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Despite the growth, prevalence and influence of private urban governance, scholarship that explores the intimate workings of these manifold and mutating forms remains limited. While these private ventures carry forward elements from the past, the landscape of urban governance has nonetheless undergone profound transformation. Over the past few decades, the global expansion and influence of private governing ventures have reshaped how cities are managed, organised and experienced. This special issue on the New Private Urban Governance examines the constantly evolving modalities of private governance (i.e. business improvement districts/areas, condominium/strata corporations, gated communities, POPS and others) in a global context. Organised around new, interrelated themes of vestiges, ventures and visibility, this issue comprises case studies, syntheses of longstanding empirical projects and novel theoretical/conceptual interventions into political and spatial practices, knowledges and technologies of these privately governed realms. Focused on the spatialisation of politics, vestiges reflects the idea that while neoliberal forms of private urban governance continue to proliferate, they rely and build upon, rather than fully replace, earlier, more public governance practices, logics and spaces. Ventures emphasises that the private and market-oriented thrust of urban governance is heavily predicated on the protection and extraction of value and the intensifying financialisation of urban landscapes and life. Visibility highlights how governing technologies render private urban governance visible and in doing so highlight the politics of space. These three themes together expose the workings of the new private urban governance while invigorating further explorations of this complex phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business improvement districts represent a privatising urban governance instrument that visibly transforms urban landscapes. In the United States, the racialised impacts of business improvement districts require examination. Through a discussion of Washington, DC, a city profoundly injured by racist planning histories, we illustrate how business improvement districts, as part of a broader entrepreneurial regime, have driven gentrification citywide since the late 1990s. Focusing on the intersection of redevelopment and 'creative placemaking', we make visible the contradictions embedded in this business improvement district urbanism, which has harnessed the work of a network of actors to revalorise urban space while erasing working class places and in DC, its Black cultural, political and economic space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are an initiative adopted by some local governments, businesses, and residents to address concerns around crime and disorder in commercial areas, especially open street town centres. BIDs have become popular in the USA since the 1970s; however, no comprehensive review of evaluations has occurred to date. This paper systematically reviewed the academic literature to find 13 BID evaluations. These studies were examined in terms of their impacts on crime and disorder, displacement, and cost-effectiveness. Of the nine studies that quantitatively examined BID impacts on crime rates, eight (88%) found a reduction in one or more crime types. Six studies explored BID impacts on property crime, with all finding BIDs had a significant negative association with at least one type of property crime, with BIDs particularly effective at targeting vehicle-related offences. BIDs were also found to have a positive impact on reducing disorder and public nuisance type offences, however, had mixed evidence on violent crime, with three out of seven studies on violent crime finding BIDs can help to prevent robbery. Displacement of crime to surrounding areas was found to be rare, and the three studies that examined costs of operating BIDs all concluded they are cost-effective. The challenges of implementing BIDs are discussed, along with the implications for ongoing policy and practice development in the reduction of crime and disorder in commercial areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous cities worldwide employ business improve ment districts (BIDs) to manage their central areas. This article analyses the contribution of BIDs to cities’ territorial brands. Employing a case study methodology, we utilize the “territorial brand in regional development” (TBRD) matrix for qualitative analysis of selected BIDs. The findings underscore BIDs’ role as a versatile territorial brand in regional development shaping strategic discussions and fostering local, regional, and global reputations. It can be concluded that BIDs significantly enhance the territorial brand of their cities, receiving endorsement across various scales. Furthermore, urban and regional development processes involve political and cultural discussions, and this article revealed that BIDs are an active player in these discussions.

