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Copyright of Przeglad Socjologiczny is the property of Lodz Scientific Society / Lodzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Latin American Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of a profit and loss sharing approach to tax increment financing (TIF) districts in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: A survey based on this approach was distributed to representatives of community redevelopment authorities (CRAs) in the State of Florida to ascertain practitioner feedback. Findings: Although a majority of the respondents did not feel it was possible for political, economic and legal reasons, some did feel that it was a practical, reasonable and sustainable approach to financing projects for economic development. Some responses were correlated, with others indicating that certain beliefs framed their answers to the questions. Research limitations/implications: The surveys were only distributed to CRAs in the State of Florida. Future research will need to include other CRAs in other states to make the findings more generalizable. In addition, the results are merely descriptive and are not an assessment of a successful application. Practical implications: The need for more development in blighted areas of many cities across the USA will put emphasis on innovative approaches in financing this. The growth of Islamic finance in the USA and the regulatory framework for it might open a doorway for its application in this area. Originality/value: This is the first attempt to apply an Islamic financing methodology to local economic development in the USA, with practitioner feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on industrial revenue bonds, which are used as a source of long-term financing by many large corporations in the United States. Industrial revenue bond financing, which provides low-cost capital for expansion or investment, are securities issued by local governments. The funds are used to buy or improve facilities which are then rented to companies on long-term leases. The bonds can be a general obligation of the local government or secured transactions. The advantage is low interest payments for corporations. Five factors used in considering a company for industrial revenue financing, advantages to the bondholders, opposition to this type of financing from the Treasury Department and Wisconsin Congressman Henry S. Reuss, and Armco Steel Corporation are mentioned.

The author summarizes some of the major findings of a study of industrial aid bond financing throughout the United States, the complete results of which are published by the Alabama Business Research Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floatover installation is an effective installation method for topsides of offshore platforms. The floatover operation is very sensitive to the ocean environment conditions, and the motions of the topside are required to be strictly limited within a certain level. The field monitoring is essential to support the installation. This paper presents a comprehensive introduction to the monitoring system developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University for the jacket platform floatover installations. Four subsystems were designed for the purposes of environment monitoring, motions and position monitoring, deck support unit (DSU) separating monitoring and closed-circuit television (CCTV) monitoring, respectively. Besides, the integrated monitoring system (IMS) for data integration is also introduced. In addition, applications of the monitoring system with respect to a recently implemented floatover installation project in Malaysian waters is presented. The execution plan is introduced in details, and the implementation process for the monitoring system including validation, installation, tests and field operation is presented. Moreover, the field monitoring results are presented and discussed in brief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following increases in the frequency and magnitude of disasters over the past decades, continuous knowledge production and dissemination has become a crucial pathway for understanding disaster risks. The Sendai Framework provides guidance for various levels of governance and well lays emphasis on managing ‘disaster risks’. While a great deal of existing scholarship has contributed immensely to proactive participation of key players in the public and private sectors, the interpretation of knowledge produced by academia and professional organizations that aids in better understanding for ease of planning and implementation becomes a challenging and rigorous task. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that simplifies the interpretation of ‘knowledge creation’ and ‘knowledge dissemination’ connecting the Sendai priority one focus and requisite actions for disaster risk reduction at local, national, global and regional levels. The intended outcome is to better enhance understanding using ‘knowledge’ as a lens for key players and stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction activities. This is achieved through the review of the role of knowledge and knowledge management literature for understanding disaster risks and utilizes an exploratory approach to further create a theoretical linkage with the focus of the Sendai Framework. The paper suggests that appropriate and continuous interpretation of knowledge created and disseminated has the propensity to stimulate and assist in achieving improved disaster risk reduction outcomes and judicious harnessing of resources required for achieving such tasks. The limitation of this paper is that it utilizes a knowledge lens to achieve its aim while acknowledging that other lenses can be used to provide better understanding and clarity of the subject matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomerations are becoming a vital geographic unit for nations to sustain economic growth and development. However, agglomerations also pose significant challenges for development planning. They are complex, dynamic and huge systems. Their interconnectivity blurs the boundaries