Paul Andrew Burton

How would we know what works? Context and complexity in the evaluation of community involvement

In 2002 the UK Home Office commissioned a review of research on community involvement in area-based initiatives. This found comparatively few studies that set out to measure the impact rather than the extent and nature of involvement and hence few answers to the question of what works. This article takes that finding as its starting point and sets out to develop a more robust framework for evaluating the impact of community involvement. It notes the difficulties inherent in using a classic experimental design to evaluate processes as complex as community involvement and proposes a theory-based approach. To this end, it critically reviews the underlying theoretical claims of both community involvement and of area-based initiatives. An evaluation framework is then developed in which the potential benefits of greater involvement are considered for each stage of the process of developing an area-based initiative and positive and negative contextual factors are identified.

Modernising the policy process: Making policy research more significant?

In an increasingly complex world of interrelated problems many governments have tried to modernise their institutional structures and the ways in which they go about making policy. In the UK and elsewhere this has been most apparent in the growing emphasis given to evidence-based policy making in contrast to faith-based approaches and the conviction politics of earlier periods. Much of the debate about the impact and indeed value of this apparently new approach has focussed on the supply side of the equation: on the utilisation of research evidence and how researchers might make their work more relevant and useful to policy makers. Less attention has been paid in these debates to the different ways in which the nature of policy and policy making is conceptualised and how this might affect the relationship between research and policy. This article takes forward this debate by critically reviewing the theorisation of the policy/research relationship under three different conceptions of policy making: the stages model, the advocacy coalition framework and the argumentative turn. It considers the future of policy research via two questions: who should carry out policy research in which settings; and what skills do they need to do so more effectively?

Conceptual, Theoretical and Practical Issues in Measuring the Benefits of Public Participation

Among parliamentary democracies there is a widespread belief that above and beyond the occasional opportunity to vote, citizens should be allowed to participate in decisions that affect them. Governments at all levels are now going further and supporting more active forms of citizenship in which various decision processes are open to more public participation. While this principle may be widely accepted, the practice has remained remarkably free from empirical scrutiny. For something that is held to deliver a myriad of benefits, we still know little of the extent to which these are in fact delivered. This article addresses this gap by developing a framework for conducting more robust empirical scrutiny of participatory exercises. It does so at three levels: first by proposing a conceptual clarification of the perceived benefits of greater participation, second by considering some of the methodological challenges in designing more robust evaluative studies and finally by reviewing measures that might be used in practice to quantify benefits.

Towards networked governance: improving interagency communication and collaboration for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in Australia

Major disasters, such as bushfires or floods, place significant stress on scarce public resources. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this stress. An integrated approach to disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA) could reduce the stress by encouraging the more efficient use of pooled resources and expertise. A comparative analysis of three extreme climate-related events that occurred in Australia between 2009 and 2011 indicated that a strategy to improve interagency communication and collaboration would be a key factor in this type of policy/planning integration. These findings are in accord with the concepts of Joined-up Government and Network Governance. Five key reforms are proposed: developing a shared policy vision; adopting multi-level planning; integrating legislation; networking organisations; and establishing cooperative funding. These reforms are examined with reference to the related research literature in order to identify potential problems associated with their implementation. The findings are relevant for public policy generally but are particularly useful for CCA and DRM.

Engaging the public in healthcare decision-making: quantifying preferences for healthcare through citizens’ juries