This study aims to start from the macroscale of the megacity, explore a top-down operational technical path from the identification of community regeneration units as the evaluation objects to the BID priority intervention evaluation, and then propose differentiated community regeneration strategies based on the BID model. In the post-epidemic era, it is necessary for global megacities to take new measures in urban regeneration to respond to worldwide changes and challenges. As an innovative tool to promote central city revitalization, the BID model has played an important role in community transformation. In the context of the continuous decentralization of population and industry in China's megacities, it is urgent to explore the technical path to apply the BID model to local community regeneration. Given the shortcomings of existing studies in the method to identify the scope of BID implementation and evaluate intervention priorities, this study takes Tianjin, a megacity in China, as an example and uses DBSCAN (density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise) and service area analysis to define the community regeneration units with commercial agglomeration characteristics as the objects. Then, the BID priority intervention evaluation system is constructed from the two measurement aspects of the intervention potential and the necessity of community regeneration to classify the BID intervention priorities of community regeneration units. The main conclusions are as follows: 1. When the DBSCAN analysis parameters take the minimum number of elements as 30 and the search distance as 120 m, the result is most suitable for identifying community units with commercial agglomeration of the study area; 2. Population vitality, especially working and residential population density, is the key factor affecting BID intervention potential, while road network density is an important indicator for determining the necessity of community regeneration; 3. Community regeneration units with high BID priority levels need to develop differentiated regeneration strategies combining their BID intervention potential, regeneration necessity characteristics, and location attributes. These conclusions can provide references for the governments of megacities to screen and establish BIDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public expenditure aims to achieve social objectives by improving a range of socially valuable attributes of benefit (arguments in a social welfare function). Public expenditure is typically allocated to public sector budgets, where budget holders are tasked with meeting a subset of social objectives. Decision makers require an evidence-based assessment of whether a proposed investment is likely to be worthwhile given existing levels of public expenditure. However, others also require some assessment of whether the overall level and allocation of public expenditure are appropriate. This article proposes a more general theoretical framework for economic evaluation that addresses both these questions. Using a stylized example of the economic evaluation of a new intervention in a simplified UK context, we show that this more general framework can support decisions beyond the approval or rejection of single projects. It shows that broader considerations about the level and allocation of public expenditure are possible and necessary when evaluating specific investments, which requires evidence of the range of benefits offered by marginal changes in different types of public expenditure and normative choices of how the attributes of benefit gained and forgone are valued. The proposed framework shows how to assess the value of a proposed investment and whether and how the overall level of public expenditure and its allocation across public sector budgets might be changed. It highlights that cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis can be viewed as special cases of this framework, identifying the weakness with each. • Recently developed methods of economic evaluation account for the reality of a range of social objectives and multiple constrained public sector budgets, but fail to fully account for the implications of the private consumption value of attributes and do not address the broader questions of the appropriate level and allocation of public expenditure. • This study proposes a more general theoretical framework for economic evaluation highlighting that the valuation of attributes of benefit and the extent to which public expenditure affects them is necessary to address whether a proposed investment is good value and whether the level and allocation of public expenditure are appropriate. This framework exposes the assumptions embedded in cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis and identifies why neither address these questions adequately. • We provide a stylized example of a proposed investment in a simplified UK context with 2 public sectors (healthcare and Adult Social Care) and a private sector. We show that the information required to evaluate a proposed investment also provides an estimate of the marginal value of public funds across public sectors that can be used to inform broader public expenditure decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological market theory can be used to explain intraspecific cooperation, interspecific mutualism, and sexual selection through models of game theory. These models describe the interactions between organisms as two classes of traders (buyers/sellers) exchanging commodities in the form of goods (e.g. food, shelter, matings) and services (e.g. warning calls, protection). Here, we expand biological market theory to include auction theory where bidding serves to match buyers and sellers.In a reverse auction, the seller increases the value of the item or decreases the cost until a buyer steps forward. We provide several examples of ecological systems that may have reverse auctions as underlying mechanisms to form mutualistic relationships.We focus on the yellow baboon (Papio cynocephalus) mating system as a case study to propose how the mechanisms of a reverse auction, which have the unintended but emergent consequence of producing a mutually beneficial outcome that improves collective reproductive benefits of the troop in this multi‐female multi‐male polygynandrous social system. For the yellow baboon, we posit that the "seller" is the reproductively cycling female, and the "buyer" is a male looking to mate with a cycling female. To the male, the "item for the sale" is the opportunity to sire an offspring, the price is providing safety and foraging time (via consortship) to the female. The "increasing value of the item for sale" is the chance of conception, which increases with each cycle since a female has resumed cycling post‐partum. The female's sexual swelling is an honest indicator of that cycle's probability of conception, and since resident males can track a female's cycle since resumption, there is transparency. The males presumably know the chance of conception when choosing to bid by offering consortship.Across nature, this reverse auction game likely exists in other inter‐ and intraspecific social relationships. Considering an ecological system as a reverse