between cities and peripheral regions, and makes traditional city boundaries, often imposed by administrative needs, essentially obsolete. Despite this, the importance of an integrated approach to development planning is particularly acute for coastal urban agglomerations that are threatened by a range of geological hazards, hydro-meteorological hazards and climate change impacts. This paper is an account of the first phase of a longer-term study into agglomeration development planning of Sarbagita Metropolitan in Bali Province, Indonesia, with a focus on the integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption into the planning process. This phase of the study presents an initial analysis of the strategic issues for the development planning of Sarbagita Metropolitan, and a mapping of stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction within the region. Data was collected through interviews with key stakeholders and a policy analysis. The results address how urban agglomeration is addressed within national development planning, the nature of urban agglomeration in Bali Province, the management of development planning in the region, the stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Bali Province, and the strategic challenges for development planning within the region. Key issues identified through this initial analysis include the important role the agglomeration plays in the national strategic development plan as a centre for regional economic development based on the tourism industry, the importance of infrastructure sharing, interconnectivity, and water/food security among the cities and regencies, and the lack of integration or consideration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the agglomeration plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience of the built environment and communities to natural and man-made hazards is consolidating worldwide as a key requirement in the field of urban planning and building design, and there is an increasing awareness that Sustainable Development Goals and priorities of the Sendai Framework cannot be achieved without a comprehensive approach able to promote the effective implementation of DRR and CCA measures within regeneration processes at various scales. In this sense, an “all-hazards” approach, addressing multiple risk conditions (including Natech and cascading effects) and integrating DRR and CCA design strategies, show a highly cost-effective potential, maximizing the effect of complementary measures and optimizing mitigation/adaptation design techniques within a multi-scale (building/neighbourhood/city) resilience perspective, delivering at the same time socio-economic benefits linked to the improvement of urban spaces’ liveability and environmental quality. Vulnerability and impact assessment represent an essential component of a simulation-based methodology aimed at increasing the potential for use of scientific results by decision-makers, through multi-hazard and dynamic impact scenarios combined with cost-benefit and multi-criteria analyses to assess the effectiveness of alternative options. The paper presents the methodological approach developed at PLINIVS Study Centre and the experimental applications implemented within recent EU and National projects, such as H2020-ESPREssO and SIMMCITIES_NA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government have a pivotal role in city planning. However, meeting the conflicting priorities such as plan for urbanization, promote economic prosperity, ensure environmental sustainability besides creating safe, vibrant and liveable places, create major challenges for local administration. While rapid urbanization continue to displace people from their local places, the frequency of disaster events at the local scale and increasing disaster risks place unique challenges on people and their places. This emphasises the need for local government to understand the local places and invest in planning for cities that improve resilience and enhance human connectivity to their places. Meeting these multidimensional needs in local spaces require embedding local and scientific knowledge, past experiences and community expectation to plan and design cities that also deliver multiple social outcomes. Both place-based approach to city planning and creating disaster resilient cities have gathered momentum, however, they continue to occur in isolation. Maximizing these multiple social, environmental and economic outcomes, emphasize the need to align both resilience principles for sustainable urbanization and place based approach planning concepts to plan for places for people. Drawing from these principles and organizational change theory, a conceptual framework is proposed that provide a new lens for local government to plan for place based resilient cities. This place based approach for resilient cities framework incorporates the thinking for change as a dynamic process across the time scales and by understanding the relationship between people and their place. The model proposed is in an Australian context, yet has significant implication for communities at all levels when planning for places for people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstruction after war typically entails rebuilding soft and hard infrastructure. While an individual reconstruction intervention may focus on either or both these aspects, the overall reconstruction strategy takes a holistic approach and considers the integrated linkages among these interventions. From a policy perspective, it is important that a post conflict reconstruction (PCR) intervention should consider its potential positive and negative consequences while correctly positioning it within the whole PCR strategy. This study is an analysis of the potential consequences of a PCR intervention in the form of soft and hard infrastructure. Adopting a conceptual analytical method approach, it highlights the significance of accounting for consequences before a PCR intervention. In this study, a novel conceptual framework is proposed to analyse consequences of a PCR intervention, linking these consequences to context, intervention