on commissions is limited, and much of it is descriptive, centring on analysis of their political origins, membership and recommendations. It explicitly avoids some other key questions, perhaps because they are not readily answered. There is little real academic evaluation of the purpose or value of commissions and what they might uniquely bring to the policy process and to policy outcomes. This article explores these issues, drawing upon research analysing contemporary experience of a range of commissions, committees and inquiries with a view to offering some generic lessons.

Discretion and Inconsistency: Implementing the Social Fund

The Social Fund relies on officials to judge the merits of applications for assistance within a closely circumscribed framework of directions and guidance. Variations in the treatment of cases are inevitable in such a framework. However, the variations are not readily explicable in terms of the circumstances, or needs, of the applicants. This article outlines the complex interplay of financial constraints, management targets and other pressures, describing a system akin to a game in which not all rules are known to all players, producing results that could not have been intended.

Community Land Trusts, affordable housing and community organising in low-income neighbourhoods

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) offer a community-led response to housing problems and can provide affordable housing for low-income residents. Generally the academic work on CLTs remains underdeveloped, particularly in the UK, although some argue that they can be an efficient way in which to manage scarce resources while others have noted that CLTs can provide a focal point for community resistance. In this article we provide evidence on two active CLTs in inner urban areas in major US cities, New York and Boston. In Cooper Square, Lower East Side Manhattan and Dudley Street, south Boston, we see the adoption of different approaches to development suggesting that we should speak of models of CLTs rather than assuming a single operational approach. The cases we present indicate both radical and reformist responses to the state and market provision of housing and neighbourhood sustainability. They also suggest community activism can prove to be significant in securing land and the development of the CLT.

Austerity and Social Entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom: A Community Perspective

Abstract Purpose This chapter develops a community perspective on entrepreneurialization and demonstrates the epistemic value of community-based analysis. It focuses on the particularities of socio-economic settings that shape the emergence of social enterprises and allows for a consideration of diverse groups of actors beyond entrepreneurs. Methodology/approach The chapter draws from a literature review on UK policies around social enterprise and an ethnographic study of a deprived community in North-West England. It provides an in-depth account of how competition for scarce funds and the new hope around entrepreneurialism are negotiated and translated into action by policy actors in one local community. Findings The review contextualizes the evolution of social enterprise in the United Kingdom and highlights the need for grounded analysis of the effects of policies. A range of themes emerge from the ethnographic case: a misalignment between social workers’ and beneficiaries’ expectations and interests; a tendency to shift from holistic welfare to narrow, time-limited interventions; the importance of spatiality for issues of deprivation; and imbalances in the flows of money and attention between different communities. Social Implications The chapter questions the emphasis placed upon social enterprise as a source of innovation. The suggested focus on community redirects scholarly debate to the most important group of actors: the socially, politically, or economically excluded target groups of social innovations. Originality/value This chapter contributes to our understanding of the roles being played by social enterprises in a community and raises questions about their value as a vehicle of policy and of innovation.

Thinking about behaviour and conformity in groups: some social psychology resources

This article considers the ways in which we might use group activities to more effectively introduce some key problems of conformity and obedience to authority. Using some of the classic psychology experiments conducted by Asch and Milgram might open up more critical reflection on the ways groups behave and our own tendencies to look to fit in and avoid conflict.