auction broadens our view of social evolution and adaptations through the lens of human economic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Sharing economy" refers to a transformative socio-economic phenomenon where individuals or institution with idle resources transfer the right to use resources for economic compensation. With the widespread adoption of distributed photovoltaic generation and energy storage (ES) device in residential communities, there is a growing interest in establishing a suitable platform for residential users to share their ES capacity with community shared equipment controllers (CSECs). This paper proposes a local ES capacity sharing market, and presents the market trading process, pricing and allocation rules using an iterative uniform-price bidding mechanism Acknowledging the selfish-interest of both RUs and CSECs, we introduce the resource management organization (RMO) as a regulated third-party organization responsible for administering the market. To evaluate the proposed scheme, we conduct case studies based on real-life data from Pecan Street. The numerical experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest, we lack a clear understanding of how the arguably ambiguous phenomenon of agile is perceived in government practice. This study aims to alleviate this puzzle by investigating how managers and employees in German public sector organisations make sense of agile as a spreading management fashion in the form of narratives. This is important because narratives function as innovation carriers that ultimately influence the manifestations of the concept in organisations. Based on a multi-case study of 31 interviews and 24 responses to a qualitative online survey conducted in 2021 and 2022, we provide insights into what public sector managers, employees and consultants understand (and, more importantly, do not understand) as agile and how they weave it into their existing reality of bureaucratic organisations. We uncover three meta-narratives of agile government, which we label 'renew', 'complement' and 'integrate'. In particular, the meta-narratives differ in their positioning of how agile interacts with the characteristics of bureaucratic organisations. Importantly, we also show that agile as a management fad serves as a projection surface for what actors want from a modern and digital organisation. Thus, the vocabulary of agile government within the narratives is inherently linked to other diffusing phenomena such as new work or digitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of crisis and with the increase of new ways of working, public sector organisations increasingly include agile practices in their working practices. To successfully transform public sector organisations into agile organisations, public servants require a new set of competences. Informal learning is a key element that helps public servants to build and apply these competences, e.g., through the collaboration with external experts in public sector innovation fellowships. To observe how collaborative competences for agile public organisations can be developed successfully by involving external experts, I conducted a case study on two iterations of a public sector innovation fellowship. My findings show that throughout the fellowships, competences are being developed in a collaborative process on a personal and organisational level. The practical application of the learned methods, personal reflection, and the development of organisational networks transform the collaborative into a learning process, allowing public servants to develop new competences and bring them into their organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous cities worldwide employ business improvement districts (BIDs) to manage their central areas. This article analyses the contribution of BIDs to cities’ territorial brands. Employing a case study methodology, we utilize the “territorial brand in regional development” (TBRD) matrix for qualitative analysis of selected BIDs. The findings underscore BIDs’ role as a versatile territorial brand in regional development shaping strategic discussions and fostering local, regional, and global reputations. It can be concluded that BIDs significantly enhance the territorial brand of their cities, receiving endorsement across various scales. Furthermore, urban and regional development processes involve political and cultural discussions, and this article revealed that BIDs are an active player in these discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the potential of a paper diary for strengthening accountability in public agricultural extension services. Therefore a paper diary called 'Diary for Agricultural Extension Officers' was developed and tested in Uganda. A qualitative case study research approach was applied for the development and assessment of the diary. Data were collected using focus group discussions and individual face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was conducted using the content analysis method. Paper diaries can strengthen accountability in public agricultural extension services by enabling alignment of the extension activities of the field agents to the goals of the extension service and to the needs of the beneficiaries, in addition to mitigating information asymmetry about the extension activities. However, the implementation of paper diaries requires sensitization of the beneficiaries on the need for verification and feedback. This study is centred around addressing a practical problem of field agents' accountability and results have the potential to improve management of public services such as agricultural extension. Moreover, the findings could also be relevant for all types of organizations and service delivery methods. This study expanded the boundaries of the principal-agent theory by applying it to the accountability of agricultural extension services using paper diaries, which have hitherto not been widely applied. This study advances the debates of accountability and coordination of agricultural extension services by assessing the potential of a paper diary as the literature has to date assessed the potential of electronic diaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether the cash flow forecasts (CFF) of analysts can disseminate valuable information to the information environments of companies. Design/methodology/approach: The author uses empirical archival methodology to conduct differences-in-difference analyses. Findings: It is found that information asymmetry decreases in the treatment group following the initiation of CFF during the postperiod, which is consistent with the hypothesis of this paper. