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The lack of a conclusive business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is at the heart of the ongoing debate on the role of companies in solving social problems. Acknowledging [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00826.x Byline: SUSAN S. FAINSTEIN (1) Keywords: New York; London; Amsterdam; mega-projects; redevelopment; public-private partnerships; urban planning; Atlantic Yards; Bijlmermeer; Thames Gateway Abstract: Abstract Recently we have witnessed the mounting of very large development projects (mega-projects) in European and American cities. There is a striking physical similarity among the schemes and also a convergence embodied in private-sector involvement and market orientation. They differ, however, as to whether they provide affordable units and tie together physical and social goals. This article investigates new mega-projects in New York, London, and Amsterdam. The dissimilarities among them indicate the extent of variability in contemporary property capitalism. The comparison shows that public-private partnerships can provide public benefits, but also shows that these large projects are risky for both public and private participants, must primarily be oriented toward profitability, and produce a landscape that does not encourage urbanity. Whether the gains from increased competitiveness are spread throughout the society depends on the size of the direct governmental commitment to public benefits. This is greatest in the Netherlands, where the welfare state, albeit shrunken, lives on; it is least in the United States, where the small size of national expenditures on housing and social welfare means that low-income people must depend almost wholly on trickle-down effects to gain from new development. Resume Les tres grands projets d'amenagement (megaprojets) se multiplient dernierement dans les villes d'Europe et d'Amerique. On est frappe par une similarite physique entre les programmes, mais aussi par une convergence observable dans l'implication du secteur prive et dans une orientation-marche. Ils different pourtant par leur capacite ou non a procurer des unites accessibles financierement et a associer des objectifs physiques et sociaux. L'article etudie de nouveaux megaprojets a New-York, Londres et Amsterdam. Les divergences entre eux indiquent l'etendue de la variabilite du capitalisme immobilier contemporain. La comparaison etablit que les partenariats public-prive peuvent produire des benefices publics, et montre aussi que ces grands projets sont risques pour les participants publics et prives, qu'ils doivent surtout rechercher la rentabilite et qu'ils generent un paysage peu favorable a l'urbanite. La repartition, sur toute la societe, des gains tires d'une competitivite accrue depend de l'ampleur de l'engagement direct des gouvernements a l'egard des benefices publics. Le cas le plus flagrant est celui des Pays-Bas, ou l'Etat-providence subsiste, bien que diminue; le plus limite est celui des Etats-Unis, ou la faible ampleur des depenses nationales de logement et de protection sociale signifie que les populations a bas revenu dependent presque totalement des effets de propagation pour beneficier d'un nouvel amenagement. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA Article note: Susan S. Fainstein (sfainstein@aol.com), Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

In the midst of governmental budget battles in the late 20th century, many countries' public pension programs faced challenges. In some countries, private provision grew in importance, but shifts from public to private retirement income did not automatically occur. The author examined retirement income programs in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, and New Zealand from 1980 to 1995 to evaluate the components of pension programs, both public and private, that were or were not protected from cutbacks. The author explores ways in which the public sector cooperates with the nonpublic sectors to form retirement income policy in these four countries. He then evaluates the explanatory frameworks scholars use to study social policy change by examining parts of pension programs that were maintained and those that were reduced. The author suggests that some factors take on greater explanatory importance for the diminution and durability of pension programs when both public and private pension programs are considered. Keywords: pensions: public; private; retirement

Public goods are conventionally defined as both nonexcludable and nonrivalrous. These attributes create an incentive for consumers to act as 'free riders,' and therefore, according to mainstream neoclassical economics, production [...]

This paper takes the old-age pension system in Israel as a test case to examine the implications of proposals for pension reform now being debated or implemented in many welfare states. For over a decade, high on the agenda of decision-makers on both national and international levels, there has been the notion of moving towards a changing `partnership in pensions' or, to put it more bluntly, towards greater privatisation of social security. Virtually since its emergence in the 1950s, the Israeli old-age pension has been based primarily upon a mix of low universal state pensions and income-related private occupational pensions. This paper compares the British and Israeli social security systems for older people in the wake of the reforms recently introduced in Britain and analyses the implications of the Israeli structure on the distribution of social security spending and on the wellbeing of different categories of older individuals. KEY WORDS--pensions, Israel, partnership in pensions, social protection.

The millions of public educators are working tirelessly and the US is spending billions of dollars annually to solve one of the country's most vexing social problems, education achievement gap and its horrific life consequences for millions of children, particularly of color. The problem is a stubborn one, with deep-rooted impediments to its resolution but in Philadelphia, the public and private sectors effectively work together to close the achievement gap.

Despite a glittering line-up of presenters and prize-winners, last Sunday's British Academy Television Awards seemed to miss a trick. In among the best shows and lifetime achievements, there was no [...]