and long-term outcomes. The framework can be used as a basis to develop a policy framework to assess the consequences of reconstruction in a post conflict context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been several key programmes for recovery and development in Sri Lanka which provided integrated support to returnees, host communities and other vulnerable groups with different needs, capacities and aspirations in the conflict affected areas. These projects and programmes have significant social transformational potential, but how to design and implement recovery and development interventions in order to bring about sustainable social transformation is a question that has not been fully answered yet. In this context, this research paper analyses series of projects which were designed to promote social transformation through its recovery and development interventions and suggests an analytical framework to mainstream the social transformation interventions into recovery and development. The methods involved the evaluation of ten selected recovery and development projects in northern and eastern region in Sri Lanka using qualitative data collection techniques including focus group discussions, key informant interviews and direct observation. Finally, the analysis presents a path to follow when mainstreaming social transformation into recovery and development projects through the exploration of strategies, approaches, practices, experiences and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the effect of legislature size on public spending? An answer to this question is provided by Weingast et al. (J Polit Econ 89(4):642-664, 1981), whose 'law of 1/ n' posits that an increase in the number of elected representatives always leads to an increase in public spending. Because elected politicians regard the tax base as a common pool from which they can finance specific projects for their constituencies, and these specific constituencies internalize the full benefits of the projects, but only bear a fraction of the costs (projects are financed from the common tax base), fiscal inefficiency will increase with the number of representatives. In this paper, I test the validity of the 'law of 1/ n' using a dataset of 9325 German municipalities between 2008 and 2010. Through the application of a regression discontinuity design, many of the methodological pitfalls of previous studies can be avoided and a valid estimation of the causal effect of legislature size on public spending for German municipalities can be determined. The results do not corroborate the positive findings of previous studies, which generally supported the implications of the 'law of 1/ n'. For the years 2008-2010, I find a negative effect of legislature size on public spending in German municipal councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the programming period 2014-2020, new opportunities for the water sector appear through using the funds from OPE 2014-2020, axis Water. The aim of the paper is to analyze and assess the project funding in the water sector for the period 2007-2013. On this basis are made conclusions of the program period and recommendations for improvement the sector's potential by using project financing. The first part of the paper analyzes and assesses the use of funds for the development of the water sector during the period 2007-2013. On the basis of a survey of beneficiaries of OPE 2007-2013 the second part of the paper assess the OPE 2007-2013, axis Water. Based on the analysis and assessment are made recommendations for improvement of the project financing in the water sector. Conclusions in the paper are based on the results of university research project "Project management of sustainable development of water sector" (UNWE) (Stoyanova, 2015) and information from Ministry of the environment and water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides evidence on what developing country governments expect to be their main challenges within five to 10 years, and how they want their relationships with development assistance providers to evolve in order to meet these challenges. The results, based on a survey commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD) of 40 partner country governments, indicate that demand for official development assistance ( ODA) is likely to remain strong in the medium term, but that partner countries are actively diversifying providers in order to spread risk. Countries want ODA providers to shift to a more enabling role in the coming years, providing vital finance, but in support of government-led sector programmes, delivering more and better technical and policy support, and leveraging more private finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of development co-operation has changed rapidly in recent years. Developing countries have access to a more diverse range of financing sources, including non-traditional providers of bilateral development co-operation, new or emerging multilateral and regional institutions, philanthropic organizations and private investors. These changes raise pressing questions about how the policies and practices of external providers of development finance must evolve, both to meet changing development priorities and to ensure that the overall development assistance effort from all providers is optimal. This article introduces a special issue of Development Policy Review that presents new perspectives from developing countries on the roles that development finance should play. This introduction highlights commonalities and differences among the articles contained in the special issue, and concludes with next steps for research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the redevelopment of the Oldsmobile Stadium football stadium in Lansing , Michigan. Topics discussed include the evaluation and recommendations for the modernization of the ballpark to make it competitive involving organizations such as the Take Me Out to the Ball Game LLC (TMO), owner of Lansing Lugnuts baseball team, the consideration of public-private development, and the various challenges of the project which include costs and agreements.