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first among the cash flow forecast studies to demonstrate the usefulness of CFF in the mitigation of information asymmetry, a friction that is widespread in capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed energy systems encompass a diverse range of generation and storage solutions on the user side, where decentralized management schemes to maximize the overall social welfare are preferred considering their dispersed ownership. However, either security or privacy problems occur in recently proposed schemes. Here we report a decentralized framework leveraging the strengths of blockchain and parallelizable mathematical algorithms to overcome these potential drawbacks. The system owners bid cost functions and operating constraints through masked but coupled management subproblems, which are redistributed by the blockchain to be verifiably solved by competent peers. Such processes are iteratively executed as decisions and shadow prices are exchanged among participants, until an equilibrium is reached. The interactive framework ensures decentralized, privacy-preserving, and secure management of multiple energy sources, and reduces the total cost by 3.0 ~ 7.5% in the test system. Our results benefit the energy prosumers and promote a more active and competitive power grid. Decentralized management of distributed energy sources for lower energy costs is of high interest. Here, authors show how privacy and security concerns are addressed under a decentralization framework through blockchain and parallelizable algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative placemaking strategies are widely adopted by urban planners, local governments, and business communities in hopes to revive economically struggling urban areas. These strategies seek to attract pedestrian traffic by facilitating arts and cultural activities in underutilized urban spaces. While these are seemingly innocuous and uncontroversial urban design strategies, I argue that a particular creative placemaking tactic called 'activation' is a compassionate revanchist policy that is touted as a caring approach but, in practice, functions to mask visible poverty to advance a capital project in a revitalizing urban space. Drawing from a case study of a downtown revitalization project in London, Ontario (Canada), I show how a private placemaking consultant narrates and legitimizes this policy to city councillors as well as how the downtown business association rationalizes and enacts activation strategies. This demonstrates that private placemaking consultants are powerful actors who transfer and legitimize simplistic spatial solutions as a panacea to a local 'urban crisis'. Activation does not resemble punitive tactics that exclude and criminalize homelessness, it rather aims to dissolve the homeless within the fabric of the revitalizing urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethiopia is among the world's poorest nations, and its economy is growing extremely slowly; thus, the government's budget to manage environmental amenities is not always sufficient. Thus, for the provision of environmental management services such as the eradication of Prosopis juliflora, the participation of local households and other stakeholders is crucial. This study is therefore initiated with the objective of assessing rural households' demands for mitigating Prosopis juliflora invasion in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique was employed to obtain the 313 sample rural households that were used in the analysis, and those sample households were selected randomly and independently from the Amibara and Awash Fentale districts of Afar National Regional State, Ethiopia. In doing this, a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model was used to determine factors affecting rural households' demands for mitigating Prosopis juliflora invasion. Consequently, as per the inferential statistical results, there was a significant mean/percentage difference between willing and nonwilling households for the hypothesized variables, except for some variables such as farm experience; years lived in the area, distance from the market, and dependency ratio. Furthermore, the seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model result indicates that sex, family size, tenure security, livestock holding, frequency of extension contact, and years lived in the area were important factors influencing the willingness to participate in Prosopis juliflora management practices positively, whereas age, off-farm/nonincome, and bid value affected willingness to pay negatively and significantly. Hence, to improve the participation level of households, policymakers should target these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of digital technology contributes significant roles to businesses, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It raises the digital economy and fintech services to the MSMEs market, such as peer-to-peer lending, digital payment, crowdfunding, digital assets, e-commerce, social commerce, etc. This research aims to analyze MSMEs financial and business improvement model by using MSME's digital economy products and fintech penetration strategy in Indonesia. This study employed a mixed research method by integrating the Delphi technique and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The Delphi method was used to identify criteria or construct for the research framework, while AHP was used to evaluate and determine the score and priorities of the MSMEs financial performance criteria, business goals, digital economy's alternative products, and fintech penetration strategies. The Delphi method consists of round 1 - to explore the research framework, round 2 - to rank the research indicators, followed by AHP at round 3. The study involves 20 expert panels of MSMEs in greater Jakarta. This study found that the use of digital economy products - particularly fintech will enhance MSMEs' financial performance by increasing sales volume and business profits. It helps them achieving business goals by increasing their revenue and expanding their business. MSMEs need digital payment and mobile banking as vital fintech services. This study also provides strategic guidance to fintech players and government to effectively penetrate fintech products to MSMEs mainly through knowledge dissemination and digital knowledge improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) is one of the most important forms of online advertising, where an auction is hosted in real time to sell the individual ad impression. How to design an automated bidding strategy in response to the dynamic auction environment is crucial for improving user experience, protecting the interests of advertisers, and promoting the long-term development of the advertising platform. As an exciting topic in the real-world industry, it has attracted great research interest from several disciplines, most notably data science. There have been abundant studies on bidding strategy design which are based on the large volume of historical ad requests. Despite its popularity and significance, few works provide a summary for bid optimization. In this survey, we present the latest overview of the recent works to shed light on the optimization techniques where most of them are validated in practice. We first explore the optimization problem in different works, explaining how these different settings affect the bidding strategy designs. Then, some forms of bidding functions and specific optimization techniques are illustrated. Further, we specifically discuss a new trend about bidding in first-price auctions, which have gradually become popular in recent years. From this survey, both practitioners and researchers can gain insights of the challenges and future prospects of bid optimization in RTB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the integration of social accountability in veterinary medical education at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC). It emphasizes the importance of addressing social inequity in accessing veterinary care and promoting diversity within the profession. The OVC has initiated various programs and partnerships to support social accountability and improve access to animal healthcare for underserved populations. The article also highlights the efforts of OVC to address the veterinary workforce shortage in Canada and enhance access to veterinary healthcare. The OVC is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in veterinary education and addressing global health issues through the One Health Institute. [Extracted from the article]