Introduction The optimal approach to engage the public in healthcare decision-making is unclear. Approaches range from deliberative citizens’ juries to large population surveys using discrete choice experiments. This study promotes public engagement and quantifies preferences in two key areas of relevance to the industry partners to identify which approach is most informative for informing healthcare policy. Methods and analysis The key areas identified are optimising appropriate use of emergency care and prioritising patients for bariatric surgery. Three citizens’ juries will be undertaken—two in Queensland to address each key issue and one in Adelaide to repeat the bariatric surgery deliberations with a different sample. Jurors will be given a choice experiment before the jury, immediately following the jury and at approximately 1 month following the jury. Control groups for each jury will be given the choice experiment at the same time points to test for convergence. Samples of healthcare decision-makers will be given the choice experiment as will two large samples of the population. Jury and control group participants will be recruited from the Queensland electoral roll and newspaper advertisements in Adelaide. Population samples will be recruited from a large research panel. Jury processes will be analysed qualitatively and choice experiments will be analysed using multinomial logit models and its more generalised forms. Comparisons between preferences across jurors predeliberation and postdeliberation, control participants, healthcare decision-makers and the general public will be undertaken for each key issue. Ethics and dissemination The study is approved by Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee (MED/10/12/HREC). Findings of the juries and the choice experiments will be reported at a workshop of stakeholders to be held in 2015, in reports and in peer reviewed journals.

Help or Hindrance? The relationship between land use planning and urban agriculture on the Gold Coast

Cities have always been dependent on a variety of resources including food for their survival. Supplying food to Australian cities relies on lengthy, complex and potentially vulnerable networks, which are being threatened by climate change, peak oil and economic crises. Recently, greater attention has been devoted to urban agriculture and its potential to contribute to urban food security. However, for urban agriculture to play its role most effectively, it needs to become an essential part of the fabric of planning. This chapter explores the relationship between urban agricultural practices and land use planning on the Gold Coast, Queensland; Australia’s sixth largest city. Through the analysis of key planning policies and instruments, it explores the possibilities and barriers for agriculture to become a greater part of the urban realm and contribute to increasing local food security.

Between hype and veracity; privatization of municipal solid waste management and its impacts on the informal waste sector

The informal waste recycling sector has been an indispensable but ironically invisible part of the waste management systems in developing countries as India, often completely disregarded and overlooked by decision makers and policy frameworks. The turn towards liberalization of economy since 1991 in India opened the doors for privatization of urban services and the waste sector found favor with private companies facilitated by the local governments. In joining the privatization bandwagon, the local governments aim to create an image of a progressive city demonstrated most visibly through apt management of municipal solid waste. Resultantly, the long important stakeholder, the informal sector has been sidelined and left to face the adverse impacts of privatization. There is hardly any recognition of its contributions or any attempt to integrate it within the formal waste management systems. The study investigates the impacts of privatization on the waste pickers in waste recycling operations. Highlighting the other dimension of waste collection and management in urban India the study focuses on the waste pickers and small time informal scrap dealers and this is done by taking the case study of Amritsar city, which is an important historic centre and a metropolitan city in the state of Punjab, India. The paper develops an analytical framework, drawing from literature review to analyze the impacts. In conclusion, it supports the case for involving informal waste sector towards achieving sustainable waste management in the city.

Prioritising patients for bariatric surgery: building public preferences from a discrete choice experiment into public policy

Objectives To derive priority weights for access to bariatric surgery for obese adults, from the perspective of the public. Setting Australian public hospital system. Participants Adults (N=1994), reflecting the age and gender distribution of Queensland and South Australia. Primary and secondary outcome measures A discrete choice experiment in which respondents indicated which of two individuals with different characteristics should be prioritised for surgery in repeated hypothetical choices. Potential surgery recipients were described by seven key characteristics or attributes: body mass index (BMI), presence of comorbid conditions, age, family history, commitment to lifestyle change, time on the surgical wait list and chance of maintaining weight loss following surgery. A multinomial logit model was used to evaluate preferences and derive priority weights (primary analysis), with a latent class model used to explore respondent characteristics that were associated with variation in preference across the sample (see online supplementary analysis). Results A preference was observed to prioritise individuals who demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle as well as individuals categorised with very severe (BMI≥50 kg/m2) or (to a lesser extent) severe (BMI≥40 kg/m2) obesity, those who already have obesity-related comorbidity, with a family history of obesity, with a greater chance of maintaining weight loss or who had spent a longer time on the wait list. Lifestyle commitment was considered to be more than twice as important as any other criterion. There was little tendency to prioritise according to the age of the recipient. Respondent preferences were dependent on their BMI, previous experience with weight management surgery, current health state and education level. Conclusions This study extends our understanding of the publics’ preferences for priority setting to the context of bariatric surgery, and derives priority weights that could be used to assist bodies responsible for commissioning bariatric services.

