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The aim of this paper is to make recommendations for the procedural optimization of the Future Search Conference design on the basis of empirical evidence from two case study conferences in Germany and the United Kingdom. The paper presents the major criticisms that have been raised against the step-by-step conference design in the theoretical literature and contrasts these with the empirical findings of two stakeholder-based evaluations. The author draws attention to a number of weaknesses in the conference opening, the common ground phase and the action planning phase of the Future Search Conference design and makes proposals for design changes. The paper suggests that a systematic and stakeholder-oriented evaluation should be part of interventions like Future Search Conferences. The paper concludes with a reminder that the political context and local power relations are a key variable in determining success or failure of a Future Search conference. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Second Information Technology in Education Study — Module 2 (SITES-M2) in Germany investigated 12 cases of innovative pedagogical practice using technology (IPPUT) in primary, lower and upper secondary schools. One theme that emerged from the analysis of these cases was students' cooperation. It seems that the co-occurrence of ICT-use and students' cooperation and collaboration is not accidental. The focus of this paper is an analysis and classification of the students' cooperation identified in the IPPUTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rests on three arguments. First, besides the shadow of hierarchy (Scharpf, 1993) there is a shadow of public discourse, which at times has a decisive impact on policy co-ordination, though it might be less persistent. Second, in the German DSD case one can see such a shadow of public discourse operating. The establishing of the German DSD in 1990 and the German Packaging Ordinance in 1991 show that policy co-ordination in the domain of environmental policy cannot be attributed either to formal decision making procedures or to the voluntary agreements between vested interest groups and associations, or to the bargaining efforts of the informal policy networks within and between the different political portfolios involved. Rather what is considered to be in the common interest depends on public deliberationprocesses. Staging an environmental problem in the public space and the mass media arena - under certain conditions - might change the context for political negotiation and open new opportunities for welfare optimizing decision making. The reason for this is related to our third argument. The establishing of the German DSD is a good example for showing whether and when symbolic mobilization for the protection of common goods has an impact on policy co-ordination. In the second half of the 1980s, especially the radical environmentalist discourse coalition successfully attempted to gain public support for their goals in the mass media through public narratives. Conversely, the plastics industry, packaging manufacturing and the bottling industry as well as the retail trade in the late 1980s were hardly prepared for an intensive struggle over symbols, problem solutions and the appropriate legal and institutional basis for regulating the flow of used packaging. Consequently, public discourse in the 1980s completely changed the perception of what were appropriate policies for the management of used packaging. This new problem definition substantially shaped the [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]