The NoMA Business Improvement District (BID) is one of Washington DC's fastest developing areas and has one of the city's largest concentrations of unhoused tent camps, many of which are located in underpasses that provide bits of protection and privacy. These underpasses were created during DC's City Beautiful Movement and have been the site of neoliberal antihomeless strategies. In this paper I explore the production of space in the NoMA area and how property owners, business associations, and government actors sanitized public space for wealthy newcomers while excluding poor and unhoused residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Theorising the social in mental health research and action: a call for more inclusivity and accountability" is a document that explores the social dimension of mental health and the importance of collaboration and exchange between different knowledge communities. It discusses the diverse ways in which the social is conceptualized and acted upon in various sectors, such as academia, health services, community organizations, and patient advocacy groups. The document emphasizes the impact of concepts in mental health research on the lives of individuals with mental health problems and calls for more inclusivity, epistemic diversity, and real-world change in how the social is theorized. It also introduces a special issue that aims to generate more inclusive theorizations of the social dimension of mental health and explore how theories of the social influence policies, clinics, and communities. The text highlights the significance of social networks and connections in preventing suicides and improving access to care, as well as the role of social factors like education, gender, race, and age in shaping mental health. It stresses the need for inclusive and diverse approaches to theory development and research, and the importance of considering the perspectives of individuals with lived experience. The document concludes by acknowledging the limitations of the special issue and the ongoing need for dialogue and collaboration in this field. [Extracted from the article]

Business improvement districts (BIDs) have emerged as possible solutions for the revitalisation of declining urban areas. We investigate the effects of a voluntary Swedish BID programme on firm performance, urban safety and property values in five small to medium-sized Swedish towns, and find that it increased labour productivity for incumbent firms within the BID by about 7%, mainly through an increase in revenues. However, the positive effect of the BID programme on firm performance is transitory, decreasing sharply during the third year after implementation and then becoming insignificant. As for urban safety and property values, the results are mostly insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to analyze local government strategies in advancing social accountability regarding the environmental impact of Slaughterhouses in Semarang City, Indonesia. It also highlighted the significant challenges experienced by managers in fulfilling social accountability. This social accountability is necessary because it relates to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which have become a global commitment, with a particular focus on point 11 concerning sustainable cities and communities. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, observation, scientific literature, government official reports, and actual news using a qualitative approach case study. This study identified several policy problems, including the technical requirements for a hygienic, clean, and healthy environment that had not been met at the Semarang City Slaughterhouse. In addition, there was no preventive mechanism from the manager to identify diseases in animals before being slaughtered. The institutional changes of the slaughterhouse, through several regional regulations, had also not succeeded in realising social accountability due to the negative environmental aspects caused. The community lacked a bargaining value and the right channel to pressure the slaughterhouse to carry out social accountability for environmental management. Therefore, this study suggested that the institutional approach and emphasis from CSOs/NGOs will have more impact in realising social accountability for environmental management in public organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory publishing has recently emerged as a menace in academia. University professors and researchers often exploit this practice for their economic gains and institutional prestige. The present study investigates such existing predatory publishing practices in Pakistani public sector universities drawing on the notion of symbolic violence. For this purpose, we analyzed 495 articles published by 50 university professors in the social sciences and humanities over the period 2017–2021. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 postgraduate students to gather their perspectives on publishing practices. The study shows that 69% of the sample papers were published in predatory journals, as identified in Pakistan's Higher Education Commission's (HEC) online journal recognition system (HJRS). Postgraduate students' insights inform the study that the students misrecognize these malpractices in academia as a problem what is referred to as "symbolic violence." Consequently, they engage in the process to increase their publications. Such publications enable both the university professors and the students to achieve the desired benefit, such as promotions, tenure, and academic degrees. We recommend that this practice must be altered at the policy level since it not only violates the HEC's standards for quality research but also damages the researchers' credibility and country's scientific reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of Law 81/1993, which introduced a different rule for the election of mayors, on the technical efficiency of Italian cities over the period 1998–2006. Since 1993, municipalities below 15,000 inhabitants vote with a single‐ballot system, whereas cities above 15,000 inhabitants are subject to a double ballot. We first estimate the output‐oriented technical efficiency of municipalities through data envelopment analysis, and then we perform a regression discontinuity design analysis by exploiting the exogenous