Multisectoral partnerships with local government have emerged as a strategy for solving ‘wicked’ problems in communities, although research about these types of public–private partnerships is limited. Available evidence suggests that differentials in power and status, value bases and perspectives on priorities have been problematic in partnership building with community. This paper examines the role of local government as the funded, lead organisation, in a public–private partnership for planning, designing and constructing a business accelerator in one of Australia’s growth regions. Partnership scope, role and outcomes were measured against a conceptual framework mapping success indicators. Findings show core principles for successful partnership were achieved and supported by the role, capacity and commitment of local government to forming strong working relationships with consortium partners. Relationship building and commitment to collective project outcomes were pivotal to success. Further research is needed to assess whether emerging trends hold and consolidate over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores on the small-scale infrastructure and self-help development projects of the Lesotho Workcamps Association (LWA). Topics mentioned include the contribution of the student participants to the economic development, the government aid to people from local communities and the political independence of the people.

The development of a region depends on a number of factors. One of them is a well-functioning logistics, which in this context can be named as the logistics of the region. Due to the fact that the literature deals with the problem of logistics of regions to a small extent on the one hand, and on the other hand at the same time one of the major investments treated as an essential element of logistic system in Pomeranian Region, i.e. Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway, has been just recently completed, a great opportunity to study an impact of the element on the regional development has appeared. The results of the study show that the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway has contributed to the liquidation of the unbalance between logistically highly developed Tricity (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia) and poorly developed area of Kashubian sub-region resulted mainly in better transportation access for inhabitants, as well as higher logistic service level for the Gdansk Airport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores on the infrastructure plan of the presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Topics mentioned include the budget for the repairs and maintenance of the infrastructures, the private-sector funding on infrastructure and the creation of jobs and the increase of minimum wage driven by the establishment of the economic development projects.

This article is a follow-up to the publication presented in EStIF 3/2015 about the same issue. In that article the National Regulatory Background for Financial Instruments established from the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds was analysed in the context of Hungary. That study concluded that the first attempts at implementation would bring confirmation to that set of rules and/or would point at the necessary amendments and modifications. At the request of the Editor the following article gives an overview of the relevant experiences and the related amendment in the national regulatory background. The previous article divided the areas covered by the national regulation into three groups: project selection, implementation, control and feedback. From each of these three groups the direction of the national regulation was described. The content of the national data bank of financial instruments (FIs) was also presented in line with the information need of cohesion policy priority tasks, such as regularity, absorption and efficiency. Since the closing date of the initial article significant progress has occurred in the selection of bodies implementing FIs. Some development in relation to the preparation of FIs combined with grants has also happened. The possibility to make objections was extended to the final recipients. And finally, the electronic information system - originally developed for grants - has started to be adjusted to the requirements of these specific instruments. The developments have touched upon all groups of the regulatory areas: selection (selection of bodies implementing FIs), implementation (electronic information system with special regard to financialmanagement and combined support),monitoring and feedback (objection). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike traditional donor countries, China has not established compulsory environmental and social risk (ESR) mitigation mechanisms for its Official Development Finance (ODF) projects. This article seeks to examine the various stakeholders' relations concerning the ESR induced by Chinese ODF-funded projects with a case study in Kenya. Much of the current research has not analyzed stakeholders of Chinese ODF-funded projects in Africa, especially the local communities. This paper looks at the Lamu Port project, a major infrastructure project in Kenya, to understand the perceptions of various stakeholders - the Chinese government, the Kenyan government, Chinese companies, media, NGOs, researchers, and most importantly the local communities - on the ESR of this particular Chinese ODF-funded project, and examines their relations so as to explore whether there is consensus on who should mitigate the ESR. Understanding these factors is critical for taking action to mitigate ESR resulting from the growing number of Chinese ODF-funded projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to explore some problems that arise from the application of short-term and output-oriented grant management practice and from the traditional 'waterfall'1 project management approach in cases where the project content is more difficult to precisely define at the planning phase, where there is more risk inherent in the project and where more iteration and engagement is necessary in the implementation phase. The characteristics of the current grant management approach will be examined based on evaluation findings and experiences regarding practices in Hungary; the possible implications of this approach for research, institutional development or service development projects and possible alternatives to them will be introduced. Furthermore, it will be discussed how iterative management approaches that have become legitimate in