Growing Pains: the challenges of planning for growth in South East Queensland

In 2009, Prime Minister Rudd made clear his belief in a ‘Big Australia’, claiming population growth to be good for national security, for strengthening the country’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region and for long-term economic prosperity. If the scale of growth envisaged by the then Prime Minister is realised we will see a substantial expansion of Australia’s major cities and the transition of many of its more modestly sized cities into much bigger places. Whether these bigger places will be better places is a moot point. We are also likely to see a growing problem of ensuring that Australian cities are productive places in which to do business, affordable places to live and sustainable places that can adapt in the face of climate change and other threats of environmental degradation. Following the political upheavals of June 2010, Prime Minister Gillard moved quickly on a number of policy fronts, and one of her first announcements was that the Minister for Population, Tony Burke, was to become the Minister for Sustainable Population. While avoiding any definitive statements on a national population target, Minister Burke has drawn attention (Burke, 2010) to the spatial distribution of a growing population and, in particular, to the adverse consequences of untrammelled urban sprawl in places such as outer western Sydney (rapidly achieving the same status as the UK’s Clapham omnibus as the locus of unimpeachable public opinion). Notwithstanding these shifts in the political and governmental landscape, it is clear that population growth is an issue of vital importance to the future of Australia and its cities. It is likely to be one of the main battlegrounds in the coming federal election and broad policy positions on growth and its accommodationwill in turn frame the development of more focused urban policies around the country. In this respect it is heartening to see the Commonwealth government’s acceptance of urban management and planning as an important policy arena after many years of neglect, although some would prefer it to remain dormant (Farrelly, 2010). As former PrimeMinister Rudd said, ‘the future of our cities will substantially shape the future of our nation’ (Rudd, 2009). Similarly, launching the State of Australian Cities report, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Anthony Albanese spoke of renewing the Labor government’s engagement with cities and urban policy and of his belief that cities policy should be core business for any national government (Albanese, 2010). Minister Albanese also spoke critically of the view that a concern for cities signalled a disregard for rural and regional Australia, citing the establishment of Regional Development Australia as evidence of his government’s commitment to regional as well as urban policy. I will return to Regional Development Australia later. Reference to ‘regional policy’ in Australia can sometimes confuse those (like me) more familiar with other planning systems. It is used sometimes to denote policy directed at the vast spaces in which a diminishing proportion of the population lives: in short, it is policy for non-urban or rural ‘regional Australia’. At other times it describes the spatial scale and political space between the local and State or Federal levels of government. These regions may be urban, rural or combinations of both but are defined by their functionality and systemic qualities. The papers in this special issue share a concern with the many and varied issues of growth management and planning in South East Queensland (SEQ). SEQ is recognised by the Queensland government as a region in the second sense described above, and contains urban, suburban, peri-urban and rural areas. It comprises 11 councils, five of which are city councils and the remaining six classified as

From white shoes to bold future: The neoliberalisation of local government in an Australian city?

The City of Gold Coast in Australia has grown rapidly over the last half century to become the sixth largest city in the country and the second largest local government by population. It is seen by many to have become the epitome of neoliberal local government in Australia. This paper critically reviews this assumption of neoliberalisation through an analysis of the changing nature of governance in the city which draws on Saunders’ dual state thesis. This uses three dimensions: institutional structures, forms of politics, and ideological underpinnings, and considers a number of exemplary policies. It concludes that, apart from a brief period in which a set of Keynesian principles of intervention flourished, the city has indeed proceeded along a broadly neoliberal path but will face growing pressures in the future to develop programmes of social as well as economic intervention.