change in the electoral scheme at the 15,000 inhabitants cut‐off. We find evidence that municipalities voting under a double‐ballot rule show lower levels of efficiency—in terms of provision of public goods—compared with cities voting under a single‐ballot scheme, by about 6.5%. This effect is driven by inefficiencies registered in specific sectors, that is, police, education, and maintenance of roads. Furthermore, the overall lower efficiency of municipalities voting under runoff is related to the different level of educational attainment of elected mayors, whereas it is not driven by the features of Law 81/1993 relating to the number of lists forming a coalition in support of mayoral candidates and to disjoint votes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze idea generation in a public-private collaboration of a Brazilian Government Agency. The authors start from the following research question: How did the process of open creativity occur from collaboration, network relationships and creative practice in the experience of open innovation cycles of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Pernambuco, Brazil? Design/methodology/approach: The research was characterized as a case study that empirically explored a contemporary phenomenon in a specific context. The authors conducted document research and interviews and used the content analysis technique. Findings: The findings showed that open creativity enabled more efficient idea generation when the public-private partnership was established in a well-structured collaboration network with the private sector of the economy; when it consisted of a heterogeneous group of external collaborators who developed a wide exchange of expertise; and when practical actions were developed to make the creative process more efficient. Research limitations/implications: The study was limited to a single reality. The study was conducted in a single country and other nations may have social and institutional elements that were not considered in the analysis and that may influence the results in similar studies. Originality/value: The authors investigated open creativity in the public sector, a field that still has gaps in understanding. The authors focused on social relationships for the generation and improvement of ideas among actors external to the organization involved, a niche that is still little explored in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to sanitation has become an important element for improving the health of populations in developing countries. In Burkina Faso, 12% of the population in rural areas has access to latrine and 65% practice open defecation (OD). In a bid to eliminate this unsanitary practice and enhance sanitation access in rural areas, the government embraced community-led total sanitation (CLTS) as a national strategy in 2014. However, more than 6 years later, a notable observation is the high abandonment rate, with only a small fraction of rural communities successfully eradicating OD. Out of the 8892 villages in the country, 3546 underwent a CLTS triggering from 2014 to 2020. Nevertheless, in 787 of these villages, the implementation of the CLTS approach was abandoned, indicating a substantial abandonment rate of 22.19%. Until now, most studies on CLTS have focused on the post-ODF phase, emphasizing the question of the sustainability of the results generated by the approach, as if the process from triggering to obtaining ODF certification was not subject to any problems. However, cases of abandonment of the CLTS process after triggering do exist, although poorly documented in the literature, and there are no studies that clearly assign responsibilities to the actors when CLTS implementation comes to be abandoned. This research aims to bridge these gaps by identifying the root causes of these abandonment cases while delineating the distinct responsibilities associated with these instances. To achieve this, the study was conducted in the Central-Western region of Burkina Faso, where all stakeholders involved in CLTS implementation, including target communities, were identified, their different roles in the process defined, and data collected through household surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data. The research findings indicate that the abandonment of the CLTS implementation process is due to four categories of factors: sociocultural and economic aspects (39.78%), physical conditions (17.52%), governance aspects (26.28%), and the quality of approach implementation (16.42%). Moreover, these factors highlight a shared accountability for abandonment involving the government, implementing organizations, and target communities. These findings have significant implications for the future design of sanitation programs using the CLTS approach. To mitigate abandonment rates in the CLTS implementation process across rural communities, it is imperative for policymakers to attentively consider these factors and integrate the recommendations delineated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of epistemic justice in the context of urban planning, specifically focusing on street transformations. The authors argue that traditional planning approaches often overlook the diverse knowledge and experiences of citizens, prioritizing the perspectives of state institutions and urban designers. The article includes case studies from cities around the world, highlighting the need for a more inclusive and socially just approach to street planning. It discusses issues of distributive and procedural injustice in public space access, as well as the touristification of certain areas that exclude local voices. The text emphasizes the importance of recognizing and valuing diverse forms of knowledge and experiences in planning processes, and calls for a more inclusive and equitable approach to urban planning. [Extracted from the article]

Evidence of the impact of community-based forest management (CBFM) on conservation outcomes is mixed. Local governance is a key moderating factor, but what constitutes good governance is still up for debate. Desirable institutional features typically arise endogenously, which complicates the analysis of causality. We use an experimental design to analyze the impact on environmental outcomes of adding an externally implemented monitoring regime to an existing CBFM initiative in Ethiopia. We distinguish between bottom-up and top-down monitoring to improve the accountability of local leaders. We find that enhanced bottomup monitoring by community members does not affect forest outcomes, but top-down monitoring promotes forest conservation. We also identify a mechanism linking top-down monitoring to conservation: leaders work harder to protect the forest, which "crowds in" effort by community members. Our results are not about reducing the role of communities in forest management, they are a plea for oversight by the relevant authority to help communities overcome local power asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global environmental crisis is the result of a complex web of causation and distributed agency, where not even the most powerful individual actors can be considered responsible nor remedy the situation alone. This