government service development and procurement in recent years could be applied to a wider range of projects under European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds as well. Whereas the problems will essentially be discussed as perceived at the project level, the implications of both problems and potential solutions at programme or policy level will be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The findings from the application of Structural Funds in the programming period 2007-2013 have led the Greek State to decisions that will hopefully ensure a more efficient and intelligent management of the resources in the programming period 2014 - 2020. The simplification of the institutional framework for the implementation of co-financed projects that started in the mid of the 2007-2013 period, identified the most problematic areas of the whole implementation trail. As a fact, institutional and legislative interventions undertaken have already accelerated the absorption of EU funds (speeding (up) environmental and archaeological permits, expropriation, funding of the projects). In the context of the current redesign of the structure and management mechanism for the operational programmes (OPs) 2014-2020, the lessons learned from the past experience have led to specific interventions that focus both on the "architecture" of the operational programmes and on the mechanism for management and implementation. Major principles (see Box 1) adopted in the designing of the new implementation mechanism are as follows: - Clear separation of the roles of management and implementation and demarcation between political and operational levels; - Decentralisation of the management for the regional operational programmes giving all related responsibilities to the elected regional authorities, so that all the regional scale projects can be managed at a regional level; - Restricting the use of intermediate bodies to the completely necessary cases; - Further strengthening the coordination of the OPs implementation; - Redesign of the procedures and rules of the current management and control system in order to be more result oriented and accelerate the implementation of programmes; - Further simplification of the national implementation framework of co-financed projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the European Court of Auditors identifying State aid non-compliance in 20% of all European Structural and Investment (ESI) funded projects audited,1 one of the primary concerns for managing authorities delivering the ESIF 2014-2020 programmes will be putting in place appropriate systems to ensure State aid law compliance.2 This paper explores the opportunities to provide lawful State aid under the cover of the new General Block Exemption Regulation 651/2014 (GBER 2014-2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suburban areas are subjected to particularly strong investment pressure, thus facing the challenge arising from the need to impose new spatial order. Satisfying the residents' expectations by implementing necessary technical and social infrastructure becomes a priority. Therefore, public investments play an important role in suburban areas. The article discusses the role of public purpose goals and their achievement using a case study which encompassed the outskirts of Olsztyn and consisted of detailed analyses of two gminas (communes) adjacent to the city. The research covered the time period from 2006 to 2010. The relationship between the development of housing functions in a suburban area and the location of public purpose investments such as technical and social infrastructure has been documented. The execution of public purpose projects is a follow-up of the development strategies prepared for the gminas where public investments are shown as a stimulant of suburban development. It has been demonstrated that decisions permitting such investments to be carried out are issued in response to the needs of the local community and investors moving to suburban territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effort of the economic development organizations (EDOs) in developing greenfield projects and brownfield redevelopments in the U.S. It highlights the development of several utility infrastructures for economic development which include water, electric and voice networks. It also stresses the impact of brownfield redevelopment to the businesses and residential housing neighbors in the downtown.

In a two-party legislature, districts represented by the majority may receive greater funds if majority-party legislators have greater proposal power or disproportionately form coalitions with each other. Funding types received by districts may depend on their legislators' party identity when party preferences differ. Estimates from the United States, using fixed-effect and regression-discontinuity designs, indicate that states represented by members of Congress in the majority receive greater federal grants, especially in transportation, and defense spending. States represented by Republicans receive more for defense and transportation than those represented by Democrats; the latter receive more spending for education and urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programs ECHO and OBNOVA was first assistance programs which the European Union pursued in the Republic of Croatia in the period since 1991 to 2000. These programs have greatly helped in the return of refugees, reconstruction of war-torn areas, humanitarian action, and freedom of speech. Assistance program CARDS and pre-accession programs PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD have been active since 2000 to 2007, when they are replaced by a single IPA program. The main aim and purpose of the IPA program is providing assistance to candidate countries and potential candidate countries in the harmonization and implementation of legal, political and economic acquis communautaire and to prepare them for the use of the Cohesion Fund and the Structural Funds. This paper analyses the competence of project managers, barriers to application and implementation of the projects (the inability to pre-finance and co-financing, the complexity of application procedures, the adequacy of human resources, language barriers, and lack of defined strategic priorities, not preparation of project documentation, lack of motivated managers and project team members). Research results will help organizational units in the Republic of Croatia to more effectively use the resources of the Structural instruments with the aim of further regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]