has prompted multiple calls across societies for transformative social change. What role can accountability play in this context? Starting in the theoretical traditions of microsociology and pragmatic sociology, this article elaborates the role of accountability in social interactions. To provide an account that justifies an action or inaction is here understood as a process of social ordering, where accounts are assessed as acceptable only after they have been tested against higher normative principles. Microsocial practices are, in this way, linked to macrosocial order. The following section turns to the global environmental crisis, showing that the crisis raises normative as well as epistemic challenges. The complexity of the socio‐environmental situation makes it hard to know what should be done and opens normative orders and epistemic claims to contestation. This situation provides increased opportunities for strategic maneuvering to justify actions as well as opportunities to question social practices and social order. The article concludes by discussing the role of accountability in climate change. Accountability can serve as a mechanism to attach issues to the current environmental crisis and re‐embed decisions and practice in an environmental moral order. As part of a broader palette of instruments, rules and norms, accountability has an important function to play in transforming society towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative hubs are institutional organization of newly emerging creative industries. Economic activities associated with creative industries are very often business-oriented and strongly independent. However, there are often needs for public sector. The aim of paper is to analyze the situation in the Czech Republic and assess the involvement and benefits of the public sector towards the support of these business activities. Methodologically, the work is based on several approaches. Primarily, a database of Czech creative hubs was created as part of desk research. This was followed by quantitative questionnaire survey with representatives of creative hubs and qualitative research in the form of structured interviews with representatives of hubs and the public sector. It was found that without public finances and interest, Czech creative hubs cannot function in the long term. Financial support is therefore the most common form of public support. The main strength of hubs lies in the built community of members, offered services and networking. Conversely, the main weakness is the inability to secure sufficient funds and sponsors. Although public sector cooperation in the Czech Republic is still limited, many public representatives are beginning to realize the benefits of the creative economy and gradually implement it into policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how potential target firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance affects bid premiums during the merger and acquisition (M&A) process. Using a sample of 5658 M&A deals between 2009 to 2020, we provide new evidence that target firms' ESG rating is positively correlated to bid price, particularly when the target firm scores highly on their singular environmental and governance ratings, whereas the targets with high single social ratings alone are not correlated to bid price. Our results also implied that when the target has lower environmental and governance performance, M&A deals are less likely to face bid premiums. We additionally find that the target firms of non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs) are more likely to have a higher bid price as opposed to state‐owned enterprises' (SOEs) target firms. Additionally, we find that targets' ESG rating is positively correlated to target shareholder value creation, as well as being positively correlated to short bid deal negotiation times. Overall, our findings are in line with target‐resistance theory, which states that high ESG performance targets can use their ESG advantages to increase their bid price, as well as increase stakeholder engagement and generation of post‐M&A synergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the reasons that drive companies to leave Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000)—the main auditable corporate social responsibility standard—and which alternative paths they undertake after the abandonment. As decertification from SA8000 is an under‐researched phenomenon, an exploratory approach based on the analysis of 15 multi‐country/industry companies has been adopted. Findings show that firms leave SA8000 for several reasons including the reduction of commercial advantages, paperwork overload, and complexities in orders and suppliers management. Our investigation recognizes decertification drivers that are recurring in other standards as well as new ones specific to SA8000. For what concerns the post‐decertification paths, we observe that firms pursue three distinct exit strategies (i.e., adoption of an alternative initiative/standard; no adoption of any alternative social standard/initiative, but still respect some SA8000 requirements; no adoption of any alternative social standard/initiative and stop taking care of SA8000 requirements). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an understanding of the driving forces in enterprise systems (ES) implementation in the public sector. The data in this multi-case study were collected in semi-structured interviews of City Hall employees in Poland, representing diverse levels of experience and authority. Based on these data, we identify six key concepts in ES public sector implementations and propose a conceptual framework to serve as guidance for implementation projects and provide a foundation for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoralist tenure systems are highly complex. Where customary institutions are functioning well, pastoralist women access and use resources as a member of a pastoralist group. Although policy and legislation call for more equity across societies, providing individual titles to women is not necessarily the answer. Strengthening women's rights within the collective society while also supporting women's capacities and abilities to participate meaningfully in decision-making processes and hold leadership positions will support more sustainable gender equality outcomes. Participatory rangeland management (PRM) is an approach developed in Ethiopia in 2010 that was then piloted by non-governmental organisations in several parts of the country in a bid to improve the security of tenure and good governance of rangelands, more inclusive participation of pastoralists in decisions pertaining to their lands and improve rangeland productivity. While not an explicit aim, it also sought women's empowerment as part of the participatory process. A review of PRM implementation in Oromia and Afar regions, Ethiopia, showed that in the majority of cases, women participated equally with men in the PRM process. Women's and men's opinions on the involvement and satisfaction of PRM implementation activities were compared favourably. Overall, community members believed that PRM has improved women's roles in rangeland management leadership and decision-making processes and their access to rangeland resources, thereby encouraging a transformative process of improving gender equality and women's empowerment in pastoralist societies. This article considers the implications of these results for pastoral women and to what degree they have contributed to their empowerment. A conceptualised women's empowerment framework is used for the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to assess the efficiency of the European Union's public sector from a quality of governance approach, employing a two-step methodology. In the first stage, EU states' efficiency scores are determined using Data Envelopment Analysis. Once quantifying public efficiency, the second step of the methodology examines the determinants of efficiency using a quantile regression estimation technique, with an emphasis on demographic features, corruption, economic freedom, and governmental digitalization. The novelty is provided by the assessment of the public sector's efficiency and efficacy from a broader approach in order to determine the efficiency scores of European Union countries, as well as the key factors that may impact the public sector's performance. The main findings, namely that governance quality can be considered an important resource in analysing public performance and that human resources, freedom, democracy, corruption, and digitalization have an impact on efficiency, are important considerations not only for policymakers but also for society, researchers, and the academic community. Reform measures should strive to improve both the technical and democratic components of public institutions in order to more effectively and transparently allocate public resources, while taking into consideration local and national peculiarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winning accolades including "the most fascinating museum in New York State worth traveling for" and the "best museum for kids", the National Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath as it was affectionately called, was on its way. Graph: The Math Encounters (mathencounters.org) public presentation series celebrates the wonder of mathematics, bringing serious math researchers to the stage to share what they do with a general audience. Additionally, mathematics has historically not been equally welcoming to all groups, and the math community as a whole is focused on improving diversity - how can MoMath continue to participate in this effort in its second decade?. [Extracted from the article]

Researching comparatively urban policymaking processes has become an ordinary praxis within urban policy mobilities studies. While it has been broadly accepted that thinking through relational dualisms, such as that of policy presence/absence, is useful to examine urban policymaking processes across multiple spatialities and temporalities, less attention has been paid to how we comparatively study such arenas. This article stands as an invitation to reflect on the methodological issues and implications of studying through sites and situations of policy presence and absence within urban policy mobilities. Building on a reflexive learning ontology that emerged out of an academic project that examines the relational and territorial (un)making of Business Improvement Districts across four English town centers, the article discusses how access to, navigation through and thickness of the evidence obtained from the research field is sensitive to the sites and situations of policy presence and absence where the research takes place. It is argued that studying such dissimilar policy arenas should encapsulate flexible research strategies to better attune to the situated processes and politics that engendered such policy outcomes. To address this concern, the article reflects on how positionality, institutional memory and chronopolitics should inform methodological praxis when researching sites and situations of policy presence and absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: public-private partnerships; public workers; integral state; parks conservancies; neoliberalism EN public-private partnerships public workers integral state parks conservancies neoliberalism 70 78 9 09/11/23 20230901 NES 230901 Graph: The public-private management of Bryant Park (NYC) - whose success feeds massive real estate gains in the area - uses private, nonprofit labor and food stands whose revenue goes to the corporation that runs the park.Nadhia Rahman The double-sided business card was the emblem. As nonprofit workers joined volunteers, workfare workers, and civil service workers, the ease of building solidarity around worksite conditions and pay decreased; unionized workers formed a smaller portion of the workforce and the variety of work-statuses present at and across worksites made finding common ground more difficult, as neither volunteers nor workfare workers are defined as employees, and nonprofits could maintain their own pay-scales and supervisory practices. This was the beginning of a public-private workforce in Central Park.[17] Shortly later, regular city park workers refused to clean up a fish die-off in a lake in Central Park without out-of-contract compensation.[18] This convinced the CPC that it would be best to replace, over time, all or most of the municipal workers. We were interviewing workers in New York City's parks for a book about how the work of cleaning the parks had changed, and how it was emblematic of larger changes in New York City's governance.[4] When a manager of a Brooklyn park gave us her business card, it revealed to us the I private i face of her work, as the President of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the evolving role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Topics discussed include the CIO's expanded responsibilities in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), the importance of linking technology with information value, and the need for a holistic approach to business processes and technology management.

Business improvement district (BID) research has historically been light on measuring organisation success and effectiveness. Many authors have focused on describing the novelty of BID programmes, as well as chronicling the evolution and expansion of BIDs around the globe. Some works offer critiques of the philosophy of BIDs, casting them as shadow governments, free to pursue undemocratic principles. Only a limited number of researchers have tackled the question of how to measure success and effectiveness of BIDs. This paper suggests that for most BIDs there will be no single metric of success. Rather, BIDs represent the amalgam of multiple stakeholder groups, each with different sets of success preferences. Using Ithaca, New York as a case example, the author details a survey of stakeholder groups in Ithaca that documents a broad array of success metrics. It is recommended that researchers as well as practitioners seek to utilise a scorecard/dashboard of the various key metrics that are deemed most important by the key stakeholder groups represented in a downtown district as a more accurate and comprehensive methodology for assessing BID success and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]